Discrimination

Discrimination have always been existent in the world we live in. In our country, our homes, our schools, even in our very own churches.



Since the sermon(what's your race)(racism issue) that was spoken recently in our church by the speaker, I like to raise up the issue of discrimination and share my thoughts on discrimination and using the biblical perspective to look at this issue.

There are many types of discrimination involve, the more prominent ones are racism, sexism, discriminating of people who are different from us(discriminating the disabled). Along the way, i would just list down examples of our everyday life that could be seen in our society.



For example, racial discrimination is where people of a particular race would start to ostracize the other one. Such discrimination could be seen in America, Australia and even in Singapore. Reason might be just physical. Like black skin and stuff. It might also be religion reason.

Although i think agree that only christianity is the true religion and the truth faith of all faiths, but God created man in his own image. Hate the religion but not the man. Hate the sin but not the created.

God created everyone each in his own image. Each different to what God has intended. If we were to dicriminate people different froom us, what makes us different that we are actually discriminating God?

Likewise, discrimination doesn't only occur in the issue of race, it also occurs in terms of gender discrimination and even people who are of different social status.

Even in churches, we could see that if someone elses is poorer than us, we don't talk to the person, if the person is dirty(i mean physically dirty) we don't get near the person, and even if the person speaks of lousy english, we discriminate him! This is where love comes in. We do not judge a person based on his physical outlook, rather we judge him based on his character. However we do not condemn him, rather we love him and condemn the sin he does.

These are my thoughts for today. Correct me if i am wrong :)

How George Whitefield Studies the Bible

"There he is at five in the morning . . . . on his knees with his English Bible, his Greek New Testament and Henry's Commentary spread out before him. He reads a portion in the English, gains a fuller insight into it as he studies words and tenses in the Greek and then considers Matthew Henry's explanation of it all. Finally, there comes the unique practice that he has developed: that of 'praying over every line and word' of both the English and the Greek till the passage, in its essential message, has veritably become part of his own soul."

Arnold Dallimore, George Whitefield, I:82-83.


I realised that in some ways I actually studied in about the same manner as him:
1. first reading with my English NIV bible
2. checking key words in Greek on www.blueletterbible.org
3. picking a good commentary, or sometimes just the notes of a study bible.

But I don't wake up at 5am or pray through every single word :)

Tim Keller on Outward Looking Christians

"Christians should be a community radically committed to the good of the city as a whole. We must move out to sacrificially serve the good of the whole human community, especially the poor… the ultimate purpose of redemption is not to escape the material world, but to renew it. God's purpose is not only saving individuals, but also inaugurating a new world based on justice, peace, and love, not power, strife, and selfishness."