The True Christmas Present

Christmas is just around the corner. It’s a date where people used to celebrate the birth of Christ. Mostly Christians celebrate Christmas as they would like to take this opportunity to commemorate the birth of Christ which was intended to pay the depth of sins of His people for His overwhelming love to them. However, the whole world celebrates this festival as well, but it is reasonable to find that they don’t really understand the meaning of Christmas.

It is very common to see that “present exchange” is one of the activities in most of the Christmas parties today. I joined a Christmas party 2 weeks ago organized by PKV; they were having this section as well. Therefore, I was asked to prepare a present for that section. During that period, people exchanged the present among themselves and thankfully I received a book entitled “Living with Courage”.

I seldom go to Christmas party for Christmas celebration, that’s why I am not very familiar with present exchange. But it is not bad to have a thought on this topic – present. What is present? It can be known as a gift that you give away for free. If it is not for free, that would be considered as sale and this would be known as business. Actually I wish that I could just give away the present without receiving any as return but that would make me look very uncooperative. Anyway, I understand that the rule tries to make sure everyone receives something while giving away something and I would like to respect it by obeying it like how others did.

A question comes, “What does the present exchange mean?” Since it is very common in many Christmas celebrations, it is good to think about the points of having that section. What does the present have to do with Christmas? This is because at the first Christmas which was the exact date of the birth of Christ, our heavenly Father gave His only begotten Son to the world. (John 3:16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

How weird it is! How can a man be a gift? And what does it have to do with us? I wonder if you have ever prepared a birthday gift for your beloved or friends. What do we often think about when we are preparing a present? We think about what the person lacks. We were trying to identify his demand and supply accordingly. Of course, it is often headachy to prepare a gift for a rich person because he would already have everything he needs. Some people buy what they want, instead of what they need. We need to know that desire and need are two different things. 

  

God is omniscient that He knows us better than we could possibly know ourselves. He knows the ultimate need of men, He knows us inside out as He is the creator of the world. In his image, we were created. (Genesis1:27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. However, men have got into a big trouble ever since Adam sinned against God by eating the forbidden fruit. As sinners, we have to pay for the depth of sin – death. (Roman6:23) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. This death is not physical death, but actually spiritual death – the flame of hell which represents the eternal isolation from the presence of God. (2Thessalonians1:9) They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. We are considered totally bankrupt in the sight of God and having no hope and desire to reach God on our own. We are doomed, mainly it is because we fall short of the glory of God. (Roman3:23) For all have fall sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

 

Well, even though we are really meant to die, then what is so important about Jesus? Jesus is the Son of God who turned into fresh and came to the world he created. (Philippians2:6-8) though he (Jesus) was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. He came to fulfil the will of God. After ages of prophecies, 1960 years ago he finally came just to rectify the problem of sin, and redeem the people of God so that they can be able to glorify the name of God in Christ. Jesus himself did mention the purpose of his coming. (Matthew 20:28) Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. 

What has he done to save the world? Accordingly to the bible, Jesus was totally sinless and righteous but he was condemned by the priests and crucified to death for invalid charge. This righteous man died on behalf of us so as to pay the debt of our sins. Besides that, he raised from death, for his righteousness. Through His resurrection, we are justified in the sight of God and having eternal life in Him. All these were predestined and prophesied, it is actually the will of God to give us His only begotten son just to save us from death and the sovereignty of Satan. (1Peter 2:24) He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

You may think “Great! We are saved as he died for us long ago. Thank for telling me.” Well. As what I mention before, the salvation through Jesus Christ is a free gift to us, but the problem is that you might not yet receive the gift from the hand of God. No one can force to receive a gift, unless we choose to receive. What should we do to receive salvation? Bible says:” If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”(1 John 1:9)  We have to pray to God to confess our sins that we fail to glorify his name and ask God for forgiveness. Besides, it is written in Act 2:38 that “Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”” We have to repent which is to grieve for the trespasses that we committed and decide not to sin against God. Besides that, we need to believe in Jesus and receive and honour him as our Lord and saviour as Bible says:” But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, and he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12) 

When we talk about "Believe in Jesus and receive Him as our Lord", it is all about surrender the lordship of our lives to Him and having a God-centred life ever after. We should know that the purpose of life is to glorify the name of God and enjoy Him forever. In order to please God by glorifying him, we should then learn about His words (The Bible). Have you come to know the problem of sin in your life? Have you come to realized that we are sinners who are going to die? Do you want to be saved from the bondage of sin? If yes, what have you been doing to satisfy your need or to save yourself? Have you realized our helplessness in achieving all these things? If yes, I hope you are aware that God has been knowing all these problems for long. Good news is that He has done everything that was required to solve the problem of sins, He has just paid off the debt of sins for those who believe in Him. He gave us the only present that we need the most at the first Christmas. Through faith we can receive this present though it was given long time ago. Have you received this precious gift - Jesus Christ? He is the one and only saviour who came to save us by giving up his life on the cross just to pay off the debt of our sins. (Act 4:12) And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

If you have received the gift long ago, then I would give thanks and sing praises to God for his wonderful love and grace. If you haven’t received the true gift of Christmas, then I would ask you to ponder about the salvation work of Jesus Christ throughout your life. Please bear in mind that we can only receive the gift when we are still alive. If you are not sure about the truthfulness of the things I have said, please pray to God to draw you closer to his presence until you realize that he is always there with you. Have a blessed Christmas! Dear friends

Children need to know God

Lately I have been busy of several things. I thank God that I didn’t break down because of the high working load in the ministry. Anyway, I am still striving to work for Him by appreciating the opportunity that he has given to me. Last year, I volunteer myself to be a group teacher in a one-day children camp entitled 玩出好品格 organized by my church members. I was not in the organization, but one of the teachers couldn’t manage to turn up that day due to emergency. Eventually, I was there to replace her.

This year, I made myself available to help in the camp, but I got promoted thankfully as a story-teller this time who was supposed to bring out the gospel to the kids with my title. One of the sisters made fun of me by saying that “I have been working in this organization for five years straight, but I never got promoted!” Apparently, I shall give thanks to God for having this precious opportunity to serve Him. And certainly I know that I was having the highest responsibility among them because I was the only one that would directly preach to them on the stage. Thank God seriously, that He guided me how to prepare myself and how to bring out the gospel with my title ‘Tolerance’.

In my sharing, I introduced Jesus, the Son of God, to the children as he is the most tolerant people in the world. He possessed the highest standard of holiness and morality. He was an upright person who was the man of his word. He does what he says, he says what he does. He blessed the poor and cured the sick with his miraculous hand and love. He did a thing which is against the commandment of God. Instead of being honored, he was whipped by the cruel soldiers, treated like a criminal and eventually hung on the cross to the point of death. Throughout the process of terrible treatment he remained speechless without cursing the people who tortured him. Over here, Jesus showed the greatest tolerance level ever in human history, a man without doing a single bad deed who was being cursed like the son of evil didn’t condemn those who mistreated him but pray for them while hanging on the cross for the forgiveness of Holy Father. After I shared all these, the children showed the face of guilt for being so intolerant in the comparison with Jesus. At the last part, I shared with them that through pain and death Jesus the Son of God wants to save those who repent and believe in Him as God loves the world. I led them to make a prayer and the sharing ended.

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

Luke 23:34 “Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
   

Children are sinners as well as the adults, but one thing they are different from adults is that they can reach to God very easily. No matter how naughty a boy can be, he will get silent and pray at the prayer session. This action may be considered as superstitious by the elders but to me, they are “effective” believer who truly believe the existence of the almighty God after being taught. Their faith can be greater than most of the elders’ faith because they are humble and having nothing to boast about. I choose to believe that God did bless the children who died at the early stage of their lives where they still didn’t have the ability to understand the gospel and give response to it accordingly. Because after all we are saved by grace instead of rationality, and God can really bless them by granting them a new-born heart by His grace of love regardless whether if they have the ability to make the decision to follow Christ. They may never perish in the love of God.

Matthew 19:14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

Anyway most of the elders at my church did it very well at teaching their children about the knowledge of God. I keep tracking the progress of the children and how their parents’ parenting skill. Thank God that through the fellowship in Christ I was given many lessons on parenting. There are some interesting things to share based on my observation. One of the children named Berith, about 3 years old, who just learnt how to speak was one of the remarkable examples to me. She doesn’t know the names of her parents and her own name as well. But at this stage, she is trained to know God and having the worldview of Christian. Her parents carried out a Q&A section with Berith in front of me. Below is the conversation of them.

Parents:  Who created you?

Berith answered: God.

Parents:  What else did God create?

Berith: Everything in the world.

Parents: How many God do we have?

Berith: One God.

Parents: How many persons in God?

Berith: Three.

Parents: Who are they?

Berith: Holy Father, Holy Son and Holy……. Spirit.

Parents: What is God?

Berith: God is a spirit, unlike human having a body.

They showed me how parenting plays a very important role in a family. The children of God in a Christian family have the right to know about God since they were born. They mind their parenting very much. 2 Timothy 3:15 “and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” I remember what they have shared with me “Teaching your children to call you “Father” or “Mother” shows your own self-centeredness, teaching your children to call themselves shows how much you encourage them to be self-centeredness, teaching them to know God in the very first place helps them to be God-centered.”

Another girl named Audrea of about 5 years old is another example that amazed me. In last Sunday service, I sit beside a close elder brother in Christ when worshiping our Lord. The speaker shared about death and the reason why Christians shouldn’t fear death, because death is the process that brings us to God. Instead of being afraid of death, some Christians like Paul desired to die as early as possible for his desperate to meet his almighty Lord.

Philippians 1:23 “I am pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”
  

Hebrew 11:13 “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”

Afterward, I turned my face and asked my brother and said:” It is really true that Christians do not fear the curse of death, but look for the eternal life that God has in store for us through death.” What he shared with me next surprised me seriously. Below is our conversation.

He said:” Yes, my daughter told me that she wants to die.” 

Immediately I asked:” Why?”

Gently and gladly he replied:” Because she told me that she wants to see Jesus.”

I said:” Seriously? Wow how wonderful it is!”

He said:” Indeed. But it is just too frightening to most of the parents, especially non-believers.”

I can tell how intensively they emphasize in their parenting about the glory of God. It seems like they just don’t care how much their sons would honor them, but they strictly demand them to honor God at the very first place. They don’t train their sons to be very talented, but mainly God-centered as they know the most valuable thing of life is our Lord Jesus Christ.       

Never want to be nobody

Identity is very important for an individual. In everything that we do, it seems like we are striving to search for the identity that we are meant to have. I believe no one would like to be nobody.I find it very interesting that in real life all of us are trying to build up an identity for ourselves. As long as you still have the hope of living, you will keep on searching for your identity by building up one.

Definitely, no one would like to boast about their weakness and incapability. We never want to be weak but strong in a particular field in order to be outstanding and remarkable. Looking for the sense of self-existence and being significant is the common instinct of all humankind. I agree with the previous statement very much when I read it in the book of "win friends and influence people". We never feel good when our existence is not appreciated, we never feel happy if we are considered so insignificant. It is very interesting to see how those senses become essentially important to an individual, though those are not really considered as the basic need for living things.(air, water and food) However, this is one of the important needs that brings the hope of living for an individual.

Of course, we often see how hard the basketball players train in order to improve themselves so that they may perform well in the games. With all good performance, they can earn some sense of being significant. This happens to all the people. For instance, students study so hard in order to excel in the examination with flying color; the singers train so hard to be impressive when they sing! This is also very common in direct sale networking team building. They instill you the hope of great future that comes after your hardship and encourage you to be proactive and confident! They claim themselves as the dream seeker.

Besides, this happens even for those gamers who are not considered as the contributor to the society! They never want to be called as "noob" in a particular game, they want to be honored as the real hero and being significant in the team play! Drinkers do the same thing by challenging among themselves with the personal capacity of alcohol consumption. Even though they are aware of their situation where they may be risked of alcoholism, but still they need to prove themselves somehow.

This happens to a family as well. A  father feels being honored in his family as he is consider very significant as the financial support and family leader. The mother is given the sense of being significant when her effort of managing the home well got appreciated. As the sons and daughters, they will also try to satisfy their parent expectation in order to be given recognition from them. I have never seen a father being so happy for being incapable, a mother being so Satisfied when the home gets messed up, and the sons delight when they are scolded. That doesn't make sense. A question here: Is it the phenomenon that shows the instinct of humankind to search for the identity they would desire? Is it possible that one can live without bothering about that? About the sense of self-existence? the recognition? Sense of being significant? Being concerned? Or is it just a way of living in a world of relativism which never implies any message about the purpose of life?

I would come to believe that..we are looking for the truth of living, the purpose of life and the true identity. But unfortunately sinners refused to come in the presence of God, to look for the ultimate truth of living even He is the creator of human being. Romans 1:25 'because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.'

 It is not totally hopeless for human kind to get the truth even though we are dead to the word of God, because through the regeneration of Holy Spirit, impossible is made possible. Once He opens the eye of hearts with Holy Spirit and lead them into the truth in Christ, their lives would then begin to be purposeful and missionary as they know that they were created for the will and the glory of God and there is a purpose in the will of this awesome God. They are known as superstitious believers who believe in heavens and resurrection, but they are neither daydreamers nor visionaries, entrusting their faith in temporary matters for self-centeredness. True believers should be selfless as it is written in Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Instead of being self-centered, one who is saved by the grace of God should be Christ-centered.

Struggle against pride

How intensive it is the struggle in my heart, where the pride is tempting me to search for my self-idolization, while the Spirit is calling me to be humble and serve The Lord.
This struggle keeps haunting my heart insofar I couldn't fall asleep easily these days. Apparently this isn't good at all.

This struggle started when I started to feel like taking part in the coming basketball competition. I rejected to go for the selection last month, because I felt like I'm going to be very busy and unable to commit, beside I would want to have my own time for some ministry works. I rejected many people invitation for playing in the team, apparently they were trying to recruit me as I'm one of the best players among them. However, I rejected them with all sort of reasons, but that time I I didn't feel regret.

Lately, my roommate was having badminton competition. I went to the court and shown my support. He was playing seriously while many supporters were screaming beside the court. (Of course they came not because of him but mainly the merit points given for their attendance, it is so pathetic) Anyway, I felt like to impress people just like how he did..the juniors didn't know my capability and talents, because I have never shown off. I was kinda driven by the desire to prove myself and impress them in order to make myself valuable and respectable. Therefore, after his game, I went back alone in silence, because I started to feel regret that I have missed the opportunity to prove myself in the basketball court. Therefore, I was trying to ask if there is any opportunity for me to join the team. Then I was informed that the team is full. They filled up the team with some people who do not belong the residential college instead of me who belongs to the residential college.

Undeniably all of us never deny my basketball experience and skill, they all seemed to be very excited when they were informed that I was trying to get back into the team, as I used to lead and guide the team. Anyway it is laughable to see that no one is willing to get out of the team in order to make me return. They don't intend to give up their place while they all know I'm better than most of them. Some don't want to give me the opportunity while they know that they might have to sit on the bench throughout the competition for their helplessness.

Who shall I blame? I blame on myself for not able to secure a place in the team in the very first beginning. They  then invited me to be the coach and I really don't know what they were thinking. Do they think I would be patient to see how poorly they may perform while I know I am supposed to be playing on their behalf? I don't want to get into that temptation where I would probably look down on them for not giving me the opportunity that I deserve. Because of this, I don't even intend to watch their game, because I believe I would be annoyed when I see their poor performance without my guidance.

Hey...look? This is how I think! What a prideful and arrogant guy I am!! I think I'm better than others..none of them is better than me..and they don't deserve to represent the college because they are not fit enough to replace me. I want the cheers and screams from the audiences..I want to prove myself..what a great ego I possess! I was the one who rejected them, now I was the one who complaint them for not letting me to return. Some of them are my dear teammates that I have been mingled along with. Many of them still respect me as a senior. I don't want to just let them fight without guidance. 

Very apparently, I'm just trying to idolize myself. I thank God that he doesn't allow anyone to give up the place just to give me the opportunity to sin against Him. Perhaps, people may think that it is normal to look for acknowledgement and recognition. But I believe it is sinful to feel dissatisfied in Christ. God I'm here to repent, please forgive me and grant me a humble spirit that is contented in you.

Can I Rest Awhile Please?

Life is a journey with ups and downs. It is just like electrocardiogram of a living heartbeat. Throughout the electrocardiogram, there are uncountable ups and downs. Therefore, one can be considered as lifeless, if he never encounters any problems throughout the whole life. Personally, I would consider my life is challenging, as there are many problems and challenges throughout the way I am endeavoring to serve for the one I worship. Definitely, my life would be easier if I decided not take this way of living – this path of faith. I don’t need to wake up on Sunday morning; I can spend my time with friends on Sunday for any reasons. I don’t need to preach to the friends around me, I don’t need to put the friendship into risk for talking about the sensitive issues with them. I can save a lot of time to please myself instead of serving the people in need. I can indulge in anything I enjoy without bothering the limits. I can flirt around with any girls, and just get into an intimate relationship with the girl I like without any principle and requirements. I can be happier than ever. Well, life seems to be easier isn’t it? Because I am free from any religion and superstitious belief. But if I choose not to believe in Him, definitely I would never manage to guarantee myself a greatest life with this one and only living God who is so awesome to me. Freedom out of Christ, is indulgence, but freedom in Christ is satisfaction with peace and joy.

Some may ask me: “Hey, why did you choose to believe in Jesus Christ? Does it help to make your life easy? But you seemed to have more problems after believing in Him!” Honestly speaking, I didn’t get richer after believing in Christ; my academic result doesn’t get extremely excellent; my life is not just smooth like how a river flows. In contrary, because of Him, I have to face many problems. Because of Him, many people came to challenge my faith in him by questioning my so-called old-schooled belief. Of course, they are non-Christians, and I shared with them about the reasons of my faith with humility and explained to them why they have to repent and believe in Christ as well as I do. Definitely, I did it without guns and weapons. They were all peaceful conversations thankfully.

Some disrespect me because they think that Christians are all anti-science. They teased and asked me to stop using the devices and inventions. Perhaps some Christians are extreme to that extent but I strongly believe that I am not one of them. I did explain the thoughts of the extreme Christians to them so that they might be able to understand and forgive them. Some charged me for being unfilial because I refuse to burn incense to worship my ancestors. In their perspective, I am seriously rebellious for not following the traditions. They usually would say: “Aiya! What for you bring faith into your life to mess up everything? Why don’t you just follow the tradition, nothing harmful isn’t it?” To them, I explained patiently how seriously I mind all my actions and thoughts in order not to harm my Lord, and how actually the tradition slowly deviated from the original purpose of commemorating our ancestors. By doing so, we may not really want to commemorate, perhaps we are looking for benefits or we do so just because of fear. Undeniably, one of the ten commandments of the Bible is to honor our parents. I would definitely strive to love them when they are alive.

Of course, having this kind of life, it’s really suffering. People may hurt you, but it is worse when you found the people you love got hurt because of your faith. My family did get hurt because of me, because they found themselves helpless to change my mind. My mum was worried after I chose to believe in Christ, she didn’t manage to see the truthfulness of my God and understand me. Instead, she blamed on herself for not being able to bring me to temper and learn some teachings of Buddha. When we talked about faith, she shared with me about her beliefs for trying to win me, while I am doing my part to preach for trying to win her soul according to my belief. I couldn’t really take this pain just by recalling clearly of how we were gently opposing each other. My dad doesn’t seem to be happy with me, perhaps he found me so naïve to believe Christianity and go against our traditions. It was really painful to see how he gave up on me about this problem.

I recalled a conversation with my eldest brother. I shared with him that I am going to introduce my God to my mum because mum doesn’t get true peace in her life; she has a worrisome life just like typical women. Afterwards, my eldest brother raged and scolded me saying that I am too arrogant to think that my belief is the only truth and denying their belief. He scolded me with anger he had never shown to me before. I still remembered how my tears ran down my cheeks in silence; they were just like two waterfalls. At that time I hated my honesty, but I appreciated my courage to be honest. About my second brother, I believe he would probably find me annoying for thinking him as a sinner who has to repent. My younger brother couldn’t do much to help me, but at least he understands a bit. I never want to hurt them, but I couldn’t help. Since I love them, I think I would need to endure the pain of hurting them for the sake of the gospel.    

Of course, all of them don’t believe in Christ and it is normal to have them challenging me throughout the way, because I claimed myself for having the only truth of living. However, some Christians could somehow trouble my heart. I still remembered a conversation with a sister in Christ, I talked to her about how importance it is to know the Word of God and practice them in our daily life. She didn’t show much appreciation but charged me for being too radical instead of spiritual. I didn’t defend much for my broken heart, but explain to her how the word of God can help us to be more spiritually strong. I wonder if I was doing it aggressively, but I did make sure I was very careful when I was speaking.

I still remembered another discussion with a girl who is from different denomination. She told me that Church shouldn’t celebrate Christmas because that is not the birthday of Christ and we are not asked to celebrate the birthday of Christ. In order to clear her doubt, I chose to explain to her that the importance of utilizing the day of Christmas to spread the gospel and having a gathering on Christmas is not prohibited by the Bible while preaching the word of God is the commandment of God. However, this discussion turned to be a bit aggressive since our bibles have some differences and our teachings are different. I was explaining to her with the scriptures of the Bible while she supported the belief of Assembly without really giving me feedback to my explanation. Sadly, she denied the truthfulness of those Church that claimed themselves as Church instead of Assembly. I didn’t get angry but upset, because she doesn’t know that it is not because of the name of the Church/Assembly that God will save a person, but instead because of the name of Christ, one can be granted salvation by grace through faith. I got offended at the end. If you were to give me another chance to choose whether to explain to her again, I would definitely do that even though I would probably get offended, because it is my duty to explain my faith and belief with humility as an Apologist.

I volunteer myself to help the believers around me to grow in Christ. Perhaps I would tend to destroy their conviction of thinking that their church is the best and the only true church in the world. Many do make the mistakes of thinking that way, because bible never says that the Church is immune of mistakes even though when they explain the word of God. A church can never please God if it is against the Word of God. Regardless the modal and the effectiveness of the organization, church can always get astray from the truth if they do not honor our Lord Jesus Christ alone. There have been many churches growing to a certain extent that they come out a set of traditions to govern the church, but slowly it replaces the highest place of the Scripture. This would be really a big tragedy.

If one accepts blindly the church’s teaching without having themselves to examine the truthfulness of the teachings with the scriptures, one can go astray in faith if those teachings are not from God. Don’t we know that Bible teaches us to be alert of the false prophets? God permits this thing to happen, and the only person we can rely on is our Lord Jesus Christ, the best teacher ever. Through the Bible and non-stop examination with the scriptures, I believe God will reveal His will and word to us! I am taught to search for the word of God for the sake of the Church; because I love the Church God has given to us. But I wouldn’t think that loving Church more than our Lord is the teaching of the Bible.

Some days, I teased myself for being too frustrated for preaching the word of God all these while to try to lead them to obey Christ alone. This is because I seemed to be doing unfruitful things as no one really responds positively to the appeal and not even one appreciates my advice that don’t sound good to them. Why don’t I say something that they like to listen? Why am I doing all these things that do not benefit me at all? Why do I choose to put a lot of things into risk by being so preachy? I don’t want to! I never want to! But I can’t help! It is all because I know how much my savior had done to pay for my sins to show his love and claim back my life, and I just know that I have to do all these not because I can have any awards but because he loves them as well and never wants them to leave astray in their lives and faith! I am the servant of God, and for the sovereignty of the Word of God, I would fight not with the physical weapons, but the Sword of Holy Spirit, the Word of God. But Lord, can I rest awhile as I am so frustrated of all these?  

           

Stay healthy!

Recently, I had some conversations with my friends. Those conversations were interesting and inspiring, through which we exchanged the thought and opinions regarding some topics. We talked about health. A friend of mine who is having obesity is having a high blood pressure problem. This problem troubled him for a long while and he doesn’t seem to do something to better that. I briefly shared with them about the significance of having a healthy body and the importance to have a healthy life style.

In the past, it is very common for a person to travel by feet for about a very long distance, because they did not have any automobiles for transportation purpose. Some just have chariots or horses to make them easy to travel. But most of the time, they have to walk. Besides that, most of them used to work by their strength and stamina. They sow the seeds and reap the farm crop; they go out to the sea to fish. All these demand a good physical capability to ensure the high efficiency of work. There are chances for them to get injured during their work. That is also very common for them to sweat when they are working. That’s why they call their income as “the money of blood and sweat”血汗钱.

Last time I went to visit my grandparents at Rawang. Every time I look at my grandpa, I am so amazed by his physical condition. You can see the shape of the muscle so obvious though the skins are no longer firm. I never failed to admire this old man while I was reminded that he is still working!! He works as a shed builder. This work requires a lot of effort and strength and the working environment is usually tough. When we met, he often boasted with me about how heavy the thing he used to carry during his working time. It can tell that he found pleasure to share with me how strong he is while everyone is trying to convince him to retire. In my personal opinion, I would encourage him to continue working, because that maintains his body in a flexible and good condition. Besides that, if he doesn’t work, his life would seem to be very long and boring to him. I choose to listen to his sharing, though his pronunciation during speaking was not always clear enough due to his incomplete teeth. I always enjoy listening to his sharing because he was trying to gain respect when he knows that he is getting older. He deserves that, because he deserves that!

Many people nowadays would only like to work in comfortable office rooms with desirably cold air condition. They devalue the jobs which require physical effort. For this reason, that kind of works turns to have no status as majority fail to appreciate and pay respect to them sufficiently. Because of this phenomenon, the majority of Malaysia construction workers are not local residents. If this happens that the country keeps the foreign workers from coming in, the majority of the construction work would be definitely paralysed. However, it seems like I have been driven away from the topic I concern. Let me get it back to my point.

What I am trying to say is that the people in the past used to be given chances to exercise during their works. However, things changed, the situation doesn’t encourage the people to exercise right now. Foods are available all the places, you don’t have to travel far to satisfy your appetite. However, you don’t have to walk for a longer distance, because transportation makes things a lot easier. Conclusion, the enjoyment of doing exercise is being deprived. Exercising somehow becomes a torturing activity. People have a wrong mind-set of thinking that only patients are required to exercise more to better the health. Those people exercise mainly to keep fit and a good shape of body. But a good body shape is not necessarily a healthy body. Health should be a main focus for doing exercise.

The worse thing is that they fail to realize that having the ability to exercise is a great blessing from God! Some people wanted to run on a field, but they can only sit on the cold wheelchair and watch the people running around and having fun among themselves. Some people wanted to play ball, but due to their poor inborn health condition (asthma), exercising can kill them if they are not careful enough. In my opinion, those who are able to exercise but fail to enjoy exercising are very pathetic. Why? Because they don’t search for the best enjoyment that they actually deserve, they think that food is the best enjoyment. I tell you what. Food alone is not the best enjoyment. Having the ability to eat your favourite foods is the best precious gift of all! Some may afford to buy all their favourite foods, but if they don’t take care of their health probably, they definitely don’t afford to take the foods into their mouths, as the extra undesired nutrition would probably break them down!

You might say to me:” Hey, do you know how suffering it is to exercise? We got very tired and unhappy at the end of the days. So just let us be what we are as long as we are happy!” I would like to ask you:” Is happiness the main priority in your consideration when you make decisions in your life?” If yes, then why are you studying? Because most of us are studying instead of learning. Learning is enjoyable but somehow studying seems to be very dull. If it is so, then you should pack your bag and go home right now, because it is not happy to study. But why are you here? Isn’t it because you want to have a better life with a better job that provides you a better income, then you would like to study in order to get a certificate for your better life. You endure for the best of your future; you don’t give up right now because you believe great things will come in the future.

Brothers and sister, please do not be totally content with your current situation, you deserve better than what you have right now. Please invest your time on the things that are significant to you, don’t only invest your time on urgent matters. Take your time to ponder about the future that you would love to have and see if the things you are doing right now can bring you there. If it is negative, then please identify your problems and come out some practical solutions to better your life and future. 

Of course, I am not criticizing anyone for being unhealthy, it is all up to you guys to choose your own way of living. But as a friend, I have to say something that you need to know though you might not want to listen. What are the points of saying something you like? It is not my duty to please you, but to help you. Perhaps I would be the only one who holds this so-called healthy principle all by myself, but what is the point if I couldn't even help my friends on all these. I don't think I would consider myself as a good friend of you. However, if you find yourself offended by what I have said, I would like to apologize, because that's not my intention to offend you but to encourage. Even though I might be disliked by many people in the end, but at least I know I have done my part, perhaps the approaches do need some improvement. Be aware that you can never change your past, but you can leave it a good history for your “tomorrow” by having a free-of-regret “today”, as today would be the history for tomorrow.  

Before the throne of God above!

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea. (Heb 4:15-16)
A great High Priest whose Name is Love (Heb 4:14)
Who ever lives and pleads for me. (Heb 7:25)
My name is graven on His hands, (Isa 49:16)
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in Heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart. (Rom 8:34)

When Satan tempts me to despair (Luke 22:31-32)
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there (Acts 7:55-56)
Who made an end of all my sin. (Col 2:13-14)
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me. (Rom 3:24-26)

Behold Him there the risen Lamb, (Rev 5:6)
My perfect spotless righteousness, (1 Cor 1:30; 1 Peter 1:18-19)
The great unchangeable I AM, (Heb 13:8; John 8:58)
The King of glory and of grace,
One with Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood, (Acts 20:28)
My life is hid with Christ on high, (Col 3:3)
With Christ my Savior and my God! (Tit 2:13)

There are uncountable songs and hymns written for worshiping our awesome God. However, in my opinion, I wouldn’t find all of them pleasing to God, as most of them somehow are human-centered songs, instead for the glory of God alone. Of course, some songwriters wrote to express the great feeling towards God, but that lyrics of the songs failed to describe the mightiness of God. Because of that, the songs would probably be a self-expression which fails to give glory to God. There are many songs written in a way that is inappropriate according to the teachings of the Bible. Some songwriters do not have a strong and good knowledge of God (I suspect they have a poor theology). Eventually the lyrics they wrote somehow do not biblically make sense. 

I am not here to judge like a worship expert, but as far as the worship is concerned, we shall not comprise to the wrong way of worship which is against the commandment of God. (To worship Him in truths and Spirit) I am writing just to remind all of us about the core of God-pleasing worship. I believe it wouldn't be a great act to focus more on the music instead of the appropriateness of lyrics. Because words tell a lot more than music could probably show. This song is really great I would say. Not because the songwriter had a good theological background, but indeed the lyrics tell us very clearly that how our God set us free from death and the bondage of sin through our Lord Jesus Christ. Hope you guys appreciate. 

Lead them to you, Jesus.

Last Saturday, I went back my hometown church and tried to see what I can do to help them as there will be a thanks giving praise and worship event today. Getting into the church, I gave thanks to God as I can tell that the new renovation of my hometown church has been nicely done. Those old music instruments have been replaced by a set of brand new instruments. I heard that there are some brothers and sisters who donated those instruments to the church without intention to get any credits from that. Therefore, the elders of the church didn’t want to announce the name of the donor. Therefore, we shall fully give thanks to God for all these things.

Over there, I didn’t do much thing but of course I managed to make myself busy somehow. Moving back and forth in the hall of the church, I strived to reduce the burden of my dear teacher. I felt really glad to see her still being so dedicated and passionate in serving God; I shall learn from her seriously especially her passion in Christ. While bustling throughout the way, I talked to another teacher who served for years in church. We talked and discussed about how to shepherd the church by using some good guidebooks.

While we were discussing, there was a man standing beside me and staring at me with kindness. The way he made himself noticeable left me having no excuse to ignore him or overlook his existence. In the gap of silence during the discussion, I took the initiative to shake his hand and made a brief self-introduction. We got to know each other, and I just realized that he is new believer in Christ. We didn’t really talk much, what I know is that he is 30+ years old, a married guy who has a daughter of 4 years old. For no reason, he asked me my contact number and without hesitation, I gave him my contact number.

From that day onward, he reached me several times by sending me messages through phone with the attempt of trying to ask me out for dinner. Somehow I withdrew myself from meeting him and turned him down for the first time. Perhaps I have not yet identified the reason for him to meet me; there must be a reason why he tried to meet me. So one day, he called me out to have a dinner, I asked him: “Yes, brother. I am free tonight. But I wonder if you are currently having any problem. If yes, then I may figure out how to help you.” He said:” No problem. But since I am a new believer, I want to know how to be a Christian and I think maybe you can help me on this, because you have been a Christian for some years.” I said: “I see. Then okay, we shall meet tonight and I can help you on that later.”

I prepared myself with some materials and scriptures. I then read through all those things regarding the gospel just to get myself familiar with all these in order to get myself ready to teach him with the words of God so as to lead him to Christ with a heart of obedience. We finally met and had a good session of learning how God saves us through the gospel.  Basically I taught him about the beginning and the consequence of sin, and the reason why Jesus Christ is the only savior, the only gospel to the helpless humankind.

Throughout the session, I asked a question with curiosity:” why do you approach me for teaching you? What made you think that I can help you? We have just met for the first time, right?” The answer gave me a strong feeling of satisfaction. He answered:” I observed you in the church, and I think you are a good Christian because you were serving over there.” Then I straight away continued to share the gospel of God with details and the basis of scriptures. I made sure that his mind got along with me throughout the sharing by asking questions from time to time.

I felt touched that God brought this man to me. I can tell that he is really an innocent man who seeks the word of God with a lot of effort and humility that not much people possess. He is just like a new-born kid with good curiosity in Christ. Throughout the session, I tried to help him knowing our awesome God better, but I was taught by God in secret that I shall learn from him as well, especially his thirst for the words of God. I seldom met this kind of person. I have seen uncountable believers who don't bother to know God better or the words of God through reading the Bible. They live as if they have no king in their lives but meanwhile they unreasonably claim themselves as the follower of Christ by calling themselves Christian. To those people, I may not choose to spend the time to feed them with the word of God as they didn't manage to receive with joy and peace and most probably those words may not help them but trouble or harden their hearts. This makes things even worse. They find no delight in the word of God, they choose to live on their own without the fear of the God.

However, I have no excuse at all to keep the knowledge of God that I have ever known from sharing with him, because he deserves more than I could ever give. He is truly blessed because he has been given a longing heart which thirsts for the words of God. No one seeks God, not even one. It is sometimes rare to find people who claim to be the follower of Christ seeks the will of God. It is even rare to find this elder to get help from me, the younger for knowing the words of God. This humility is greatly appreciated. I will definitely pray for him, hopefully God shows him more and more His words as he keeps on looking for the words of God with this kind of thirst. I felt glad to serve him by sharing him once again the true gospel of God through our Lord Jesus Christ alone. I thank God for having this wonderful honor to shepherd his sheep as I’m truly nothing but perishable dust. So dear Lord, please bring your people to me, so that I could do my part to lead them to obey and fear you.  

The purpose of living 1

Last few months there were several sad cases happened. A friend of my friend got into a fatal accident on the road. My cousin got into accidents and was hurt very badly. In this very moment, most probably we would come to a stage where we would have some reflection on the purpose of life in this world. This is a very fundamental question to human beings. To me, it is a must to think of the purpose of living throughout our lives, because this answer determines a lot of things.

In the former times, traditionalists lived in a way to practise their traditions and cultures which were inherited by their ancestors. They practise their traditions strictly as if those are the truths of living. Traditionalists believe that tradition is the root of life. If we are to recall the condition of their lives, they were having a very tough life, for most of them were in poverty and slowly trying to rise up their children in that tough period. What mostly they worry about was to accumulate the wealth or food for the sake of their families. For those traditionalists, they live for their family and their family becomes the purpose of their life.

However, people realized many traditions or so-called superstitious beliefs do not bring practical advantages to the society. Then, the modern era arrived. Science and technology was introduced into the society and they brought a lot of development and convenience. From that time onwards, the productivity and efficiency was well concerned. Human welfare was being concerned better than ever. For that period of time, people search for practicality and reality principle. They did not imitate the traditionalists concerning about the past “the culture and tradition”; rather they care about the future, the development of science and technology for the sake of the human life quality.

Furthermore, slowly people realized that science and technology brought a lot of harms to the earth and human life is being threatened consequentially due to the abuse of technology and ethical problems of users. Pollution became the main concern to the nations and slowly we embraced environmentalism on that stage. Of course, slowly we got into the era of post-modern. Nowadays, people from post-modern generation would not pay much concern on tradition or development. Most of them would tend to enjoy their lives as long as they manage to do so. The motto of them should be “Life is short, enjoy your life!” They care nothing, but the feeling they have at that particular moment and location. This is what we call “Now & Here”. This kind of feeling and thought is honored and highly concerned among them. Nothing does really matter, neither the future nor the past. The purpose of living to them is to enjoy to the fullness in their limited lives in order to live without regrets.

It is very interesting to see how the concept regarding the purpose of living changed from time to time.

However, there are of course many special purposes of living for somebody which are not mentioned here. A knowledgeable guy who believes in Science and Technology told me that: “The purpose of life is that you live and take whatever that comes to you throughout your life, that’s all.” Certainly, different people would have different opinions on this topic. However, if we really want to discuss about it properly, first of all, we shall ask a question, why do we exist? Due to what reason do we manage to exist in this world? Please be aware that the way we answer this question determines the way we look at the value of life and the purpose of living. (To be continued) 

My Lord is the Humblest Servant

In this hot weather without any hot girls around, I spent my time with my grandmother. Nothing would be more valuable than this. As we know that this coming Monday is a public holiday, a smart guy like me wouldn’t want to be stuck in the potential traffic jam on the highway road. I chose to meet my grandparents at Rawang to see what I can do to better some days in their lives.

Right now, writing this post and sitting beneath a traditional old fan, I naked my upper body as how I did at my home and hostel wondering the exact room temperature right now. I seldom feel hot in my daily life because the temperature seldom troubles me. For that, I assumed that my heat receptor underneath my skin should be located deeper than others ordinary people.

Guess what? I am going to write something in this hot afternoon. This is the fourth week of my study week in this semester. Time flies without hesitation as usual and nothing can stop it to pass by. Thank God for giving me such a wonderful semester in which I am damn busy of doing all sorts of ministry. There are many tasks given to me this semester as my brothers are trying to give me more opportunities to serve. And I am grateful of that.

However, this is also a very tough semester in which I have a final year project to do. This topic of project is not familiar to me because there are some softwares I have to use for doing my work, and I never use them before. It is considered quite a stressful semester I would say. Pray harder and harder so that I would be able to handle both works properly as I don’t want to fall short of the glory of God.

I thank God that I have been sharing with many friends of mine about the gospel of the Bible. Some of them are my course mates. It is indeed exciting and wonderful to share with them the gospel of God, how Jesus Christ died for our sin and paid for the wage of sin which is death. Recently, I am planning to organize an open fellowship in my church for the non-believers in order to let them know more. May God grand me the wisdom so that good work can be done through him.

Recalling the past, I have been very lazy of serving Him in my daily life but yet slowly He brought me to serve Him more at my church and even at some points of time in my daily life. I never expected it can happen that way, but it did miraculously with the love of God. Really give thanks for this wonderful mercy on me because I know I am unworthy for serving this almighty Lord of the world.

Right now, I am struggling with another type of temptation – pride. At some points, it is really tempting to boast about what I do in front of God instead of giving thanks to Him alone with humility that I am supposed to show. What kind of stupid mindset and sinful nature that I have in me thinking that I deserve so-called salvation just because of the goods I did? Didn't I remember that I was saved by His grace and love when I am totally helpless of my salvation status all the time? Didn't I know that serving Him is a must because I am free and no longer the slave of sin but the servant of God? May the Lord punish me and teach me how to be humble in Him as how our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated the greatest humility to us in the Bible.

Philippians 2:6-11
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This is a big contrast between Adam, the first human, and Christ, the Lord. The former as a creature, didn't want to obey the commandments of God but try to grasp any possibility to have the same equality with God and therefore his disobedience brought death to the whole world. However, our Lord Jesus Christ as the creator of the world didn't choose to grasp the equality with God even though he has, but empty himself by becoming into the form of creature he created, and obey to the point of death and through this obedience he brought us a brand-new world and a brand-new life. For all these, I need to repent for my arrogance and imitate His humility, because I am doing what Adam did, instead of being obedient with my actions and my heart. Bless me by showing my unworthiness and revealing your worthiness in my life my dear Lord. And you are indeed praiseworthy! Cus you are the Humblest servant of all.      

Hidden messages

Once again, a wonderful sermon given by my brother in Christ amazed me that the Bible is not merely a record of Israel history but the very word of God through which He spoke to His people, Israel at that time and speaks to us as well as how He did to Israel. One of the wise interpretation approaches is to interpret the word of God from the perspective of the readers for whom the text was written. Moses wrote the first five books of Bible in order to inherit the word of God while there were many false teachings in Egypt where they lived for many ages. Therefore, we can believe that Moses wrote all these books for Israel, the people of God. They were the target that Moses addressed when he wrote the books. Right here, we shall see what we may get if we interpret from their perspective.  

However, there are many things in the Bible that we might find them irrelevant and indifferent sometimes that we often failed to appreciate them. One of the things is the names of Descendants. Over here, I will be the first to say I failed to appreciate the record of Descendants’ names. But somehow God hid some amazing truth in the way He listed out the names. Well, so here we go. Let’s read Genesis 4:16-5:32.

In these scriptures, I believe God wants to bring out several messages. We can see there are two lines of descendants, one was from Cain; another was from Seth. However, when their names were recorded down, both of them were written differently.

Difference 1

Moses mentioned that Cain built a city and named it with his son’s name, Enoch. From the list, we are informed that the descendants of Cain were all talented and skilled people who seemed to contribute a lot in the world and make the lives of people better. (They were the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock, father of all those who play the lyre and pipe, and forger of all instruments of bronze and iron.) Besides, we can see that there was a person called Lamech in the family who was really proud of being a murder, boasted about his evil to his wives, by the way he was first one we can find in the Bible who got himself two wives. Apparently he rejected the marriage system given by God. In contrast, we found no special contribution given by the descendants of Seth.

Difference 2

The ages of Cain’s descendants were not recorded while the ages of all Seth’s descendants were properly recorded.

Difference 3

There were two different persons named Lamech in these two name lists. However, there is a big contrast between them. At the same time, there were two different persons named Enoch, between them we can see another big contrast as well.

Difference 4

In these two families, there were 3 names at the end of each list, but the three in Cain’s family were the last generation of Cain’s family, while the three in Seth’s family are the ascendants of the human beings until today.   

All these differences actually were to show several big contrasts to the people of God, Israel. They were living in Egypt where many outsiders kept their own false teachings and beliefs. Of course in that situation, they had nothing to refer in order to judge the truthfulness of the words they were told. They sometimes thought of going back Egypt even when they were in the wilderness, complaint God and Moses for bringing them out of Egypt. But in this record, God wanted to show them the differences of the consequences between the people of God and the evils.

The difference 1 showed them that the family of Cain looked just the same as the people of Egypt. In that time, they surely knew that the people of Egypt showed their pride by naming their building with their names. They were good in showing and utilizing their talents like Egyptians. They were violent who didn’t care about the lives of men they murdered, they were just like Egyptians at that time. The Israelites would definitely recall how they were tortured by the Egyptians. Here they would conclude that the descendants of Cain = Egyptians = the sons of evil.

The difference 2 showed that Moses wrote down their descendants’ names differently. Moses wrote the names of Cain’s descendants in a way that their ages were not significant at all while the ages of Seth’s descendants were somehow appreciated and well-recorded. The difference is the value of lives. It is written in Psalm 115:15, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones. We surely can tell that God treasured the death of Seth’s descendants very much that Moses was inspired to record the ages of their death while He didn’t care about the death of Cain’s descendants as if their lives were indeed worthless. Over here, the Israelites would understand how God valued their lives while devalued the lives of Egyptians who worshipped gods other than the Lord.

The difference 3 showed us that different people with the same name can have two different natures. This all depended on which family they were in. The Enoch in Cain’s family represented the pride of men, while the Enoch in Seth’s family walked with God and he was taken by God.  Likewise the Lamech in Cain’s family was a serious evil who boasted as being an evil-doer. He proclaimed that he was more evil than Cain. That was really terrible. However, the Lamech in Seth’s family prophesized the word of God and fathered a son named Noah. He was the father of Noah. Can we perceive the big contrast?

The difference 4, they both have three children at the last generation in their list. But the children of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth survived after the flood, and the children of Lamech, Jabal, Jubal and tubal-cain. They were all killed by the flood in Genesis chapter 6. Cain’s family was terminated at that generation while Seth’s family was saved by God. The Israelites would definitely recall of how the armies of Egypt were destroyed by the red sea when they chased after them!  Thank God that nothing in the Bible was written for nothing, we can always get something great from it if we read it prayerfully.   

   

                    

The Truth

Some say the world is falling sick, I would say that it has been sick for thousands years. Things changed. The telecommunication technology is getting advanced with time; it improved the efficiency of the connection among human beings. Previously, we just had cell phone to make voice call, that time the connection wasn’t that good. Right now we have internet which is available most of the area and smart phones are getting cheaper when the new model is being brought into the market. People can get on the line and communicate with another through internet with their smart phone. Of course, the speed of the connection is still improving, now it is considered sufficiently fast.

However, what surprised me the most is that people are not really comfortable with face-to-face communication. And this kind of communication is somehow getting a long way behind the efficiency of internet communication. We don’t like to converse with people who are physically present around us but we choose to chat with the people far away from us with the electronic device. Maybe people around you are not as important as the people you chose to chat with. But wouldn’t it be weird to see all people coming out for lunch and each of them having their faces down looking to their phones and being silent throughout the lunch. Normally, people find it normal and acceptable because everyone behaves the same. In my opinion, the behavior of majority never has the right to determine the norm but the Creator of the world who created for His purpose does. This phenomenon is considered common but abnormal. We are given a mouth not only for gustatory enjoyment but for communication. Our God communicates in trinity for eternity; they dwell in one another in love through the communication of love. We were created so to manifest the love of God through communication.

Besides that, I realized that people nowadays choose to get involved into topics which are not heavy and head-aching. They prefer to talk about something funny or casual instead of something critical or serious. When you talk about hobbies and entertainment, they never failed to be active in that conversation, but when you would like to know about their opinion on something serious, silence normally becomes their reply. I believe it is either they choose not to give any comment or they really never thought of that before. Normally, when I shared some ideas and opinions with other people, I am actually looking forward some feedback. Some might disagree what I said, but sadly they don’t seem to be confident enough to present their opinions, some just anyhow disagree my points without having their own opinions just because they don’t think it is right to comment on other people.

In my opinion, human right is being protected in a very superficial way. We all know that we have our human right being protected in this post-modern era. If you violate my right, the whole world would punish you, because this is the age of humanism. Therefore, no one can force me to do something that I don’t want to do. But we often misunderstand this kind of human right and abuse it most of the time. We would say:  “I have my own human right and you should take care of it, you shouldn’t give any comment on my life, get away from me and take care of your own business please.” However, this mistake influences us in a way that makes people to be over-protected and vulnerable. Eventually, we can’t take unpleasant comments and unfavorable words from honesty, most of the time we would overreact. However, I really hope my friends can realize that differences are not scary at all, but the fear of facing differences can kill us. Don’t we have the right to speak and make our stand clear? What makes us so afraid of revealing the differences by telling the truth we believe?

However, some often say: “Different people have different opinions. I can’t say yours is wrong.” What is the message of the statement? They refuse to comment or they don’t know how to entertain you? I am really surprised of how often I got this sort of reply in my life. I believe someone is trying to draw us from the truth and I can tell. We spend time on reading the most popular book, facebook and look how people enjoy their lives. The old folks spend time to look for the latest news from newspaper, try to stay up-to-date. But all these things that we can know are other people's things, mostly irrelevant to us. But that's all we like to know! In fact, what should we be looking for? We should be looking for the truth of life, shouldn’t we? The truth that give you a new and everlasting life. A life that you never had before! A life that your spirit desires ever since you were born! But what we are afraid of? We are afraid of knowing the truth that we never want to accept. Humans throughout the history tend to run away from God, as what Adam did after he sinned against God.

It is sarcastically paradoxical enough to see that we need someone to tell us the truths but we are afraid to face them. My friends, it is well saying that everyone has their own thinking. But what I would say next is that not every thought is true in the eye of God. (Judges 21:25) In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Proverbs21:2). Every man's way is right in his own eyes, But the LORD weighs the hearts. We don’t want to live under the sovereignty of God; we want to be independent from God. But what we need the most is the truth, the purpose of living. The Word is the only savior that can save us from this miserable world.                  

Ephesians 2:1-10

Thanks be to God, the Holy one. Once again, his words reached to me through the Bible early in the morning. I think I would better write down to share this wonderful reminder.

Scriptures Ephesians (2:1-10)

¹And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ²in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – ³among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ⁴But God, being in rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – ⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The verse 1 of this scripture gave us a brief introduction of what he is going to talk about next. “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins” He is going to remind us about the worse condition we were in (we were dead), and how God revived us. (Made us alive)

From verses 2-3, Paul reminded us the way we lived. We walked following the course of this world and the spirit that works in the sons of disobediences. We by nature were the children of wrath. The judgment of death would reach us sooner or later, and that would be the only thing we deserve. However, it is very interesting to study the way Paul addressed this topic. He wrote to Ephesians saying that they were dead. The Ephesians were definitely alive when they received the letter, then we should ask what sort of logic that Paul used when he said that they were dead in sins and trespasses. In Genesis chapter 3, Adam sinned against God by disobeying His commandment. He was not dead immediately after he ate the forbidden fruit, but he was then spiritually dead from that onwards.

Let me clarify before we proceed. What does it mean by death? One should have the knowledge about true death, because that would show the difference between human and animals. When God created man, he formed the man of dust from the ground. And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. (Gen2:7) Human was created differently in the comparison with other creatures. So literally, we can see death from two perspectives, one is the physical death and the other is the spiritual death. In this letter, Paul talks about the spiritual death. When someone is physically dead, he first would lose his breath and his body would stop to function subsequently and after that his body will corrupt slowly. However, when someone is spiritually dead, he can never give proper response to the word of God. To the word of God, he is helpless to respond appropriately. This is the condition where we were in and the first thing that he reminded us through this chapter. If you were to study the way that Paul wrote his letters, he often told the readers about the bad news which bring the readers into despair and afterwards he would share with them the good news – the gospel of the Bible as the ultimate comfort of their despair. He knew it very well that people need to have bad news before the good news come. 
  

In the verses 4-5, Paul reminds us that God is rich in mercy. Because of the great love with which he loves us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. Over here, Paul addressed us the reason of God to save us. It is not that there are still something good or valuable in us that made him choose to save us. As what he mentioned before, we are supposed to be the children of wrath. Due to his righteousness, he had 10000 reasons to put His wrath on us. God saved us because he loves us. He loves us because God is great in love and rich in mercy. This is the only reason that Paul told us through this chapter. For that reason, God made us alive. The English Bible used past tense to address this sentence and we can see that this has been accomplished by God and those in Christ were made alive and forever alive. (Matthew 22:32) “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” (1Corinthians 15:55) “Death is swallowed up in victory, O death where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting?” How great these scripture are! Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Besides that, God raised us up with him (Jesus Christ) and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This is another interesting scripture. What does it mean when he wrote “He seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”? The readers might be sitting on the wooden chairs when they were reading the letter. Over here, Paul meant what he said, we were seated with Jesus Christ in the heaven. And this has been accomplished but may not be fully comprehended. I would believe that somehow spiritually we are sitting together with our Lord Jesus Christ in the heaven.

After all the bad and good news, Paul reminded us how we have been saved by writing that “we have been saved by grace through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Over here, I am going to talk about Solae Grace. Instead of highlighting the word “through faith”, I would prefer to highlight the word “by grace” over here. In this scripture what we can understand is that by grace we have been saved. I would say the faith on the gospel can never exist if the gospel itself doesn’t exist in the first place. As what I have mentioned before, since spiritually we were dead, we couldn’t respond to the gospel of God on our own. We lost the ability to respond and even receive this gospel through faith.

Let’s understand what grace is. Here is a wonderful scripture to help us understand the grace of God. (Psalm 103:8-10) The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.  Over here, we can understand what grace is, grace is due to the mercy of God, he doesn’t deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. As short, on this perspective, we know that grace is that we are not given the bad we deserve the most. Besides that, in Ephesian 2:6, we see that God gave us the goods that we don’t deserve which are the salvation through Jesus Christ and the glory in the heaven. As a conclusion, grace is that we are not given the bad things that we deserve the most; instead we are given the goods that we don’t deserve. What an amazing grace it is!

We have been saved by grace through faith. This is very true. Through faith, we can receive this amazing grace for the sake of our salvation. However, as what I said, we are helpless to respond in order to receive this gracious gospel. Some may refuse to believe the bad news that Paul addressed which serves to show our helplessness. They believe that we still have some ability to do goods and even respond to the good news. By reading other scriptures, we know that Paul was telling the truth that we were totally helpless. At the end of time, those who are in the heaven would only give thanks to God for the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards the people in Christ Jesus and no one would discuss about whose faith is the greatest among all because they know that the salvation is not their own doing but the gift of God. It sounds familiar, doesn’t it? In Luke chapter 18:27 Jesus said: “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” God made us alive and then granted us the ability to respond to his grace. This happened in John 11:38-44 where Jesus raised Lazarus. This man who had died came out from the grave. This was a miracle that is impossible with men but possible with God. Likewise, God made us alive and then we can only come out from our trespasses, and receive the gospel. The word of Jesus with the life-changing power and the dwelling of spirit changed the dead nature of Lazarus into living and active nature, and Lazarus was enabled to respond to the word of Jesus and eventually came out form his grave. Seriously speaking, after all, we have to believe that we have been saved through faith but this faith is given by the grace of God due to his kindness and mercy. This salvation is truly the gift of God given to us while we have nothing worth to be saved.

However, in Ephesians 2:10 we know that, with this regenerated life, we have been given the ability to do good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Doing goods is never the way of obtaining the salvation, but something that our Savior prepared us to do after this redemption. With a grateful heart, we should practise good works for his sake alone because we are meant to do goods beforehand.