February 26, 2009
My quest to live Biblically (day one)
After reading a non-believer’s quest of living one year biblically (regardless of his motives), I got down to thinking hard about my own daily living. Am I really taking God seriously? Am I living according to my belief in the Bible being God’s words? Is my faith real? Is my God real?
I decided to start my own quest to live Biblically. Today is my first day of attempt.
I started by clarifying my goal and action plan. As an Evangelical Christian, I believe in the Bible being God’s words. In view of its size and complexity, I would start by being a Red-Letters practitioner. That is, I start by reading all those words spoken by Jesus Christ (marked in red in some Bibles) and try to follow what He said.
I shall read the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, two or three chapters daily, understand the meanings of what Jesus said, referring to the cross references if any, and pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance as I read. Then I shall write down His intentions and actions required of me to practice what He said/commanded.
Today I read Matthew Chapters one-four (up to verse 11). I summarize below my understandings of what Jesus had spoken.
It is indeed no coincidence that the first sentence spoken by Jesus was relevant to what I purposed in my heart to do. Jesus said: “permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” (That is, do the things that fulfill all righteousness at the right time.) I acknowledge that Jesus has already made me righteous and reconciled me to God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) So I am not trying to earn my righteousness by acting right! My motive of living Biblically is because I want to be real.
All the rest of today’s sayings from Jesus were spoken at the time when He was in the wilderness (having gone through forty days and forty nights of fasting).
The devil came to tempt Him as the devil was not sure of what Jesus could do. The devil thought it could tempt Jesus with the usual indulgences disguised behind seemingly genuine needs like food, safety, status, power and possessions. But Jesus was outside such a paradigm. Jesus spoke the following words, all quoted from the Bible (God’s words).
1. Matthew 4:4 “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
Action for me: pay attention to God’s every word. (Be careful what I say too, as cautioned in the Book of Proverbs 18:21 “death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”)
2. Matthew 4:7 “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.”
Action for me: really trust God and not negate my faith in God by my un-belief through action (which is an insult to God).
3. Matthew 4:10 “You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only you shall serve.”
Action for me: give God priority in terms of my resources (especially time to worship Him instead of pursuing other interests/ambitions).
4. Matthew 4:10 “Away with you, Satan!”
Action for me: do not be distracted by or waste time in friendly discussion with the devil. Just tell it to go away by the authority of Jesus!
The above sound simple but not easy to do or follow through. How am I going to start practicing them?
My plan:
1. Wake up early to worship God (learn to seek Him, appreciate His presence and give thanks).
2. Read God’s words daily, meditate and pray (be careful what I think and speak).
3. Focus on God’s glory (stop looking at the world’s or my vain glory) (more spiritual reality).
4. Rebuke the devil.
End of day review: I spent most of my prime time (morning) reading the Bible and talking to God about my new plan and praying for His help. I spent the the rest of the day providing transport for my mother-in-law (and sister-in-law ) to see an ophthalmologist and controlled my tongue and thought pretty well, with mostly positive words (I think). I ended the evening by giving my wife a relatively expensive dinner treat at her favorite restaurant (after she insisted) and my thoughts were neither positive nor negative. Well, after all it is only the first day.
AAA Jack
February 25, 2009
December 19, 2008
God is looking for you
We all want to consider ourselves as perfect and meeting the ideal described in the Bible: being complete, sanctified, having the mind of Christ, with the resurrection power in us, having the authority given by God to overcome ourselves, overcome the world, and overcome the Devil, receiving healing for all diseases, being set free from all oppressions, making the right decision at the right time, being given and making use of all right opportunities, prospering in all aspects of life, bearing good fruits, and generally living a super-abundant victorious life!
Wow, what a positive list! Believe me - they are all in the Bible. Jesus has promised all who believe in Him eternal life (which include all these blessings), through knowing God and Jesus. Yet not many of us can honestly say that we are anyway near such goals. Knowing God and Jesus seems to be the most difficult thing to do. Yes, many of us attend church on Sunday, follow the worship service program and listen to sermons and not falling asleep, read 15 minutes Bible and pray 5 minutes everyday. Sometimes we even attend more than one service a week if there are special programs. Some of us join a weekly cell group meeting too. Is that not enough? What more can one do?
Sad to say, when we live such a regular religious life, we still find it lacking in fulfilling a lot of the above needs. Is God not willing to give us what He has promised? Does He have mood? Does He sometimes heal and sometimes not heal? Sometimes listen to our prayers and sometimes not? Sometimes save and sometimes not? Sometimes loves and sometimes seems indifferent? The list is endless. Lack of knowledge can only lead to destruction. How to know God and Jesus more?
The answer is in the Bible.
Let us find clues in the following verses:
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John 4 (New Living Translation)
About worship in spirit and in truth
21 Jesus replied, “Believe me, … 23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.
24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
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Worship is an essential way to get to know God. The Bible tells us that God is looking for those who can worship Him in spirit and in truth to worship Him.
We may think that going to church, bow down or even kneel down towards the altar is good enough. We may think that thinking of God and Jesus is good enough. We may think that singing with all our strength and ability is good enough. We may think that giving a generous offering is good enough. We may think that telling God we love Him and we want to follow Jesus with all our heart is good enough. Yet, after doing all these chores we still know deep down that we do not really know God and Jesus much.
How shall we know God and Jesus to the point of really know them? Become worshippers in spirit and in truth.
We have all received the Holy Spirit when we believed and received Jesus as our Savior and Lord and were born again. The Spirit of Christ lives in us now. We all have easy access to God’s Words. Jesus Himself declared that He is the Truth, the Way and the Life and through Him we can get to the Father God. We have both the Spirit and the Truth. We can come to God and worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Reading the Words of God is essential and the more the better to know God. Focusing more on the spirit means spending less time preoccupied with the world and worldly matters. The latter is hard to do. We are conditioned to spend our lifetime on worldly matters which seem to be part and parcel of lives. Change from such lifetime obsessions takes time and effort. However, as we spend time on God’s Words, appreciating His presence, other matters will become un-important.
Jesus told us: “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” (John 6: 63) The Words of God will transform our mind and personality to align with the spirit, which God has given us at our re-birth. When this happens, we can see dramatic positive changes in our physical realm too. Imagine, when our mind agrees with our spirit, the reality in the spiritual realm comes alive! That truly is the Kingdom of God –eternal life on earth as it is in heaven.
July 8, 2008
positive thinking vs Christian faith
positive thinking for wellness and success |
Today I need to explain the difference between positive belief vs Christian faith. There is a crucial difference.
In secular teachings, everyone can believe that God is good and kind and loving and will make whatever man says posi come true.
In Christian faith we believe the same goodness of God based on the words of God and based on His Son Jesus' life on earth. So what is the difference?
The key difference is about life and death.
Based on God's words as recorded in the Bible, and based on what Jesus had accomplished on the cross 2000 years ago, Christians believe that God is righteous too.
In the Old Covenant God had demonstrated this requirement by saving only those people with the sacrificial blood on their door posts. The blood made the difference. No amount of positive thinking and positive belief and positive saying managed to save anyone who did not have the sacrificial blood on their door posts.
In the New Covenant, which encompasses all the good promises and blessings of the Old, only one sacrificial blood was made once on the cross and this was shed by Jesus - the Son of God. Christian faith requires the belief of having this blood on our lives' door-posts. The righteous effect of this blood lasts the whole eternity.
Christians speak positive sayings and believe positive goodness about God and believe that He will give us all that he has promised in both the Old and New Covenant because we believe that Jesus has secured the delivery of these blessings for us who believe in Him.
We have become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and can now receive all the blessings God had reserved for the righteous person. We have also become the children of God and the heirs of Abraham and can now enjoy all the blessings that God has promised to Abraham and his descendents.
This is not wishful thinking or positive belief that our words have power to make God carry out our wishes. We merely believe in what Jesus has done for us and receive with thankfulness by faith in His accomplished work on the cross. Our positive thinking is based on His assurance.
The key here is Christians believe in the positive outcome by faith in the reality of a spiritual realm, the goodness of an eternal loving and righteous God and all these are based on the promises in His Word (the Bible).
A MATTER OF HAVING THE SUPERNATURAL POWER TO TRANSFORM FROM WITHIN US AND MANIFEST IN ALL ASPECTS OF OUR PHYSICAL LIFE
Here is an article on Christian Philosophy
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