Monday, March 4, 2013
Friday, February 15, 2013
Far, far away....
in a library somewhere, you’ll hear a quiet conversation that went something like this…..
[Emdee was silently reading from the World Scripture book]
Emdee: ‘Truth has many aspects. Infinite truth has infinite expressions. Though the sages speak in diverse ways, they express one and the same Truth’.
Emdee: But JC said ‘I am the way, the Truth and life!’
DOC: Do you believe in what JC said?
Emdee: Yes!
DOC: That’s good, so what’s wrong?
Emdee: Nothing wrong with what I believe, it’s them who don’t believe!
DOC: So what are you going to do? Shoot them? Ostracize them? Colonise them? Debate with them? Force them? Remember what Jesus’ comments were after his overly zealous disciples asked if they should call on fire to come down from heaven and consume those that didn’t receive them?
Emdee: No.
DOC: Jesus rebuked them. Read up Luke 9:51-56. Then Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:14-15 not to debate or strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers.
DOC: If you are rightly dividing the truth, then you need not be ashamed but that doesn’t imply that you force them on someone because that goes against how God created mankind in the first place. He created us with a free will. He gave everyone a choice to love or to reject Him. Why force someone to do anything?
Emdee: I don’t understand…
DOC: What is it that worries you Emdee? If the Bible speaks of Christ’s supremacy in Ephesians 1, that He is above all things and everything is under His feet and the Bible is inerrant, what’s the struggle then? Jesus said in John 6:44, no one can come to Him unless the Father draws that person, so it’s not really up to you is it? Jesus had made it plain, our job is to heed to the greatest commandment of God. Mark 12:30-31 says to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love others as you love yourself. All the commandments hang on these. Don’t make it complicated.
Emdee: Actually I don’t exactly know what that passage really means…
DOC: It means to love God with all that you are including loving God in all that you do. I think that’s what it means when the Apostle Peter said in 1 Peter 3:15-16 sanctify the Lord God in your heart. It means setting God apart, like putting Him on a pedestal. In practical terms, it just means He becomes the centre of your life, your desires, your motivations, your will. Basically your everything!
When you get the first bit right, loving others as yourself becomes natural and easy and this is what will draw people towards Christ. You start to create love and peace which are characteristic of children of God, just as how it was described in Matthew 5:9. It’s not what you do on your own ability but it’s Christ in you working His will in people’s lives. And because you’ve become so engrossed with loving God, His love will just flow and people will start to respond without you batting an eyelash and taking credit for it.
Emdee: But isn’t loving means telling someone the right way so they don’t end up in hell?
DOC: There are other ways of loving people. These days it is not so much about what you say that matters. Reminds me of what St. Francis of Assisi had said, …’preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary use words’. Tell me Emdee, if you are preaching because you fear for their future and they don’t accept what you say, what is that to you?
Emdee: Then they will end up in hell! They need to be saved!
DOC: If they end up in hell what can you do?
Emdee: Hmm, not much.
DOC: Then it’s not really up to you then is it? Try not to complicate things. Make the main thing the main thing. Heed to the greatest commandment of all. I told you Jesus had made it really plain.
[Emdee was silently reading from the World Scripture book]
Emdee: ‘Truth has many aspects. Infinite truth has infinite expressions. Though the sages speak in diverse ways, they express one and the same Truth’.
Emdee: But JC said ‘I am the way, the Truth and life!’
DOC: Do you believe in what JC said?
Emdee: Yes!
DOC: That’s good, so what’s wrong?
Emdee: Nothing wrong with what I believe, it’s them who don’t believe!
DOC: So what are you going to do? Shoot them? Ostracize them? Colonise them? Debate with them? Force them? Remember what Jesus’ comments were after his overly zealous disciples asked if they should call on fire to come down from heaven and consume those that didn’t receive them?
Emdee: No.
DOC: Jesus rebuked them. Read up Luke 9:51-56. Then Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:14-15 not to debate or strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers.
DOC: If you are rightly dividing the truth, then you need not be ashamed but that doesn’t imply that you force them on someone because that goes against how God created mankind in the first place. He created us with a free will. He gave everyone a choice to love or to reject Him. Why force someone to do anything?
Emdee: I don’t understand…
DOC: What is it that worries you Emdee? If the Bible speaks of Christ’s supremacy in Ephesians 1, that He is above all things and everything is under His feet and the Bible is inerrant, what’s the struggle then? Jesus said in John 6:44, no one can come to Him unless the Father draws that person, so it’s not really up to you is it? Jesus had made it plain, our job is to heed to the greatest commandment of God. Mark 12:30-31 says to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love others as you love yourself. All the commandments hang on these. Don’t make it complicated.
Emdee: Actually I don’t exactly know what that passage really means…
DOC: It means to love God with all that you are including loving God in all that you do. I think that’s what it means when the Apostle Peter said in 1 Peter 3:15-16 sanctify the Lord God in your heart. It means setting God apart, like putting Him on a pedestal. In practical terms, it just means He becomes the centre of your life, your desires, your motivations, your will. Basically your everything!
When you get the first bit right, loving others as yourself becomes natural and easy and this is what will draw people towards Christ. You start to create love and peace which are characteristic of children of God, just as how it was described in Matthew 5:9. It’s not what you do on your own ability but it’s Christ in you working His will in people’s lives. And because you’ve become so engrossed with loving God, His love will just flow and people will start to respond without you batting an eyelash and taking credit for it.
Emdee: But isn’t loving means telling someone the right way so they don’t end up in hell?
DOC: There are other ways of loving people. These days it is not so much about what you say that matters. Reminds me of what St. Francis of Assisi had said, …’preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary use words’. Tell me Emdee, if you are preaching because you fear for their future and they don’t accept what you say, what is that to you?
Emdee: Then they will end up in hell! They need to be saved!
DOC: If they end up in hell what can you do?
Emdee: Hmm, not much.
DOC: Then it’s not really up to you then is it? Try not to complicate things. Make the main thing the main thing. Heed to the greatest commandment of all. I told you Jesus had made it really plain.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
The mind and JC
An old friend of
mine once said something about the intricacy of working as a Christian in
academia. It was in the similar line
of thought wherein science and religion doesn’t mix. This really bothered me and caused me a lot
of anxiety and sleepless nights.
Here I am loving
Jesus with all my heart, my soul and my mind and working in a place where this
lifestyle is relatively alien. Take note
of the last area that I have finally surrendered to Him - mind. Anyone who works in academia knows the ’intellectual’
activities required in this type of work.
The last time I
felt ‘iffy’ about my spirituality was when I was studying Masters in Theology
several years ago. I came unprepared for
the battering of my own spirituality when what I thought I knew was right
started to get challenged and when uncomfortable questions about my
spirituality started to surface.
Learning from my fellow learners the perils of studying theology further
increased my discomfort. I opted for the
easy way out and went back to where I was comfortable.
Now, here I am
with the same feeling of ‘iffyness’, I decided to face my fear.
Jesus surpasses
all understanding, He knows the way around the human mind. But He does it with gentleness and humility,
not imposing and domineering one’s free will.
He gives choice, He allows you to think - that is how He made us. We are rational beings. We argue, we discuss, we look for solutions,
we analyse.
He respects what He has created - us who were made in His image. He is able to draw everyone but also has the power to allow blindness in people's heart because of stubbornness. He says that He allowed this to demonstrate His knowledge, He is the beginning and the end. He knows those that will come and those that will not, those that will listen and those who will chose to remain faithless. Classic example of our fickleness is Judas. How could anyone that walked with the Son of God betray Him? I have yet to find out if there was redemption for Judas. And what about Lucifer? How could anyone that had come from the throne of God, considered the son of morning light, beautiful and perfect rebelled against the Most High? God had allowed it, that’s how much He respects His creation.
He respects what He has created - us who were made in His image. He is able to draw everyone but also has the power to allow blindness in people's heart because of stubbornness. He says that He allowed this to demonstrate His knowledge, He is the beginning and the end. He knows those that will come and those that will not, those that will listen and those who will chose to remain faithless. Classic example of our fickleness is Judas. How could anyone that walked with the Son of God betray Him? I have yet to find out if there was redemption for Judas. And what about Lucifer? How could anyone that had come from the throne of God, considered the son of morning light, beautiful and perfect rebelled against the Most High? God had allowed it, that’s how much He respects His creation.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
...life with JC is an adventure - not a worry
I thank you Jesus for the craziest 2012 family trip ever with all my siblings and their family!!!
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Life in a wheel
I woke up today with a dreadful feeling of guilt. I’ve seriously wondered if I’ve taken too much pleasure from the excitement of the days before as my family talked and dreamt about our new house. In a very strange way, picturing myself and my family in that beautiful house doesn’t seem right. A voice tells me, ‘true Christians shouldn’t and couldn’t live in a beautiful house. It can’t be God’s will!’ So there I was feeling less Christian, less godly, less righteous, more sinful for desiring what is good and pleasant to the eyes.
Questions came fast and worrying, “what if building the house was all our will and not God’s?”; “what if God wants us to stay at this two bedroom unit indefinitely?”; “what if God wants us to sell the beach block instead and buy a small three bedroom flat?”; “what if we are alone in this venture and had just assumed that God was with us?”; “what if it’s all just wishful thinking?”; “what if this and what if that?” –on and on it went and then came the tears.
Someone had said to me, “Life is a wheel, and it goes ‘round in circles.” If life is a wheel, then if I am feeling on top of the world, it could be that I’m just at the edge before hitting the ground. And because the wheel turns, everything will be okay eventually until that vicious cycle begins again. For every positive event, a negative event inevitably takes place so you dread going up that wheel of life with its’ unrelenting movement. The past haunting you incessantly, old voices condemning, the future seems bleak and taunting. You can never make it right because you have absolutely no control. You are stuck in that wheel of life with no idea if it’s going fast or slow, aimlessly from left to right, and you don’t know the difference between up or down. So what’s the point of living?
It was then I remembered my earlier days. I had the same dreadful feeling of guilt coming home from a day of just happily hanging out with my friends at school when my mother used to say, “Right! You had the time of your life, now it’s time for punishment!” It taught me that I can’t be or shouldn’t be too happy because sadness will surely come next. The happier you are the more miserable you will be; a season of laughter equals to a season of tears. That is the balance and fairness of the wheel of life. God is all to blame for what life is and what life is to become; and I am powerless to do anything about it.
As I lay there crying, I suddenly remembered the time I had said to someone that life moves forward and upwards because it was how I experienced Christ transformed my own life. JC has moved me forward and upwards, stretching me, changing me, enlarging my territory. He made my life beautiful. He made me feel beautiful. There was no guilt, no strings attached, just unconditional love. That love had saved me. That love JC offered was mine. I received it, owned it, and lived it. I didn’t see myself in that wheel of life but on a flight of stairs. I saw myself as a co-creator of my destiny because I was given a free-will when God created me. I had the choice to make, to decide either to walk up or walk down that stairs of life.
The Creator had set a choice before us and tells us to choose life over death, blessings over curses. Why would God set us choices then instruct us which choices to make? Because sadly, people still make the wrong choices.
“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days….”. Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (NIV)
“The thief [Satan] does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly“. John 10:10 (NIV)
Questions came fast and worrying, “what if building the house was all our will and not God’s?”; “what if God wants us to stay at this two bedroom unit indefinitely?”; “what if God wants us to sell the beach block instead and buy a small three bedroom flat?”; “what if we are alone in this venture and had just assumed that God was with us?”; “what if it’s all just wishful thinking?”; “what if this and what if that?” –on and on it went and then came the tears.
Someone had said to me, “Life is a wheel, and it goes ‘round in circles.” If life is a wheel, then if I am feeling on top of the world, it could be that I’m just at the edge before hitting the ground. And because the wheel turns, everything will be okay eventually until that vicious cycle begins again. For every positive event, a negative event inevitably takes place so you dread going up that wheel of life with its’ unrelenting movement. The past haunting you incessantly, old voices condemning, the future seems bleak and taunting. You can never make it right because you have absolutely no control. You are stuck in that wheel of life with no idea if it’s going fast or slow, aimlessly from left to right, and you don’t know the difference between up or down. So what’s the point of living?
It was then I remembered my earlier days. I had the same dreadful feeling of guilt coming home from a day of just happily hanging out with my friends at school when my mother used to say, “Right! You had the time of your life, now it’s time for punishment!” It taught me that I can’t be or shouldn’t be too happy because sadness will surely come next. The happier you are the more miserable you will be; a season of laughter equals to a season of tears. That is the balance and fairness of the wheel of life. God is all to blame for what life is and what life is to become; and I am powerless to do anything about it.
As I lay there crying, I suddenly remembered the time I had said to someone that life moves forward and upwards because it was how I experienced Christ transformed my own life. JC has moved me forward and upwards, stretching me, changing me, enlarging my territory. He made my life beautiful. He made me feel beautiful. There was no guilt, no strings attached, just unconditional love. That love had saved me. That love JC offered was mine. I received it, owned it, and lived it. I didn’t see myself in that wheel of life but on a flight of stairs. I saw myself as a co-creator of my destiny because I was given a free-will when God created me. I had the choice to make, to decide either to walk up or walk down that stairs of life.
The Creator had set a choice before us and tells us to choose life over death, blessings over curses. Why would God set us choices then instruct us which choices to make? Because sadly, people still make the wrong choices.
“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days….”. Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (NIV)
“The thief [Satan] does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly“. John 10:10 (NIV)
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
My other niche
It was not my average Thursday. Perhaps it was an escape from the mundane. For weeks I’ve been anticipating this day, holding up my curiosity for the Coffs Harbour Writers Group, where I must have, in the past, imagined will be a part of my element. I’m not a professional writer but with sometimes an overactive imagination, I needed some form of outlet. Some may celebrate or even frown on the images I seem to just naturally concoct in my head. It could lead to the birth of a fictional book of some sort but without some form of nourishment, my knack for this type of art needed to be reined.
So today I may have found my essential reprieve where opportunities for mind expansion are fostered enhancing creativity and imagination, strengthening the love of writing. I got a boost of that ‘writer’s self-confidence’, encouraged by the passion of the writers from the group, both young and old who seem to take comfort in the camaraderie that have provided them avenue for self-expression.
As I sat there, I was compelled to put my listening skills into practice, attentive to every word spoken, sensing the emotion of the writer as each one reads out courageously somewhat a portion of themselves. And then there is this ‘aha’ moment when I realized the power and life the art of reading brings to a seemingly ordinary word. It must have been the premise behind the film Inkheart as I suddenly recall one if its character named Silver-tongue.
Quietly, I recommit to the practice of self-reflection where I have learned and sustained much of it as a blog convert. It’s my way of bringing clarity and sense to all my contemplations.
So today I may have found my essential reprieve where opportunities for mind expansion are fostered enhancing creativity and imagination, strengthening the love of writing. I got a boost of that ‘writer’s self-confidence’, encouraged by the passion of the writers from the group, both young and old who seem to take comfort in the camaraderie that have provided them avenue for self-expression.
As I sat there, I was compelled to put my listening skills into practice, attentive to every word spoken, sensing the emotion of the writer as each one reads out courageously somewhat a portion of themselves. And then there is this ‘aha’ moment when I realized the power and life the art of reading brings to a seemingly ordinary word. It must have been the premise behind the film Inkheart as I suddenly recall one if its character named Silver-tongue.
Quietly, I recommit to the practice of self-reflection where I have learned and sustained much of it as a blog convert. It’s my way of bringing clarity and sense to all my contemplations.
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