Fear of the Lord

I have always had problems submitting myself to the doctrine of Fear of God. Fear has always had a negative connotation to me. I did not think that 'Fear' will ever be able to make me succumb to authority and cause me to surrender myself to. It's only the love of God and for God that is so amazing and powerful that draw me to God, listen to Him and surrender myself to Him.

However, recurrent surfacing of this doctrine has finally made me realise that without the fear of God, something is just missing and a person's relationship with God is just incomplete, imbalanced and insufficient. Love is unarguably the greatest amongst all that soften everyone's heart and warm every soul to be faithful, listen to God and wanting to follow His will. However, human is just inadequate on his own and always has the tendency to disobeying and the laziness to adhering to what God has commanded. For true obedience and complete surrender, fear of God slips into the picture perfectly. Having this characteristic of fear of God probably is like the Holy Spirit giving us a discipling master to guide us in our conduct. Without which, it's like a person not being completely filled with the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, how can a person be charming?

No wonder the Bible says, "' Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate." Proverbs 31:26-

Thanks Diana for sending that Bible verse...

Anna

Contemporary Paul.....

If you have a friend, who responds to your emails in such a way that makes you feel that you are reading letters from Paul, how would you respond to it?

Anna

Faith...Complete

For the past few years, I've always had the idea that for a woman to feel complete, she needs to get married and have children. Only then will she have completed what God has designed for her. It's just meant to be that way.

As time passes, I realise that this is not the case. The completeness doesn't come from a relationship with a man, a sense of belonging in a family. If a woman has it, it's a bonus that God has given and provisioned; if she doesn't have, she can still feel complete, at peace and comforted. It's the Grace of God that makes a person complete. And it is the faith of one in Christ that reaches out to recieve God's Grace. One needs to have faith that He loves you, He hears you, He answers your prayers to keep walking and bearing all the thorns in life, even when you pray God to remove the thorns and He doesn't not remove it, one must have faith that He knows it's better for you to bear the thorns than without it. The thorns have made people to lean on God. As a whole, one must have faith.

I have been reminded of the importance of faith many times this week: through the Christian book that I am reading, through the sermon, through the quiet time material, even through my keyboard lesson. I don't know what God is really trying to say to me exactly, neither do I know what lies ahead. But I know that He wants me to hang on and walk in faith with Him. "They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed" (Psalm 34:5). For a couple of days after the confirmation, I felt far away from God. I lost my connection with Him somehow. I just didn't know how to communicate with Him. But thank God that He keeps prompting me that I should have faith in Him.

I understand why God wants us to go to church, to be in a community with God's people around, to have our quiet time and so on. These are all channels for Him to talk to us too. But eventually, it's our personal relationship with God that sustains us, that makes up the faith. As A.W. Tozer has put it, "Faith is the gaze of the soul upon the Lord." It's fixing our eyes upon Him, setting our hearts for Him and "having the inward habit of beholding the Lord". One's relationship with God is personal, so is faith. Christianity is a relationship with God. And the relationship is solely based on one's individual faith in Him.

It is the Faith in Him that makes me complete. The song that I learned in my keyboard class just resonates the voice in my heart.

Complete by Parachute Band

Here I am, Oh God
I bring this sacrifice
My open heart
I offer up my life

I look to You, Lord
Your love that never ends
Restores me again

Chorus:
So I lift my eyes to You Lord
In Your strength will I break through Lord
Touch me now
Let Your love fall down on me
I know Your love dispels all my fears
And I will be complete in You

I will be complete in You

Anna

Everything is permissible...

Over the past one to two weeks, I've been struggling with this thoughts that doing law is not making sense to me anymore. Not in the sense that I find it boring, not in the sense that I find that I have lost my interest; but more on the notion that "who are we to judge other people?"

My prime reason to read law was to gain the legal reasoning and to train myself up in logical and analytical arguments. I have been enjoying it. However, as I am going through the courses, I feel more and more that the world is very subjective and there is just no sense that there should be any judgment by the court. It's just getting meaningless.

This coupled with what I have been reading on 1 Corinthians 4 and 6, Paul also discouraged people to go to the court to settle matters (1 Corinthians 6:1-11). In fact, Paul said,

"3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God" (1 Corinthians 4:3-5)

It is very common to fall into the trap of judging people around us. I think even so for Christians. We hold onto the Word of God, we follow what the Bible says. There are truely things that are stated very clearly in the Bible of what to do and what not to do. But there are still many things that the Bible did not say explicitly. That's when we as Christians try to judge and sometimes take the Bible verses out of context to apply to the particular situation. But who are we to judge? Justice to one may not be justice to another. Anyway, we will not be able to understand the different sides of the stories and make a fair judgment. There can never be a fair judgment by us. There are three courts before which we stand:

People;

Our own conscience;

Jesus Christ.

We can deceive people, deceive ourselves but we can never deceive God and it's His judgment that matters.

However, just as I was so discouraged by the subjectivity of law, I realised that the subjectivity can still be put into good use. Paul says,

"'Everything is permissible for me'-but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible for me' - but I will not be mastered by anything" (1 Corinthians 6:12).

Then I read a guide on the Bible which has commented as follows:

"A man was walking down the street swinging his arms out from his chest and, by mistake, struck a passerby in the face. The man struck was furious and started to strike the man back. 'Hey, isn't this a free country? Can't a fellow do his exercises on the street if he wishes?'

'Yes,' was the answer, 'but remember where my nose begins, your liberty ends.'"

It's true that we have the liberty to do many things, as Paul has put it. And we cannot really judge others as simple as we think. But liberty does not mean recklessness. If our liberty harms another, then our liberty has gone too far. We are not to judge people, especially with the little rules that the Scripture has laid down. Perhaps it's better to think of it from another angle and to remind our brothers and sisters and ourselves that whether what we do will harm the weaker Christians, who will use our conduct as an example. We do not live on this world alone. Our conduct does affect others. By not being a stumbling block to our weaker brothers and sisters in Christ, we are glorifying God. This is also echoed in 1 Corinthians 8:9-13.

This concept of "liberty not Recklessness" parallels with one principle that I learnt in law: even though we all have human rights, our rights end as far as our rights infringe on others' freedom. For example, the freedom of speech ends when we are defaming people; our freedom to assemble ends when we disrupt public order. So, law helps to remind me of some important principles of life, helps me to understand the Bible from another perspective. It's useful.

Anna

Some Thanksgiving and Prayer from Oct 09

Thanksgiving:

-Cell group members have been faithful in memorizing the scripture weekly. :)

Prayer Pointers:

1)Pray for direction for cell group in 2010 so that cell will be able to do the Lord’s will.

2)Cell group planning to go for Cambodia’s mission trip in March 2010. Pray for favorable schedules for members so that we will be available.

3)Anna and Brenda are getting confirmed and are attending confirmation class. Pray that both of them will learn and grow in the Lord as they attend the classes. May the lessons be a fruitful time for them.

4)Pray for Edmund and Anna as they have just joined the Holistic Ministry in adults. May they be used to bless others and also be blessed from serving in the Ministry as well.

5)Pray that cell group will not only be inward looking to each other’s needs but also be actively reaching out to non-believers. So that cell group will know how to reach out to non-believers and be able to learn how to do so through lessons from Lawrence Seow.

Do add any thanksgiving or prayer pointers to the list if I have missed out any. :)
May we continue to know the Lord Jesus and make His name known. Have a blessed day.

Rgrds,

Ruijie

Thank you Lord, Daniel Poropat

The lyrics of this song really speak to me and the music is nice. The Sunday congregation actually sang this song 3 or 4 times in the service last Sunday!

Thank you Lord for the trials that come my way,
In that way I can grow each day as I let You lead.
And thank You, Lord, for the patience those trials bring,
In that process of growing I can learn to care.
But it goes against the way I am, to put my human nature down,
And let the Spirit take control of all I do.
For when those trials come, my human nature shouts the things to do; And God's soft prompting can be easily ignored.
I thank You Lord with each trial I feel inside,
That You're there to help lead and guide me away from wrong.
'Cause You promised Lord that with every testing, that Your way of escaping is easier to bear.
But it goes against the way I am to put my human nature down,
And let the Spirit take control of all I do.
For when those trials come, my human nature shouts the thing to do;
And God's soft prompting can be easily ignored.
I thank You Lord for the victory that growing brings,
In surrender of everything life is so worthwhile.
And I thank You Lord that when everything's put in place,
Out in front I can see Your face, and it's there You belong.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qirXlU7lQXA

Anna

Pure Grace

Tonight is one of the nights whereby I am touched and refreshed by the Lord during my Quiet Time.

I was touched that I am saved. Instead of eternal-death and condemnation, I received eternal life. I re-appreciate that it is pure grace and not by works, that led to my salvation. It is God who first extends himself and woo me from the beginning. I am like filthy rags and Jesus Christ allowed himself to take these filthy rags and make me clean. Undeserved grace. Amazing love.

He is worthy...because he was slain and with his blood, he purchased men for God (Rev 5:9, paraphrase)

Thank you, Lord

-ed-

Our 2 Girls from Vietnam

Vatican Bidding to Get Anglicans to Join Its Fold

VATICAN CITY — In an extraordinary bid to lure traditionalist Anglicans en masse, the Vatican said Tuesday that it would make it easier for Anglicans uncomfortable with their church’s acceptance of female priests and openly gay bishops to join the Roman Catholic Church while retaining many of their traditions.

Anglicans would be able “to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony,” Cardinal William J. Levada, the prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said at a news conference here.

more on this in the link below
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/world/europe/21pope.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=vatican%20bidding%20to%20get%20anglicans&st=cse

_____________

I got a shock when I see this news in the Straits Times a few days ago. I wonder what is our church's response to this.

-ed-

Jesus, lover of my soul

A lot of friends have tried to look out for potential partners for me out of good will that I should be dating someone. I think I should thank God that so far there is no one who is madly fasincated by me and like me to the extent that he is going all the way out to pursue me. That's because if he is someone that I don't like, I have to think of ways to diplomaticaly reject him; if he is someone that I really have chemistry with, I would definitely response. And by responding, it may eventually lead to the stage when I would hold tightly onto him just to make sure that I won't lose him. That's what I see in some of my friends' relationship. That's kind of suffocating. I thank God that He loves me so much and takes care of me so well and that I can respond to His love for me in such a free and easy way. I don't feel suffocated but I feel that I am being set free. Where on earth can I find such a person with whom I can be in love with in this way?

God has given me another way to feel secure, another much freer and ultimately certain way of security. As long as I open up the door of my heart to let Him in, He promised that He would come into our hearts. Having God in my life is really the greatest relationship I can ever have. I feel so filled and well-loved that I don't need any other thing. I should be thankful and treasure this amazing relationship that I have developed with God.

How I wish I can share this great feeling that is so deeply rooted in my heart with my loved ones who have yet to come to know God. It is my deepest desire to bring them to Christ. May God grant me the wisdom and the gift to draw them to Christ.

Anna

Are all born-again Christians fanatics?

My law lecturer has once said that all "reborn" Christians are fanatics. Well, that's definitely a sweeping statement but my first response was what he meant by reborn Christians. Did he mean those who were not born in a Christian family but came to know God when growing up and decided to commit their lives for God? Or those who were born into a Christian family or even those who came to know God later in life but back-slided? In any case, there was a period in their lives for this category of Christians that God was not well-regarded . So when they re-invite God to dwell in their hearts, they are "reborn".

I came from a non-Christian family and have always been surrounded by Taoists and Buddhists. I took me a long time and a long way to come to be fully convicted to allow God to take control of my life and be fully committed to God. Therefore, I belong to this category of reborn Christian. So am I a fanatic, at least in proclaiming the truth of God and to obey God's command for my life? Definitely! I wouldn't admit it right from the beginning, but when I search my heart deeper, I must say yes. If I was not so fully convinced and convicted of the fact that Jesus was the only way, the only truth and the only One, I would not still be a Christian by now and putting my priority for Him. It's because I have gone through a period of earnestly exploring and questioning and willfully disobeying and turning away from God's calling that made me a fanatic in defending what I believe in. I was also able to compare what it was like without God in my heart and what it is like now that I allow Christ to come in.

For those who were borned into a Christian family. They have been brought up with Christian education, knowing God and having God with them as they grow up. They know and have been taught how great and how important it is to obey God and to have God in their lives. But in practice, they cannot really compare. That's why as the preacher Benjamin Lee has said, it's really tempting to disobey God and just to see how it's like to lead a life without God in mind. In fact, I have heard a number of my German colleagues saying that the priests (most of them were born Catholics) always told them not to do this, not to do that because that's what God commanded...these "don't" teaching had a negative effect on them and as a child, the more "don't" teaching, the more they wanted to try and to disobey.

Even in our long spiritual journey with God, I'm sure there are many incidences when we are very tempted to close our ears to God's advice and calling because God calls us to do things that we don't want to obey. Very often we continue to indulge in this practice because we think that God is allowing this and still blessing us because He allows us to continue. But just as the preacher Rev. Dr. Simon Chan mentioned that sometimes God purposely take things that we thought are important to us and strike some sense out of us. Perhaps by doing so, it achieves the same effect of being "reborn".

I came across this quote from the confirmation class by J.C. Ryle, "Christ is never fully valued, until sin is clearly seen. we must know the depth and malignity of our disease, in order to appreciate the great Physician." This really strikes a chord in my heart.

Well, doesn't this leads to the conclusion that we learn best and most effectively through and from our negative experience? When I first became a Christian, one of my strongest desire was to bring up my children in the church environment, let them experience and be influenced by the goodness and love of God in this extended Christian family. But when I look at some of my friends who have been raised up in Christian families, not everyone of them really turned out to be fully obeying and listening to God. This fanatic flame doesn't seem to be burning in them. Maybe being brought up in a Christian family might not be that wonderful after all??? We all know what the standard answer to the question is, but how to defend your answer and be convincing for yourself, it's probably another big topic for discussion.

However, I do think that whatever kind of christian education that we have at any point in our lives, everyone's journey with the Lord is unique. God has a way to teach us, mold us and refine us. All that Christian education can do is just to set out a guideline to facilitate the individual to follow and ponder upon. I strongly believe that whether we are receptive of all the sermons, Bible discussions and our quite time, is really our willingness to hear and response to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

Fanatics will never be fanatics if they keep on denying that it's the wonders of God that they are experiencing.

Anna

Does Anyone Know about This?

I found such deep purpose and meaning and fulfillment in seeking Christ that I was compelled to ask the girl who led me to Him, "Does anyone else know about this?" She laughed, "Of course," she replied "why do you ask?"

"You mean all those people sitting in church knew about this and they never went out of their way to tell me?"

I have never recovered from the shock. How anyone who truly knows Christ can ever sleep more than four hours a night beats me. How can we who know the answers to the eternal why in people;s hearts do anything other than continually share it with others? we myst "go into all the world" and tell what we know. How can I wtch people filling their lives with water when I own the wine cellar? How could I find the cure for cancer and keep the secret to myself> Not me! The fact that we have the answers is just too exciting, too important not to share

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

The above is quoted from a book i am reading now. These paragraphs struck a chord of guilt within me. Why am i not actively sharing the greatest treasure from others? What is holding me back?

This has been my struggle for a long time. I have to admit evangelism just do not come naturally to me. Often, the gift of the gab fails me when i engaged in spiritual or christian conversations with people. Sometimes, it can be that I lack the desire to share. And this could be due to fear of men, bo-chup attitude or simply lack of motivation.

However, i can see the reason why it is so important to engage in evangelism. Firstly, it is very clear in the bible. John 3:18 "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." Definitely, God has made it very clear. There is going to be a distinct line drawn between the believers and unbelievers. There is no middle ground.

Secondly, believing in Jesus promises eternal life and blessings. It is the greatest treasure that one can ever possess and guess what, this treasure can be given freely to anyone who wants it. Women can crave for diamonds and men can dream of getting a Ferrari. But, nothing beats having Jesus in your life.

So, it does make a lot of sense to share the gospel. But, one has to be wise in going about in this. You cannot always use a one-size-fit-all approach of always proclaiming the gospel. In this post-modern world, we cannot force the gospel down the throat of unbeliever. Constant proclaimation can turn out to be a turn-off instead of being fruitful. We cannot separate the message from the methods. The end does not justify the means. We have to pray and seek the Holy Spirit's guidance in evangelism.

To conclude, evangelism is such a massive portion of God's heart. It is also not easy. However, I pray that we will not give up. I pray that God will constantly enlarge my heart; to have the desire for the lost. May God help us!

-ed-

e-sword

Much has been discussed about "sword" recently in our cell because our dear sister Brenda's name means "sword' and she is a bit fastidious about it. No doubt the inituitive interpretation of the meaning of sword is a bit negative, yet I think I am compelled to write something positive about "sword".

I've been introduced to a Bible study software called "e-Sword" from my keyboard worship class for quite awhile. I wasn't drawn to using it immediately, neither have I appreciated its value at all. This is mainly because I've tried to search for software to have a PC version of the Bible and though there are many free software available on the web, I was just not drawn to either one and in a way, I have given up on this. So when I downloaded this version because I wanted to check out the meaning of a word in the Bible from that software, as instructed by the facilitator, I didn't really spend time exploring it.

Until this morning, I suddenly remember that the facilitator has mentioned that the word "Shema" means "hear intelligently" as stated in the Srong's definition in that software. So I decided to just check it out out of curiosity. I can't remember how eventually I ended up going to the e-Sword website and ended up finding the "treasure" hidden inside this software (I downloaded the application file from the school website so didn't check out the website of this software). I found that there are really quite a number of Bible commentaries offered by this software and they are FREE! What's most attractive is that the software enables me to cross-reference the different versions of Bible available for downloading and the different Bible dictionaries and commentaries as compared to me opening so many windows as what I have been doing previously. That's exactly what I want and what I need now!

The website is:

http://www.e-sword.net/index.html

I believe that other software offers similar things, just that I didn't explore them because I have to pay before I can explore them. This e-Sword offers many resources for free, not even a trial period is stipulated and it definitely helps to facilitate understanding the Word of God.

So hope you will check it out.

e-Sword's long definition is "the Sword of the Lord with an electronic edge". My perception of "Sword" has definitely changed after today's discovery of e-Sword.

And this "Sword of peace" as in "Brenda Shiloh" or "Shiloh Brenda", probably another positive connotation of "Sword", I suppose.

Anna

Pascal Wager

I came across this article on Pascal’s famous Wager and decided to blog about it.

Pascal argued that it is pragmatic to believe in God even if one cannot conclusively determine the existence of God. This make sense as the benefit of living with a belief in God far outweighs any disadvantages. In another words, this is a sure-win wager whereby we have nothing to lose and everything to gain from holding that belief.

From a pragmatic Singaporean mentality (together with my trader's instinct), this is a no-brainer. I will surely show hand as I have nothing to lose by believing in God. There is no downside. Only upside. Surely, if there is such a bet on the table, I will take it on.

However, as I got past the exuberance of the bet, I realize that mankind is not merely a jackpot machine. We cannot and should not use sheer willpower to believe in something just for its benefits. We cannot live a lie just because it is pragmatic. We cannot merely subscribe to a capitalistic mindset and let money and power (benefits) to determine God. We need evidence, revelation, morality, meaning, etc to determine the truth.

Having said that, there is also no harm for a non-believer to take the first step of determining God by going to church, reading the bible and praying. He can put God to a test by coming on God's terms and determine if God does exist. If God does exist, I believe God will lead that any honest seeker to Him. In fact, the wager is now on God to find him. If God is one who loves us and desires to be found by Man, this wager will also be a no-brainer too. He will conclude that there is God. Either way, the seeker has nothing to lose and everything to gain.

-ed-

Evaluating our walk with God

Here's the snapshot for our welcoming session for this week's cell...should have taken all of us in....

God's pharmacy

An interesting presentation on God's amazing creations.

God's Pharmacy

Anna

Religion and Christianity

Over the past few months, I have encountered a number of occasions when it's necessary for me to define what religion is in my conversations with others. Every time I just dodged it. today I faced with the same problem again and eventually I decided to do some research on it and found a website that contains a very resourceful answer to my question. I've quoted some below: http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_defn.htm:

The English word "religion" is derived from the Middle English "religioun" which came from the Old French "religion." It may have been originally derived from the Latin word "religo" which means "good faith," "ritual," and other similar meanings. Or it may have come from the Latin "relig©re" which means "to tie fast."

Defining the word "religion" is fraught with difficulty. Many attempts have been made. Most seem to focus on too narrowly only a few aspects of religion; they tend to exclude those religions that do not fit well. As Kile Jones wrote in his essay on defining religion:

"It is apparent that religion can be seen as a theological, philosophical, anthropological, sociological, and psychological phenomenon of human kind. To limit religion to only one of these categories is to miss its multifaceted nature and lose out on the complete definition." 1

Dictionary definitions:

Dictionaries have made many attempts to define the word religion:

1)Barns & Noble (Cambridge) Encyclopedia (1990):
"...no single definition will suffice to encompass the varied sets of traditions, practices, and ideas which constitute different religions."

2)The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1990):
"Human recognition of superhuman controlling power and especially of a personal God entitled to obedience"

This definition would not consider some Buddhist sects as religions. Many Unitarian Universalists are excluded by this description. Strictly interpreted, it would also reject polytheistic religions, since it refers to "a" personal God."


3)Webster's New World Dictionary (Third College Edition):
"any specific system of belief and worship, often involving a code of ethics and a philosophy."
This definition would exclude religions that do not engage in worship. It implies that there are two important components to religion:

one's belief and worship in a deity or deities
one's ethical behavior towards other persons

This dual nature of religion is expressed clearly in the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) in Matthew 22:36-39:

"Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

4)The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry (CARM):
"An organized system of belief that generally seeks to understand purpose, meaning, goals, and methods of spiritual things. These spiritual things can be God, people in relation to God, salvation, after life, purpose of life, order of the cosmos, etc."

There are still many other definitions given on the website, by academics and others.

However, at the end of all these searches, the important point is not what religion is or how Christianity can be argued to fit in the different definitions or even why christianity is the only true religion. The truth that has to be reminded is that Christianity is in fact all about relationship, a relationship with God.

This is probably also why Christianity is so important and it's something that we can't live out. That's the purpose of life.

"The human heart is drawn to fall in love--a quality placed within our soul by God. Marriage is the human picture or illustration of the divine relationship we are ultimately destined to experience for all eternity with God once we’ve entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (NIV) (Mary Fiarchild)

Our faith actually rests on our love for God. Therefore, if we are reminded that God is with us always wherever we go (Joshua 1:9), all the troubles, worries, disappointment and fear will not disturb or harm us.

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV)

In addition to this vertical relationship that we have with God, God also commanded that we should love one another, the hotizontal manifestation of the love that God has given us. However, it's sad that many people cannot practice this and thus results in unforgiveness, grudges against each other or awkwardness among each others. If one does not focus on the outcome and expectations of the human relationship, but on following God's command, that we are doing so as a way of building our relationship with God, I am sure human relationship can be much more genuine, comfortable and harmonious.

"Relationship can be thought of as a ship carrying some cargos that you need in order to answer your prayer. This ship in most cases is a person. Therefore, very often, God sends people among us to lead us to the fulfillment of our prayers." once said a preacher. I would further this analogy to the relationship with God. Our disorientation in many circumstances in life can be redirected, if we have found God to be the "ship" to guide us and sail us through and lead us to the destination.

Anna

Chruch Life

Now,, church community life becomes somewhat like a boxing ring where we come into the center for periods of time and then go back to our corners to get patched up at the end of the day. Is that harsh? I don't think so. I don't think so. I listen as I travel and hear story after story of broken lives and shattered optimism. Is there an answer here? Yes, I believe there is. Here I borrow from a metaphor used by a former Muslim. He described for me the two ways of looking at life and religious commitment. “ In the West, if life is illustrated by a circle, then a small dot somewhere inside that circle is religion. Life is the ends, belief the means. For the Muslim, by contrast, religion is defined by the circle and a small dot somewhere in the middle is life. One's personal faith is the ends; life is the means.” In other words, what defines what? What circumscribes what? Until we see reality ordered in the way God has designed it to be, we will always become imitators of the world with a pseudospirituality and a cosmetic faith. - Ravi Zacharias

saw this interesting except from the book I am reading

- Ed -

Bible and Whiskey

I came across an interesting sentence from a book (a novel) this morning:

"Sometimes, a Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of ---" (fill in the dashed line yourself with whoever you know has drinking problem.)

How vivid is the description of the situation when we misinterpret the Bible! Well, maybe whiskey is not a very good analogy, perhaps red wine is a better one, at least in my opinion.)

Anna

Reflection on the devotional comment on Colossians 3:23

I think it's very true that very often we get too absorbed about ourselves that we have failed to take a helicopter view of everything, especially with regards to relationship.

A lot of times when we love or hate a person, we get too emotionally involved to that extent that there is only this particular person in the whole world. In effect, the position of God in our hearts has been compromised, diminished or even taken over. And things will get out of hands because we no longer allow God to pacify our hearts.

Once there was a radio interview with an old lady whose husband has just died. The couple have lived most parts of their lives together and everybody knew that they were loving couple. So, the interviewer asked her whether she was very sad and whether she would be able to overcome this lost. She replied that she would be able to let go without problems, because as a Christian, the one that she loved most was Jesus Christ.

That old lady illustrates very well that as long as we rest our human relationships in God, even the husband and wife relationship, we will not be too carried away to the extent that we lose our senses.

In the same token, in employer and employee relationship, sometimes we are too absorbed that our bosses did not really justifiably reward us. But if we put God in the picture, we won't be angry that much. Once a friend told me that he used to work under a supervisor that was very good in his work, but his boss did not appreciate him. This supervisor always told him that "God is with me." so that supervisor was not angry. Of course when it's time for that supervisor to move on, he did move on. But during that time when he was unjustifiably treated, he was still at peace with God and did not let the human relationship bother him much. I have been practising this for the past few months and it works well. Sometimes I forget but still I keep trying.

Important reminder that it's not about me and him/her, but about putting God in the center of our lives.

Anna