Storm & more

After 11 years, we are left with a terrible mess... maybe just like what someone told me, God destroys us in order to rebuild the whole thing...

And as on the other thing I'm working on, I can see God's work in it. Yet I (and a whole lot of other brothers & sisters) am waiting for God to intervene in this mess which has continued for far too long...

Forgiveness

After the first story in the book, Philip Yancey just kept on repeating the same/similar messages in the first ~100 pages with different examples... which is why I hate reading this sort of book...

Finally at page 93, I came across this,

"Forgiveness is an act of faith. By forgiving another, I am trusting that God is a better justice-maker than I am. By forgiving another, I release my own right to get even... Such a decision involves risk, of course: the risk that God may not deal with the person as I would want. (e.g. Prophet Jonah.)"

It's really difficult to forgive... as I have written before, it's a matter of constant practice...

Which is better?

This morning I slept through half of the sermon... And then I have this thought on what God appreciates more? Me making the effort to go to the worship service after almost working through the whole night & day and sleeping through half of the sermon? (I tried to open my eyes to no avail.) OR me just going home after work?

Despite falling asleep, I did try to listen to the preacher... and here's a question for contemplation: "Do you only ask what God's will is in your own life OR do you ask how your life can be changed to fit God's plan?"

What's so Amazing about Grace?

I have just started reading this book by Philip Yancey. I have heard of him for a long time, but I don't like reading this kind of book. By "this kind" I mean from the title, I guess it's the warm and fuzzy kind, intending to make Christians feel good. In my opinion, we have already got too much of these already.

Why did I read it? Because my fav pastor recommended it, he's not the "warm and fuzzy" kind, so I guess I'll give it a try.

Last night, I finished the first chapter. I was striked by the story on the first page about a prostitute who rented her daughter for her clients. When someone suggested that she went to a church to seek help, she replied, "Why would I go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They'd just make it feel worse."

Prostitutes, tax collectors used to flock to Jesus, but now the church has become so "righteous", the people who really need Jesus stop coming to us, what's the problem?

The Lord's Supper

I don't know how other people interpret 1 Corinthians 11 on the Lord's Supper. Maybe it's just me who read it this way... I remembered years ago someone must have taught me this interpretation... It feels really weird that such a so commonly quoted Bible passage has been misinterpreted by me and by some others for so long...

No idea what I'm talking about? here...

23For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." 25In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

27Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.

What we (ok, you're not included, maybe it's just me and the one who taught me) always do is interpret this passage on its own... and if we read the parts before and after it, we'll realise this is NOT just about the Lord's Supper, it's about the separation of rich and poor..."A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. "

I was taught that this means I should remember it was Jesus' body that I ate, but according to NT Wright (you should know who he is if you regularly read my posts), this means these rich people (who separates themselves from the poor) were not recognising the body of the Lord (i.e. the Church). Read it carefully if you're not convinced...

Why?

I know this is Your will... Why do You still put obstacles in front of me? I'm thinking of ways to do this... I'll work hard for You...

Talking and NOT doing anything... rantings of a not so very crazy girl!

I hate it when people just talk and talk and do NOTHING!

How are you supposed to work with this type of people??

I lost my temper today when someone just kept on someone should do make a list of emails of all the people and send certain materials to them. I told him all the emails are available, you can send them to all. And he said, "What?! Copy and paste them all?"

So WHAT???!!! What are you going to do? Sit there and do nothing? You think it's such a great idea, don't just TALK. Talk is NOTHING! You do it OR ask someone to do it, as a matter of fact, I got all the emails addresses already grouped under a group in my email account.

You don't ask someone to do it, and you don't do it, and YOU JUST KEEP ON COMPLAINING THIS IS AN INEFFICIENT WAY OF SPREADING THE NEWS!!

I hate this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(P.S. Ms. S, if you ever read this post and wonder who this guy is, it's your nemesis... ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!)

Teaching the Bible

It's so difficult to teach kids about the Bible.

I hate to teach Bible stories in the conventional way. I grew up in the church and I heard every Bible story presented the same way, "good" way. Every Bible character is good OR bad. Abraham is good. (I don't like him that much, Jacob was my fav Bible character before, yes! He's like me. Now he reminded me of a certain person, and it gave me chills just to think of Jacob... so... he's no longer my fav character, maybe Boaz can be my fav character...)

I really dislike that approach. When I'm teaching kids or just studying the Bible with friends or other groups (even in my visits to churches in China), I try to avoid this.

It's easier to do with adults, but with kids, I can understand why people tend to teach things in black and white... it's difficult. I'm still learning how to do it. (To be frank, teaching kids is not what I wanted to do, most of the stuff I got is not suitable for kids, but it's good to learn to teach in any opportunity. I'm not good in teaching. Well, if I'm good in teaching, God would NOT use me =P)

God, please grant me the wisdom to know how to do this. I really don't want your word to be thought of as some kind of fairy tale, that it's got nothing to do with reality. Now that I understand the story of Ruth, it touches my heart, how real these people are, help me with this here.

Offer yourself as a Living Sacrifice

Okay, so many posts in a day, I may be a compulsive blogger, but God's messages just keep on repeating, like what one of my friends said, it keeps on bombarding you, even from TV, web, Bible, songs, services... (the TV one is on my more "worldly" blog...)

Today's sermon is on Moses and his call.

When Moses met God for the first time in his life, he saw a bush that was burning but not burnt. What would you do if you were Moses then?

Hey God what were you doing to me? I was a prince, and I got banished because I HELPED some fellow Israelites, what WERE you thinking??!!! You were so UNFAIR!!

Well, he never got the chance to say this.

It's like one day you saw your boss in his car. He said, "Get inside, I'm going to have breakfast with you." You'll know he wants you to do something for him. Unless you're a very pretty girl, you may suspect he wants to date you.

God gave him a mission. Like every prophet after him, he refused. (The pastor said Jonah was a better person than us, because he revered God. When God called him, he knew he couldn't just say no, God would come after him, so he escaped. But what we do when God wants us to do something we don't want to do? Just plain "No, God, I won't do it." And then sit down on the couch, continue to watch out TV as usual.)

Then the pastor continued with an example of a battery (he's the same one as mentioned in the previous post with the ATM.) Years ago, he bought a notebook computer. He worked with the computer with the main supply on and the battery attached. Someone told him that wasn't good for the battery, so he detached it and left it on the desk as a paper weight.

One day, he wanted to take the notebook out to Starbucks and when he put the battery in, oops, it didn't work anymore.

If the battery were alive, it would have said, "Why did you waste my life as a battery? I was just a paper weight for my whole life." (See the recurrent message here... ok I get it.)

Moses said, "Who am I to do all these things for you?" The fact is he was the most suitable person among all Israelites to do it, he knew Pharoah and their customs and everything Egyptian, still he offered excuses. (This I did not do at this present moment. Not that I know of anyway...) "I am not eloquent enough", etc, etc, you know the story...

If your future boss asked you during an interview, "Do you know how to use Excel?" Would you say "No, I don't! Don't ask me to do it."?? You'd probably say something in the line of "I would be able to learn it very quickly if you gave me the chance."

Moses could have seen his shortcomings, yet asked God for help. He didn't.

God promised him a few times that He would be with him all the way.

When someone says he'll treat you for dinner, you can go wherever you want. You say, oh, hmm, we should probably go to McDonald's, it's cheaper. You probably cannot afford a dinner buffet.

God offers you the promise that He'll be with you, and you insults Him by saying, "I cannot do it." Hey, you're talking to God.

Focus not on our own inadequacies, instead on God's presence.

(So, what do You want me to do here?? Hey, did I miss something? I don't believe this recurrent message is for nothing... I've already got several tasks from You, what more? Or did I not work hard enough in those tasks?)

Boaz

I need to teach the children on Ruth next week, but the one whom I can identify with in the Book of Ruth is Boaz. Even though he's a man and I'm not.

God gave him so much, and how could he use what God gave him to help others?

This reminds me of the example I heard a few months ago.

We're like an ATM machine. God puts His money into the bank and we keeps it for Him. One day, He needs the $, so He comes to the ATM machine and gets it.

Then, we asked Him, WHY you need this money? What's this for? Enter the reason before getting the money. What?! That's too much! Over the limit!

What would you do if your bank's ATM machine acted like this?

What God prepares

"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him"

(1 Corinthians 2:9)

I have copied this verse on bookmarks and emails and letters to many people before.

Today, God sent this verse to me.

Experience

Everyone got different experiences in God.

I'm just amazed when I said praying is the way to submission to God's will (while we're discussing Jesus' prayer in Gethesmane), most of them disagreed with me. Obviously none had any experience in this area.

I'm sure they have experiences in other areas that I don't. I thought it'd be a common experience, I've read about this in many Christian books... Surprisingly almost everyone thinks I'm wrong... hmm...

Morocco Trip

A visit to an Islamic country is incomplete without an introduction to Islamic history. This may be true.

What is more horrible... is that my tour leader decided to tell everyone he's a Catholic! (and he did NOT say that he has not been to church for AGES! until much later.) AND started to talk about stuff from the da Vinci Code as if they are the real truth.

I can't believe this. And also, I can't believe I'm the only Christian among the 32 people in the group.

I can no longer stand it when he is talking about John the Baptist (after telling everyone Jesus was married and John the Baptist did not die as in what the Bible said) and said he's like Isaiah instead of Elijah.

So I STOOD UP and protested!

God put me there for a reason. However, I did not think I have done the best under the circumstances.

I told him my views and asked him to go to church again.

I'll probably send an email to all my tour mates on this subject with another side of the story...

Cell

As some of you might know, I have got a calling to organise a cell in my workplace.

Yesterday, a friend whom I'm doing this with together, told me a colleague wanted to join us. God is at work again.

This reminded me again, my work here is not just "work". It's God's work.

Sadistic?

I listened to the sermons from Dr. Stephen Lee on the book of Ruth again on my flight to Morocco. (As I needed to prepare for my teaching on the book of Ruth to the children this month.)

He urged us to rethink it if we think God may be sadistic. He never give us what we want, etc... God loves us, sometimes He even indulges us, like the way with Boaz and Ruth. He gave Boaz what he wanted, even though Ruth was a Moabite.

I have to admit I think God NEVER gives me what I want. And honestly most of the time, it turned out that not getting the stuff I want is good.

I can't help questioning it though. Why God never indulge me?