Friday, October 8, 2004 05:47 p.m.
I can't believe I'm back here again to blog a second time for today. But I just thought I'd share something with you that I picked off from a forum I go to and my response to the comment placed there. It's food for thought:
XXX wrote:
"Imagine this scenario:
One young Christian comes to you and said 'I don't understand the Bible at all. Christians say we should read and apply it to our life alright. I can do the former. It is the latter that is difficult. How are you going to apply what appears to be stories of people long long long time ago and apply it to your life. Christians say the Bible is the food for your soul, can make you grow spiritually, God's Word for us, etc. But, I can't see it that way. The way I see it, it is just compilation of many many stories about people ages ago. Can somebody enlighten me about this?
How are you going to reply to him/her without making him/her feel stupid?
And I wrote:
Well, first of all...the truth is... yes, they are stories of people long, long, time ago... but you can't argue that just because it was a few milleniums ago the lessons that were given that time are not applicable to modern times.
Secondly, you are arguing on the point that it was God's design and intention for THAT period and THOSE people only. Then you just have to realise that our God isn't that narrow-minded to only include CERTAIN people only. How does God reveal Himself, His character and glory to us? Through the bible. God doesn't appear on your doorstep (don't think we'd survive that) and introduce Himself to you. No. He reveals Himself through situations, through people in the present AND past for us to know Him.
Thirdly, perhaps you can try to view thing in a different way. When you read something that happened in the bible (say in the book of Exodus) and it was about God talking to the Israelites. Instead of saying, "What has it got to do with me?", try asking God, "What is this verse trying to tell me? What can I learn from it?" Like how we read fables, there's always a moral to the story and we learn from them. Do those stories speak of us directly when we read The Ugly Duckling? No, in fact, we learn to infer lessons from that childhood story and learn values and postive things to enhance our lives. In other words, there is always a lesson to be learnt from the Bible whether we were there when Moses was alive or not.
Last but not least, IF I were to accept and say, "It was only for THEM at THAT point of history and timeframe," then I can start questioning the salvation that Christ offers me. It happened 2000 years ago for THOSE people in Paul, Peter and Jame's and etc's time? How does it apply to me? Is salvation for me also since I'm born much later after the crucifixion? If it is a yes, then things that happened in the Old Testament time are also for me because God's Word never contradicts itself in any part of the bible.
Friday, October 8, 2004 12:12pm
I think I have reached another stage in my life. Various happenings in the past week around me have charged me with the responsibility to either ignore them or learn from them.
What have I learnt? I have learnt that I am ready to depend on God in terms of relationships with the people around me. Things have been happening at home again the self-imposed isolation I placed upon myself was not pleasant at all. In fact, it was horrible. But I would not have traded that silence for anything in the world now. Why? Because during that time at home, I was talking to God nonstop. It can't be denied that at times I raged in my room by myself, at times I cried out of frustration and sheer disappointment. But I have also learnt to wipe away the tears and move forward. Everytime I find myself falling back into negative emotions, I learn to move forward again. I do not know how things will work out but I have gained some emotional muscle over the situation. The initial defiance I felt has been replaced with a somewhat submissive attitude. I will just have to wait and see.
I am beginning to learn as well about spiritual authority. It has taken me some time to learn to differentiate between authority and friendship. Where is the line? It's quite invisible. Who draws the line? Both my leader and I. Sometimes I cannot tell when the "friend" part is talking to me and when is the "leader" speaking to me. But now I realise that both are talking to me at the same time. A leader cares for you enough to love you but a leader also desires me to move ahead and improve. Henceforth there was a strain where feelings were disappointed and anger set it. But I have also come to realise that in leadership, one cannot compromise either the "friend" or the "leader" part in the relationship. To be a friendly leader with no assertiveness and demand makes me coddled, to be a demanding and assertive leader with no love is to be a dictator. Sacrifice either one and it will be a disaster.
How does it feel to look into eternity and view things in the long run? It can both be hopeful and detrimental. On one hand you see the prize at the end of the day, yet you also realise that the road to success is not an easy path to walk. That is why at times, we feel tired, we feel disappointed and hopeless. Sometimes, we are so used to performing and the moment we fail to perform as good as we used to for a period of time it gets us depressed. When people around you are used to seeing you excel there is some form of pressure we put on ourselves to push on and maintain ourselves at the expense of our own honesty. I would rather let people around me know just how equally vulnerable I am like them but at the same time excel. I am after all only human, I cannot achieve certain things so I would not give people the false impression that I can and will do them. I would rather let them see the process of me falling, crying, wiping away the tears and getting up to fight again. In a fight, the crowd instantly cheers for the one who got beaten up badly but in the end, still staggers up with blood dripping off his face, to face his opponent again. We cheer him, we share in his determination to keep on fighting. That is the legacy of my character I wish to leave behind in my friends' minds and hearts. I would rather tell them that, "Well, I do feel lousy and it hurts. But I now I can better that the next time the same thing comes again."
We present a gospel that does not talk about victory. It is a gospel that talks about a man who was humiliated beyond recognition. Spitted on, beaten, cut with a crown of thorns, flesh that was laid open wide by ruthless whippings... it's hardly a message of victory over the enemy. The disciples ran, he was betrayed and his own countrymen wanted him dead. Was that victory? This hero of the story did not slay any dragons, did not rescue any princesses in towers. The worst thing he could do in human history was to get himself killed. What fairytale tells you of such a deed? In our story books, there is always a happy ending. The prince rides away with his love into the sunset, the monsters are slayed and the wicked witch of the West has melted into a pool of black, smoky liquid. But our hero here denied himself of fancy and successful deeds and endings.
Zero to hero. I like that phrase. By bringing himself to the lowest of all low, we have salvation today. Whenever I think I'm failing, whenever I think I've set myself up for humiliation. I remind myself that 2000 years ago, a man hung crying in the rain when he was separated from humanity, when he was destined to die a shameful death. I remind myself that I am not alone. I have my hero with me. I have Jesus within me. He that is in me is more powerful that the one in the world. I have the assurance. But I may fall occasionally, oh yes, indeed I will! But I have the confidence that I can stand up and try again. That it isn't about being perfect that makes me a better person. But it rests on the knowledge that it's okay to fall as long as you keep on trying, as long as you never stop trying to change yourself until you finally succeed in doing it. That is what matters.
Tuesday, October 5, 2004 12:34 p.m.
Yesterday had a nice talk with Michelle about God and cell group and the people we are preaching the gospel to. There really isn't any fix-and-fast rule to everything especially when you are speaking into the hearts of the people you are talking to. But one thing is for sure the gospel we carry with us, in our lives, is something that is life changing.
Some people might argue that Christians are busy-bodies... forcing people into religion. I'll correct that statement that we are INDEED busy-bodies telling people about God and how a personal relationship is important for everyone of us. Forcing people... well, I wonder if I did that? I try not to because it's not about convincing the mind and I'm not the one convincing people. I'm just here to tell the story about a carpenter who died caring for me and you. A carpenter who instead of choosing a life of glory ended with a death of shame unfairly.
It is not right for Christians to condemn others if they don't believe. It does not mean you are one step above others when you are Christian that you have to lord it over the others that you know better. Do we really comprehend the fullness of God's grace? I think not. It would be too presumptious on my side to say I can grasp the fullness of the gospel's message. All I know is I'm learning day by day how to trust God. I'm not the perfect one but the One leading me is and that's the assurance I live by everyday. If I were to be stricter and get irritated, I would say to those who hurt non-believers that we're not better off either. We were never the chosen Jews, we are Gentiles yet God in His grace and mercy chose to accept us into His spiritual family. Who are we to judge others who have not received Him yet?
I sound preachy. End of sermon.
Monday, October 4, 2004 06:33 p.m.
About two weeks ago, I went through a painful struggle between being the one who hates to hurt people or being the one who brings God's message to people. After agonising for the past semester to tell my friend something, I decided to do it.
The thing that made things difficult is that we were already on the wrong sides of the tracks in our friendship. Both of us loved God but somehow didn't see eye-to-eye on certain issues. It hurt to see that happen because I've always imagined that my family in Christ would be an integral part of my life and I would die than to get into a quarrel and cut off any relationships within it. But in the end, we still argued and called the friendship off.
But deep inside it still hurt like anything. I never believe in losing any frienships and since we see each other almost everyday, it made the pain worse. Just when I thought it couldn't go worse, it got worse. Two words kept surfacing in my heart, "Come back,". Don't ask me how to recognise the voice of God, when it comes to you, it can be a soft whisper or sometimes as loud as a brass band playing. Whenever I saw my friend I instantly felt drawn to tell her those very two words. But I balked at the idea and begged God to let the burden go. I even tried asking my pastor to go and talk to her instead. I was so worried I was being over-sensitive and that my better judgement was clouded with personal reasons and I was self-assuming. But after four months of waiting and asking God... I knew I had heard Him right.
So I called up. We had a very false how-are-yous (on my side) and I started to ask if there was any way I could see our friendship pick up again. Until that moment, I still wanted hope to return. But again, it went into an argument. In the end, it went to words from my friend that were, "...you have no right..." and I just let go. I just retorted without restraint, "Well, if you won't listen to me, would you listen to God instead?" Somehow, I think I pricked the bubble that was begging to be burst finally.
The dead tone of the phone greeted my ears. My friend had slammed the phone on me.
I cried and in the end I SMS-ed those two words, "Come back" to my friend. I pray that one day I will understand God's will in this matter. All I know is, it never felt better to deliver His message. The more I fought against it, the more it tormented me. But now having said and done, I felt liberation instead.
I don't know the reason why I'm writing this. But to the friend that I've lost, I still love you no matter what. We might not know why both of us are acting the way we are right now, but I will keep you in my prayers. You'll always be a friend to me because I keep those memories we shared from the past. You are still the person I knew from the start. I hope you realise it one day. Goodbye.
