Nothing new under the sun

One of my favorite books is the book of Ecclesiastes. The writer started the book emphasizing on the word "Vanity". One will not be ready to open up himself to God until he has been gripped, as Solomon has been gripped by the emptiness and pointlessness of life. It is only when we can see clearly that life is not to be found in this world that we will be ready to move toward God.

To some life is like an interminable opera. We try to change and act in our lives to make it a better one. we appear happy and satisfy, we laugh without joy and cry without tears. I think we do not have to adjust life because the fault lies in reality. One of the reasons, I believe, why Solomon uses such vivid illustrations is in order to break through our defensive attempts to avoid reality. The reality is cruelty. It is full of sorrows, pains, hurts and tears.

Life "under the sun," he has told us, can be boring, fleeting, repetitive, and empty. Life will never be meaningful "under the sun" until we make contact with the One who is above the sun. Those who try to find meaning without linking their lives to the Creator inevitably see life as an "interminable soap opera."

My dear friends, pause for a moment and honestly ask ourselves: " Are you tired of your life?" " Is there any emptiness deep down in your heart that you will never be satisfied with all that you can possess in this fleeting world?" I thought the song " In The End" by Linkin Park is relevant to my above thoughts. And the song goes like this:

........ all I know time is a valuable thing
Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings
Watch it count down till the end of the day
The clock ticks life away
It's so unreal

When I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
I had to fall, to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn't even matter

In the end what really matter is that we know and fear our Creator by keeping His commandments because this applies to all man. And that was how Solomon ended the book of Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.

Let's wean ourselves off any ideas that we can have real life 'under the sun.' May it be granted to us that we will gripped the truth, that life, real life, is never found in the creation but rather the Creator.

The Flaws and Value of C.S. Lewis

I remember reading some Lewis books like Mere Christianity, the Problem of Pain, Screwtape Letters and the Four Loves a few years back and thinking that he is rather unbiblical in certain areas. Yet undoubtedly from him comes a flair and wise eloquence which is at once attractive and illuminating. I also remember thinking of him as a fantastic writer, not so a theologian.

Which is why I think John Piper is spot on in his analysis of Lewis. He tells us what to avoid in Lewis, and what to learn from him:

On his flaws:

"Lewis is not a writer to which we should turn for growth in a careful biblical understanding of Christian doctrine. If we follow him in the kinds of mistakes that he made, it will hurt the church and dishonor Christ. His value is not in his biblical exegesis."

On his value:

"What was it about the work of C. S. Lewis that has helped me so much? The answer lies in the way that the experience of Joy and the defense of Truth come together in Lewis’s life and writings."

Read the whole thing here:

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/ConferenceMessages/ByConference/46/4503_Lessons_from_an_Inconsolable_Soul/

Are we really listening?

Humility and listening are closely linked together. A primary way to express humility is to listen intensely to the one who speaks. Perhaps we all think that we listen much better than others do. Perhaps we often equate listening simply with not talking. But the fact is if most of our listening is spent formulating our next opinion or running through tomorrows' to-do list, we aren't listening at all. Well, we would like to think of this as efficient multi-tasking. Selfish, disrespect and pride would be a more accurate assessment.

By contrast, true listening is an active, attentive commitment to understand another person and to discern relevant truth from what the person is saying. In Matt 11:15, Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear". There was a clear implication that not everyone within the sound of His voice was truly listening or hearing.

The way we listen to someone else profoundly does affects our communication. How to be a good listener? It simply means to have undivided attention to the one who speaks. In fact, active listening and intentional responsiveness are expressions of humility and respect. Learn to ask questions humbly and gently to the one who speaks. Asking good questions with gentleness is an essential part of listning that is humble, actively involved and with an intent to get closer with the one who speaks. As Paul Tripp has written, "Gentle talk comes from the person who is speaking not because of what he wants from you but what he wants for you."

In conclusion, James 1:19.... But everyone must be quick to hear slow to speak......

Accountability - Answering to members of the Body

Last night at VCF we had some clarification (debate sounds too academic) on what Christian accountability means. One of the members insisted that Christians should be open and willing to share everything about himself or herself to everyone in the body of Christ, on the basis that we are all saved and are brothers and sisters in Christ, thus there should be absolutely no secrets, no fear, and no pride, no witholding in approaching and confiding in each other.

After all, James said "Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other" (James 5:16) There are numerous texts in the bible that speaks of accountability i.e. answering to others, whether in terms of confessing sins, encouragement, spurring on to good deeds, rebuking, interdependency within the church etc, whether the word "account" is being used explicitly or not.

The absolute terms he used immediately raised my eyebrow (not that I hate absolutes, but because this is a complex issue requiring wisdom in applying its truth rather than one absolute statement). Let me say the good point first: I fully and wholeheartedly understood why he made such a claim that Christians must share everything to everyone. I do not disagree with the theology behind his claim. After all, Jesus did pray for us to be one. It is true that often times Christians do hold back from sharing and from doing so, miss out on the blessing of advice and wisdom one could possibly gain from each other. So I perfectly understood his concern, and to this point I think we could all encourage each other to share. Also, the young today has little grasp of the concept of accountability as submission to leaders, and accountability is necessary.

The difficulty is with the narrowness of his application of truth. Everyone must share everything to everyone. I immediately thought of scenarios as well as real life experiences that suggested that this cannot be true. Scenario: Say for example, a man has just committed adultery, and wishes to repent sincerely. He cannot be looking for a 13-year old youth group member who has recently joined the church and confess to him! He should seek the Pastor or church leaders for help.

This of course means that as much as we should strive to share as many things as we can to people, we do not only need to reckon with truth #1: we are one body of Christ. That is too narrow. We must also reckon with other truths: the ravages of sin in the church of God, that there are judgmental people or gossipers in church that you do not wish to share to, that there are varying degrees of spiritual maturities in a church that make accountability a tricky business. Which is why I told him that there should be different levels of accountability within the church, not one and the same. With love as an analogy, we ought to love everyone as commanded, but we cannot love our wives with the love of God - that's idolatry. Neither can we love our female friends with the love of our wives - that's adultery. There are different types of it.

So I think it is legitimate to say that sometimes fear, lack of trust, immaturity, sin and pride do prevent us from sharing our deepest thought to one another, and we should graciously allow for that.

He disagreed. "But a church should be like this...." I think we ought to realize that total accountability is impossible. The only person we can confess every single thought, deed, and action to is God, the one we finally must account everything to, the only one who is perfectly righteous, perfectly trustworthy, perfectly gracious, perfectly gentle, perfectly holy. We need to recognize that the bible's command for the body of Christ to be united and accountable to each other is a standard to strive to, not a standard already achieved. D.A. Carson would call this "overrealized eschatology". We think we are beyond the end times, perfect and sinless, when we are not! We think we are in the "already now", when in fact we are in the "not yet". Therefore a narrow application of truth can be avoided with the reckoning of our sins, together with God's high calling.

There is still a lot of striving to do to reach God's standard. Until then, saints on earth will share and account to each other imperfectly, but we look to the Day when we all have perfect communion in heaven, with God and with the redeemed people of God.

Scripture-Quoting, Kingdom-Manipulating Unbelief (2 Sam 3:6-11)

Haha, that's a mouthful ya? But at least that's what I get from this passage. The story thus far in 2 Samuel 3: Saul has just died, and there were two vying kingdoms, the one set up by David (whom God promised would be king), and another kingdom by Saul's son, supported by this guy Abner, in direct opposition to David's kingship over Israel. The passage is all about Abner and his unbelief.

Firstly, Abner's Scripture-quoting unbelief. The main irony of this passage comes from the fact that Abner is actively opposing David's rule by supporting Saul's son and not David, despite knowing the fact that the Lord has promised David to be the king (2:8)! So then Saul's son came and pointed out that Abner is commiting some wrong by sleeping with his father's concubine (3:7) and Abner decides that it is time to change allegiance. It is time to swear allegiance to David. And he does it in the most "Christian" of manners - by quoting truth. "May God deal with Abner, be it ever so severely, if I do not do for David what the Lord promised on oath and transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and eastablish David's throne over Israel..." (3:9-10) He repeats the promise of God. Sounds noble and holy and right, isn't it?

Yet it is not hard to see that Abner never truly believed in God's promise by his initial blatant resistance to David's kingship. Nor was there any sign of true repentance, given the fact that he had decided to switch allegiance only because he was afraid his sin would be exposed. He had more fear of men than the fear of God.

Abner then represents the one who knows the truth, but does not embrace it. He is the one who quotes the truth, but does not submit to it, who learns the truth but does not obey it, or as Paul says "always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth" (2 Tim 3:7). Let us not fall into this type of Scripture-quoting unbelief!

Secondly, his kingdom-manipulating unbelief. Abner did not seek God's kingdom because he felt the authority of God's promise. He sought it because it is to his advantage. His seeking of God's kingdom did not come with a love for God's rule, but a love for self-rule. The seeking of God's kingdom was only the means to seek his own kingdom. It is the only way for him, who has fallen out of favour with Saul's son, to regain his powerful position in David's kingdom.

Abner then, represents the self-serving folks who would use the Kingdom of God as a means to glorify himself. Dale Ralph Davis writes, "They seem more concerned with whether God's people will be impressed with them, like them, congratulate and dote over them. Abner is not far away from any of us." Let us not fall into this type of kingdom-manipulating unbelief!

Thoughts

As I read through this, it warns me of my motivations for doing things. Do I quote the truth in order to serve myself? Do I seek the kingdom in order to glorify myself? Neither the quotation of truth nor the seeking of kingdom is validity of itself. It could stem from godlessness, pride and unbelief. There is simply nothing that man cannot make perverse - even truth and kingdom. In our lives and Christian service, we might be thinking these self-centered things (as I do):

• Do they like my teaching? Am I interesting enough for them? Will they be impressed with the lesson that I have prepared, which I have poured many hours into ?



• Are people taking notice that I am serving now? Does my service make people think slightly better of me?



• Does my prayers sound long enough, zealous enough, and spiritual enough, with the impressive words that people will take special notice of me?



• Do the advice I give, the words I speak or even this blog post draw attention to my spiritual life that I will be esteemed and praised?
  

Let's realize that Abner is really not far from each of us, and the faster we rid of him, the better.

Holding Fast to the Word of Life in 2010!

This shall be my first post at this blog. It's been a long long time since I last blogged. And must be something edifying, interesting, related to faith right. So I assume this blog has no attacks. (unlike fb)

Allow me to share what I have learnt through a sermon that I have watched online. The title was "Holding fast to the word of life in2010" by John Piper. Apart from the fact that the preacher can be quite loud at times (ear-blowing!!), he is a passionate speaker who combines mind and heart together. What do I mean by this? Watch ityourself lah... (sounds jokingly but I am serious)

John Piper ended by asking the audience to have 6 ways to make sure we hold fast to the word. The following is my 6s:
1) Think of at least one implication from every QT
2) Read one chapter of good literature christian book every week
3) Make good use of my train time by reading something from bible or good books
4) Ploughing WOG every week
5) Listen to sermon carefully every week (Jesus says in Luke 8:18 to consider carefully how you listen)
6) Memorise a verse every week

The verse he took from is Phil 2: 14-16.
Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights inthe world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

He first explained there is a spiritual diet without which no Christian can be strong and healthy and fruitful. And that is a diet of the word of God. Which is certain that no Christian can deny. However, I thought it interesting when he also said that reading or memorising the scripture can no automatically make any believer strong and grow. Because any Pharisee can do much more than these and yet Jesus said nothing good about them. Thus, he used Eph 1:18 "having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints," to stress that praying for eyes to see the WOG is crucial. If the God of the Bible does not open our eyes to His Word, no matter how many hundred hours we spend in reading, studying, ploughing whatever, we will never see its glory and of course God himself. Hearing this breaks my confidence in whatever amount of time I put in, whatever work I have done (which should be no confidence at all). And it does make me think how many times do we really seek God's illumination when we study His Scriptures...

And if we don't hold fast to the Word, how do we shine as lights in the world, according to Phil 2 verses? In this society where post-modernism rules, where existentialism rules, where tolerance of religion is low, Christians ought to be distinctive in our character and stand. In my workplace, such ideology is true. I have colleagues (also my friends) who think nothing about pornography (ladies leh, not guys), jokes about lust and promotes homosexuality. I have to say it is difficult to stand distinctive as a Christian. Many a times I failed to do so. I can only explain that all these are serious and ain't funny. I also explained to them the consequences of all these wrong thinkings (which have already happening) and it is no funny matter. We, as Christians, ought to weep for our society too, besides explaining our stand. Weep for our sins, not only when we failed to get what we want, not only when our friends don't understand us, but when our society sins against God of truth, God of morality, God of holiness.

Alright, I am done. And the above looks wordy.

The indestructible joy

"God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions." Heb 1:9
How often Christians instead of being joyful, we are gloomy. Day in day out be it going to school or work, we are often seem to be gloomy. How then can we have true joy? A joy that is indestructible.

Christian Salvation is not mainly the forgiveness of sins, but the fellowship of Jesus. Forgiveness gets everything out of the way so that fellowship with Christ can happen. Let's ask ourselves: " Is this fellowship all-satisfying to us?" If not, then there is really no great salvation. If Christ is gloomy or even calmly stoical, then eternity will be a long long sigh for us. Do we want this kind of eternity? A sighing place where we will spend our eternity? Definitely not.

But rather the glory and grace of Christ is that he is and always will be indestructibly happy. It is glory because gloom is not glory. It is gracious because the best thing He has to give us is his joy. John 15:11, 17:13- " These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full" Our capacities for joy are very confined. But Christ not only offers Himself as the divine object of my joy, but even pours His capacity for joy into us, so that we can enjoy Him with the very joy of God. This then is glory and grace.

But come again, we need to know that Christ the indestructible man was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" In Matt 26:38 it says "My soul is very sorrowful even to death; remain here and watch with me" Christ is also our "great high priest" who is able to sympathize with us in our weaknesses, because He was tested in every way as a man like us.

This indomitable joy does not mean that there is only joy. He was divided, torn between joy and sorrow. Can an infinitely glorious soul be troubled? Yes, troubled but not torn and disunited.

Through the agonies of Gethsemane, Jesus was sustained by indetructible joy. "For the joy that was set before Him, he endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God" -Heb 12:2. The good shepherd rejoices over one lost sheep. How much more over countless armies of the ransomed!

Some questions to ponder upon:
1. Will we embrace suffering for the cause of Christ?
2. Will we heed the call in Heb 13:13 "let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured?
3. Is the city of God more desirable for us than the city of man? (Heb 11:25-26, 13:14)

For those who have tasted the joy of Jesus, don't forget to share it with those who have not.
Finally all Christ's servant aren't we waiting for one day when our Lord and Savior will say this to us " Well done, good and faithful servant... enter into the joy of your Master-Matt 25:21. The city of God is a city of joy. And that joy is the indestructible joy of Christ!

From Seeing and Savoring Jesus by John Piper