Offensive judgment

It is raining right now; I am going to write about a topic for my dissatisfaction. I go against the arrogant statements which are often unjust and biased. I can never stop people coming out with that kind of statements but I just don’t encourage people to admire people who make arrogant statements. That will never be something I would choose to admire and appreciate.

I often show dissatisfaction to some stereotypical statements. For instance, guys are heartless and useless, the species that uses the bottom of the body to think. What is so wrong with this statement? They do not know that we are all sinners who have lost the ability to do goods for the glory of God. They blame guys for creating damages to the relationship and being irresponsible most of the time. I am not trying to argue if men need to resolve all the messiness alone. I just hope that they can stop blaming each other and strive to find the resolution together by identifying their own responsibilities over all these. We are all accountable of all these saddening problems and undesirable destruction. When we are in a particular relationship, both parties are accountable by all means regardless their sex and background.

(Romans 3:23) For all have sinner and fall short of the glory of God.

Besides that, I dislike statements like “We never want to rely on guys, for guys are unreliable and getting more useless.” This statement makes you look smart or what. Once we were born, we are meant to be brought up by our parents. We needed to rely on our parents definitely and normally. However, when we grew up, we need to be independent for we have the ability to take a good care of ourselves. There is nothing to boast about for the decision of living without depending on somebody. It is because we know no one can take care of you forever. No one is forever there for you to help you, not even our own self, for we are often helpless in some tough situations. However, God is the only refuge which is everlasting and mighty; we can put our trust in Him.

(Psalm 62:7-8) On God rest my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.  Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.

Other than that, I hate statements like “Guys are arrogant, immature, and unwilling to grow up.” What is the benefit of making that statement? Are you going to inspire and motivate guys to get improved with that statement? No way. This kind of statements can only bring harm rather to bring any constructive benefits. I encourage people to build up a cold wall between man and woman and sadly discourage people to appreciate each other with forgiveness. I strongly dislike the statement for this statement comes out from the self-arrogance and the ignorance of love. Who are we to judge other people while we are all sinners and falling short of the glory of God? We are on the same ship, the ship of damnation in fact without Christ. Once again, we need to stop judging and try to forgive and appreciate the people around you when we have no right to be judging.

(1 Corinthians 13:7) Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

(Matthew 22:39) You shall love your neighbor as yourself.     

Fear The Lord

Something happened somehow to be very appealing to me that I need to write for expression. I would like to write something interesting today. Hopefully, it would be a good and constructive post.

People often asked with a complaining manner, “Why do bad things often happen to good people? God is unfair!” What should we react to this question? Is God really unfair to us? If yes, then who is supposed to define the wrong and the right? People possess different standard or perspective towards this topic. Therefore, if we are trying to look for an absolute answer which is supposedly objective, this would not be possible. As a conclusion, we have to admit that man can never be the one who defines what is right or wrong.

Here we go to think about the first question in the previous paragraph, “Why do bad things often happen to good people?” We would find it very interesting when we try to ask, “Why do good things happen to bad people?” We often think that we are good and righteous enough to be granted good things and benefits. Honestly, we don’t know what kind of stage we are standing on; we are nothing but a sinner who is bound to face damnation eventually. We are supposed to be grateful of all sort of gifts in our lives given by the Lord and certainly we have to worship him alone. But we don’t somehow worship him and treat him as our God.

(Romans 1:20-21)For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever sin the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

God isn’t an unfair God of course. Instead bad things are meant to turn people to God, for their hopelessness and helplessness.  This is for his glory and the real great purpose behind all the matters is to let the people fear God and love Him alone and consequentially keep his commandments.

(Ecclesiastes 12:13) The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.      

God isn’t a cruel God without love, He is love and justice, and because of that, He is glorious. He owes us nothing ever since from the beginning of the world. He created man initiatively for his own will, and He loves us by giving us the opportunity to live and enjoy Him. He loves us before we knew how to love him. He sacrificed his only son, Jesus Christ for us, when we were still sinners. What a great rebellion for denying our heavenly Father when we are keeping the breath given by Him.

(Romans5:8) But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

(Genesis 2:7) Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

God is a just God with his own absolute righteousness. He promised to bring punishment to the sinners for they don’t worship and honor Him alone. He brings all the evils to damnation. He himself is the definition of justice and righteousness.

(Exodus 34:7) Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.  

I believe after all these arguments and scriptures shown above, we have to bow down on our knees in front of Him, and seek for the forgiveness of God fearfully. We couldn’t stand with the holiness of God in the punishment of Justice. We are bound to be claimed as guilty without Jesus Christ. As a result, we should give thanks to God with gratitude, for his steadfast love and amazing grace. Meanwhile, we should remind ourselves to worship God alone with the heart of fear.

(Hebrew 12:28) Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe. 

You Alone

What made me qualified for counseling the friends around me?
What made me thinking that I am so supreme among the others?
Who am I that seem to have the right to speak for something constructive?
How much value have I gained for living for my own alleged pride and lamentable self-centeredness? 
Vanity of Vanity, please tell me where is the real purpose of living?

Who should I proclaim myself as when I know I am nothing but a terrible sinner?
Who should I blame when I am the only who is accountable of my past?
Who should I express when I am afraid of telling the world what exactly I am?
Where should I hide from the self-sarcasm that has been haunting me for long?
Where should I hide when I know the most righteous judgment may come to me very soon?
What can make me stand if I am to face the judgment of the holy and almighty God?
Holy, holy, holy! God please save me though I know I am not worthy of any of your grace and mercy!

How can I make the messy things right which was all due to my naïve and ignorance?
How long can I fight against the guilt of mine that is about to conquer my heart?
How can I earn the forgiveness when I know I do not deserve?
How can I leave the world silently without anyone’s notice?
Helplessness is that I can never do anything good with my own fallen flesh!

What would happen if Sun suddenly disappears for a few second in the world?
What would happen when the Earth shakes and eventually I fall into an abyss?
What would happen when the air is drawn away from me somehow for about half a minute?
What would happen when the floor comes next day while I am not good at swimming?
What would happen when Jesus returns at the time where I am still a helpless wretch?
All I would face is death and death is the only thing I would face.

But what would happen if I am gone right now?
Some may grieve and moan, but somehow and definitely the Earth would still keep its rotation and Sun would rise the next day as usual. Flowers would bloom when it is the right season; the river flows as if it never stops. How pitiful I am, as if I come not to contribute but to waste the resources on Earth and utterly receive the grace of God unconditionally! When I come to realize how weak and pitiful I am, my Lord, I couldn’t deny the amazing greatness of you but to worship you with the heart of fear. May you receive all the praises that you surely deserve! 

Everybody needs help

I had quite a number of conversations with my friends lately. Once again I found that people need God by all means. Some friends are getting lost in their lives especially when they are dealing with the problems regarding relationship. They wanted to be devoted with loyalty but somehow the tendency of getting bored in a long-term relationship frustrated them at ease. It doesn’t mean they don’t love their beloved anymore; it is just very difficult to fight against the sinful nature which draws them to get something new by dumbing something old. I encouraged my friends to fight against the bad desire and never think of the choice of surrender. Life is a battle and we must make it a good fight!

One of my friends is trying to help his girlfriend to discover the love of God. I encouraged him to do so with wisdom and caution, and also with constantly prayer. Thank God for giving me the chance to share with him how he should preach in order to help her girlfriend knowing the real Christianity. That is very simple with three main points. First one is that we are sinners ever since Adam has sinned against God in our history and we can never get salvation on our own by keeping the laws. Consequentially, we know that with this fallen stage we are staging right now, it comes to a conclusion that Christ is the only way to salvation. Therefore, it is a must for us to repent and run from the damnation of righteousness and get into the amazing grace of God. However, the spiritual battle hasn’t ceased, we still need to fight with the Holy Spirit against sin during the process of sanctification.

After that, I met a friend and had a talk with her. One of her close relative is gone and her death made her wondering of the purpose of life. I was very sorry to come to the knowledge of this bad news; anyway I was glad that she begins to wonder the purpose of life. I shared with her about this topic and I frankly mentioned that life with man-centred purpose is vain. We discussed about the existence of the ultimate truth, while she doesn’t really believe in such an ultimate truth. There is only a true and real fact in the world which can never be subjective but only remain objective forever. For instance, we need oxygen for breathing, we can’t live without it. It is not the thing that we can argue with unless you don’t want to live anyway by stopping exhalation and rejecting the oxygen to be drawn into your lung. In this real world, we are bound to a common law which is made objectively. We have no reasons to deny the existence of ultimate truth.

With all these conversations, I strongly believe that prayer for the friends around me is always essential and significant enough. May God bless them by using me to help them constructively in their lives. The helplessness of witnessing them struggling with the problems doesn’t taste good to me. Let us help each to other to search for the truth in our life time and embrace that forever.           

Time to wake up

I am now in the 6^th semester of my studies in UM. I can’t believe that I am right now a third year Engineering student studying my second semester today. Time flies regardless whether if you care about it. Thinking back what I have been doing during the last semester, I realized that I have completed the Theology course under China Horizon. I would like to congratulate myself for being a very hardworking and diligent student in Christ. Of course, I would like to give thanks to God for his grace and strength all along the way I was taking the course. It is my first certificate in Theology, considered a very satisfactory milestone in my life. Although none of my friends and my family was there to witness my happiness, I believe God was always there to give me a thumb-up for this little achievement of mine. (T.T)

I didn’t intend to complete the course in the first place, but I have the desire to get to know the theology of Christianity. Little by little, I got very passionate and enthusiastic to seek more on that. Eventually, I thanked God that he turned me to be one of the graduates at the graduation service. Who am I to boast about this achievement? There are many things I still have to learn in the path of my faith, but I would like to tell the world how pleasant the night was to me. I saw brothers and sisters taking pictures among themselves. (They have known each other during the past four years in the course) But I am fresh over there. However, holding the new certificate with my right hand, I found the certificate somehow very heavy. Sincerely I thanked God with gratitude.

In this semester, I am required to search for a company for my internship. I have been trying to get contact with many companies but the poor response was disappointing. Anyway, I thank God that I was asked for a job interview this coming Saturday. Hopefully everything will go smoothly so that I can stop to worry about internship. This semester my mind is getting reformed again, I am taking a subject called “Communication for employment”. The teacher is a very responsible and experienced woman with a knowledgeable mind and informative thoughts. She likes to share things and experiences in the class whereby our mindset can be slowly reformed to be more practical, critical and mature. She likes to preach a lot in the class telling us how to carry ourselves well and how to present ourselves confidently and effectively. I appreciate this kind of teacher very much though some students don’t.

Some questions were thrown by her to us, asking “What are the strengths you possess and the experiences you had which can show your strength to the interviewers through your CV?” and “what made you employable and irreplaceable?” Those questions helped me to have a self-examination once again lately. Usually, I would be very steady and satisfied with myself for the self-examination. However, I know that this “I-am-feeling-good” would lead me to tragedy at last. Therefore, I decided to destroy the stupid pride in me and to look around to the excellent friends I have. I realized that they are much better than me; they had special experiences and great achievements in their lives that show their outstanding nature obviously. Who am I in the comparison with them? I am nothing but a useless nut. Thank God that I didn't think of myself as a very good speaker who has advantages with an alleged persuasive mouth. I need to think…I need to think for resolution…This will not be good if it continues without positive changes and improvement…God please help me to equip myself well…    

         

Thoughtfulness

Once again, I have come into another moment of thoughtfulness. It should be the time for me to write something for expression for the sake of relief. In these years, I have been thrown the same comment by many friends of mine saying that I am excessively thoughtful. I didn’t blame them for saying that, I didn’t force people to agree with every point of view of mine whereas I often endeavor to seek the understanding of their underlying thoughts. I am not always right, I strongly believe that considering people’s thought and thinking from other perspectives may bring you a surprising discovery that you would never expect.

I have been sharing with friends about some relationship theories and stuffs with the purpose of sharing the truths in the Bible regarding a healthy relationship. I believe having a thoughtful mind is beneficial to a relationship for the thoughtfulness would bring the knowledge of prospect challenges and problems in a relationship, consequently this knowledge would bring you proactive improvement with the purpose of preparing yourself before the challenges. It is not easy for being thoughtful without getting influenced by worries of course. However, it helps you to grow more mature when you are trying to be thoughtful and meanwhile emotionally stable. After all as what I used to say, we are not here to look for an easy life but a meaningful life.

Friends told me that it is inappropriate and meaningless for someone to think so much and worry about the prospect problem prematurely. I would tell you worry doesn’t bring good to anything, but the worrying heart that leads to mental reformation and actions of resolution is definitely and undeniably helpful. We often see that students who prepare themselves for the coming examination early normally perform better compared to those who don’t get prepared well. The first type of students feel worried due to the exam for a longer period compared that of the second type of students. But we all know that the second type of students will definitely get nervous and helpless in the examination.

Some friends told me that they are diffident, they are afraid of dealing with the thoughtfulness. They scared they will be unmotivated and giving up eventually. Of course, it is normal for human beings to fail sometimes; we are after all men with a vulnerable fresh and imperfect nature.( That is why I said everyone needs God by all means.) But what I would remind is that giving up is never a good policy anyway. No one can call you a failure if you never cease to move forward, no one can stop you if you yourself insist on moving your big and heavy ass determinedly. As a conclusion, please challenge yourself to think over the prospect challenges and problems in advance, never fear to face challenges. They are not really harmful, sometimes they may turn to be your stepping stones instead.