Performance

I can do more by my Lord the creator of heavens and earth than by my own strength. I think this is simple logic.

It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. (Psalm 118:8 ESV)
Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted; propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us. (Isaiah 8:10 NIV)
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31 ESV)

Facebook Blocked My Account

This morning Facebook lock me out of my own account because they suspect someone is posting on my behalf. Wonder which post caused them to think of this?

Facebook has rejected a Singapore government request to remove fake news yet the Facebook dictator Zuckerberg try to decide which post of mine is malicious and wanted to save me from myself.

In every good there is evil and every evil there is good. If even God decides not to remove fake news from the world, who are we to do that?

"The farmer's workers went to him and said, 'Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?' "'An enemy has done this!' the farmer exclaimed. "'Should we pull out the weeds?' they asked. "'No,' he replied, 'you'll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.'" (Matthew 13:27-30 NLT)

God's Promise to Israel Through Jeremiah

The Lord has made a promise to Israel.
He promises it as the one who fixed the sun to give light by day and the moon and stars to give light by night. He promises it as the one who stirs up the sea so that its waves roll. He promises it as the one who is known as the Lord who rules over all.
The Lord affirms, "The descendants of Israel will not cease forever to be a nation in my sight. That could only happen if the fixed ordering of the heavenly lights were to cease to operate before me."
The Lord says, "I will not reject all the descendants of Israel because of all that they have done. That could only happen if the heavens above could be measured or the foundations of the earth below could all be explored," says the Lord. (Jeremiah 31:35-37 NET)

Three Points To Note

I always see such response to messages, "Noted" or "Noted with thanks". I think there are three important points we ought to note in life.

The first point to note is that death is not the end of consciousness.

What happens after death? Almost nobody has ever come back, except for one Jesus. So I have to based this point on the only One who had came back to life and also on the Bible who tells me that death is not the end of it all.

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, (Hebrews 9:27 ESV)

The next point to note is that you cannot save yourself.

How can that be proven? Simple. Death is the ultimate proof. If anyone can save himself, the first thing he will do is to save himself from physical death. If we cannot overcome death, it is unlikely that we can overcome anything beyond it.

Those who trust in themselves are fools, but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe. (Proverbs 28:26 NIV)

The last point to note is only Jesus can save and there is none else.

Almost every religion in the world requires you to do something to save yourself. Only one religion provides salvation because someone did something for you. Jesus saves by dying on the cross on all our behalf. He proved His victory over death by His resurrection. We know we will live because He lives.

so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:28 ESV)

Why did I spend so much time and effort, writing this three points for you to note?

Because there is a second death, an eternity in the fiery lake of burning sulphur. If death is just the end of conscious existence, I would not have bothered to write all these. You live your life and I live mine. And the good news of Jesus Christ is not good news at all and Jesus would have died in vain.

"But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars - their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." (Revelation 21:8 NLT)

Hopefully, you would do more than just responding with "Noted" or "Noted with thanks".

Then Agrippa said to Paul, "Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?" Paul replied, "Short time or long - I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains." (Acts 26:28-29 NIV)

Middle Child Dates Middle Child

I came back from Ho Chi Minh City with my wife and when I stepped into the house, I saw my daughter and another guy from church. He asked permission to date my daughter which I gladly approved.

Bible And Scientific Rules

Three events described in the Bible had great impact on science:

1. Creation;
2. Sin entered the world;
3. The flood.

Without acknowledging these three events, the science of earth's origin cannot progress and will be stuck at its present state of speculation of big bang and evolution.

Creation
The creation was good up to the seventh day. It took six days of implementation and was successfully completed by the end of the sixth day. God rested on the seventh. The production problem caused by sin has to occur after the seventh day. So, at least for the first seven days, the scientific rules that governed the universe was different from today. There is no death and decay.

Sin
When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)
When sin entered the world, the scientific rules that governed the world changed to cater for death and decay. But many of the good stuff that exist initially still continue. Men lived to almost a thousand years old.

Flood
The world wide flood caused an unprecedented environmental catastrophe. The life span of men dropped rapidly from almost a thousand years to seventy years.

Millennium
The Bible prophesised one more change, that is, the millennium. I am not sure if this has an impact on the scientific rules, but men will resume living to a thousand years. The carnivores will become herbivores and I suppose, death, for humans, plants and animals will be rare.

Forgot My Bag

I have a thanksgiving item to report. I was travelling from Vị Thanh 渭清, Hậu Giang 后江 to Hồ Chí Minh 胡志明 City. After taking a drink at the only rest point along the way, I left my bag with my laptop in the restaurant. Only after travelling quite a while (maybe 30 minutes) before I realized that my bag was not in the car. We told the driver to turn around back to the restaurant and prayed very hard that no one took the bag. Thank God when we reached the restaurant, the bag was still there. We give thanks to our prayer answering God who does not leave His children in a lurch. (BTW, the drinks were nice. We also thank God for that.)