Theology...

Theology- no one on Earth can claim to not know anything about it... Perhaps I should explain what it means 1st... theology n. , pl. , -gies . The study of the nature of God and religious truth; rational inquiry into religious questions. Get it now??? Basically the whole existence of homo sapiens can be categorized into two: the ones with the right theology and the ones that are wrong...

There are subtypes for those who are wrong, either they have their very own pagan beliefs or they don't bother... You might ask why bother... This is where the ones who are right comes in... That's because the very fact that God MADE life and He revealed Himself and He was involved in every single bit of historical event that you know of is sufficient for you to wonder if you should know what's actually going on...

In your entire life on Earth, be it 100 years old or 10, you have 2 chances to turn back to God... The 1st one is when you're still alive on Earth, and you acknowledge that you have rebelled against your Creator your whole life and you failed to glorify Him as He deserves and THE ONLY way is Jesus dying on the cross for you and He resurrected so that you can have fellowship with Him in heaven...

The other one will be when you're dead, you'll face eternal condemnation from God because you have never turned back to God... The irony is that now that you're in hell, you really want to turn back to God and you feel like He's the very thing that you have, BUT guess what, God is not there for you... No matter how hard you shout or yell, He will not bother... Because you already had a chance to cling on to Him with whatever amount of time you have on Earth but you didn't... And so this is a just action for God to do...

So, why wait when you have the chance to repent now???

Wisdom...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH... After coming back from camp on WISDOM, there's just so many things to workout!!! Man, being a Christian on Earth is just so darn hard!!! Making WISE decisions that will PLEASE God is just insane!!! But, still need to do it!!!

Bet some of you out there never even thought of pleasing your what-so-ever gods you have in your own life, moreover making wise decisions... And maybe because you just don't give a damn about who God is and what He demands of you... Because all you want from your so called god is that he can help you in ways that you want and whenever it doesn't work out you'll blame god for not making it happen... But maybe that's the very reason why things in your life just doesn't work out...(this doesn't mean that when things work out in your life you know god)

The worst thing a folly can do is to not know how foolish he is...

God, please grant us foolish people some wisdom to live a life pleasing to You...

Reminders...

After a long discussion on ministry today, there's just so much work to do(not that I didn't know before this)...

I need to constantly remind myself of these few things while doing ministry...

1. Ministry is not a heroic act, we work as a team!!! Whether you're alone out there or what, you still need help from your brothers and sisters to jump in when you're dying...

2. Ministry is to build Jesus' church, not for your own respective church or for your own fame...

3. Whatever happens, God is still sovereign and the Holy Spirit will work in the individual to change...

4. Approach people with humility... Must remind myself of the judgment on the arrogance of Assyria in Isaiah 10 and John Newton's quote: I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am... So there's absolutely nothing to be proud of even if your 'theological level' is higher because it's the Holy Spirit's work after all...

5. Must not act like Peter in John(forgot which chapter)... I shall not be the Peter that will lay his life down for Jesus(in that context) and chopped the soldier's ear in order to protect Jesus... Because none of these battles are personal, the world hates Jesus anyways...

6. Do everything for God's glory and not mine or anyone else...

7. Must think theologically and look at the bigger picture- Jesus' church... Theology, Reflection, Practice!!!

Please rebuke me if I ever forget any 1 of these...

Soli Deo Gloria!!!

God is good to me!!!

Woohoo!!! God is good man!!! haha... Haven't been evangelizing or flyering for quite a long period(yes, rebuke me) and did it today!!! So fun!!!

Well, it was pretty good to walk around the campuses and give out flyers to people, but never had the chance to talk much about it... I met this Korean guy who is a Christian and said that his church is looking for other churches to work with them and he even gave me his church's flyer and a paper of the way they share the gospel... It's pretty encouraging to meet this kind of people but guess what, this is a Korean guy and he is doing all these, where are all the Malaysians who call themselves evangelicals??? Though their gospel did include sin and judgment and stuffs, but there's still something understandings that needs to be fixed... Oh well, at least they're trying to preach the gospel which is better than evangelicals who change the gospel into some kind of blessing for those in need...

Another amazing thing happened when I was in the train, I saw this chinese guy reading a chinese version of Purpose Driven Life... I knew I had to do something and suddenly I remembered that I have an emergency flyer in my bible... I took it out but hesitated because I don't really know how to share the gospel in chinese... yes yes all my sinful excuses... As I continue to hesitate, he started to talk on the phone... And man, it was a long conversation, so I started to slap myself in the face(literally) because I failed to do my job!!! So in order to 'redeem' myself, I planned to follow him till his destination even if it means that I have to make 1 big round to come back for the sake of the gospel because there was no sign of him ending the conversation... Guess what, he was heading to Sentral which was where I'm supposed to go... So he ended the conversation as the train arrived at Sentral and I chased him just to give him the flyer and invite him to church...

God is good to me because He has given me people that needs to hear about Jesus!!! Whether or not they will come to church is dependent of God's sovereignty but I've done my part and thanks be to God for giving me such a fruitful day...

Praise the LORD for all that happened today!!!

P/S: If you thought what you will expect me to write in this post based on the title is something like God is good to me because He gave me some kind of blessing, then here's a question for you to think about: Would you want to go to heaven if God were not there, only His gifts???

FWC 2011...

What is truth??? In this current era, most of things we see are relative to something else, so how are we basing our judgment on??? And knowing how foolish we are, how can you even know what you're judging is correct, and maybe what you're basing on is also wrong as well...

So then, what really is truth??? Do you even bother to know it??? As I have said earlier, we are flawed beings, so if we are to know truth based on what we know or experience then it will be very subjective and hence becomes relative again isn't it???

If there isn't any transcendency to reveal all these, then we will still be stucked in our own fantasy of relativism right??? And we are all products of modernity, meaning influenced by culture and all kind of stuffs so then it just proves that we can never really trust our very own judgment because culture is made by you and me...

Therefore in the end, God alone is THE TRUTH because He is transcendent and yet He fully revealed Himself through the bible and Jesus Christ... Well, I wish I can tell more about it but I still have to work on it because I still can't fully grasp it yet...

And my view of ministry has just changed... Before FWC, I thought that there was only prosperity gospel which is heretical, but then what I found in FWC is that heresies can be as subtle as like saying that all these are for God-glorifying purposes, but in the end it isn't... It just depresses and scares me to know that this world is just getting more gloomy and dark...

Well, another thing I've learnt is that ministry is not just about bible-preaching but you are also building that person's theological framework... Theology, Reflections, Practice is what I need to make as a habit!!!

All these are bits and pieces of what I learnt from FWC- The Gospel and Truth right after exam on Thursday till Saturday... I shall never forget these 3 days I had in 'heaven'!!! Seeing so many gospel-centered evangelicals especially people from FOCUS, Australia just gives you a glimpse of light that there are still some people out there who's on your side in preaching the gospel and doing God's faithful ministry but then, it just ain't enough!!!

I pray that I can see more growth in people to come to realization that THE TRUTH needs to be shared because it is THE Truth not A Truth!!!

Speechless...

I feel very sad today... Not because of exams which is in less than 2 weeks time but because of my conversations with my mom... I've been trying really hard to show her what Christianity really means since don't know when and yes it might be because I never rely and trust in God that He will work in her, but I just don't know what more to say...

Every time she will bring back the same arguments and it just makes me wonder whether she really got and thought about what we talked the previous time... The gospel is just so clear and logical despite the IWoG, that I don't know how to add on to what I had just said anymore...

If only my tears can win unrepentant hearts for You, I'd go blind daily... I really wish that this could happen... Oh well, God is sovereign...

And I seriously have no idea how the heck can someone live without God... Yes, you might feel good when you sin after all who would like to be controlled by someone else, but in knowing God, there's a greater joy than everything else, and best of all you actually have nothing to lose... By sinning, you lose everything... You lose your true identity and purpose of being on Earth...

This Advent season is just really driving me crazy in a good theological way that I just keep thanking God for His IWoG of sending His own Son- The Man Jesus Christ to die for our sins...

Food for thought: Did God send His own Son to the cross just to cleanse our sinful flesh??? This sounds so man-centered, or is there a bigger picture to it???

After pondering over this, I hope that you will view the cross in a different way... That's what I learnt from John and Isaiah thus far...

Working FOR YOUR Salvation

Most people will think that this is possible without knowing that they're saying that in their hearts... Let me just clarify 1 simple term, SALVATION... Well, salvation basically means the act of saving or protecting from harm, risk, loss,destruction(from dictionary.com)... Ok, let's be frank on this, where do you this can happen to you??? There's definitely ain't no place like this on Planet Earth!!! So, this place should be heaven right??? I'm not equating salvation to heaven but this is just to simplify things and I bet most of you are definitely thinking in that...

Now, IF you want to work for salvation or to get into heaven, how can you do it??? Well, the answer you can think of is probably by doing good works which is correct... BUT, here comes the problem, what kind of works are good and what the heck is GOOD?! Let me assume that all of us have a common understanding that good things are to obey the law and stuff, but how do you fit heaven into this picture... Here's a simple example of what I'm hitting on, just imagine that you're applying to get a job, all of your preparations and interviews has to be done to secure your place of getting that job right??? So you can see that in order to get a job, all the procedures that has to be done are all job-related, logical la...

I hope that in your mind at least the concept of heaven you must have is that there's God's presence... So, based on the example above, in order to get into heaven a.k.a the place where God is, what kind of work do you think you CAN DO to get there??? God-related works la!!!

I bet most of you out there don't even know who God is in the 1st place, so why do you even bother to do what you're doing now??? Because it ain't getting you to heaven which means you're definitely going SOMEWHERE(I think you know where it is)...

I'm not saying that once you know God, you can start working your way to heaven... I know this sounds contradicting but just try to grasp what I'm saying... You can't work your way to heaven just by knowing God because you just DON'T WANT to listen to Him moreover TO WORK FOR HIM!!! For goodness sake, we can't even understand God properly, how can we know what He wants us to do... That is why Jesus came to Earth!!! To reveal who God is, what He wants us to do, and to give life a.k.a. heaven and bring judgment a.k.a. hell... Thankfully, we DON'T HAVE TO WORK for our SALVATION, otherwise we'd be doomed to destruction before we even try to find out who God is...

You might know say that by knowing Jesus and doing all that He said can get you into heaven a.k.a legalism, BUT then you're just missing the whole point of Jesus dying on the cross for your idiotic sins!!! He came to show us what we're supposed to do which is to glorify God and how we have always failed to do so... Then the consequence of accepting or rejecting this truth falls in... AND NEVER THE OTHER WAY ROUND!!! By believing in Jesus to get you to heaven, you're no different from those who believe in Jesus' signs... Because the importance of the signs are not the actions but the arrow that the signs are pointing to which is Jesus is The Christ, The Son Of God!!!

And we are to live like Jesus because this is how it should be... We, creations should glorify our Creator in every single aspect of our life!!! In heaven, we will be worshipping God, so we should also live life on Earth like heaven in a sense that we should keep honoring God for who He is and not to want to get to heaven because you'll be missing the point!!!

May God help you seek Truth...