Summer Training Programme has been good to me. It seems like everytime I appear, I somehow find something to take away, even if I'm in no mood to listen or receive.
Today's speaker was encouraging us, amongst other things, to make the Bible applicable to our daily lives. To consider issues that we are facing, ask ourselves, "What does the Bible say about that?", and then to go and look it up paryerfully. Then the Bible verses become relevant to your situation, and easier to remember too. It seems to make much more sense to me than trying to follow the arbitrary arrangement of the books in the Bible. Perhaps I will try this tomorrow.
Jul 22, 2009
Jul 15, 2009
two.
A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine one year my senior had a big crash while riding his bike on Ubin. Two days after the crash, his wrist and lower arm had swelled up pretty badly, so he went to the hospital to get it checked out. It was x-rayed for suspected fracture, and put in a cast as a precautionary measure.
Two days after that, they discovered that flesh-eating bacteria had gotten into his bloodstream. Initial reports from the hospital put the mortality rate at 50%.
After much prayer, and some 3 or 4 operations later, he's out of danger. Every op, they slice open his arm from fingertip to elbow to clean out the wound, before shutting the wound with staples. He's got about 50 staples in his hand at the moment, and will probably be scarred for life, but he's alive. He's got another op scheduled for friday.
I was visiting him today, when another friend of ours popped by to visit. She had just gone for a dental appointment in the hospital that morning, and while taking an X-ray to check for cavities, discovered a large tumour in her jaw. I think she's 21 this year. As of this moment, she's at NDC undergoing further X-rays, and she's got an op scheduled for friday afternoon.
I was sitting outside his ward with his girlfriend, ruminating over these events. It was shocking enough to be reminded of our own mortality hardly two weeks ago. Did we need another reminder so soon? Will our prayers be answered once again?
As we were sitting outside the ward thinking about these things, I saw a juvenile woodpecker investigating the tree outside the window, and a strange lizard making displays with a flap of skin below its jaw. It was nice.
Two days after that, they discovered that flesh-eating bacteria had gotten into his bloodstream. Initial reports from the hospital put the mortality rate at 50%.
After much prayer, and some 3 or 4 operations later, he's out of danger. Every op, they slice open his arm from fingertip to elbow to clean out the wound, before shutting the wound with staples. He's got about 50 staples in his hand at the moment, and will probably be scarred for life, but he's alive. He's got another op scheduled for friday.
I was visiting him today, when another friend of ours popped by to visit. She had just gone for a dental appointment in the hospital that morning, and while taking an X-ray to check for cavities, discovered a large tumour in her jaw. I think she's 21 this year. As of this moment, she's at NDC undergoing further X-rays, and she's got an op scheduled for friday afternoon.
I was sitting outside his ward with his girlfriend, ruminating over these events. It was shocking enough to be reminded of our own mortality hardly two weeks ago. Did we need another reminder so soon? Will our prayers be answered once again?
As we were sitting outside the ward thinking about these things, I saw a juvenile woodpecker investigating the tree outside the window, and a strange lizard making displays with a flap of skin below its jaw. It was nice.
Jul 14, 2009
"Make it your goal..."
"Make it your goal to read through the entire Bible..."
Something I heard someone share yesterday which got me thinking.
Somehow, taking this kind of a focused attitude towards bible-reading has never crossed my mind before. I've had some good experiences with goal-setting this break, so I'm thinking about using that on my christian education too...
Something I heard someone share yesterday which got me thinking.
Somehow, taking this kind of a focused attitude towards bible-reading has never crossed my mind before. I've had some good experiences with goal-setting this break, so I'm thinking about using that on my christian education too...
Jun 29, 2009
Jun 27, 2009
Been watching Michael Jackson videos on Youtube. Amazing singer, amazing dancer. I'm quite tempted to pick up one of his albums now, actually. I kinda regret that I never got to see him live in concert.
you've always told me that you support me unconditionally. i'm learning to interpret that as love.
you've always told me that you support me unconditionally. i'm learning to interpret that as love.
Jun 23, 2009
Dead and alive.
Jerry Bridges writes about how Christ's death on the cross achieves for us two distinct purposes - firstly, payment of the penalty for our sin, and secondly, freedom from the dominion of sin. The wages of sin is death, after all, but it is only through death that we can be released from the kingdom of sin in which we once lived, freeing us once and for all from the rules and attitudes of that kingdom, allowing us to live a new life in the kingdom of God.
He tells the story of a Russian air force pilot who, during the height of the Cold War, flew his aircraft to an American airbase in Japan and sought asylum. He was flown to the US, given American citizenship, and allowed to begin a new life in the United States. To quote liberally from the book,
"This former Russian pilot, however, was still the same person. He had the same personality, the same habits, and the same cultural patterns as he did before he flew out of Russia. But he did have a new identity and a new status."
"As a result of his new identity and status as a citizen in a free country, he now had the opportunity to grow as a free person, to discard the mind-set of someone living under bondage, and to put off the habit patterns of a person living under the heel of a despotic regime."
And so it is with us. We live in a new country now. We have died to sin - it is a fact, a done deal so to speak - and we are no longer driven by the old urges and temptations. We are also alive to God, fully responsive to His voice and eagerly yearning to walk in His will, for Christ dwells in us and we in him. We still have to get round the old habits of the old regime, but that doesn't change the fact that we ARE in a new kingdom.
When we die, we go to heaven where we will fellowship with God forever. But in one sense, we have already died, and are already enjoying fellowship with God in the midst of this garden that He created for us.
Amen.
Rom 6:11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
He tells the story of a Russian air force pilot who, during the height of the Cold War, flew his aircraft to an American airbase in Japan and sought asylum. He was flown to the US, given American citizenship, and allowed to begin a new life in the United States. To quote liberally from the book,
"This former Russian pilot, however, was still the same person. He had the same personality, the same habits, and the same cultural patterns as he did before he flew out of Russia. But he did have a new identity and a new status."
"As a result of his new identity and status as a citizen in a free country, he now had the opportunity to grow as a free person, to discard the mind-set of someone living under bondage, and to put off the habit patterns of a person living under the heel of a despotic regime."
And so it is with us. We live in a new country now. We have died to sin - it is a fact, a done deal so to speak - and we are no longer driven by the old urges and temptations. We are also alive to God, fully responsive to His voice and eagerly yearning to walk in His will, for Christ dwells in us and we in him. We still have to get round the old habits of the old regime, but that doesn't change the fact that we ARE in a new kingdom.
When we die, we go to heaven where we will fellowship with God forever. But in one sense, we have already died, and are already enjoying fellowship with God in the midst of this garden that He created for us.
Amen.
Rom 6:11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Jun 21, 2009
a friend of mine recently called me an approval-whore. :)
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Reading: The Discipline of Grace, by Jerry Bridges.
There's a chapter called "Preach the Gospel to yourself". It talks about how many believers have only a rudimentary understanding of the good news of Jesus Christ - sufficient to get them into the church, whereupon they begin an endless series of discipleship courses and stuff like that. He says that there is a general fallacy within the church that the gospel is meant to be preached to unbelievers, not believers. After all, the believers have heard it all already, right?
It's kinda similar to a previous complaint I had about how we preach good news to unbelievers, but fail to make known to them the depth of commitment and change that comes with a life in Christ. Here the situation is reversed, somewhat, whereby we emphasise discipleship and the disciplines of faith to the body of believers, but fail to remind them of the gospel by which they came to know God.
But the author encourages us to remind ourselves daily of the good news of Christ - that though we are by very nature incorrigibly sinful, Christ has fully paid the price of our sins, so that we are not merely pardoned, but justified before God. This is the full gospel of Jesus, which will keep us from regarding our "godliness" with pride, yet also keeps us from despairing of our sinfulness.
To quote, "we must measure ourselves against God's perfect standard and daily confess that we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."
This seems very hard to me. We love to think of ourselves as "doing alright", but alright isn't good enough. It seems that this author is calling us daily to tear down whatever self-esteem we may have, pulling it into rubble, and remembering that our worth, value, and righteousness is found in Jesus. Then we may relate rightly with God and each other...
------------------------------------------------
Reading: The Discipline of Grace, by Jerry Bridges.
There's a chapter called "Preach the Gospel to yourself". It talks about how many believers have only a rudimentary understanding of the good news of Jesus Christ - sufficient to get them into the church, whereupon they begin an endless series of discipleship courses and stuff like that. He says that there is a general fallacy within the church that the gospel is meant to be preached to unbelievers, not believers. After all, the believers have heard it all already, right?
It's kinda similar to a previous complaint I had about how we preach good news to unbelievers, but fail to make known to them the depth of commitment and change that comes with a life in Christ. Here the situation is reversed, somewhat, whereby we emphasise discipleship and the disciplines of faith to the body of believers, but fail to remind them of the gospel by which they came to know God.
But the author encourages us to remind ourselves daily of the good news of Christ - that though we are by very nature incorrigibly sinful, Christ has fully paid the price of our sins, so that we are not merely pardoned, but justified before God. This is the full gospel of Jesus, which will keep us from regarding our "godliness" with pride, yet also keeps us from despairing of our sinfulness.
To quote, "we must measure ourselves against God's perfect standard and daily confess that we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."
This seems very hard to me. We love to think of ourselves as "doing alright", but alright isn't good enough. It seems that this author is calling us daily to tear down whatever self-esteem we may have, pulling it into rubble, and remembering that our worth, value, and righteousness is found in Jesus. Then we may relate rightly with God and each other...
Jun 16, 2009
I think I'm learning more and more that people have rounded characters. That although they cause me offence on one hand, and do things which seem to me to completely undermine any moral authority they might have, this does not detract from their other strengths, and the other ways in which they continue to bless me. I think I can live with that.
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A friend of mine was lamenting how often it seems that Christians (the nominal ones, usually) seem to behave even worse than non-Christians. It occurred to me, mainly because this reflects my own experience, that it is very easy for Christians to apply our faith as a bandage - superficially covering our woundedness, while hoping that our own body can heal itself. While it is true that sometimes we must 'claim it by faith', and 'speak the truth into being', sometimes there are core issues that we simply have to deal with. Like what Jesus said, "This kind can only come out by prayer." One cannot simply believe that being a baptised Christian and doing all the Christian-like things will lead to life change, as I used to.
Even for those who are familiar with the weapons of faith, we cannot exercise faith over our problems if we have not truly identified out problems, we cannot speak deliverance over our issues if we cannot specifically identify the issue at hand. God will not deliver us when we have not accurately identified our problem, because then we will not have a full appreciation of our fallenness, nor can we give God the glory due Him for His deliverance.
This then is the problem that many face. We attempt to cure the problem without first diagnosing it, or perhaps without going in deep to see the full extent of it. This takes much reflection, time spent in the quiet, and prayer. I am reminded of how the Word of God is likened unto a mirror, in which we can see ourselves more clearly.
------------------------------------------------------
A friend of mine was lamenting how often it seems that Christians (the nominal ones, usually) seem to behave even worse than non-Christians. It occurred to me, mainly because this reflects my own experience, that it is very easy for Christians to apply our faith as a bandage - superficially covering our woundedness, while hoping that our own body can heal itself. While it is true that sometimes we must 'claim it by faith', and 'speak the truth into being', sometimes there are core issues that we simply have to deal with. Like what Jesus said, "This kind can only come out by prayer." One cannot simply believe that being a baptised Christian and doing all the Christian-like things will lead to life change, as I used to.
Even for those who are familiar with the weapons of faith, we cannot exercise faith over our problems if we have not truly identified out problems, we cannot speak deliverance over our issues if we cannot specifically identify the issue at hand. God will not deliver us when we have not accurately identified our problem, because then we will not have a full appreciation of our fallenness, nor can we give God the glory due Him for His deliverance.
This then is the problem that many face. We attempt to cure the problem without first diagnosing it, or perhaps without going in deep to see the full extent of it. This takes much reflection, time spent in the quiet, and prayer. I am reminded of how the Word of God is likened unto a mirror, in which we can see ourselves more clearly.
Jun 7, 2009
Asleep in the light
Do you see, do you see
All the people sinking down
Don't you care, don't you care
Are you gonna let them drown
How can you be so numb
Not to care if they come
You close your eyes
And pretend the job's done
"Oh bless me Lord, bless me Lord"
You know it's all I ever hear
No one aches, no one hurts
No one even sheds one tear
But He cries, He weeps, He bleeds
And He cares for your needs
And you just lay back
And keep soaking it in,
Oh, can't you see it's such a sin?
Cause He brings people to you door,
And you turn them away
As you smile and say,
"God bless you, be at peace"
And all heaven just weeps
Cause Jesus came to your door
You've left him out on the streets
Open up open up
And give yourself away
You see the need, you hear the cries
So how can you delay
God's calling and you're the one
But like Jonah you run
He's told you to speak
But you keep holding it in,
Oh can't you see it's such a sin?
The world is sleeping in the dark
That the church just can't fight
Cause it's asleep in the light
How can you be so dead
When you've been so well fed
Jesus rose from the grave
And you, you can't even get out of bed
Oh, Jesus rose from the dead
Come on, get out of your bed
How can you be so numb
Not to care if they come
You close your eyes
And pretend the job's done
You close your eyes
And pretend the job's done
Don't close your eyes
Don't pretend the jobs done
Come away, come away, come away with Me my love,
Come away, from this mess, come away with Me, my love.
As referenced today by Cadet Kevin during the sermon.
I wish he had talked abit more about the mechanics of disciple-making. About the how, and the technique, about picking disciples and picking disciplers, about building relationships, picking topics.
I am reminded of something I read in the book I'm reading at the moment ("Marriage takes more than love", Jack and Carole Mayhall), talking about 5 different levels of conversation. Conversational cliches. Factual Observations. Ideas and Opinions. Feelings. Connection. They were talking about marriage, but it applies just as well in any other relationship - the relationship doesn't really begin until at least level 3, and preferably level 4.
And then I'm reminded of the Johari Window, which I've heard about from two different sources, whereby one's self-knowledge can only be increased through self-revelation, as well as receiving input from others. Both are necessary to fully understand yourself even, and such conversations should probably be functioning at level 4 and up.
Without these, there is no real growth, and there can be no real freedom.
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