Saturday, November 27, 2010

Tangible things, Invisible God

God is glorified when we trust Him.

We first trust Him for our salvation. This gives us the certainty of we will go after our death.
"For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. (2 Timothy 1:12 KJV)"

Then we trust Him to keep us from the moment of our belief till our death.
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 KJV)"

We usually have very little problem with our salvation. Death seem so far away to both young and old, and nobody knows what happen next. For anything after death, you have no choice but to believe. So we say we believe.

We have a lot of problem with our daily life with God, because things are tangible and God is invisible. Tangible things means tangible choices. It becomes very difficult to trust the invisible God with tangible things. We have choices now. Faith in God becomes very difficult. Now we cannot just say we believe. We have to live it. We have to do it. We have to bear the consequences.

It is in our daily walk that we glorify God. We dare to trust our tangible things to an invisble God.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

God's Mercies Confuses Sinners and Christians

Everybody thinks that God ought to be like Justice Pao (包青天), rewarding the good and punishing the evil. This is because that everybody thinks that he is good and his neighbour evil. But "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23 KJV)". And God, being merciful and patient, "maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45 KJV)". "If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. (Psalm 130:3-4 KJV)"

Now that confuses sinners and Christians, especially those who hardly read God's Word. Sinners find that bad may be rewarded and good punished. Christians find that prayers according to God's will are not always answered because our "iniquities have separated between you and your God (Isaiah 59:2 KJV)," but God, who is "kind unto the unthankful and to the evil (Luke 6:35 KJV)", will sometimes answer our prayers, even though we do not fully confess and repent of our sins.

"The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. (Isaiah 57:1 KJV)"

Then all the women present and all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to idols—a great crowd of all the Judeans living in northern Egypt and southern Egypt—answered Jeremiah, "We will not listen to your messages from the Lord! We will do whatever we want. We will burn incense and pour out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven just as much as we like—just as we, and our ancestors, and our kings and officials have always done in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For in those days we had plenty to eat, and we were well off and had no troubles! But ever since we quit burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and stopped worshiping her with liquid offerings, we have been in great trouble and have been dying from war and famine."
"Besides," the women added, "do you suppose that we were burning incense and pouring out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven, and making cakes marked with her image, without our husbands knowing it and helping us? Of course not!"
Jeremiah 44:15-19 NLT

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Eid al-Adha (Hari Raya Haji)

Today is Eid al-Adha or Hari Raya Haji in Malay. Eid al-Adha is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God before God intervened to provide him with a ram to sacrifice instead. We can find this event recorded in the Bible in Genesis 22:1-14.

Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you." So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you." Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." And he said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.

Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, "In the mount of the LORD it will be provided." (Genesis 22:9-14 NASB)

God had called Abraham to embark on a three day journey (Genesis 22:4) to Mount Moriah to sacrifice his son. For three days, Abraham had reckoned his son Isaac as dead. Likewise, our Lord Jesus was dead for three days before He was resurrected on the third day.

It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even though God had told him, "Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted." Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead. (Hebrews 11:17-19 NLT)

Sometimes we expect God to perform miracles as in this case, when Abraham was thinking that God will resurrect Isaac. Instead, God provided a ram.

The following commentary on Genesis 22 is taken from Matthew Henry:
It was not God's intention that Isaac should actually be sacrificed, yet nobler blood than that of animals, in due time, was to be shed for sin, even the blood of the only begotten Son of God. But in the mean while God would not in any case have human sacrifices used. Another sacrifice is provided. Reference must be had to the promised Messiah, the blessed Seed. Christ was sacrificed in our stead, as this ram instead of Isaac, and his death was our discharge. And observe, that the temple, the place of sacrifice, was afterwards built upon this same mount Moriah; and Calvary, where Christ was crucified, was near. A new name was given to that place, for the encouragement of all believers, to the end of the world, cheerfully to trust in God, and obey him. Jehovah-jireh, the Lord will provide; probably alluding to what Abraham had said, God will provide himself a lamb. The Lord will always have his eye upon his people, in their straits and distresses, that he may give them seasonable help. (Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Genesis 22:11-14)

For completeness, let us also have a version of the events from the Koran recorded in Surat Aş-Şāffāt (Those who set the Ranks) 37:99-109:
099 He said: "I will go to my Lord! He will surely guide me!
100 "O my Lord! Grant me a righteous (son)!"
101 So We gave him the good news of a boy ready to suffer and forbear.
102 Then, when (the son) reached (the age of) (serious) work with him, he said: "O my son! I see in vision that I offer thee in sacrifice: Now see what is thy view!" (The son) said: "O my father! Do as thou art commanded: thou will find me, if Allah so wills one practising Patience and Constancy!"
103 So when they had both submitted their wills (to Allah), and he had laid him prostrate on his forehead (for sacrifice),
104 We called out to him "O Abraham!
105 "Thou hast already fulfilled the vision!" - thus indeed do We reward those who do right.
106 For this was obviously a trial-
107 And We ransomed him with a momentous sacrifice:
108 And We left (this blessing) for him among generations (to come) in later times:
109 "Peace and salutation to Abraham!"
Surah 37:99-109 Yusuf Ali Translation

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Glory of God in His Providence

And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever (Exodus 14:13 KJV).

The purpose of our life is to see the glory of God in the wonderful salvation He has ordained / provided for us. We see how God provide for us in unexpected ways. We can prove that all things work for our good (Romans 8:28) and glorify God.

When Abraham was called upon to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22), Abraham had faith that Isaac will be sacrificed but will not die (Hebrews 11:19). But Abraham had no idea how that could be done. He was probably expecting a miracle. God provided a ram to replace Isaac, signifying the greater provision that He will made by providing Christ as our substitute.

The Anthropic Principle says that the universe exist so that we can observe it. "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. Romans 1:20 NASB" We observe the universe and see the Glory of God in its design. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Psalm 19:1 KJV"

We also can observe God's work in our own life and see God's wonderful provision for us. We exist to glorify God (Isaiah 43:7, Isaiah 43:21, Ephesians 1:5-6).

Friday, November 12, 2010

Sun Yat Sen 孫中山 and John Sung 宋尚節

Today is the birthday of Sun Yat Sen (孫中山).

Sun Yat-sen (12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925) was a Chinese revolutionary and political leader. He became a Christian wanted to revolutionise China. Instead of using the Gospel to transform the Chinese, he came up with his idea of revolution on based on the Three Principles (三民主義): Nationalism (民族主義), Democracy (民權主義), and People's Livelihood (民生主義). He came up with a constitution with five separate branches: the executive, legislative, judicial, the censorate, and the civil service system. The first three branches were like that of the American Constituion. The latter two were traditional branches of the Chinese government and functioned as a check on the first three. His political party, which eventually became Kuomintang (KMT 国民党), ruled China after the successful Northern Expedition (北伐) in 1928. After that, Kuomintang declined and eventually retreated to Taiwan. In 2004, it lost the presidential election to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). China was not transformed, but became Communist in 1949.

John Sung (29 September 1901 – 18 August 1944) one of the most fruitful servants of God in the 20th century. John Sung did not come out with any revolutionary ideas to transform China. He just preached the Gospel. He started his ministry when he was 28 and it went on until his death just a month before his 43rd birthday. In his 15 years of ministry, there were 100,000 recorded conversions and millions of others revived through his ministry. He used to preach three times a day and one sermon could go on for 2 hours. John Sung’s messages were focused on the need for repentance and he preached against sin. He took the issue of sin very seriously and often invited his audience to repent to a list of specific sins that he read out. He spoke out against sin and hypocrisy, even at the ministers and pastoral staffs who were with him at the meetings.

When the Communists took over in 1949, there were roughly 800,000 Protestant Christians in China. In 1954, the Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM 中国基督教三自爱国运动委员会) was formed as the official church in China. Christians abandon the TSPM and establish house churches (家庭教會、地下教會、地下天國). During the decade from 1966 to 1976, Christians in China were persecuted by the Red Guards. By 1977 an open door policy pursued by Deng Xiao-ping. Since then, Protestant churches, with or without buildings, have been opening or re-opening. The number of Christians have risen to a total estimated at anywhere between 50 to 100 million.

Today, many of the house church Christians could some how trace their spiritual lineage back to John Sung. China is transformed by the simple Gospel, which change the lives of individual Chinese. The grand ideas of Communism and Sun's Three Principles which focused on society and politics could not change the hearts of the individual. It only serves to glorify those who espouse the ideologies.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The world cannot be changed by social revolutions and men's ideologies. It can only be changed one by one, individually, by the Good News (Gospel) of Jesus Christ, to the Glory of God.

Friday, November 5, 2010

God eye view

Long ago, it is impossible for one to know how he looked like. If you live near a lake or river, the reflection in the water is the best self-image you can get. Later, men invented the bronze mirror. You now get a better self-image. Then the glass mirror is invented. You can see yourself clearly, but only as a mirror image. With the invention of photography, now we can see ourselves truly in the way others view us. Finally, with digital video, we can see ourselves in motion.

But long ago, God provide us a self-view of our spiritual self through the Bible. It shows us through God's point of view - sinners in dire need of salvation. Sadly, until today, people still refused to themselves as God see them.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Dialog on God's Glory

God said, "I am not interested in anything except My own glory."
Man said, "You is so selfish."
The chicken said to Man, "Man, you are so selfish. You eat me."
Man said, "I am a vegetarian."
The tree said to Man, "Man, you are so selfish. You make me into houses and furniture."
Man said, "I lived in stone houses and my furniture is made of plastic."
The ground said to Man, "Man, you are so selfish. You clear the forest and killed many animals and plants to build your house and dig your oil to make plastics."
Man said, "I have to survive. Mother Nature allows me to do so."
God said, "Man, for your survival, you destroy those that you did not create and yet you are not selfish. I, the creator of all these, just asked for that which is due to me, but you consider me selfish?"

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

The Kingdom of God And Government of Men

Christians are citizens of the Kingdom of God. We owe our God our highest allegiance. We have to obey the government because "every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God (Romans 13:1 KJV)." and "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. (1 Peter 2:13-14 KJV)" For governments are ordained by God to maintain justice and peace. However, if government ordinances contradict God's Word, "We ought to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29 KJV)."

An analogy can be made with our body. Although we are born again, we retain our fleshly body. We still obey our body's desire. For example, when our body tells us that we are hungry, we eat. However, if we become gluttons, then we have sinned and have to repent.