God Almighty Incomprehensible

Who can describe the mighty acts of the LORD or fully proclaim His praise? (Psalm 106:2 BSB)

No one. No one can live from the beginning of creation till the end of ages to witness glorious miracles of the LORD. No one can live multiple lives in all the possible scenarios to fully appreciate all His wonderful works to proclaim His praise.

We can only witness what we lived through and praise Him for what He did for us, which is just a tiny fragment of His great works.

The greatness of God's works cannot be comprehended by mere individuals.

God Pope and War

When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. (Isaiah 1:15 ESV)

Pope Leo XIV quoted Isaiah 1:15 and says God 'does not listen' to prayers of those who wage war.

He shall say: "Hear, Israel: Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not panic or be terrified by them. For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory." (Deuteronomy 20:3-4 NIV)

The LORD is a warrior, the LORD is His name. (Exodus 15:3 BSB NIV)

Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me. (Psalm 144:1-2 NIV)

先講是非再講善惡

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thessalonians 5:21 KJV)

Many people said that all religions are the same. They all teach us to be good.

This is not true. We must first know if something is true or false before we talk about whether it is good and bad. If you do something good for what is false, you are helping to spread a lie.

The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him. (Proverbs 18:17 BSB, CSB)

Thankfulness

Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows you made to the Most High. (Psalm 50:14 NLT)
Call on Me in the day of trouble; I will rescue you, and you shall honor and glorify Me." (Psalm 50:15 Amplified Bible)

Doing Right

The danger
The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' (Luke 18:11-12 ESV)

The rebuke
"Listen, my people, and I will speak; I will testify against you, Israel. I am God, your God. I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or for your burnt offerings, which are continually before me. (Psalm 50:7-8 CSB)

The correction
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV)
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. (1 Thessalonians 5:18 KJV)

Wisdom is From the Word of God

Sometimes the elders are not wise. Sometimes the aged do not understand justice. (Job 32:9 NLT)

Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. (Psalm 119:98-100 ESV)

Same Return Same Frustration

When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the LORD, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of the families, saying, "Let us build with you because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to Him since the time of King Esar-haddon of Assyria, who brought us here."

But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the other heads of the families of Israel replied, "You have no part with us in building a house for our God, since we alone must build it for the LORD, the God of Israel, as Cyrus king of Persia has commanded us."

Then the people of the land set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to build. They hired counselors against them to frustrate their plans throughout the reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.

At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, an accusation was lodged against the people of Judah and Jerusalem. (Ezra 4:1-6 BSB)

The people already living in the land when the Jews returned the first time tried to frustrate their plans. The people already living in the land when the Jews returned the second time also tried to frustrate their plans.

During the first return, the superpower of the day was Persia. For the second return, the superpower is America.

During the first return, the people already living in the land claimed that they worshipped the God of Abraham. During the second return, the people already living in the land also claimed that they worshipped the God of Abraham.

During the first return, the people already living in the land failed to frustrate the Jews and disappeared into the dustbin of history. It will be the same for the people already living in the land today.

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9 NIV)

Leaves Are for Healing in the Kingdom of God

Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing." (Ezekiel 47:12 NIV)

On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22:2b NIV)

In Ezekiel, the river flow from the Temple in Jerusalem. In Revelation, the river flow from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city.

I can understand why we may need healing during the millennium. But why do we need healing when we are living in the new heaven and new earth?

And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9 ESV)

Jesus The Only Way - 2

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6 NIV, BSB)

The Bible tells me that those who do not believe in Jesus as their saviour will go to hell when they die.

But some objected to this. They said that God is love and He will not do that.

I said that God sends everybody to death. So the same God also sends them to hell.

Those who objected says that death is a natural process. The loving God takes over after death and sends everybody to heaven.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NIV, BSB, CSB)

But from what I read from the Bible, death is not a natural process. Death is the result of sin. Those who sin go to hell after death.

The love of the loving God is manifested not by sending everyone to heaven, but by sending His Son to die for the sin of the world.

And whosoever who believes that He had died for our sin will not be punished but have everlasting life. And those who do not believe is condemned already.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:16-18 KJV)

Christ Resurrected Because He Was Sinless

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 BSB, CSB, NIV)

In the Biblical context of sin as the wages of sin, the resurrection of Christ proved that He is sinless. He died for the sin of the world and was raised because death has no grip on Him, who was sinless.

He was delivered up by God's set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep Him in its grip. (Acts: 2:23-24 BSB)

"God overlooked people's ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead." (Act 17:30-31 NLT)

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and asked Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"
Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise belongs to you and your children and to all who are far off - to all whom the Lord our God will call to Himself."
With many other words he testified, and he urged them, "Be saved from this corrupt generation." Those who embraced his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to the believers that day. (Acts 2:37-41 BSB)

An Atheist's Confession of Faith

Only fools say in their hearts, "There is no God." They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good!  (Psalm 14:1, Psalm 53:1 NLT)

All men live by faith, both the just and unjust. It is impossible for men not to have a belief system. It is by faith that they have eternal life or eternal damnation because their belief system is either true or false.

Atheism and secular humanism are belief systems, just like any other religions. Here is an atheist's confession of faith by Richard Charles Lewontin (1929–2021) quoted from this article "Remembering a Biologist’s Remarkable Confession of Faith | Mind Matters".

QUOTE
In 1997, Lewontin published a review of celebrity science commentator Carl Sagan's book The Demon-Haunted World in which he blurted:

"Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door. The eminent Kant scholar Lewis Beck used to say that anyone who could believe in God could believe in anything. To appeal to an omnipotent deity is to allow that at any moment the regularities of nature may be ruptured, that miracles may happen."

Richard Lewontin "Billions and Billions of Demons" at New York Review of Books (January 9, 1997)
UNQUOTE

This is a link to a shorter version of quotation taken from A-Z Quotes | Quotes for All Occasions.

So, any scientific evidence for God would be rejected by atheists because they have "a commitment to materialism ... forced by our a priori adherence to material causes" and the belief that "materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door ... that anyone who could believe in God could believe in anything".

For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts. (Romans 1:19-21 BSB)

Professing to be wise, they became fools, and they changed the glory of the immortal God into a likeness of an image of mortal man and birds and quadrupeds and creeping things. (Romans 1:22-23 BLB)

From Law to Grace

"Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out." Then all the people shall say, "Amen!" (Deuteronomy 27:26 NIV)

For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed. (Galatians 3:10 CSB)

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. (James 2:10 ESV)

But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. (Romans 3:21-22 NLT)

For the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!) (Romans 4:15 NLT)

I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. (Galatians 2:21 KJV)

What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? (Romans 6:1 BSB)

What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. (Romans 6:15 KJV)

If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. (John 14:15 BSB)

Knowledge of Sin Comes Through the Law

Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. (Romans 5:13 NLT)

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' will be subject to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be subject to the fire of hell. (Matthew 5:22 BSB)

But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:28 NIV)

The law does not account for every sin.

For example, if a person has a very bad temper and gets angry easily, he does not break any law, unless he is so angry that he kills somebody.

A person who looks at a woman's cleavage (like what some famous person did recently and was caught in a video) has already committed adultery, but he does not break any law.

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:20 ESV)

The Relationship of Law, Sin and Grace

And where there is no law, there is no transgression. (Romans 4:15b BSB)

To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone's account where there is no law. (Romans 5:13 NIV)

Let us examine the relationship between law, sin and grace. Without the law, there is no sin. And without sin, grace will not be needed.

This is actually a universal principle, not something found only in Christianity.

For example, there is a law in Singapore that forbid bringing cooked meat from Malaysia into Singapore. If there is no such law, bringing cooked meat into Singapore from Malaysia will not be a transgression. If there is no transgression, then forgiveness is not required.

The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:20-21 CSB)

Resolutions For 2025

I will continue the resolutions I made in 2019, three of which was based on Rev Stephen Schaefer's advice and the fourth was added in the middle of 2019 and renewed in September 2019 and renewed again in January 2020 and again in September 2023.

1. Every day I will pray that what ever I do, I will do it to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).
2. I will pray to be filled with the Spirit so that I have no room for other things (Ephesians 5:18).
3. I will pray that I may walk in the Spirit, so as not to fulfil the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).
4. I will also pray to speak gracious words of comfort like a priest (Colossians 4:6).

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV)
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, (Ephesians 5:18 ESV)
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16 KJV)
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Colossians 4:6 ESV)

Additionally, I would also like to bring to my remembrance the three requests I made in 1979, for the perseverance of Jacob, the heart of David and the power of Elijah.

And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. (Genesis 32:28 KJV)
And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. (Acts 13:22 KJV)
Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. (James 5:17 KJV)

Negotiation And Hardened Hearts

After that, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Let My people go, so that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.'"
But Pharaoh replied, "Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go." (Exodus 5:1-2 BSB)

Did God ask Moses to lie when He asked Moses to request for a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to Him, implying that the Israelites will return after that? No. If the Pharaoh had accepted the request, it would be so.

So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. "Go, worship the LORD your God," he said. "But who exactly will be going?"
"We will go with our young and old," Moses replied. "We will go with our sons and daughters, and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the LORD."
Then Pharaoh told them, "May the LORD be with you if I ever let you go with your little ones. Clearly you are bent on evil. No, only the men may go and worship the LORD, since that is what you have been requesting." And Moses and Aaron were driven from Pharaoh's presence. (Exodus 10:8-11 BSB)

But God hardened the Pharaoh's heart, and he kept negotiating with Moses about the terms of release. But finally, after the ten plagues, he expelled all the Israelites from his land.

This is God's pattern of negotiation. First, He will give the best offer. For those whom God did not call, their hearts will be hardened, and they will reject the best offer. Then the offer will get worse and worse until everything is taken away.

In 1948, they were offered 50% of Palestine, but they rejected the offer and fought. They would have retained Gaza and West Bank if they had not fought again in 1967. Today they are still trying to negotiate for the two-state solution. Eventually, they will have nothing.

The Gospel offered a 100% redemption if we just believe. But many hardened their hearts and refused the offer because they thought it was humiliating to admit that they are sinners and can do nothing to save themselves. But God is merciful, and some will believe and accept the offer and be saved.

But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12 NLT)

Usury - Bible vs Koran

"If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him. (Exodus 22:25 ESV)

Do not charge a fellow Israelite interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but not a fellow Israelite, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess. (Deuteronomy 23:19-20 NIV)

Note that the Bible forbids charging of interest for the poor and fellow Israelites. But the foreigner may be charged interest. Thus, banking is not a sin in the Bible. It is commercial and not charity. But the Quran seems to forbid all interest, banking or otherwise.

Allah will destroy Riba (usury) and will give increase for Sadaqat (deeds of charity, alms, etc.) And Allah likes not the disbelievers, sinners. (Quran 2:276 Mohsin Khan)

The Call of Abram

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. (Genesis 12:1-4 KJV)

Abraham is our father in faith. Although he was commended for his faith, he did not receive what was promised. He waited and waited and finally got to own a piece of the promised land which he had to buy it from the Hittites for use as a permanent burial place.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8 BSB)

Languages And Nations

Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The Lord said, "Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another's speech." So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:1-9 NASB95)

It seemed that after the flood, technology had improved rapidly. It took the descendants of Cain seven generations before Jabal built tents. But soon after the flood, the people learnt how to make bricks instead of stone.

To slow down the rapid modernisation of the world, God confused the languages. We have to wait for a few millenniums before we reach today's technology.

When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. They were completely amazed. "How can this be?" they exclaimed. "These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! (Acts 2:6-8 NLT)

Vegetarian Diet and Capital Punishment

Then God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, "Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth. All the animals of the earth, all the birds of the sky, all the small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the fish in the sea will look on you with fear and terror. I have placed them in your power. I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables. But you must never eat any meat that still has the lifeblood in it. And I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person's life. If a wild animal kills a person, it must die. And anyone who murders a fellow human must die. If anyone takes a human life, that person's life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image. Now be fruitful and multiply, and repopulate the earth." (Genesis 9:1-7 NLT)

If anyone is on a vegetarian diet for health reasons, I have no comment since I am not a doctor or a dietician. But if anyone is on a vegetarian diet for religious reasons, I wish to point out that God, in His covenant with our ancestor Noah, had given permission for Noah's descendants to eat animals after the flood. God also authorised capital punishment for those who murder.

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. (1 Timothy 4:1-3 ESV)