Heart n Soul Cafe

We can have bitter experiences, but we can choose not to be a bitter person.

2012-01-17T02:57:00.002+08:00

Tanya, was just a very young girl when she was orphaned in Cambodia. Her long distance relatives took her in but abused her emotionally and psychologically, treating her worse than a human being. She had to eat with the family dog, and was chained whenever the family went out. She eventually went to one of the government's orphanage.

It was one of the worst places for a child to grow up in, because they had little resources and role models they could take after. The kids were practically raising one another. At age 18, like every other orphan, she was "Let Loose" on the streets to fend for herself.

She was lucky to meet a pastor and his wife being missionaries in Cambodia who took her into their dormitories and vocational schools which was set up to help the young find their feet in society. Today, when Tanya walks into any room, she brings up the mood of people around her with her infectious joy. She brings a smile to the faces of the people she meet and today she is actively involved in helping others find their way in life.

Tanya has probably all the reasons in the world to be bitter, angry, to feel unfair, to grumble, complain, to be hateful to people around her. But instead, she chooses to be joyful and happy.

We can be broken people, but who hasn't have some sort of broken experience? The key is always our response to the circumstances around us. We can CHOOSE.

Life - What meaning does it hold for the poor/needy/impoverished/exploited?

2011-12-20T01:46:00.002+08:00

What do you feel when you see videos like these:

As part of a train of thought spiraling from my previous posts about Life, something really hit me and inspired this post.

I am glad and blessed to be born in Singapore, arguably a rich nation where there is no lack of food, comfort and enjoyment. Most of the people in advanced first world countries are trying hard to find meaning in Life, suggesting that Life with all its luxuries probably does not and cannot fully satisfy the Human Soul. Sometimes being in comfort and luxury can make us take Life for granted, because we never experienced hardships.

Our experience of Life has made us de-sensitized to others around us, especially in a world that the "Self" and "individuality" is stressed, we forget there are people out there, who are just hanging on by a thread, struggling on for survival.

In Matthew 9, Jesus spoke about these groups of people: sick, poor, oppressed and needy. Matthew 9:36-38 described a scene where Jesus was ministering to the crowds: of these included people whom were deemed as "sinners" and taxcollectors. The despised and unworthy peoples of their time. This was the response of Jesus, the incarnation of God Himself in flesh:

"When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." (Matthew 9:36-38)

Today, who are our poor, needy, oppressed and impoverished? To these people, Life is down to 1 single word: Survival

Like in the video above, it shows really poor people who think they have no hope for the future: their meaning to life is just to dig trash in hope of finding rotting food scraps to feed themselves and their children and salvaging things they can sell off for a meagre amount of money.

They have to even be careful not to be cut by deadly trash: needles and glass that may injure or even kill.

What about elsewhere in a place where the vibrant Sex industry is thriving?

This place is Pattaya by night, a place popular for its Red Light district where "modern slavery" happens. In a place where guys are dressed as ladies, women assume the jobs of prostitutes, and confused growing up children are sold into the trade all for money's sake. Tourists who visit the place can easily buy over a person and do whatever they want with them for a small sum.

This is the REAL world. All of these things and even more atrocious stuff are being done by the supposedly Rich and wealthier minority of the world. The effect on the oppressed and poor is visible for all to see. Just because the rich can afford it, they can pay off to buy a person's dignity and respect and trample it on the floor. And they do it as if it's nothing wrong, to satisfy their own perverse lusts.

These things are happening by the minute as we live our lives, all concerned about ourselves, our needs, our wants. What does Life hold for these people? How grieved God's heart is when we, the supposedly richer and wealthier portion of the globe are supposed to be lending a helping hand to them, yet we rub salt into the wounds by exploiting them of whatever we can get out of them.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
"God of the City" is a song inspired by the band Bluetree, a group of christian band invited into a bar of Pattaya to try to reach them and were shocked by what they saw there: People even laughed at them when they told them they weren't there for the sex. (tourists are automatically assumed to be so)

Before we can think about changing and transforming the world into a place where such atrocities can be stopped, we need to realize: the change begins with ourselves.

There is so much and so little we can do. Yes, we may not belong to the poor and oppressed. We can even be apathetic and don't care about it, as long as we are not the receiving end of their fates. But is this right?

I really pray for these nations and people, that one day. God will send people into these nations to help them. Hearts of flesh we are made, surely, if we are humans, we can't simply brush this off just because it's not happening to ourselves.

Ending off with a song by Leeland - Tears of the Saints.

What is the Meaning of Life and its purpose?

2011-11-25T19:43:00.008+08:00

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Side note: I am a Christian and Chemistry student, so there may be ideas from the bible and pieces of evolution infused into this post. Nonetheless, I wish to come up with an objective and informative article for all peoples desiring to uncover a true meaning to Life in a wholistic and individualistic way. May it be a Truth we can hold to, that strikes right into the inner chord of our hearts.

As 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 puts it: "Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil." As a Truth seeker personally, I'm encouraged to examine what holds to be good and test it. Well, the Truth will hold if we throw everything at it, right?
---------------------------------------------------------
So.. What is Life, or rather what is Our Life about?

This is a number one question that many of us would have found ourselves asking by now. Along with this question above are a whole series of questions ranging like: How did we start, where did we come from? What are we doing here? Where are we going to go from here?

"Evolution vs Creation, does it really matter all that much?"

The watchmaker video above ridicules and confront popular, evolutionary thoughts by challenging the viewer that Intelligent Design neccesitates a Designer. (Just how much chance is there when we put all the parts needed to make a watch into a bag, shake it hard and a fully functional watch will drop out?) Just because many people believe in something doesn't make it right. Everyone used to believe the earth was square and you will fall off if you sailed far enough (it sounded logical for their time).

Are we as scientists speculate, products of random collision of gases from nothingness that "Big Banged" into the whole span of universe? And so happened that Earth was favorable to life?

Or are we like Creationists claim, masterpieces of an Almighty God, a crown jewel of a whole span of created wonderful creatures and beings? Are we products of natural selection, mere survivalists who managed to trump over all other species on the planet or did we begin as a single cell with no consciousness?

Even if we did find out how we (or life) came to be, how crucial will it be in helping us make sense of Life? What if it was random? That would really means life just simply occurred, with no apparent reason that people seek. What if there was indeed a Higher Being that created us? Are we just out here for his pleasure? Are we here going through the motions of life just because we are put here? What is he trying to do and tell us, then? Are we just here to "Be Fruitful and Multiply"? Is that all?

There is a whole lot of speculation of how the world came to be as it is and it seems that there is not going to be a definite answer we can know for absolutely sure. The debate continues even today, despite the long recorded history of Man, as we call ourselves.

"Whether we like it or not, we are already here."

We have to accept the fact that we are already here before any search for meaning can make sense (both in a macro humankind and micro individualistic view). As Humans we tend to look towards things around us for clues to make sense of things. The search for Meaning may actually begin somewhere closer: Ourselves.

What? We did not choose to be here!!
Indeed many are "Brought into this world" confused. Did we choose to be born in the first place? Who determined who we were going to be? Why couldn't we choose to be someone more famous (like Justin Bieber, Obama, Paris Hilton, etc). Why are we who we are? Why couldn't we choose our skin colours, eye colours, hair colours just as we pleased?

Only we can be ourselves, no one else can be us and neither can we be others. Even twins, the natural clones of Mother nature, can be so different in many ways. Unfortunately we are quite far from the vision of Rene Descartes, whose famous quote was:" I think, therefore I am". Not quite like how we imagined it to be as we are not really who we want to believe we are.

However, there still seem to be a whole multitude of decisions we are to make (ranging from unimportant to critical life changing ones). With each decision is attached a whole string of consequences. We can choose in fact how we live our lives; What school we decide to study in; Who we choose to marry; what clothes are we to wear for today; what we eat for lunch (how many of us remember what we ate).

The list is exhaustive but we recognize in it a pattern for Life and making choices, (hopefully right ones). The choices we make may be confined by the fact of who we are and where we exist is physical space but nonetheless are important to us.

The Time factor
Again we are left dumbfounded in a question of being confined to physical space and time. Why are we born in this specific time-frame as we are? Why not in the past, why not the future? This again is something we did not have a choice with. There have been many ideas of time travelling and fantasy ideas regarding time but recorded history and texts suggest that Time is a one way traffic with no turning back.

Made famous by Albert Einstein's theory(or rather hypothesis since its unproven) of relativity, Time is described as a fourth Dimension that exists. While we can move and travel about in our physical space on earth, we do so wrapped up in the dimension of time that is going forward, all the time. Einstein claims even that, time "slows down" in outer space as we travel towards the speed of light.

With modern investigations and instruments, we are able to measure time. Yet, there exists a field of philosophers in the mould of Gottfried Leibniz and Immanuel Kant, who argues that time is neither an event nor a thing, and cannot itself be measured nor traveled. Time seems to be both tangible and quantifiable yet intangible and abstract enough for the human mind to comprehend.

Perhaps we do not fully comprehend how time itself started, but we do know something about the nature of time: Once gone it cannot be reversed. Yet, only in Time the things we do will make sense. And Time justifies the various stages of Life we went through, and are still going through. The stages of infancy to adult in awareness of self and ultimately the inevitable death. Until we can fully master time, we are but beings living in its confinement.

A particular verse from the Bible aptly describes time. Written by King Solomon, one of the most famous, successful and perhaps the wisest king who had riches and people at his disposal. Ecclesiastes 3:1-14 describes His self-reflection of the things he saw in his own life and the life of others, that There is a time for everything.

We can throw a cup of glass onto the floor, completing shattering it in the process, but yet we can never be able to reverse it in a way they can assemble back into a complete glass from its shattered pieces. The same is for our lives, we cannot relive our past, but we can hold memories, good or bad that define who we are, what we went through and how all that shaped us into the persons we are today.

We see that Life has meaning in Time that is going forward, always. It makes decisions in life sometimes regretful, yet purposeful as we discover value in things that hold true and are good and meaningful. We may not be able to understand everything in full from the time scale since beginning of time, but we can, make sense of our time right here from our experiences and the things we do and encounter. Time gives our life a context and background, a basis of more than just a routine.

Life is about what we have?? Or what we cannot have??
Led by his life of wealth and knowledge, King Solomon perhaps also amassed wealth, wives and servants more than anyone could ever did in his lifetime. Yet, we see that in the book of Ecclesiastes he laments that all are vanity as all things pass away in due time. He moves on to conclude that: "Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man." (Ecc 12:13)

How and why did such a King, not lacking in any material needs of physical comfort, wealth and knowledge of his time come to such a disillusion of worthlessness of pursuit of things? Wouldn't having the world of luxury make anyone happy?

Japan: One of the most modern countries in the world, boasting the material comfort and life of high technology and goods many living in other parts of the world can only dream of. Yet Japan also has a high suicide rate. Complexity of the causes of suicide? Maybe, but there is perhaps hardly any point in accumulation of wealth, nor the pursuit of the luxuries that we think we will enjoy. If truly materials alone could suffice in our pursuit for life and that life is for enjoyment of physical comfort, no one will lose hope. I believe it actually takes more courage to suicide than to muster courage to live on.

Nonetheless, some people spend all their lives working out for money's sake, and are still not be satisfied with their lives. Some own a lot of possessions but are never happy. Many are just caught up in the rat race, trying to break out of their life's struggle and cope with survival seemingly without a choice.

People can flaunt their wealth, possessions, fame, looks, sure. Who wouldn't want to be successful in life? Who wouldn't want a beautiful wife/handsome husband with a happy family? Who wouldn't want money? Yet, Naked as we come, Naked we shall go.

Nothing we ever gained in this life in terms of possessions can we bring with us when we die. There is definitely more to Life than just pursuits of things that will become vapour and mist that once passed our eyes. "What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?" (Matt 16:26, NIV)

Here we definitely know that Life is NOT about an excessive pursuit of money nor material goods. Money is needed for life and materials are there to make life better, but it can becomes a distraction that throws our whole life off-course. It is perhaps better to be in contentment with what we have and find happiness than to sulk all our lives pursuing castles in the air.

As Steve Jobs put it :"“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” "

Suffering - Is there Meaning to it at all?
One of the toughest questions in life is this: How can we ever reconcile meaning associated with suffering? Can we justify suffering to others? Is there meaning to people who died in natural disasters in earthquakes, tsunamis? Is there meaning to people living in third world countries digging heaps of rubbish to scavenge for food? Is there even, meaning in toiling in the motions of life and getting tired as a result?

If there is a loving God, why does he ever allow such injustice to happen around us? Why do illness strike people at random and seemingly good people who don't deserve it? Why do some evil people who commit crimes get away with it?

There seems to be an infused sense of right and wrong inside of us - a sense of justice in us that cries out and echoes in one another when we perceive wrongdoings being committed against another human being. And we will see to it that justice is being done - if it is within our means, the burning desire to see right triumph over wrong.

We don't ever ask why its wrong to do the following: Murder, adultery, greed, jealousy, hypocrisy. We just know it is wrong. When we ourselves do certain things that we know are wrong, our conscience pricks us because of this sense of right and wrong inbuilt inside us. If we cannot stand others wreaking injustice into our lives, our hearts speak out against ourselves doing the same to others.

Suffering is one of the many things we do not have answers to in life. Perhaps we may never be able to reconcile it having a meaning when it devastates in scales unimaginable for us. Yet, in a micro scale in our own lives, a little hardship produces elements of endurance, perseverance and patience. Only when we went through hardships can we appreciate the things we take for granted so ever easily in our daily lives.

Suffering suggests that Life is really frail. It could be here today and gone the next day. I wouldn't dare to conclude and extrapolate to say that people die in disasters for a reason. Instead, we grow to accept that life has many things that happen randomly and unfortunately than we can explain that are simply "out of control".

However, in our hearts of flesh, we know that Every Single Life has value.

If we can create Life, we are our own masters..
wait a second, are we not?
The watchmaker analogy - pointing back to the video at the start of the article, suggesting that intelligent design of lifeforms and its mechanisms neccesitates a designer, we explore the watch maker analogy once again:

"Just how much chance is there when we put all the parts needed to make a watch into a bag, shake it hard and a fully functional watch will drop out?"

That's right the chances are close to zero I'm afraid.

The reason humans try to discover and replicate life essentially came from the search for life itself. If we ourselves are able to replicate and create life, we will be able to become the master life and not be at the mercy of it. Yet we never truly successfully did so. Cloning perhaps, with all its mastery still suggest at best we can only make something out of the resources we already have. We simply just can't make something fall out of the sky from nothingness.

The Miller-Urey Experiment

Diagram showing the experiment setup

The Miller-Urey Experiment conducted in 1952 and 1953 was an experiment put to task to mimic early earth's conditions and to "support" and lend evidence to how life might have originated. The experiment put a few basic molecules and gases thought to be present in early primitive Earth and how an electric spark in form of lightning can provide enough energy to trigger a chemical reaction. The experiment generated 20 over amino acids and scientists were buoyed by the "astounding success" that it lent to support Abiogenesis (a theory that life came from non-living things).

It would almost seem ridiculous to extrapolate life formed just because these amino acids formed, by putting them all in the manner of the watchmaker analogy into a pool of ocean containing amino acids, they somehow bonded and formed DNA sequences. Not to even mention if the amino acids actually stayed long enough without breaking down before doing so. Which makes our Life a pure coincidental accident.

Although advances in technology and research have allowed us to synthesise many compounds including DNA, we did not create them, nor do we fully understand the whole genetic code having mapped it out. Even doctors are appalled at the number of receptors on a human hand, and how robotic fingers and palm fail to match up to the amazing "mechanic" human hand, in flexibility and ability.

So..Where are we going?
“Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.”

Peter Tosh

This is the ultimate question that explores the question of the inevitable - Death.

The point where our life cease to exist in the time frame makes a huge dent in our meaning in life. Death is a word shunned by many cultures as a taboo, as something loathed at and feared of. Yet, it is something everyone will reach in their lives. The massive time frame of over thousands of years make our existence on the time scale look like nothing more than a little dot.... insignificant!

Yet, death crystallises meaning into letting us realizing our time here is short.

Yes, I'm proposing the fact that Life has a meaning in Death. With an end in mind, it forces us to focus on things that hold meaning and value in us - affecting our choices and decisions as a direct result. If we only have ONE HOUR left right now in our life, what would we do? Will you still be reading this post? Will you call all your loved ones to tell them how much you love them? Will you spend it working overtime in your work?

To put it into perspective: Life itself is a preparation for Death. At the point where we consciously know we are about to die, are we ready to meet our Maker or will our lives be filled with things we feel we have not accomplished? Will we be satisfied or regretful?

Possibilities..? The Part and Whole Relationship
I'm not sure if you have played with Google Earth before, but if you did, you would probably have realised how small we are in the universe. Life seems too huge to be just about ourselves. If the individual was to be at the pinnacle of Life, it would be total chaos.

Instead, the people around us, the things and situations around us, all perhaps help us to find meaning not just in ourselves, but in something "bigger out there" Play with the telescope and we will even be awed at how big the galaxy of stars and planets are.

There is perhaps something Mother Nature are trying to tell us: Individualistic we may be, we are in a part whole relationship with it altogether. We are part of something bigger we have probably not fully understood.

Summary
It is really hard to put a conclusion on the meaning of life and rather it may be a journey altogether. I hope the points put forward in this post would have expanded your thoughts on the subject, do feel free to lend your thoughts and comments. And I hope together we uncover the true meaning of Life for ourselves. =)

------------------------------------------
The Biblical perspective The Bible offers thoughts on Life and Death, and it would totally not make sense and perhaps even be offensive for a non-christian reader. It would be hard to see the biblical viewpoint with the Christian Jargons and perspectives regarding Good/Bad, Sin, and Life. So I decided to take it out into a section here, for those interested, I do hope you read on to find out more about what the Bible holds for us in Life.

1) God and Creation
In the beginning God created us to know Him personally (John 17:3). He Loves us (John 3:16).

We looked earlier at the possibilities of an intelligent design behind Life and you would not be short-changed definitely to see if God can work in your life. You won't lose out if He is real and if He's not it won't hurt you to give Him a chance in your Life to know Him.

2) Man and Original Sin
Our representative of Human kind in Adam and Eve sinned, and we inherently are subjected to Sin (Romans 3:23). Sin results in Death and separation from God (Isaiah 59:2, Romans 6:23). It is often noted that the acts of sin or sinful acts in itself comes from the susceptibility of all of us to Sin.

In layman terms, Sin refers to doing anything that is considered impure in God's eye: adultery, lust, greed, bearing false witness, hatred and bitterness. More than anything, the thought of committing such things is just as bad as the final manifestation of the beginning thought.

Sin is simply failing to hit the target God has set the plan for man to live by, like shooting arrows and not hitting bulls-eye. We may not commit crimes like murder, but sin is much evident in our lives, when greed, dishonesty, jealousy, lust can overtake our thoughts in life.

We can live with Sin in our lives but Jesus came as a solution, because without Him, we are all destined to perish and pay for our sins. Many people think God is cruel, because there is Heaven and Hell. But in the first place, Everyone was headed to Hell. He came to provide a way to Heaven.

3) Jesus as Life
The Bible tells us that no one is capable of escaping the penalty of Sin, and Jesus came precisely for this reason: To offer us Life and reconciliation to God (John 14:6) He died on the Cross as a sacrifice to atone for our sins (Hebrews 9:22)

Jesus was a man who came 2000 plus years ago. He was recognised as a good teacher, Prophet, and also the incarnation of God in human form. In the Biblical context, people had to offer sacrifices to atone for the sins they committed but no one could ever earn salvation by following the Law alone as None could match up to the standard. Jesus came as a perfect sacrifice and solution from God. He made 7 "I am" claims that tells us of Life with God:

Bread

“I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger.” John 6:35

Light

“I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have thelight of life.” John 8:12

Gate

“I am the gate; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”
John 10:9

Good Shepherd

“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for His sheep.” John 10:11
Resurrection and Life
“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies.” John 11:25
Way, Truth, Life
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.” John 14:6

True vine

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” John 15:1

4) Your DecisionIt is not enough to recognise just the fact that Jesus died for us. We need to receive Him personally into our lives. We can be sure that He forgives our sins (1 John 1:9)

If somebody gave you one million today, you still have a choice to make:to accept or reject it.
Likewise, God desires us to know Him personally, but He does not interfere with our decision and choice we make to accept or reject Him. Yet, God is always waiting for us to respond to Him. It is okay if we feel unready to accept him but He promises to come into our lives when we respond to Him (Revelation 3:20)

We can make a decision to receive Christ through Prayer. Prayer is like talking to God and is more about the heart rather than the content/words we use. You may pray this suggested prayer if you feel God speaking to you today:

"Dear Jesus, I want to know You Personally. Thank you for dying on the Cross for my sins. I acknowledge You as the Lord and Saviour of my Life, may You come into my life today and show me your purpose for me in life. Lead me as You know what is Best for me. Amen."

=)

Walking a faith journey takes more than just feelings, but also relies on our relationship with God. One of the ways we can know God is through the Bible (in knowledge) and also our encounters (in experiences). When you make the decision to receive Jesus into our lives the following happened:

1. Christ came into your life (Revelation 3:20 and Colossians 1:27).

2. Your sins were forgiven (Colossians 1:14).

3. You became a child of God (John 1:12).

4. You received eternal life (John 5:24).

5. You began the great adventure for which God created you (John 10:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17 and 1 Thessalonians 5:18).

God Bless you. =)

Hello, God?

2011-11-01T18:09:00.000+08:00

The theme of the Bible is one that shows a constant tug of Man's souls towards God, and time and again being drawn away, and then back to God once again. From Adam and Eve, to the Hebrew people being led out of Egypt, to individuals like David and Solomon, such is story of Man and God retold. A story that never ceases. Each time Israel left God in pursuit of other things, but God always seeks them. Each time individuals like David commit sins, as He repents, God shows him the way.

Today, this story too plays in lives of individuals like a broken movie strip. God simply wants us to know Him as described in John 17:3 about Eternal Life: "Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."

The picture above presents a very real situation in our lives: "You can know about God, and still not know God."

Confused perhaps? Let us explore one scenario:
"Max falls in love with a girl named Emily. He finds out about her from her facebook, looks out for the things she do and observe her everyday schedule, noting down important facts pertaining to what she likes and what she doesn't. He does this for a while in genuine hope of knowing her and developing a close relationship with her. But, he never plucked up the courage to speak to her or approach her."

Max probably never knew Emily personally despite knowing and grasping facts about Emily. This is simply down to the fact that knowing facts about someone doesn't necessarily mean you know the person personally.

The same can be of our relationship with God. The Bible reveals all sorts of characteristics and descriptions of God: God is Love, Holy, Faithful, Consuming Fire, Merciful just to name a few. We can be people well versed in the Bible, who have read the Bible from cover to cover. But we can just know all these in the head without ever experiencing who God is in our lives.

Knowing God essentially is a two-fold matter: Knowing the truths and attributes of God revealed and the experience or encountering of God working in our lives. Both are equally important as one another and either way makes a believer lop-sided. We need not despair or be disillusioned if life as a Christian has been frustratingly difficult and fruitless. God is the initiator of the Love stories in the Bible. He is always waiting for us to open the doors of our hearts. (Rev 3:20).

Perhaps some people will ask: How then, can I experience God in my life? To this, I have no definite answer but I do know God speaks and appeal to us at our own levels and through the things in our life. Our first and foremost is to know Him. (Deut 6:5) and secondly is to Love our Neighbour as ourselves.(Matt 22:36-40). One way to know God is through observing His presence in our everyday lives, His work in our lives and secondly is through the people He places in our lives. We can definitely find traces of Him at work in circumstances, when we see Love, forgiveness, mercy in people who are redeemed.

The Bible too, can come alive in instances: like the Good Samaritan and the recent little 2 year old Girl ran over in China where no one helped even when 18 bystanders passed by. They can be very real.

I just like to leave us with a promise from Jesus, May you too, find the one who seeks you as you seek Him too:

Matthew 7:7-12

New International Version (NIV)

Ask, Seek, Knock

⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. ⁹ “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! ¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

Faith that can move mountains

2011-07-26T00:30:00.003+08:00

Looking back at my last 5 years of walk with God, I'm pretty sure God planned for me to go through this so that I would be broken and yet strengthened in my faith in Him. Sure, service to God was a highlight of my last 2-3 years. Mission trips, evangelise, serving the church. Although I learnt alot, at times it seems as if I'm climbing a righteous ladder.

It is pretty normal for the modern man to measure success with results that are tangible. Especially even so for a place like Singapore. With productivity and efficiency stressed, we are left feeling so defeated when we do not see results. Many a times in fact, we do not see the results of the work we do in serving God. Reading the book of John in the bible where Peter denied Jesus 3 times speaks of a self-induced guilt when we face the Lord: Peter wept terribly after the rooster crow.

I was so burnt out because I was blinded and could not see that God does not need us to measure up to human standards. Sure, we must do God's work with our best, but the notion of success is hardly the "result-oriented". Relying on my own strength many a times, I flopped head down in ministry.

They always say that:"press on you know, when its at the hardest point as it can be, a breakthrough is around the corner. Keep Trusting God". And I'm glad God is faithful. He always comes through. He spoke to me as I was in tatters, crying my heart out to him that I can't go on anymore. I wanted to just get back to Him, and leave behind all the ministry since the fear of failure was tantamount to leaving me so stranded and stuck in my walk with God. I had become stagnated.

He spoke one day in one of a dark moment, answering my prayer:"Hey there, faith and works go together son, you can't have one without the other. Now that you know one full side of works without faith. The other side is (faith without works is dead). I do not want you to go there. I want you to do both."

I realised at the 5th year of my walk with Christ that all the service was just as important as the spiritual devotion of guarding time with God. One must surely have both going on hand in hand.

Success, then is just simply doing what God told us to do =)

I'm ending with a song that really encouraged me to press on in faith. A song by Kutless - What faith can do. May you be blessed and ministered through this song too!

Jacob, stolen blessings?

2011-06-01T02:26:00.000+08:00

Was looking through the Biblical account of how Jacob came to be, born of Rebekah, holding onto Esau's heel when he was born. Jacob is probably more well known as Israel, of whom was born God's chosen tribe of people.

Reading at how the story was described, I was somewhat amused that Jacob was not so much of an honorable man (perhaps in human terms) because, he tricked his brother Esau twice, the firstime taking the title of the firstborn and the second time the blessing from Isaac. This blessing must be of great importance (because Esau was so filled with vengeance he wanted to kill Jacob for it).

I can't help but wonder, Is what Jacob did right in God's eyes? And as I prayed and mediated on the verses, I think God sees it differently. One of the verses clearly mentioned Esau, the firstborn despising his own title and authority as the eldest son. Back in those times, It meant everything to be eldest, as you inherit your father's properties.

Jacob... is the guy who will go on to "wrestle" with God for a blessing that left him with a crippled leg.

Yes. this Jacob, seemingly has a hunger within him, to fight for blessings from God, to hunger for God in a way I'm apalled, because he went to extremes of deceiving his brother. I'm truly amazed how this one guy sees God's blessing so important to himself.

In a way, I hope I'm in a hunger for God's own heart and His blessings too.

If Jesus Said today what He said 2000 years ago.

2011-05-28T00:10:00.004+08:00

Finally, it's been a long time since I last blogged! (omg) and I have been chewing on various issues as usual that are doctrinal, looking up Rick Warren, whom some dismiss as the modern heretic (I'm not saying he is one, but rather reading up on why people think he is one), and various stuff. Came across this interesting blog: http://branthansen.typepad.com/letters_from_kamp_krusty/2008/08/if-jesus-had-a-blog-big-time-leaders.html#comments

Totally funny, I thought Krusty was humorous in bringing out his points about Jesus. It seemed to me how funny people would react to Jesus (and his claims) today if he were to trot down Jerusalem, appearing in a press conference to the world with reporters abunch:

####

"Newsflash from Capernaum, we bring you breaking news where Jesus, the emergent preacher ever since John the Baptist preached near the Jordan. We are pleased to cover the story for you right here! Halfway through the sermon given, 4 crazy guys broke through the roof and brought in a paralytic friend by lowering him from the roof.

We bring you live footage of just what happened

(Jesus was speaking when the roof started to give way with dust coming down)

Touched by the extent of what the friends went through to bring the paralyzed friend to him, Jesus said:
:“My sons, your sins are forgiven.”

(scribes start to look at each other and frowning, murmurs flooding up the silence)

Jesus said then: "Why do you question thus in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your pallet and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins"—he said to the paralytic—“I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home.”

To the crowd's surprise, the paralysed man immediately got up and went out. The crowd erupts in great amazement/disbelief/in praise of God."

Brought to you by reporter, Mark
####

COMMENTS

Church Elder said...

What was the dumb 4 guys doing!? broke my roof, who's gonna pay for damages!I'm gonna sue them! And also the guy who undoubtedly caused it all!

Pharisee2394 said...
What school of theology did he attend? I question his authority on this Sin issue. As an expert of the Law I hereby declare that this guy is a heretic. Don't believe his crap. The paralysed is a Phoney!

Unfazed professor said...
This is a major issue. So apparently this Jesus guy can forgive Sins now? why do we need God in the first place then? while I don't stand on the same side as the Self-righteous guy above me, I agree to disagree that this guy is a total fake.

The implication of Sin and illness is far more complicated then this guy makes it out to be.

This is complete madness. The stuff you only find in fairy tales.

Doubting thomas94 said...
So..... did anyone actually follow the guy who was supposedly "healed" ? Who knows if he wasn't a paralytic in the first place. No one can ever prove anything and I won't believe it unless I see proof.

Unhappy >:( said...

What fairness is it that Mr. Jesus did not even question in the paralysed man's Sin. I mean, what caused him to be left in such a state? Surely it must be a grave Sin he has done to deserve this! I say this guy should not play God. At least the proper way is to get this man to repent first?

If a henious sinner comes by to Jesus, he's gonna "forgive his Sins" now?

I'm not trying to judge but you know? this is unfair!

Praiseworthy said...
This is truly an amazing work of God! Hallelujah!

historian99 said...

hey did anyone check out this guy's background? Is it credible? can we really believe what he says?

Aethist_mist said...
I only know of "doing wrong", no such thing as sin. I still do not believe and is blown away at how this can escalate into a debate about whether this guy is God or not.

A heart of worship in me

2011-05-15T03:58:00.001+08:00

Philip Yancey, a famous author for the book "Where is God when it hurts?" tells of the initial disagreement from his family to write books about suffering. "Nonono! we are only suppose to say the good things!" In fact, the reverse is true. What makes the Christian faith so bare and true is the weak nature of humans that tell of a need for a supreme Being. One example was Jesus's own inner circle of 12 disciples. Fishermen, tax collectors and the society's despised and surely non intellectual speak of the fact that they are mere humans like you and I.

One would have written off the church to be built upon these 12 people Jesus handpicked. But the church thrives today, 2000 years later. Speaking of bad things seem to be so bad that some people elevated them to the position of "Saints". People speak far more of the disciples' amazing abilities to cast out demons, prophesise, heal the sick in Jesus' Name. Yet, people play down the fact that there are so many times these disciples failed Jesus. E.g Peter denying the Lord 3 times, the disciples abandoning Christ's mission after His crucification to go back to fishing, Yes, fishing. And many more.

The Bible, with all its glory tells of the disciples' bare weaknesses, and they did not try to hide any of their flaws simply because it was what made Jesus so important among them.

In my more than mundane and humanistic walk with God many a times, I'm not perfect, I'm not holy, I'm unworthy and there is a feeling that happens sometimes that is best described in the following line:

"I don't feel like praying right now"

Whenever we don't feel like praying could be the time we need to pray most. Perhaps someone ever told you that. Why wouldn't we feel like talking to the Lord? I thought about it in the closest scenario I would find myself in in our reality:

An angry child doesn't want to talk to his parents because of various reason(s), so he's putting up walls.

Life as a Christian isn't a piece of cake. It's something that has occurred to me as easy to say and hard to put into practice. Dealing with emotions and hurts is part of the growing up process because God knows in endurance we produce preserverence, and through it all, Patience to await in the Lord. And how is patience an unremovable part of the equation of our walk.

Sometimes I just wished things would go my way for not needing to pay the price for it. It sounds all too good to be true. In life, we can succeed only if we work hard. And rightly so, because God destined for Man to enjoy to fruits of his own labour as a reward and blessing.

God may be silent, but he is the initiator of our relationship with Him, always. There's a saying that we can run but we can't hide. This is so true that sometimes I feel like this child having a bad day and saying :"why Dad? Why isn't things going to plan?" and going on a little cold war.

Yet, I may have sealed my heart, but deep within a part of me still yearns to cling to Him and shout praise still for His work in my life. And I can sense His presence assuring as always.

"It's okay to start anew. Because I had to show you your limits, so you would learn to depend on Me."

God couldn't show me just how proud and conceited my heart was without breaking it. Yet He loves me too much to not provide it a way out to start out on a new adventure ahead by replacing it with his Glory.

My life is too small and selfish a thing to live for. I need to start to Live for Him.. again =)

My prayer out there for people who feel the same like me, Pray when you don't feel like, cause it's when we need it most. It's not about the amount of words said to God, but rather knowing that He knows what we are going through.

Even a silent prayer of feelings will not go unheard.

p.s Leeland is one worship band I came across recently, and songs is one way that crystallises how I feel at times, because songs allow me to feel that I'm felt for and people feel sometimes the same as I do. Introducing one of their songs I like, I never heard a version of Via Dolorosa that goes like theirs. Dedicate it to our Father in Heaven.

The Valley of Dry Bones

2011-04-27T17:39:00.001+08:00

He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" Ezekiel 37:3

The background verse comes from Ezekiel 37:1-14. Ezekiel, was a prophet of God and had just witnessed the demise of Israel as a Nation and captured by Babylonians. Yet, this verse speaks of some very critical biblical truths that apply to us just the same today.

In many times of our lives we often feel defeated, feel unworthy, feel incapable of ourselves. And too, periods of spiritual darkness follows as sin seeks to entangle us. While it is normal to feel down and sometimes to the point that we are lukewarm and lethargic in faith, God shows Ezekiel (and us too) just what He sees of us:

We are like Dry bones:
Well.Death itself proves to be an unpopular topic of discussion, especially so across cultures and borders, because its associated with badness. We may be a non-christian suffering from addictions/hurts or devoted christians struggling with issues that somehow keep a stronghold over us. Some say a leopard never changes its spots, much is the same for our sinful nature. There is something in us that somehow can jeopardise the life we ought to be living for and sap the joy in us.

Sometimes we feel like dry bones = lifeless. worthless. And of no use to anyone.

Wha God can do to dry Bones:
As I read through the verses, I see a promise of God:

¹¹ Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. ¹⁴ I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’”

It is perhaps interesting to think what God has done in my life thus far, even if I'm now struggling with deep issues at the moment. Fact has stacked the odds against our Lord: He chose His 12 disciples from fishermen, tax collector and made it into his Church today. God chose Moses and turned his life around. God chose Saul, a Pharisee famous for persecuting christians and turned him into perhaps the most important apostle Paul, who led many to Christ.

All these people succeeded not because of who they were, and what they were capable of, but because of the Spirit that dwelled in them. Such was a plan that could not fail.

Today, we may think we are like dry bones, and that hope is gone. Yet the limitations of ourselves is the start of where God can work. And he has already shown His intent by choosing to come in Jesus, to put His Spirit in us to work in us. It is an invitation that I myself have taken up for 5 years, ups and downs, rollercoaster of a ride it has been.

He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" Ezekiel 37:3

For me it's a reminder that I would miss the whole purpose of life if I still miss the source of where, or rather whom all life came from. Bones alone cannot sustain life. Only the One who made them can.

Not by feelings, but by Hope

2011-04-25T15:00:00.000+08:00

I really felt comfort from these verses as I was meditating through them. While it is normal as human beings to be susceptible to our own feelings, we ought not to condemn ourselves but to acknowledge that it is what makes us.. Humans. Feelings somehow affect the way we think and the way we act but they can all go awefully wrong if things turn out the wrong(felt) way. Our feelings can't be trusted, sometimes we can't even pinpoint why we feel just how the way we feel. But yet, there is something/someone known to be trustworthy:

As the verse in proverbs says, Trust in the Lord. I hope we will really choose to rely on Him, not based on how we feel but by His very Words and promises. May This Easter be a blessed one for you =)

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6

Originally taken from: http://encouragingbiblequotes.com/versesifeela.html

How do you Feel?

Lord, I feel.....

Beaten...yet
You have made me more than a conqueror (Rom 8:37).
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us

Bound....yet
You are my deliverer (Rom 11:26).
And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.

Confused....yet
You are my counselor (Isa 9:6).
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, [a] Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

A failure....yet
You have made me an overcomer (1 Jn 5:4).
For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith

Fearful....yet
You did not give me a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, andof a sound mind (2 Tim 1:7).
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

Friendless....yet
You are a friend who sticks closer to me than a brother (Prov 18:24).
A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

In darkness....yet
You are a light unto my path and a lamp unto my feet (Ps 119:105).
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

Lonely.....yet
You promised never to leave me nor forsake me (Heb 13:5).
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you;never will I forsake you."

Misjudged....yet
I'm accepted and approved by You (Eph 1:4).
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love

Poor....yet
You supply all my need according to Your riches in glory (Phil 4:19).
And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Sick....yet
You are the Lord who heals all my diseases (Ps 103:3).
…who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,

Troubled....yet
You are my peace (Jn 14:27).
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you asthe world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Unclean....yet
You are the purifier and refiner of my life (Mal 3:3).
He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify theLevites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will havemen who will bring offerings in righteousness,

Vulnerable....yet
You are my strength and my strong tower (Ps 18:2).
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn [a] of my salvation, my stronghold.

Worthless....yet
You see me as a pearl of great price (Matt 13:46).
When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

For Each Negative Thing We Say to Ourselves,God Has A Positive Answer For It.

You say: "It's impossible"
God says: "All things are possible" (Luke 18:27)
Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."

You say: "I'm too tired"
God says: "I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28-30)
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

You say: "Nobody really loves me"
God says: "I love you" (John 3:16 & John 13:34)
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

You say: "I can't go on"
God says: "I will direct your steps" (Proverbs 3:5-6)
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

You say: "I can't do it"
God says: "You can do all things" (Philippians 4:13)
I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

You say: "I'm not able"
God says: "I am able" (II Corinthians 9:8)
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all thingsat all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every goodwork.

You say: "It's not worth it"
God says: "It will be worth it" (Romans 8:28)
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

You say: "I can't forgive myself"
God says: "I FORGIVE YOU" (I John 1:9 & Romans 8:1)
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

You say: "I can't manage"
God says: "I will supply all your needs" (Philippians 4:19)
And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

You say: "I'm afraid"
God says: "I have not given you a spirit of fear" (2Timothy 1:7)
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

You say: "I'm always worried and frustrated"
God says: "Cast all your cares on ME" (I Peter 5:7)
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

You say: "I don't have enough faith"
God says: "I've given everyone a measure of faith" (Romans 12:3)
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

You say: "I'm not smart enough"
God says: "I give you wisdom" (I Corinthians 1:30)
It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for uswisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

You say: "I feel all alone"
God says: "I will never leave you or forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5)
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you"

Looking For The Print Friendly Format Of This Article? We advise you not to bookmark the print-friendly pages as those addresses change regularly.We'd recommend you bookmark this page instead.

For a friend, will I go the extra mile?

2011-02-23T00:15:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was a Campus day of Prayer for my University, and it was really an encouragement to see so many like minded christians turn up, who dedicate their lives for the sake of Christ's sake.

I guess the take-home message of the day came from Shannon, a fellow full-time worker with The Navigators on NTU campus. The story was from Mark 2 about how Jesus healed a paralysed man, and forgave his Sins.

Perhaps if we draw away the main focus of the verse, which was about Jesus's Godly attribute (Back in Jesus's time, it was deemed that only God had the power to forgive people of sin), we can focus on the events that led up to this scene:

Mark 2 (Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man)
¹ A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. ² They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. ³ Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. ⁴ Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on.

I have always heard people say, that the bible does not record something that is unimportant. Every single incident described, event, people all had their purpose. In the verse above, the bible does not tell us who these 4 people who brought the man to Jesus was. Neither do we know their names or what their relationship with the paralytic was. Perhaps there were more than 4 men who brought (because it was recorded some "some men came") but nonetheless, we know there were at least the 4 of them.

However, we can deduce a few ideas to make sense of what was going on:
1) The men were desperate to get this paralytic to Jesus, as they could not wait for the crowd to disperse and had to carry him and break a hole in the roof
2) The 4 men must have been close friends with the paralytic and among themselves
3) They care for the paralysed friend and it was a common thing and believed they could do something for him.

I guess Shannon was right to ask us: "How often do we really truly care for our friends enough to go the extra mile like these 4 people did, and bring him to Jesus, even if obstacles come up?" I guess I was truly broken to know that in my heart, I probably won't go that far, even for perhaps my closest family members.

While it is not about measuring up to the "standard" just because I fall short, I want to be reminded that I truly have a place for them in my heart and if they truly meant a lot to me, I will make that effort to care for them. As much as I know I cannot do this, I pray that God gives me the strength to, for He first loved me. And now because of that, I am given a chance to learn how to love others.

Perhaps, that extra mile is just a first crucial step away =)

Nagoya Series 3: NGU! =)

2011-02-13T18:37:00.003+08:00

Nagoya is truly a place I miss, with people whom I crossed-paths with and changed my life forever. This is a picture post in rememberence of my days in Nagoya and at NGU. =)

The beauty of Nagoya~

The fun with NGU students:

our NGU team =)

What Is the meaning of life?

2011-02-09T17:34:00.011+08:00

This is one question I started to picture myself asking alot of people.

To you, what is the meaning of life?

Some interesting answers people gave:
1) The meaning of life is to give life its meaning
2) The meaning of life is to prepare for death
3) Is there meaning to this question at all?
4) To be happy

Talking to my friends and the people whom I meet off the street gives me a sense of deja-vu. Many of us feel like people logged on in a virtual world. What is real seems not and what is unreal seems very real. We are almost confused instantly when we ponder the question seriously, yet this question is critical. It is how we make sense of our being, and our inner Core: What Defines us.

I reflected and gathered my thoughts to this question on a more recent blog post:
http://heartnsoulcafe.blogspot.com/2011/11/what-is-meaning-of-life-and-its-purpose.html

"What is the meaning of life?"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Side note: I am a Christian and Chemistry student, so there may be ideas from the bible and pieces of evolution infused into this post. Nonetheless, I wish to come up with an objective and informative article for all peoples desiring to uncover a true meaning to Life in a wholistic and individualistic way. May it be a Truth we can hold to, that strikes right into the inner chord of our hearts.

As 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 puts it: "Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil." As a Truth seeker personally, I'm encouraged to examine what holds to be good and test it. Well, the Truth will hold if we throw everything at it, right?
---------------------------------------------------------
So.. What is Life, or rather what is Our Life about?

This is a number one question that many of us would have found ourselves asking by now. Along with this question above are a whole series of questions ranging like: How did we start, where did we come from? What are we doing here? Where are we going to go from here?

"Evolution vs Creation, does it really matter all that much?"

The watchmaker video above ridicules and confront popular, evolutionary thoughts by challenging the viewer that Intelligent Design neccesitates a Designer. (Just how much chance is there when we put all the parts needed to make a watch into a bag, shake it hard and a fully functional watch will drop out?) Just because many people believe in something doesn't make it right. Everyone used to believe the earth was square and you will fall off if you sailed far enough (it sounded logical for their time).

Are we as scientists speculate, products of random collision of gases from nothingness that "Big Banged" into the whole span of universe? And so happened that Earth was favorable to life?

Or are we like Creationists claim, masterpieces of an Almighty God, a crown jewel of a whole span of created wonderful creatures and beings? Are we products of natural selection, mere survivalists who managed to trump over all other species on the planet or did we begin as a single cell with no consciousness?

Even if we did find out how we (or life) came to be, how crucial will it be in helping us make sense of Life? What if it was random? That would really means life just simply occurred, with no apparent reason that people seek. What if there was indeed a Higher Being that created us? Are we just out here for his pleasure? Are we here going through the motions of life just because we are put here? What is he trying to do and tell us, then? Are we just here to "Be Fruitful and Multiply"? Is that all?

There is a whole lot of speculation of how the world came to be as it is and it seems that there is not going to be a definite answer we can know for absolutely sure. The debate continues even today, despite the long recorded history of Man, as we call ourselves.

"Whether we like it or not, we are already here."

We have to accept the fact that we are already here before any search for meaning can make sense (both in a macro humankind and micro individualistic view). As Humans we tend to look towards things around us for clues to make sense of things. The search for Meaning may actually begin somewhere closer: Ourselves.

What? We did not choose to be here!!
Indeed many are "Brought into this world" confused. Did we choose to be born in the first place? Who determined who we were going to be? Why couldn't we choose to be someone more famous (like Justin Bieber, Obama, Paris Hilton, etc). Why are we who we are? Why couldn't we choose our skin colours, eye colours, hair colours just as we pleased?

Only we can be ourselves, no one else can be us and neither can we be others. Even twins, the natural clones of Mother nature, can be so different in many ways. Unfortunately we are quite far from the vision of Rene Descartes, whose famous quote was:" I think, therefore I am". Not quite like how we imagined it to be as we are not really who we want to believe we are.

However, there still seem to be a whole multitude of decisions we are to make (ranging from unimportant to critical life changing ones). With each decision is attached a whole string of consequences. We can choose in fact how we live our lives; What school we decide to study in; Who we choose to marry; what clothes are we to wear for today; what we eat for lunch (how many of us remember what we ate).

The list is exhaustive but we recognize in it a pattern for Life and making choices, (hopefully right ones). The choices we make may be confined by the fact of who we are and where we exist is physical space but nonetheless are important to us.

The Time factor
Again we are left dumbfounded in a question of being confined to physical space and time. Why are we born in this specific time-frame as we are? Why not in the past, why not the future? This again is something we did not have a choice with. There have been many ideas of time travelling and fantasy ideas regarding time but recorded history and texts suggest that Time is a one way traffic with no turning back.

Made famous by Albert Einstein's theory(or rather hypothesis since its unproven) of relativity, Time is described as a fourth Dimension that exists. While we can move and travel about in our physical space on earth, we do so wrapped up in the dimension of time that is going forward, all the time. Einstein claims even that, time "slows down" in outer space as we travel towards the speed of light.

With modern investigations and instruments, we are able to measure time. Yet, there exists a field of philosophers in the mould of Gottfried Leibniz and Immanuel Kant, who argues that time is neither an event nor a thing, and cannot itself be measured nor traveled. Time seems to be both tangible and quantifiable yet intangible and abstract enough for the human mind to comprehend.

Perhaps we do not fully comprehend how time itself started, but we do know something about the nature of time: Once gone it cannot be reversed. Yet, only in Time the things we do will make sense. And Time justifies the various stages of Life we went through, and are still going through. The stages of infancy to adult in awareness of self and ultimately the inevitable death. Until we can fully master time, we are but beings living in its confinement.

A particular verse from the Bible aptly describes time. Written by King Solomon, one of the most famous, successful and perhaps the wisest king who had riches and people at his disposal. Ecclesiastes 3:1-14 describes His self-reflection of the things he saw in his own life and the life of others, that There is a time for everything.

We can throw a cup of glass onto the floor, completing shattering it in the process, but yet we can never be able to reverse it in a way they can assemble back into a complete glass from its shattered pieces. The same is for our lives, we cannot relive our past, but we can hold memories, good or bad that define who we are, what we went through and how all that shaped us into the persons we are today.

We see that Life has meaning in Time that is going forward, always. It makes decisions in life sometimes regretful, yet purposeful as we discover value in things that hold true and are good and meaningful. We may not be able to understand everything in full from the time scale since beginning of time, but we can, make sense of our time right here from our experiences and the things we do and encounter. Time gives our life a context and background, a basis of more than just a routine.

Life is about what we have?? Or what we cannot have??
Led by his life of wealth and knowledge, King Solomon perhaps also amassed wealth, wives and servants more than anyone could ever did in his lifetime. Yet, we see that in the book of Ecclesiastes he laments that all are vanity as all things pass away in due time. He moves on to conclude that: "Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man." (Ecc 12:13)

How and why did such a King, not lacking in any material needs of physical comfort, wealth and knowledge of his time come to such a disillusion of worthlessness of pursuit of things? Wouldn't having the world of luxury make anyone happy?

Japan: One of the most modern countries in the world, boasting the material comfort and life of high technology and goods many living in other parts of the world can only dream of. Yet Japan also has a high suicide rate. Complexity of the causes of suicide? Maybe, but there is perhaps hardly any point in accumulation of wealth, nor the pursuit of the luxuries that we think we will enjoy. If truly materials alone could suffice in our pursuit for life and that life is for enjoyment of physical comfort, no one will lose hope. I believe it actually takes more courage to suicide than to muster courage to live on.

Nonetheless, some people spend all their lives working out for money's sake, and are still not be satisfied with their lives. Some own a lot of possessions but are never happy. Many are just caught up in the rat race, trying to break out of their life's struggle and cope with survival seemingly without a choice.

People can flaunt their wealth, possessions, fame, looks, sure. Who wouldn't want to be successful in life? Who wouldn't want a beautiful wife/handsome husband with a happy family? Who wouldn't want money? Yet, Naked as we come, Naked we shall go.

Nothing we ever gained in this life in terms of possessions can we bring with us when we die. There is definitely more to Life than just pursuits of things that will become vapour and mist that once passed our eyes. "What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?" (Matt 16:26, NIV)

Here we definitely know that Life is NOT about an excessive pursuit of money nor material goods. Money is needed for life and materials are there to make life better, but it can becomes a distraction that throws our whole life off-course. It is perhaps better to be in contentment with what we have and find happiness than to sulk all our lives pursuing castles in the air.

As Steve Jobs put it :"“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” "

Suffering - Is there Meaning to it at all?
One of the toughest questions in life is this: How can we ever reconcile meaning associated with suffering? Can we justify suffering to others? Is there meaning to people who died in natural disasters in earthquakes, tsunamis? Is there meaning to people living in third world countries digging heaps of rubbish to scavenge for food? Is there even, meaning in toiling in the motions of life and getting tired as a result?

If there is a loving God, why does he ever allow such injustice to happen around us? Why do illness strike people at random and seemingly good people who don't deserve it? Why do some evil people who commit crimes get away with it?

There seems to be an infused sense of right and wrong inside of us - a sense of justice in us that cries out and echoes in one another when we perceive wrongdoings being committed against another human being. And we will see to it that justice is being done - if it is within our means, the burning desire to see right triumph over wrong.

We don't ever ask why its wrong to do the following: Murder, adultery, greed, jealousy, hypocrisy. We just know it is wrong. When we ourselves do certain things that we know are wrong, our conscience pricks us because of this sense of right and wrong inbuilt inside us. If we cannot stand others wreaking injustice into our lives, our hearts speak out against ourselves doing the same to others.

Suffering is one of the many things we do not have answers to in life. Perhaps we may never be able to reconcile it having a meaning when it devastates in scales unimaginable for us. Yet, in a micro scale in our own lives, a little hardship produces elements of endurance, perseverance and patience. Only when we went through hardships can we appreciate the things we take for granted so ever easily in our daily lives.

Suffering suggests that Life is really frail. It could be here today and gone the next day. I wouldn't dare to conclude and extrapolate to say that people die in disasters for a reason. Instead, we grow to accept that life has many things that happen randomly and unfortunately than we can explain that are simply "out of control".

However, in our hearts of flesh, we know that Every Single Life has value.

If we can create Life, we are our own masters..
wait a second, are we not?
The watchmaker analogy - pointing back to the video at the start of the article, suggesting that intelligent design of lifeforms and its mechanisms neccesitates a designer, we explore the watch maker analogy once again:

"Just how much chance is there when we put all the parts needed to make a watch into a bag, shake it hard and a fully functional watch will drop out?"

That's right the chances are close to zero I'm afraid.

The reason humans try to discover and replicate life essentially came from the search for life itself. If we ourselves are able to replicate and create life, we will be able to become the master life and not be at the mercy of it. Yet we never truly successfully did so. Cloning perhaps, with all its mastery still suggest at best we can only make something out of the resources we already have. We simply just can't make something fall out of the sky from nothingness.

The Miller-Urey Experiment

Diagram showing the experiment setup

The Miller-Urey Experiment conducted in 1952 and 1953 was an experiment put to task to mimic early earth's conditions and to "support" and lend evidence to how life might have originated. The experiment put a few basic molecules and gases thought to be present in early primitive Earth and how an electric spark in form of lightning can provide enough energy to trigger a chemical reaction. The experiment generated 20 over amino acids and scientists were buoyed by the "astounding success" that it lent to support Abiogenesis (a theory that life came from non-living things).

It would almost seem ridiculous to extrapolate life formed just because these amino acids formed, by putting them all in the manner of the watchmaker analogy into a pool of ocean containing amino acids, they somehow bonded and formed DNA sequences. Not to even mention if the amino acids actually stayed long enough without breaking down before doing so. Which makes our Life a pure coincidental accident.

Although advances in technology and research have allowed us to synthesise many compounds including DNA, we did not create them, nor do we fully understand the whole genetic code having mapped it out. Even doctors are appalled at the number of receptors on a human hand, and how robotic fingers and palm fail to match up to the amazing "mechanic" human hand, in flexibility and ability.

So..Where are we going?
“Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.”

Peter Tosh

This is the ultimate question that explores the question of the inevitable - Death.

The point where our life cease to exist in the time frame makes a huge dent in our meaning in life. Death is a word shunned by many cultures as a taboo, as something loathed at and feared of. Yet, it is something everyone will reach in their lives. The massive time frame of over thousands of years make our existence on the time scale look like nothing more than a little dot.... insignificant!

Yet, death crystallises meaning into letting us realizing our time here is short.

Yes, I'm proposing the fact that Life has a meaning in Death. With an end in mind, it forces us to focus on things that hold meaning and value in us - affecting our choices and decisions as a direct result. If we only have ONE HOUR left right now in our life, what would we do? Will you still be reading this post? Will you call all your loved ones to tell them how much you love them? Will you spend it working overtime in your work?

To put it into perspective: Life itself is a preparation for Death. At the point where we consciously know we are about to die, are we ready to meet our Maker or will our lives be filled with things we feel we have not accomplished? Will we be satisfied or regretful?

Possibilities..? The Part and Whole Relationship
I'm not sure if you have played with Google Earth before, but if you did, you would probably have realised how small we are in the universe. Life seems too huge to be just about ourselves. If the individual was to be at the pinnacle of Life, it would be total chaos.

Instead, the people around us, the things and situations around us, all perhaps help us to find meaning not just in ourselves, but in something "bigger out there" Play with the telescope and we will even be awed at how big the galaxy of stars and planets are.

There is perhaps something Mother Nature are trying to tell us: Individualistic we may be, we are in a part whole relationship with it altogether. We are part of something bigger we have probably not fully understood.

Summary
It is really hard to put a conclusion on the meaning of life and rather it may be a journey altogether. I hope the points put forward in this post would have expanded your thoughts on the subject, do feel free to lend your thoughts and comments. And I hope together we uncover the true meaning of Life for ourselves. =)

------------------------------------------
The Biblical perspective The Bible offers thoughts on Life and Death, and it would totally not make sense and perhaps even be offensive for a non-christian reader. It would be hard to see the biblical viewpoint with the Christian Jargons and perspectives regarding Good/Bad, Sin, and Life. So I decided to take it out into a section here, for those interested, I do hope you read on to find out more about what the Bible holds for us in Life.

1) God and Creation
In the beginning God created us to know Him personally (John 17:3). He Loves us (John 3:16).

We looked earlier at the possibilities of an intelligent design behind Life and you would not be short-changed definitely to see if God can work in your life. You won't lose out if He is real and if He's not it won't hurt you to give Him a chance in your Life to know Him.

2) Man and Original Sin

Our representative of Human kind in Adam and Eve sinned, and we inherently are subjected to Sin (Romans 3:23). Sin results in Death and separation from God (Isaiah 59:2, Romans 6:23). It is often noted that the acts of sin or sinful acts in itself comes from the susceptibility of all of us to Sin.

In layman terms, Sin refers to doing anything that is considered impure in God's eye: adultery, lust, greed, bearing false witness, hatred and bitterness. More than anything, the thought of committing such things is just as bad as the final manifestation of the beginning thought.

Sin is simply failing to hit the target God has set the plan for man to live by, like shooting arrows and not hitting bulls-eye. We may not commit crimes like murder, but sin is much evident in our lives, when greed, dishonesty, jealousy, lust can overtake our thoughts in life.

We can live with Sin in our lives but Jesus came as a solution, because without Him, we are all destined to perish and pay for our sins. Many people think God is cruel, because there is Heaven and Hell. But in the first place, Everyone was headed to Hell. He came to provide a way to Heaven.

3) Jesus as Life
The Bible tells us that no one is capable of escaping the penalty of Sin, and Jesus came precisely for this reason: To offer us Life and reconciliation to God (John 14:6) He died on the Cross as a sacrifice to atone for our sins (Hebrews 9:22)

Jesus was a man who came 2000 plus years ago. He was recognised as a good teacher, Prophet, and also the incarnation of God in human form. In the Biblical context, people had to offer sacrifices to atone for the sins they committed but no one could ever earn salvation by following the Law alone as None could match up to the standard. Jesus came as a perfect sacrifice and solution from God. He made 7 "I am" claims that tells us of Life with God:

Bread

“I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger.” John 6:35

Light

“I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have thelight of life.” John 8:12

Gate

“I am the gate; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”
John 10:9

Good Shepherd

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.” John 14:6

True vine

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” John 15:1

1. Christ came into your life (Revelation 3:20 and Colossians 1:27).

2. Your sins were forgiven (Colossians 1:14).

3. You became a child of God (John 1:12).

4. You received eternal life (John 5:24).

5. You began the great adventure for which God created you (John 10:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17 and 1 Thessalonians 5:18).

God Bless you. =)

We not only need Tiger mums, perhaps tiger friends, tiger spouse as well.

2011-01-28T23:15:00.003+08:00

Amy Chua (the Yale professor and self-professed Tiger Mum) may have sparked controversies about her parenting methods, but many would probably have to agree that her parenting works, even though it seems too extreme at times:

NOT allowed to do:

• attend a sleepover
• have a playdate
• be in a school play
• complain about not being in a school play
• watch TV or play computer games
• choose their own extracurricular activities
• get any grade less than an A
• not be the #1 student in every subject except gym and drama
• play any instrument other than the piano or violin
• not play the piano or violin.

The list, quoted from an excerpt of the article only describes some of the things her kids went through as they grew up. Perhaps many will jump to conclusions and past judgement too fast about:" OH, this parenting is so wrooonggg! "

In the modern American context where personal rights and liberty is written all the way into constitution, the demand for personal freedom and freedom of expression is now met with the direct opposite: an iron grip discipline and control of parenting.

According to Amy, the freedom to do things the way children want allow them to settle for mediocrity, while that of a disciplined upbringing will bring the best out of the child. If necessary, the best way is always to put the child to shame, and punish if the child is not putting in his/her best effort in what they are doing. Perhaps to the public, it sparks an outcry, with people labelling her as insultive or even abusive with her choices and her no mercy words.

However, one must also note that, despite all these years, what made the kids successful was not only the hard-styled no nonsense discipline from the mum, but also the deep love that must have been so ever important. Without it, the hard line approach is destined for failure.

If it were you, would you take up a criticism from a total stranger? Certainly a close friend's genuine feedback weighs more. Even so for the people we love. People only listen to you when they know how much you care about them. The same is for us.

I'm convinced that the Love of Amy for her kids motivated her to drive her kids to success, rather than to watch them settle for second best in life, but more importantly, it was this love that kept it going. I'm very sure Amy must have had a intimate relationship with her kids and it would have shown through many other ways. Things are certainly not as they seem behind Amy's family closed doors.

In the Bible, God teaches us to always ' speak the Truth in Love '. It is something easy to say and even hard to put into practice.

I'm of the opinion that we probably not only need tiger mums, who will tell us of the lack of discipline we have, but also tiger friends, who are not afraid to tell us the truths about ourselves. And who knows? A tiger spouse who will be our best counsellor and friend. Above all these, yet a criteria must satisfy: Love.

Defense of the Christian faith

2011-01-23T20:08:00.009+08:00

I recently viewed a ex-methodist by the name of Joshua Evans who converted to Islam, claiming that Christianity is full of flaws. My heart goes out with Evans, for he has mistook many biblical truths for misconceptions. I want to be able to respond in a way to non-believers of the Christian faith. As Paul said in 1 Peter 13:5:

"But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,"

As I read many of this fellow brother's critically and well thought out biblical truths, I feel that I am a long way to being one that can. But there drives the hunger to learn.

originally from the blog of a blogger named Methodus, while I do not really advocate his (toned down offensive language, he is a good and critical writer in my opinion):

Originally posted on: http://godomnipotent.wordpress.com/2010/10/31/re-is-jesus-god/

Re: Is Jesus God?

Here is an interesting article by one Mushafiq Sultan. The author seeks to prove from the Bible that Jesus is not God himself. What follows is a succession of half-quotes, blatant lies, faulty logic and all around contextual bastardization in a bid to show the Christian position to be incorrect. Now I realize that those were in fact some rather strong words but I am quite confident that by the time the reader finishes this article, they will have seen that I was actually quite reserved in my opinion of the article. Furthermore, no matter whether they believe Christianity to be true or not, they will agree with the statement that the Bible teaches the divinity of Christ. Now as it comes to evidence for the divinity of Jesus Christ, I have always known that eventually I would have to write such a post and in one respect sincerely dreaded the thought. There is just so much to cover and even in trying to cover just the “important things” I know quite well that I will fail in doing the subject any justice. So with that caveat, let me begin to explain from scripture why in fact Christians consider Jesus to be God.

Or so I thought. I realize that before we can at all begin, there need be established some simple ground rules. First of all, let us remember that we who engage in debates have to be consistent. If by one argument we are able to dismantle the position of the opposition but also our own, and yet continue to claim that our position should be exempted from the scrutiny that comes by way of that very argument, we are being deceitful and inconsistent. The mark of a good argument is consistency and where the debater lacks consistency one should be alert to a faulty argument. Second is the fact that, nevermind our own biases, it is the theory that can explain all the factors that we are to support. That is to say that, in a manner of speaking, the author of the article to which I am responding to and I have a certain hypothesis and so we use the Bible to prove our position. Now if my theory cannot account for all the evidence I am presented with and the theory of my opponent can, then I cannot remain obstinate and say that I am still right without being deemed foolish at best, and a liar at worst. Last of all, we must take care to argue against what our opponent actually claims and not raise up strawmen in hopes that through deceiving our audience, we may garnish praise for ourselves and/or our position. Let the reader take note of all of what I have just mentioned because in the course of my reply, I will demonstrate how Mr. Sultan is guilty of all these faults. Finally, without further ado, let us begin.

For the Christian, the only documents accepted as reporting the words of Jesus are the accounts given in the Bible. However, there are no sayings of Jesus where he claimed “I am God” or “Worship me”. — Mr. Mushafiq Sultan

The above makes the case that seeing as Jesus did not speak the exact words, “I am God” or “Worship me” he cannot at all be God. I would very much like to know where Muslims get such arguments and specifically this one seeing as almost every Muslim I have ever spoken to concerning the subject of Christ has asked me this same question in exactly the same words. If the reader has browsed through my blog, they would know that the very first post of mine addressed this common argument advanced by Muslims and showed why their position is one of a lack of consistency. Speaking of the deception of Joshua Evans I wrote:

On that note, if Mr. Evans needs for Jesus to have said the exact words, “I am God, worship me” in order to acknowledge that the bible teaches the divinity of Jesus (of course let’s not mention the verses where Jesus is equated to God, 1 Corinthians 2:8; called the creator of all things, John 1:3; worshiped, Luke 24:51-52; threatened to be stoned for making himself equal to God, John 10:33; demands to be honoured in the exact manner in which the Father is honoured, John 5:23; claims to have existed before his human birth, John 3:13; claims to have existed before Abraham, John 8:58-59; claims to have existed before the creation of the world, John 17:5; is described as indwelling God himself, John 1:18; claims that to have seen him is to have seen the Father, John 10:30; claims to share the exact same glory as the Father,John 17:5; claims to be able to do whatever the Father does, John 5:19; claims to have all authority in heaven and on earth, Matthew 28:18; etc.) then why does he believe that Jesus is the Messiah or the word of Allah given that in the Qur’an, Jesus never speaks the words, “I am the Messiah, follow me” or “I am the word of Allah, listen to me”? If Mr. Evans were an honest individual he would have to admit that, given his very argument, he cannot agree with the teachings of Islam on these matters seeing as Jesus never explicitly makes these statements in the entire Qur’an. Yet this was never about honesty in the first place—Mr. Evans does not possess a shred of honesty.

The same argument which I had written in refutation of Joshua Evans also easily refutes the logic of Mushafiq Sultan and exposes him to be inconsistent with his arguments and at worst deceiving. This is why I stress that no matter one’s position, it is their duty to be critical of all arguments and strive to only accept the best of points even if by that one is severely restricted in what kind of argumentation they can use. More important then this simply being a precept of duty, it is simple honesty. The state of Muslim apologetics is certainly worrying given how great a currency the above inconsistent argument holds within the Muslim community.

In the language of the Hebrew Bible, righteous persons who follow the Will and Plan of God are know as Sons Of God. [...] Son Of God is a nothing but a metaphorical description commonly used among the Jews. [...] The most widely translated sentence on earth is said to be Jesus’ statement of John 3:16, [...] Christians wish to say that the word Only Begotten (Monogenis) gives Jesus a special status among all the Sons of God. However, not all Bibles translate the passage with this key word because some translators have seen the difficulty this causes. The same word translated as Only Begotten is found at Hebrews 11:17. In this verse the word refers to Isaac. The Bible itself shows that Isaac’s older brother Ishmael outlived his father (Genesis 25:9). Therefore, at no time was Isaac, strictly speaking, the only begotten of Abraham. — Mushafiq Sultan

(The manner in which the author has styled his work makes it somewhat difficult to present it here unedited.)

First and foremost, I delve into a bit more detail on this subject here so the reply within this article will be fairly brief (or so let’s hope). Let us realize that there are in fact two claims being made here: one, that the term “Son of God” does not connote actual literal sonship and two, that the phrase “Only Begotten” does not literally mean being the only one within the category of son. Now at face value I would indeed agree with the words of the author yet let me show why the evidence does not support his conclusion on the question of Jesus’ divinity. It is indeed true that Son of God was a term used by the Jews to speak of an upright man but Jesus’ use of the term went beyond this:

¹⁷But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”¹⁸This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. ¹⁹So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. ²¹For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. ²² The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, ²³ that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. — John 5:17-23 ESV

Notice that Jesus spoke of his sonship markedly differently then what had ever been seen in Jewish literature for a description of the prophets or other pious individuals and this is what the Jewish authorities of his day picked up on. If he wasn’t who he claimed to be then what he was declaring was nothing short of blasphemy. Let the reader note that the Christ specifically says that whatever the Father does, the Son can do likewise. This is a specific claim to the uncommunicable omni-attributes of God. Furthermore, Jesus demanded that all should honour him just as they honoured the Father and in fact all those who did not honour Jesus in the exact same way that the Father was honoured were guilty of sin. The implication is that he demanded the same worship and thus clearly made himself equal to the Father. Can anyone who does not believe in the divinity of Jesus read the above and not find it blasphemous? Contrary to what Mr. Sultan would like his audience to believe, Jesus wasn’t simply reiterating common Jewish parlance but in fact reinterpreting it when it came to himself. The very thought that Mr. Sultan is so quick to dismiss Christ’s way of speaking about himself while actual Jewish scholars who lived in the time of Jesus and inhabited the same thought-world as this 1st century carpenter-turned revolutionary did not, should be cause enough to alarm the reader to the fact that Mushafiq Sultan is certainly incorrect in his reinterpretation of the facts.

Now to the question of the phrase,”only-begotten”, Mr. Sultan shows how much he misunderstands the doctrine by thinking that it specifically relates to a numerical value. In actuality, the phrase designates one who is acutely similar to and who has the same nature as the one who begets in every possible way. Hence why God uses the same phrase to speak of Isaac in Genesis 22:2 even though he was aware that Abraham had more than one son but as he had said in Genesis 21:12 when he encouraged Abraham to send away both Hagar and her son Ishmael, “Do not be upset over the boy and your servant [Hagar]. Do whatever Sarah tells you, for Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” Isaac was the son who was like his father in every way, it was through him that the promise made towards Abraham would be carried on for all generations. Hence why the LORD claims to be the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” and never that of Ishmael. God considered only Isaac to be Abraham’s true son and as such Genesis 22:2 can be rendered “Take your son, your only son, Isaac” or “Take thy only begotten son Isaac”. Clearly both phrases mean to express the same idea in that they describe a single son who is acutely like his father in every way to the point where it is only of him that the position of being the father’s one and only can be claimed.

This then brings us to the subject of Jesus Christ who is called the “only-begotten” of the Father. First the author claims that given the fact that other bible authors do not translate it as “only begotten” (in modern English) this somehow means that Jesus does not possess claim to a distinct and completely unique status as the Son of God. Here is a list of close to all English Bible translations and I would like for the reader to note the manner in which John 3:16 is rendered. It is a blatant lie to say that the Bible does not claim Jesus to have a unique status and that his sonship isn’t completely different then that of all other believers. In fact, all other Christians are described as being adopted into the family of God, and spiritually reborn—none are described as ever being the only-begotten of God because only-begotten means that the begotten is completely like the one who begets and as a man can only beget another human, God only begets God.

You can only beget a child that has the same nature as you have—a son or a daughter. There is nothing else you can beget (unless you were speaking very figuratively). Your son or your daughter will inherit his or her nature from you—genes, personality—all of it. You can use “make” or “create” for producing a child; but when you use “beget” it only means you produce a child that has your nature.
Now follow this carefully. If Jesus is said to be the begotten Son of God (using the figure from human language to make the point), then Jesus has the same nature as the Father. If Jesus has the same nature as God the Father, then Jesus is divine and eternal as well. If he is eternally God, then there was never a time he was literally begotten—which is why we know the language is figurative to describe his nature, and not his beginning. To call Jesus “the only begotten Son” means that he is fully divine and eternal. He is God the Son. — Christian Leadership Center

That being said, the Isaac/Abraham example is not an exact representation of the God the Father/God the Son dynamic but simply an archetype to which God himself is the fulfillment thereof. As is the case with all analogies, the two cannot be exactly the same because one is comparing two different things (albeit the similarities thereof). From all the evidence presented, it is quite clear that Mushafiq Sultan tampers with things he does not possess adequate knowledge to contend with.

If being born without a male parent entitles Jesus to being God, then Adam would have a greater right to such honor. Adam was born without either a human father or mother. — Mr. Sultan

I must say that I have heard this statement before by other Muslims and I always am unable to see the logic. To be sure it does have the semblance of a proper argument but once placed within the proper context it loses whatever facade it had of reason. I am astounded that Muslims would continue to export such a sad excuse for an argument and that they are so uncritical when it comes to their own points that they haven’t picked up on the fact that the above is not a valid argument—it is sophistry at best.

Now, nevermind that the evidence for Jesus’ divinity does not rest on his virgin birth but rather primarily on his ressurection, (a fact very few Muslims seem to know, given how widespread the above argument is) let us proceed to refute the supposed logic within the above quote. But before that, the very fact that Jesus had no human father should give one pause. Why is it that after God set into motion the process of natural birth by which he deemed fit that every single human being should come into the world—why then would he make such an exception for Jesus and go out of his way to orchestrate such a miraculous birth? The Qur’an and the Holy Bible are in agreement when they present Christ’s birth as being the most miraculous in existence and as far as the Qur’an is concerned it goes even further with the idea of entrenching the miraculous nature of this birth by incorporating within it’s text flagrant myths that communities propagated such as Jesus speaking from birth and turning clay into birds (these can all be traced back to the Infancy Gospel of Thomas). Once more I would ask why God would make Jesus the only figure in human history to have such a miraculous, exalted in it’s uniqueness, birth? That’s something to think about. Now the author of the quoted material seeing this evident problem, then tries to make a connection between Adam and Jesus so as to undermine the status of Christ but fails because Adam was the first human being, how could he ever have parents? It would be impossible for Adam to be the first human being and also be born of parents. Therefore Jesus and Adam are of completely different categories seeing as Adam’s lack of parents was out of necessity (God could not make Adam the first human and also have him be born of human parents) while that of Christ was exceptional (God could have made him to be born normally like Muhammad and yet he refused to. Why did God decide that Jesus absolutely had to have such a unique birth?). For Jesus and Jesus alone did God decree a halt to the natural birth process and while he deemed it fit for all other men and women to be born through these natural means, Christ alone was to be distinguished from everyone else. He is not a man whom God would allow to be birthed like all others; no—Christ Jesus was exceptional and this fact needed to be declared from his very birth. It is more than obvious that the author of the article, “Is Jesus God” understood the problem with Christ’s miraculous birth and so he sought to mitigate its peculiarity by way of the example of Adam but given that we have now seen that his argument is invalid, we are still left with the fact of Christ’s unique and absolutely amazing birth. Let us remember that a miracle is a sign that God uses to point us to some truth, what then is the virgin birth pointing to other than Christ having eternally existed as God the Son before deeming to enter creation and being born a man?

The fact that Jesus accepted worship is offered as strong proof of his divinity. [...] The word translated as worshipped in both verses is the Greek word proskuneo {pros-ku-neh’-o} which literally means: “To kiss, like a dog licking his masters hand”. (Strong’s concordance). Even Prophet Daniel was worshipped by Nebuchadnezzar: ”Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and worshipped Daniel…” (Daniel 2:46, KJV) If He was not to be worshipped, why didn’t He tell this man to stop? It appears that “worship” was a type of greeting or salutation offered by the king. In all modern versions of the Bible, when Daniel was worshipped, the word worship has been removed. However, in the case of Jesus, the word worship still remains. (e.g., compare NIV and KJV)

Let us first realize that for what it’s worth the author has realized that the worship of Jesus within the Bible is a serious enough problem that he has need to expose his audience to the above half-truth in a bid to justify his Islamic belief. I would like to emphasize the fact that whenever one is presented with a quote (pretty much from any book) they would do well to look up where the quote is from and read it within its surrounding context. Let us do so now:

And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. ⁴⁵Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. ⁴⁶Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him. ⁴⁷The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret. ⁴⁸Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. ⁴⁹Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king. — Daniel 2:44-49 KJV

After Daniel had interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, we read that the King fell prostrate (incidentally this is the very word used in most modern translations) before Daniel and ‘worshiped’ Daniel. Yet what did his worship consist of? Was he praising Daniel? Did he glorify Daniel or did he glorify the God of Daniel? To be sure enough Nebuchadnezzar was a pagan who was accustomed to displaying his worship in the wrong fashion for while he worshiped the God of Daniel, it can be argued that he did so through the conduit of Daniel yet even then it cannot be said that his aim was to worship Daniel. We are given clear examples of what his worship consisted of and not once does he pray to Daniel but every reference is towards the God of Daniel and the king even goes so far as to admit that Daniel is only a tool whom the LORD has used to reveal the interpretation of the dream (“your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret”). Not once is Daniel called a deity by the King nor is any praise at all directed towards him. The text itself is quite clear (almost as if the author had foreseen this likely misunderstanding) that all worship was directed towards Daniel’s God. Now can the same be said of the worship which Jesus received? I will quote the very verses which Mr. Sultan sought to negate (with their relevant context):

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.¹⁷When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. — Matthew 28:16-17 NIV
————————————————————————————————————————-
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
³⁶“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
³⁷Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
³⁸Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
³⁹Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
⁴⁰Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
⁴¹Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. — John 9:35-41 NIV

Let me first speak of the quote from the Gospel of Matthew. Notice that the text is very explicit in that it is Jesus that is being worshiped. Furthermore note that Jesus declares his followers to be baptized in the single name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He does not use the plural for name but uses the singular, not only that but he includes the Father within this one category. Thereby stating that the one being of God has one name: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each of these though distinct comprise and are the one Name in the same manner that Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit though distinct in that one is not the other comprise and are each simultaneously the one God. (For more on the Trinity see here.) As it comes to the quote from the Gospel of John the reader will note that once more it is expressly Jesus that is worshiped. Christ asks the man (whom he had healed from physical blindness) if he believed in him and the man authenticated his belief by worshiping Jesus. This is all very explicit. If that weren’t enough, Jesus reprimands the Pharisees who did not believe in the divinity of Christ and calls them blind because they have not believed in him as the formerly blind man has. Clearly all the evidence is against Mr. Sultan and I for one cannot believe that all the errors he has committed so far have been because of a sincere misunderstanding of the text.

An episode is recounted in the twentieth chapter of John and a certain Thomas is quoted as saying, My Lord and My God. In interpreting this, Christians maintain that Thomas was addressing Jesus by both of these titles. The Muslim would have no objection to the term Lord. [...] The suggestion that Thomas addressed Jesus as literally being God is a different matter. Jesus had already pointed out that the Hebrew scriptures themselves address men as gods (John 10:34; Psalms 82:6). This would allow for Thomas’ use of the term. However, Paul gave new rules in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, saying that there are many lords and gods …yet for us there is but one God, the Father,… and one Lord, Jesus Christ… [...] Christians apply this verse to sort out the ambiguities of Thomas’ expression. But now we are left with an unorthodox doctrine, namely that Jesus is the Father.— Mushafiq Sultan

When the Hebrew Bible addressed men as gods it meant to imply that in a manner of speaking, men are similar to God (a fact that cannot be denied) but in no way does it give approval for anyone other than the One true God to be considered any individual’s God (a simple browsing of the Bible clearly attests to this fact). Yet I have also shown how scripture is replete with instances of Jesus demanding the same worship that is given to the Father and in fact receiving this very thing by all those who believed in him. It is interesting that in paraphrasing from Paul, the author refused to give the exact citation of his quote. If the reader knows the quote it will immediately be obvious why Mr. Sultan took such care not to mention the full citation nor even give his readers the full quotation. Here is the citation in full:

For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— ⁶yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. — 1 Corinthians 8:5-6 ESV

Isn’t the above diametrically opposed to what Mr. Sultan just claimed? Paul quite clearly states that it is from God the Father that all things are made and from whom we exist and then he says the very same thing about Jesus. How is this not in fact clear evidence that the words “Lord” and “God” are interchangeable? If both the Father and Christ are the Creator of everything that exists how can he then claim that Christ is not deemed to be God? And if Christ is shown to be distinct from the Father and yet also called God why then claim a dilemma that isn’t at all there? And more than this just being diametrically opposed to the author’s position, this is a clear case of selective editing of the text. This man edited the text in a way so that it wouldn’t contradict him while it clearly does and he knew furthermore that very few Muslims would go to the actual source and see whether or not he was actually telling the truth. I will be quite frank, this man is a liar. I do not understand why this man would need so strongly to lie to his audience in order to justify his belief in Muhammad and the Muslim Deity. Is it perhaps that Islam is not interested in truth? Once more the text shows that “God” and “Lord” are interchangeable and that to call Christ God does not at all blur the lines between the Father and the Son. Might the author not have heard of the Trinity which stipulates that there is One God eternally existent as three persons?

Such as the Father is; such is the Son; and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreated; the Son uncreated; and the Holy Ghost uncreated. The Father unlimited; the Son unlimited; and the Holy Ghost unlimited. The Father eternal; the Son eternal; and the Holy Ghost eternal. And yet they are not three eternals; but one eternal. [...] So the Father is God; the Son is God; and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not three Gods; but one God. – Athanasian Creed

To accept that Jesus is God does not mean to say that Jesus is the Father seeing as all trinitarians accept the simultaneously divinity of Jesus and his distinction from the Father. If nothing else, at the very least it is evident that the author is not in any way qualified to be writing this article.

The distinction is blurred again when John 14:9 is pressed into service. Here Jesus’ reply to a man named Philip is recorded as He who has seen me has seen the Father.
A strictly literal explication would mean the unacceptable doctrine that Jesus is the Father. So interpreters say that Father is here equivalent to God. However, we cannot possibly be obliged to understand that Jesus meant to say that seeing him was exactly the same as seeing God because he was God. Our reason is found in the contrariety of John 5:37 You have neither heard His (God) voice at any time nor seen his form. — Mr. Mushafiq

Must we take a strictly literal position to absolutely everything or do we take the position that best explains all the facts that one is presented with. If the Qur’an has Allah using the word “We” and then says that Allah is not a Trinity (let us at this time overlook the fact that the Muslim deity is never actually correct in his definition of the Trinity) do we then say that there is an inherent contradiction or do we not suppose that He could at times speak metaphorically or figuratively? Would that not be the answer that can account for all the evidence? And cannot the Muslim deity speak figuratively and then go on to speak literally (and vice versa)? If you accept this of the Qur’an why then not of the New Testament? Should not the best theory be employed to account for all the evidence? I would very much like to know why it is that the Christian Bible has to be understood literally at all places even when there is a far better explanation that is in fact able to account for all the evidence? That said there is far too much evidence that shows that Jesus considered himself to be the God of Israel (something Mr. Sultan implicitly admits by the manner in which he so desperately seeks to mitigate the instances where Jesus is outrightly worshiped) yet he did claim there to be, within the being of the One true God, a distinction of three distinguished yet not separate persons.

Anyway, to provide a more concise answer to Mr. Sultan’s objection: It is interesting to note that the author once more leaves out evidence that would show his argument to be completely faulty. The very next verse following John 5:37 in fact says that the reason they have never seen the Father is because they did not believe in whom he had sent. Obviously one can see without reallyseeing and this was what Christ was in fact referring to. Now the reason why Christ was able to say that to have seen him is to have seen the Father without himself being the Father is, as the bible states, because:

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. — Hebrews 1:3 ESV

It must once more be said that, contrary to what Mr. Sultan claims, Jesus never says that the Jews have not seen God nor heard his voice but says specifically that they have not seen the Father. They have seen the Son even if he veiled his full glory.

If Jesus lived in heaven then came to the earth it might mean something remarkable, but it would not be enough to establish him as God Christians do not imagine that the prophet Jeremiah had a prehuman existence and find a suitable way of interpreting the words of Jeremiah 1:5 which portrays such a situation, if taken literally. — Mushafiq Sultan

I would ask anyone who is reading this to follow this link and read the relevant passage of Jeremiah for themselves. The author would like his audience to believe that, when read literally, the text speaks of Jeremiah preexisting before his birth when all it ever says—precisely when read literally—is that since the very beginning God had appointed him to be a Prophet to the nation of Israel. There is nothing unique with this idea yet this is completely unlike what Jesus claimed of himself.

“Jesus then said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ … Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst… FOR I HAVE COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.’ … So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ They said, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?‘” John 6:32-33, 35, 38, 41-42
“This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh… As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” John 6:50-51, 57-58
“Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” John 6:62
[taken from answering-islam.org]
And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. — John 17:5

Notice how markedly different Christ’s description of himself is. Not only does he claim to have preexisted in heaven, he also claims to be eternal life itself! If that weren’t explicit enough he says that he existed prior to the creation of the world and he shared in the Father’s very own glory. Does this sound at all like what was said of Jeremiah? If any Muslim can read the above and not find it blasphemous than I dare say that they aren’t really Muslim. The sharing of the Father’s glory is especially critical and a Jewish audience would not have let this escape them since in Isaiah 42:8 and 48:11 Yahweh quite clearly says that he will not give his glory to another and so how could Jesus claim to have eternally shared the glory with his Father? The problem is in fact resolved when, as we have seen (and will see once more shortly), that Christ was claiming to be Yahweh himself. On a related note, I have said it before and I now say it again: Mr. Mushafiq Sultan is particularly adept at exposing his audience to half-truths, in being incredibly inconsistent in his argumentation and in engaging in contextual bastardization. This is fairly obvious from all that I have written so far.

In Exodus 3, it is reported that God told Moses I am what I am as most English Bibles translate the Hebrew text. At John 8:58 Jesus says, before Abraham was I am as most English Bibles translate the Greek text. [...] For two hundred years before the time of Jesus the Jews used a Greek translation of their Hebrew scriptures, the Septuagint. This work translated the key phrase I am of Exodus as HO ON. However, the words of Jesus, I am, have been given in Greek as EGO EMI. If the gospel writer in John 8:58 wanted to tell his Greek-speaking audience that Jesus had imitated God he would have used the familiar words of the Septuagint. — Mr. Sultan

Although it is in fact true that in the Septuagint’s rendition of Exodus 3, Yahweh does use ho on to mean, ” I AM”, it is in fact false to say that ego eimi does not mean “I AM” as well. Before I show the reader that Mr. Sultan has not done his research and is in no way fit to speak of these things, let me quote the passage:

“And Moses said to God, Behold, I shall go forth to the children of Israel, and shall say to them, The God of our fathers has sent me to you; and they will ask me, What is his name? What shall I say to them? And God spoke to Moses, saying, I am THE ONE WHO IS/THE BEING (ego eimi ho on); and he said, Thus shall ye say to the children of Israel, THE ONE WHO IS/THE BEING (ho on) has sent me to you.” — answering-islam.org

The contention here is that seeing as THE ONE WHO IS (i.e. I AM) is rendered as ho on in the Septuagint (also known as the LXX), ego eimi does not mean this as well nor should be used in allusion to the LORD’s I AM sayings. Luckily enough for me, the folks at Answering-Islam have once more made my task all the more easy by having browsed through the LXX and finding how it renders the other I AM sayings of the LORD:

“Who has wrought and done these things? he has called it who called it from the generations of old; I, God, am first, and to all futurity, I am (ego eimi).” Isaiah 41:4
“Hear me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of Israel, who are borne by me from the womb, and taught by me from infancy. Until your old age I am (ego eimi), and until you shall have grown old I am (ego eimi); I bear you, I have made, and I will set free, I will take up and save you.” Isaiah 46:3-4
“Hear me, O Jacob, and Israel whom I call; I am the first, and I am (ego eimi) forever/into eternity.” Isaiah 48:12
[...] The Greek word ho is the definite article “the,” while on is the present participle of eimi. The present participle in Greek expresses continuous or repeated action or state. And yet since both on and eimi are in the present tense they basically have the same meaning.

From the above we learn that even the LXX translates some I AM sayings as ego eimi and as such shows us that ego eimi and ho on are largely interchangeable and certainly mean to express the same idea. Furthermore, it is quite clear that Jesus was alluding to these very I AM sayings and specifically claiming to be the God of Israel, Yahweh himself. What should not escape the reader is that according to Mr. Sultan’s very own criteria, this point by itself proves the divinity of Jesus. We have clear proof that the Bible records Jesus as thinking himself to be the very God who created all things. Given the fact that it has been demonstrated that Christ claimed the prerogatives of Yahweh (his eternal existence, his worship, his omni-attributes etc.) and outright claims to be Yahweh himself, I feel no need to continue my response to Mr. Sultan’s article (seeing as I’ve addressed his most important points) save to say that the author is inconsistent in beginning and ending his article with a supposed future exchange that Jesus will have with God in which he denies all claims of deity yet refuses to consider a future exchange within the book of Revelation where Jesus says, “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” Is that not a claim to deity?

Love... according to the bible =)

2011-01-11T00:33:00.004+08:00

Love is patient; love is kind
and envies no one.
Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude;
never selfish, not quick to take offense.
There is nothing love cannot face;
there is no limit to its faith,
its hope, and endurance.
In a word, there are three things
that last forever: faith, hope, and love;
but the greatest of them all is love.

~ 1 Corinthians 13 ~

Another version:

1 Corinthians 13:4-13

"Love is patient; love is kind. Love is not jealous, it does not put on airs, it is not snobbish. Love is never rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not prone to anger; neither does it brood over injuries. Love does not rejoice in what is wrong, but rejoices with the truth. The is not limit to love's forbearance, to its trust, its hope, its power to endure. Love never fails. Prophecies will cease, tongues will be silent, knowledge will pass away. Out knowledge is imperfect and our prophesying is imperfect. When the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child I used to talk like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. When I became a man I put childish ways aside. Now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror; then I shall know even as I am known. There are in the end three things that last: faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love."

Truly God, who is Love fulfills the perfect kind of Love we seek and can only be the true source that satisfies it to its fullest. =)

Just as we seek what we Lost, God seeks what He lost

2010-11-27T20:23:00.004+08:00

It has been really long since I last updated.. personally I'm struggling with academic studies but yet at the same time, God has been showering blessings upon me for the past semester.

I feel I do fail God a lot of times as I'm still suffering from "giving up" and also struggling with temptations not to study but God's Love is enduring, He showed me His grace for me this week even as I went through one of the most frustrating weeks (in terms of academic) and also one of the most fruitful (in terms of ministry).

Just this week we had a Blessings project, where I went around the school (along with other fellow Christians) to give out hot beverage on a cold night with some light snacks. That night when I went home I actually lost my wallet. But being too tired out, I did not realise this until the next day. And so, the hunt for the wallet began, with me not pinning much hopes of getting it back. Perhaps the only Blessing in disguise as I thought to myself was that my Matriculation Card (needed for sitting Exams) was not lost as it was in the hands of a Canteen holder whom we placed orders for the hot drinks.

God used this extended time to show and reveal to me once again His heart for the Lost. As I searched for my wallet, I wasn't panicky. Neither was I anxious. But on the journey, God reminded me of what He spoke in the Bible to the Pharisees to reveal God's own heartbeat for something He lost:

This was a series of 3 parables that came one after another to illustrate a single point: That God desires to seek out what He has lost and God is determined and joyful to find it.

The verses are at Luke 15:1-32.

The context of these 3 passages was that the Pharisees saw Jesus sitting down with people deemed unfitting to enter the Kingdom of God: Tax collectors (despised for they worked for the Romans), Sinners (deemed unclean and not to get close to). They were puzzled that Jesus, a man whose powers come from God and is a Rabbi is actually getting CLOSE to these people. Does He not actually know these people are just "not the type" who would enter heaven?

Jesus here spoke not just 1 but 3 parables in a row to Reveal God's own heart to us.

1) The Parable of the Lost Sheep:

a shepherd lost a sheep, and searches high and low, going to great measure to find it back.

And when he found it, he asked his friends to share his joy. Finding 1 lost sheep is even more joyful to be happy than 99 who are not lost...

2) The Parable of the Lost Coin:

a woman loses a silver coin and searches the house carefully to find it. and when he finally finds it, she calls for joy with her friends. Jesus again compares it to the repentance of a sinner that is the joy of the Lord.

3) The Parable of the Lost Son:

Perhaps the most well known, actually, the Father had 2 lost sons. One being the younger who asked for inheritance only to waste it away, returning to his father feeling unworthy to be His fathers son.

But his father had been waiting for him to return, and rejoiced at his return and restored his status as his son. And while his elder son now becomes angry, he also seeks for the elder son initiatively when the elder son fumes and refuses to return to the house.

Here we see God was actually telling the Pharisees that those they saw as worthless are the ones that God wanted to seek out and reconcile with. (Hence 1 sinner who repents over 99 Pharisees who don't need to, also the lost coin). And finally the lost son(s) the father rejoices over whats lost and found more.

God seeks the Lost, who are actually you and me, the people out there who are needing Him one way or another. If I lost my wallet and found it back, I'm joyful, I can imagine the joy of the Lord at seeking and finding His own people He lost through the Fall.

And its reassuring to know one only seeks what belongs to Him. For me, it was my own wallet. But for God, He seeks our own hearts, which belongs to Him. We must therefore mean a lot a lot to God Himself =)

101st post!

2010-11-03T22:01:00.005+08:00

Wow. I hit a century finally =)

Time really flies when life is preoccupied with work that is endless. Reflecting on a verse from Ecclesiastes 5: 8- 18 really spoke to me about just how finite and seemingly short it is. Life is really too short to be about ourselves. And God rightfully made it this way so we would fathom at His marvelous creation, that has withstood the merciless passing of time.

(this is a picture I took from the airplane.. can't even see any land in the vast ocean!)

Have you ever wondered just how small the Earth is in this galaxy that we don't even fully understand? Or even how small we are on the face of the Earth? Yet sometimes, as we live our lives, I get the feeling sometimes that we are living for ourselves. This life is all about me. How I want to do things, who I want to become, what I will do in the future..... and before I know it, i have already hit 23 years old.

After going abroad and pouring through videos about the world out there, living for myself seems too small a purpose to live for. When I am complaining about my new shoes giving me sores on my feet, probably somewhere else in the world people are running around without shoes.. :X

God really opened my eyes to see that life is not about us. If this life were all there is to it, how meaningless would it be the day we breathe our last. Perhaps this is best described in:

Ecclesiastes 5: 8- 18

" ⁸ If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still. ⁹ The increase from the land is taken by all; the king himself profits from the fields.
¹⁰ Whoever loves money never has enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.
This too is meaningless.
¹¹ As goods increase,
so do those who consume them.
And what benefit are they to the owners
except to feast their eyes on them?
¹² The sleep of a laborer is sweet,
whether they eat little or much,
but as for the rich, their abundance
permits them no sleep.
¹³ I have seen a grievous evil under the sun:
wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners,
¹⁴ or wealth lost through some misfortune,
so that when they have children
there is nothing left for them to inherit.
¹⁵ Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb,
and as everyone comes, so they depart.
They take nothing from their toil
that they can carry in their hands.
¹⁶ This too is a grievous evil:
As everyone comes, so they depart,
and what do they gain,
since they toil for the wind?
¹⁷ All their days they eat in darkness,
with great frustration, affliction and anger.
¹⁸ This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot. ¹⁹ Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God. ²⁰ They seldom reflect on the days of their life, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart."

Indeed, life has too many things that we don't even make sense of before we die, yet one thing God revealed was for Man to enjoy the fruits of our labour, no matter how temporal it may be, truly, it is better to earn enough to enjoy life to the fullest compared to earning billions and not having the life to spent it.

I do hope as I grow into maturity in Christ, I will also learn to depend on the Lord, and just like verse 20 says (seldom reflect on the days of our life, as God keeps our hearts occupied with gladness in our hearts).

There has only been this One God, One Jesus, One Spirit who has stood the passing of time, for He is not confined by time as He made time to pass. Even though many faith giants in the bible lived only for a while, like a sparkle fading away, they did shine brightly for they knew God, where only the finite meets the infinite, the temporal meets the eternal, the previously wanderous aimless life filled with His purpose: to enjoy the gifts in our life and to enjoy getting to know Him.

I pray that you too finds assurance, rest, peace and joy in Him. =) God Bless You!

Retreat 221010

2010-10-22T22:17:00.004+08:00

Today had a much needed and long-awaited retreat with the Lord at some secluded coffee house in town. Drinking the ice mocha reminds me of the personal retreat time in Nagoya, except that the ice mocha in Nagoya was so much nicer.. (awwwwsss)

Looking through today, the retreat wasn't exactly planned. I had a meeting in the morning. But by afternoon after the meeting was over, my heart was too burdened to carry on. I could pinpoint that to a bit of self doubt and esteem attack happening to me as I struggle to put studies for my quizzes and ministry together as well as carving the spiritual discipline I so badly lack in my Spiritual Walk with Jesus.

I guess when I couldn't carry on anymore, Jesus was still there to pick me up. I re-looked at a verse that spoke again to me today (John chapter 21), where God was re-instating Peter for having lost his focus on Jesus and also denied Him 3 times. There and then I sat at the empty seat in front of me, sipping my ice mocha as I prayed for Jesus's presence. Sometimes, I really feel my heart and mind is so pre-occupied with the work on hand I cannot focus on Jesus.

I wanted to seek help for alot of questions. But I began on the wrong side of the mind. I started from myself. I wanted to know how the verse will speak to me in today's time, in today's struggle. Perhaps it was more correct to look to Jesus, which I did and there and then after I ranted everything out, I felt Jesus asking me each line of my complaint: "Yes, my child, I know you are troubled.. but do you Love me more than these? Do you Love me?"

Focusing on the Lord really makes all the "problems" seem unimportant at that moment, for what mattered most was that I was focusing on God. And I'm glad when in the later verses, Jesus said again: "Follow Me."

God is not really an option to choose from to solve our problems, a genie we rub from a lamp to our troubles, but He IS the One and Only Truth, the Way and the Light. The living Water, and the Living bread, whom willed for me to believe in Him. All it took was whether I believed.

And I believe.

Faith and Reason: Do they always clash?

2010-10-09T00:09:00.004+08:00

Attended a faith and reason Q&A by Dr. Rev. Stephen Tong in my university (Nanyang Technological University). He is a famous evangelist from Indonesia and within the Chinese church community. I believe God has given him a great deal of wisdom, having him self-teaching himself alot of fields of knowledge of man. He is well versed in Chinese history, philosophy, history (probably) and etc.

I went to a similar session 2 years ago at exactly the same venue, and I'm very much thankful for the work God is doing through his life. I remember a verse in the bible that talks about worshipping God in the famous conversation in the bible with the Samaritan woman by the well:"

²¹Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

John 4:21-24

Now, what is meant by in Spirit and in Truth?

In this talk Pastor Stephen Tong defined reason as a way we make sense of the world around us and the 2 greatest knowledge fields of man is Science and Philosophy. Science is a quantitative way of experimenting and discovering the truths about the physical world. Philosophy can be defined as a field of thought dedicated to the systematic and rational way of making sense of the world, by thought that is.

However, many fields of knowledge of man add up and still is finite in a sense we cannot fully understand or grasp things beyond the reach of the 5 senses or our thoughts. Hence Faith comes into place to allow us to accept things that we are yet to fully grasp. That though is not blind faith we are talking about. Blind faith is dangerous and I have heard of many stories of how children die of some little illnesses because of the fact that their parents are not willing to seek medical help from doctors, claiming God will heal them. I believe firmly that God put doctors around us for a reason and miracle healings sometimes happen but is out of the norm (that why it is a miracle, as it does not happen all the time)

Putting faith in God doesnt mean blindly believing God without any basis. For the christian perspective, the Bible is a book that records an amazing testament of many 'Faith Giants' whom have placed their trust in God. The faithfulness of God in these accounts form a basic understanding of God's character as One who Loves, is faithful in keeping His promises (covenants), unchanging, Holy.. and etc. If we do not even know who is this God we believe in, how can we be sure of what we hope for?

And that is why we need to worship in Spirit and in Truth. We know that the Spirit will be with us because of Jesus' promise in John 14:15-17:

^"16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— ¹⁷the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be^{a]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[a]} in you."

God gave us the right to be as children of God when we repent of our sins and let Him take control of our lives as our personal Lord and Saviour. He also grants us the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of Truth to guide us and be our comforter to empower us in our walk with Him. In 1Cor 12:3 it says:"Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit."

He also gave us His only Son, in Christ Jesus who says in John 14:6 :"⁶Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." There is also the Word of God inspired by God Himself in the Bible we have. If we truly pay attention to the truths of the Bible God revealed to us, and practice them, we will be worshipping in Spirit and in Truth.

Anyone who claims to know God cannot just worship alone in Spirit, because he will have a weak foundation in the knowledge of God. Neither can a christian only worship in the knowledge of God, following the Law of the Bible but only as a knowledge itself and in self righteousness.... (this is what we call as Pharisees in bible, hypocrites who 'follow' the Word of God but do not practice what they preach).

Hence, there needs to be a balance of both, in faith and reason, in Spirit and in Truth.

Today I learnt many new perspectives too just hearing Dr. Rev Tong speak. May God really open our spiritual eyes to know Him as well as the hunger to dig into His Word for truths.

Just attaching a faith a reason video here for your viewing pleasure.. alot of it can be found on youtube... XD

On "Is our God the only God or Trinity?

God Bless!!

Blog repost: What does it mean to say yes to God

2010-10-04T19:23:00.004+08:00

Originally posted on http://lisachildofgod.blogspot.com/ by Lisa on 26 Dec 2009:

Personally I feel this piece of heartfelt sharing resonates in my soul about God's character in
'getting' our response to say 'yes' and follow Him. I thank God for fellow christians whom I can grow my faith together with.

Personally I'm on a journey to find out at the same time what it truly means to follow Jesus.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Wow its been such a long time since I written on this blog. There has been so much going on inwardly and outwardly that some times it just takes time to process. To share prematurely is to release the treasure before the time is right. So recently I have been pondering what it means to say 'yes' to God. This thought has entered my mind through an Advent meditation I read on Mary. The author Kathleen Norris wrote:

Who is she, a peasant girl that an angel of God should appear before her? Who is she to bear the Savior God promised to Israel? Why should this great blessing and burden come into her humble life? Mary believes. For her question to the angel is not 'how will I know' but 'how can this be?' She has already accepted the truth of what the angel tells her. But Mary still has to assent to it, to answer 'yes'. And on that our salvation hinges. The answer depends on Mary and it depends on us.

The questions God asks us are always questions of being rather than knowing. And simply recognizing these moments, stopping for a moment because something or someone wants our attention can matter.....but it will be clear that we are being asked to say 'yes' or 'no' to embrace or ignore what God has set before us.

Like the ancient Israelites in the desert, we can long for the security of the world we know in Egypt. Slaves after all have the security of knowing their place in the world. Or like Mary, we can say 'yes' to the new, uncertain reality that promises true freedom. Say 'yes' to God will always mean more than we can possibly imagine, both for us and for others. Walls and stumbling blocks that seemed impossible crumble suddenly, as we let our fears go. Like Mary, we have no way of knowing any of this. We can ask for courage, however and trust that God has not led us into this new land only to abandon us there.

My spirit is arrested on so many levels when I read the words of this devotion. For my heart is prone to wander but God beckons me back showing me that when I say 'yes' to Him, He is opening up new vistas for me to see and doors to step through. As this year ends and a new year enfolds, I want to find myself always in that posture of willingness to say 'yes' to Christ for in doing so I am being led to a deeper faith, deeper trust, a deeper knowledge of His heart. Saying 'yes' will mean greater sacrifices, counting the cost, saying 'no' to what seems like other good choices which aren't the 'best' choices. Over the years, my desire has always been to live without regret and so saying 'yes' to God is to say 'yes' to new adventures, to walk through fears. It is truly a journey to greater freedom in Christ but is one that God calls us all to take individually. No one can do it for us but we do have the promise that when we say 'yes', God promises to go before us, to part the proverbial Red seas and Jordan rivers. Saying 'yes' may mean saying 'goodbye' to friendships that once fed our souls, to letting go and again allowing God to bring other sojourners and pilgrims who will join us in a journey of courage to a new land, the promised land that God has in store for us. Like Mary of old, I am reminded that her blessedness was born out of faith, a faith that choose to believe, that took God at His word and in so doing, lives were impacted for eternity. Oh Lord, quicken that kind of faith in me that you planted in Mary's heart so many centuries ago, that like her, each of us who chose to walk by faith and not by sight, may taste the blessedness she tasted and we may find favor in your eyes!

Posted by Lisa at 3:59 PM 1 comments

Following Jesus

2010-09-26T23:10:00.007+08:00

I have recently evaluated my own walk with God and I still found many aspects which I think I'm not following God right. Perhaps the greatest is in the area of aligning to God as my first and ONLY priority in life, because there are so many things I hold 'dear' to and am not willing to let go. (although I'm struggling in faith, God reminds me that it is only through times of struggle that we really grow. and I want to grow deeper in Him)

Recently, I'm reminded by God of this verse in:

-----------------

Mat 19:16-30 (New International Version)

The Rich Young Man

Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments." "Which ones?" the man inquired.

Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself."

"All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?"

Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?"Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

-------------------------------------------------

In this scenario, we have a young man (a parallel in Luke refers to him as a ruler/rich man). He is very successful by man's standards, with alot of wealth and on top of that, he is a follower of the Law of God (where he said that he abided and kept the law). But yet, when Jesus asked him to let go of all his possessions to follow Him, the man left feeling very sad.

Why did the man think this way? I really can understand because God is telling me the same thing. Am I willing to give up all my possesions and trust in Him and follow Him? Does not all that we have come from God in the first place? How did the things God gave us then overtook His place in our hearts that we are not able to let go to follow him?

Even the disciples were baffled. They were stumped. A rich ruler, fully righteous by religious standards. Even such a person could not enter heaven and so they asked:"Who then can be saved?" But, Jesus did not leave it all to doubt. He said something crucial: " With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Yes I do feel frustrated with myself many times that I still cannot change over my bad habits at times, sometimes stagnated in faith, but yet, change by my own efforts will be fruitless unless I follow God.

Am I following God? Can I leave all things behind to follow Him? Salvation is free, but to walk with Jesus, there is a price to pay:

37"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Mat 10:37-39

Here, Jesus was not telling us that our parents are not important, nor that our children are not important, but was weighing the priorities of where we place Him, the Maker of heaven and Earth in our lives. If anything else can displace God at the first place, probably we never really understood what It meant to follow Christ and to let him be the LORD of our lives.

I see my cross. Yet carrying it is not easy and I flinch many times trying to carry it by my own strength. By my own it's impossible but with God I can.

No wonder God's 2 greatest commandments were:

1) Love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your Might and all your strength

2) Love your neighbours (family, frens, people you dunno) as yourself

When you first align your heart to God, He will make the relationship with men come. I will follow Jesus, and I will try not to just leave it in words nor by my mouth but in carrying my cross. Lord Jesus! Here I come!

What's suffering?

2010-08-31T01:37:00.005+08:00

I was reading christians blog when I came across this:

because I found it meaningful to let many people see how fortunate we are when we complain about the things we don't have, we fail to look at what we have.

I don't remember I run running to God complaining since the first time I ever saw a real beggar on a street while on a mission trip. not anymore.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(originally posted on http://blessingsamidchaos.blogspot.com/)
Titled: WHY
Sometimes I would like to ask God, why He allows poverty, famine and injustice in the world when He could do something about it…but I’m afraid He might ask me the same question.

Today as I watched this, I cried…

My heart aches. There is so much I can be doing for those that are going without. I am so selfish at times when I only think of myself, my wants…when there are those that do without, everyday.

Go here to this blog and read about a project she is undertaking. I am joining April to help out with “It’s a Girl Thing.” Check it out! If you can use scissors, sew or make coffee to help those that can use scissor and sew…you will be a big help! Or maybe you can organize a pad party and encourage a group to help out with this project, either way, please consider helping!

Posted by Patrice at 1:39 PM 1 Comments
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nagoya Series 2: Love Nagoya 2010 video

2010-08-27T01:26:00.005+08:00

Thank you all Japanese friends and staff for making our trip to Nagoya a fruitful and memorable one... we have not forgotten you!!

This clip is a tribute to God's great work in Nagoya and to our wonderful friends :)
Although we would have liked to include as many of the photos and videos taken but we could not.

God Bless~!!!

Happy Birthday Singapore!

2010-08-09T14:25:00.005+08:00

Wishing Singapore a happy birthday on this day! =)

Thank God for all the peace and prosperity He has blessed this nation with. Indeed, we have come a long way from a humble beginning when people thought Singapore will not make it as a nation of only 64km sq and with no natural resources.

I'm reminded of a quote that is etched into my head:
"God can close doors that no one can open and open doors that no one can close."

Happy Holidays!