Sunday, August 31, 2008

Environment & Religion

As I have said in my other blog, I found this really great show about environmental protection, and I just watched an excerpt on its website about religion and environment.

It's interesting to see these Jewish children learning about trash instead of the Torah. =)

Saturday, August 30, 2008

What I learnt from my Spiritual Theology Class

I guess I'm in search of some kind of theology I can identify with in the Spiritual Theology Course, I think I found it in one of the classes, and surprisingly it's the kind of theology closer to me than I think (I've come to dislike many of the stuff typical evangelicals believe in... sigh...)

The topic was the Reformed Tradition with a particular concentration on Calvin. (These are all my understanding from the lecture itself, so whatever gets wrong, it's my fault .=P) For Calvin, being "spiritual"means submitting to God whatever He gives us. His providence is always the best.

For Charismatics (or even evangelicals), when you got sick, you thank God when you get cured. (Yeah, we sang the song about thanking God for the thorns of the roses, how many of us pray for that? I really don’t want to pray like this coz I don’t want to get stuck by thorns =P.) For Calvin, he has got this conviction that God's will whatever it is-- is good, so you can praise God whatever the circumstances.

We leave our personal desires. Instead of praying for what we want, we ask God's will to be done. (That doesn't mean God's will is not always done, but this means we are actually asking ourselves to submit to God's will.)

God may not heal is, that's not the point.

Some charismatics suggest that we should tell God what we want specifically, but the lecturer told us it might be because he’s lazy, but he just asked God to help mould him into a good father, and as to how to be a good father, it’s up to God to decide. It’ll be really terrible if our desires all turn into reality. =P (haha, this is exactly how I usually pray like, maybe I’m lazy, but why should I name all these stuff I think is good for God?? =P)

The lecturer said he was invited to dinner by a sister from church, whose mother got a stroke long ago and became a Christian, but her mom still remained unhappy, because she could not forgive someone. Then just before that dinner, that sister said her mom was much happier recently and asked the pastor to pray for her. He forgot what he prayed about, but after a while her mom died. Then the sister came and talked to him and thanked him, because she had been thinking about this for a while, her mom was happy and didn’t have much to do in the world anymore, maybe it’s time for her to rest in God. And that day when the pastor prayed for her, he prayed that if it’s God’s will, then let her rest. He jokingly said others’ prayers brought healing while his brought death. =P

Some thinks that the idea of predestination makes people lazy in evangelism, but Calvinists' effort in evangelism was more than that of the Lutherans.

And one important aspect of predestination, is whatever your work is, the effect is from God. Not us! Otherwise it’ll be really scary, whether someone would believe in God depends on us, who make so many mistakes and error?!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Textbooks

Look at these required readings from the NT course...

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Money...

I have recently lost some money on investments, I was quite unhappy about the whole thing. It is just so easy to think that when you do something good, you’re more likely to be blessed. Like all humans, whenever bad things happen one tends to ask why (not necessarily as a complaint towards God. Then I realized I have been really preoccupied with money these days, thinking about the possibility of buying a house later, I have spent a lot of time thinking about money and stuff. Maybe this is a reminder from God for me.

I was still unhappy, but less so, then on Sunday, two firemen died while rescuing people from the huge blaze at Mongkok, I couldn’t help but think what’s more important, life or money, then I remember money is not really important.

I also realized the drop in the prices of commodities and foreign currencies are actually good (well not for me, but for the poor people who can barely feed themselves around the world, and I just realized these people are the ones who need the money, not me.

And I also read this post over at Jesus Shaped Spirituality. We should think about how we use our money as Christians.

Matthew 6
[19] "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal,
[20] but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.
[21] For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down: A Theology of Worship for the Turn-of-the-Century Culture By: Marva J. Dawn (Part 2)

Here are the rest of the excerpts I found enlightening...

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Why I Left the Institutional Church by Frank Viola

Two of the reasons he has given are:

... The second thing that got me out of the traditional church has to do with what I felt to be the shallowness and superficiality of modern Christianity. According to my own frail assessment, contemporary Christianity is ten miles high and two inches deep. In fact, it’s so shallow that I question if a gnat could drown in it.

... Neglecting the Poor to Maintain and Enhance the Building

this is so true... sigh... read the rest here.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down: A Theology of Worship for the Turn-of-the-Century Culture By: Marva J. Dawn (Part 1)



I am reading the Chinese translation of the book, but I managed to find almost all the parts I wanted from google books. =) I have finished 2/3 of the book, still 1/3 more to go, but I'll share it bit by bit.

From Reaching Out Without Dumbling Down
(I am a bit lazy to type this all up)

This is a book about worship, one with messages we need to hear. The standards of men/women dropped over the past decades, their ability to appreciate literary works, art whatever has declined.

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And we sometimes try to get these people with "lower standards" to church by lowering the standards of worship in our church. That's where we got it wrong, worship is for God, not for us, or any other purposes.

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We seldom acknowledge suffering in our worship, when we talked about suffering, we often talked about how God can help us, but in Psalms, the poets had a different way of expressing their feelings in their worship as Walter Brueggemann pointed out

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Rikk Watts on Acts

I am taking a correspondence course from Regent on New Testament Foundations.

And when Rikk Watts talked about Acts,

Nothing can hinder this that God has determined to do.
(many examples from Acts) - nor the church in Jerusalem: whether leaders or corruption.

There is a crisis in my church, and this reminder that God is in control is reassuring.

Why should I become a Christian?- I guess it can be "Why did I become a Christian (Part 4)?"

I remember trying to explain to my secondary school classmates why they should believe in Jesus? And then one said, "I am happy on my own, I don't need Jesus." We often think non-believers need Jesus, they have an emptiness inside, but many of them don't think they have.

Read more about this in the internetmonk blog.

And also an article from Times Online.

Nevertheless, young people do not feel disenchanted, lost or alienated in a meaningless world. “Instead, the data indicated that they found meaning and significance in the reality of everyday life, which the popular arts helped them to understand and imbibe.” Their creed could be defined as: “This world, and all life in it, is meaningful as it is,” translated as: “There is no need to posit ultimate significance elsewhere beyond the immediate experience of everyday life.” The goal in life of young people was happiness achieved primarily through the family.

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“We live in an instant culture, which cannot be reached by instant missionary tactics.” And the desire for happiness is valid and should not be criticised by clergy. “It can only be outclassed by a Christ-like way of life, for in him alone is true happiness to be found.”

Monday, August 04, 2008

Heather King- I think this can also be "Why did you become a Christian (Part 3)"?

I just followed the link from internetmonk without even reading the whole thing he wrote and found this interview with someone named Heather King, and in the end, I found that the paragraph that I love is also quoted by internetmonk in his blog. =)

I think this is a the way Christianity should be, but she is talking about Catholicism. A pity "evangelicals" can't touch people's heart like this. Like what the internetmonk said, with a lot more real world application and more integrity with the main issues that are at stake with Jesus.

I just read the obituary of a woman named Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker who died at the age of 98, and who’d saved something like 2500 Jews, many of them children. The Nazis repeatedly tortured her, breaking her feet and legs, but she’d refused to give the names of her collaborators, or the location of the garden where she’d buried a jar containing a roll of paper with the names of the children and their parents. The Nazis finally let her go and as soon as she got out, she continued with her rescue work. You don’t have to be Catholic to be an Irena Sendler, but I can’t imagine anything that would encourage me more in that direction than Catholicism. Someone like Irena Sendler makes me realize how unworthy I am to call myself a follower of Christ: if I were really a follower, I’d live in a lot more courage, humility, poverty, chastity, and obedience than I do. But people like Irena Sendler give me something to strive for, to emulate. There’s something sublime about an Irena Sendler, about Catholicism, about a religion that makes saints out of sinners. Saints aren’t “good,” they’re beyond good, they’re part crazy. I read recently that faith means believing in the surprise ending. The Crucifixion was a surprise ending. You don’t expect the Savior of the world to die an apparent failure, rejected and scorned, spat upon, cut down in the prime of life and butchered—just like we don’t expect cancer, broken hearts, bankruptcy, alcoholism, war, lost children, famine, crime, and aging to cut us down like they do. So the Crucifixion was a surprise ending.

But the Resurrection—that’s the biggest surprise ending of all.

Also on a question almost everyone asks me, even my Catholic colleague, how come a Protestant like myself wears a cross with a crucified Jesus on it?? My answer is always "I love the one with Jesus dying on the cross more", of course, Heather King said it a lot more eloquently.

The cross in a Catholic church has a body on it. Right up front, right above the altar, is the message that subconsciously haunts us: someday, we’re going to die. Right up front, loud and clear, is the human condition: suffering, torment, conflict. As I say in Redeemed, the first time I went to Mass and really “saw” that body on the crucifix, I realized Christ isn’t saying that we need to suffer more; he’s acknowledging the suffering we’re already in. And I suppose on some level in that moment I “got” as much as I ever will, or as it’s possible to “get”—which is that God loves us so much he incarnated himself as man, he came down and pitched his tent among us to teach us how to come awake, to accompany us on the journey, to show what it looks like and what happens to you when you live in total integrity. Eventually, one way or another, they’ll kill you—which is why hardly anyone ever dares to live in total integrity.

And there is this one other question by the interviewer

Linda: Recently I sat for a time with someone with late stage Alzheimer’s and I remembered you once wrote that learning to just sit with someone in their own suffering is one of the greatest gifts and one of the most difficult to accomplish. It was helpful for me to realize I didn’t have to try to fix anything but that there was a purpose in just being there. Do you feel that grace lies in giving witness in that way, without any mirror for the ego?

Heather: Grace is a slightly overworked word that seems to mean different things to different people, but I think it requires grace, that is, the help of God, in order for our ego to “disappear” in the first place, in order for us to detach from our deep desire for results. We tend to value productivity, and to value ourselves according to how effective we are. Just sitting with someone in his or her suffering is difficult because our impulse is either to fix the person, or to be thanked, or both. If they can’t be fixed, we tend to lose interest; there’s nothing in it for us. The last thing Christ asked of his disciples was to sit with him, for his “hour” in the Garden at Gethsemane the night before he died—and of course, they couldn’t; like us, they fell asleep. It requires tremendous vulnerability, on the side of both parties, to simply sit quietly in each other’s presence. We feel we have to say something interesting or the other person will leave or get discouraged. So to get close enough to your own heart, and the heart of another, to realize, This is all I’ve ever wanted, for someone to sit with me. To love me just because I exist. To be in solidarity with my humanity and my suffering…

That’s big. I hope I make it there some day.