Pride, selfishness and a new beginning

“If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, ² fulfill my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love, sharing the same feelings, focusing on one goal. ³ Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. ⁴ Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”

On Saturday, I had my first Deacon’s Board meeting in more than 2 years. Pastor Chris started us off by reminding me of this passage from Philippians.

Verses 3 and 4 struck me in particular. I’ve realised that over the years, I have grown proud. Maybe not in the usual loud-mouthed boastful way, but still proud nonetheless. I have grown too confident in my own capability, and too intolerant of other people’s failings. Even if I don’t voice out my own opinions, the bitter note is sounded from my soul, and so poisoned everything I did.

And the interesting thing was that the prouder I became, the more selfish I became. Again, not in the typical fashion of only ever talking about oneself or only doing things for oneself. It was more subtle, and more difficult to pin down: I had been thinking of things happening around me in terms of how it related to me and only me. I would think that someone’s bad day had to do with something I did; or when someone offered an alternative option to my ideas I would feel personally threatened and under attack.

It is interesting how pride and selfishness are so closely related.

Hopefully I would learn from this and not be so proud or selfish this time round -_-“

Book Review: Tactics

Seeing that this month’s FX was focussed on evangelism, I decided to review the book, “Tactics: A game plan for discussing your Christian convictions”, written by Gregory Koukl. I didn’t really know what to expect when I first read it a few weeks ago, but since picking it up I’ve found out that it’s one of those “must have” books for any Christian who wants to be serious about being able to engage in productive dialogue with non-Christians.

Why? Lee Strobel, who wrote the foreword to this book, explains it well: “There are plenty of resources that help Christians understand what they believe and why they believe it – and certainly those are vitally important. But it’s equally crucial to know how to engage in a meaningful dialogue with a sceptic or a person from another religious viewpoint…”

Simply put, often when we get taught about evangelism, we get taught a lot about why evangelism is important and what to say, but we don’t get taught how to say it. It is one thing to know the Kalam Cosmological argument off by heart, but quite another to know just how to graciously respond to a friend who says, “well there’s no evidence that God exists.”

Through this book, Greg teaches us how to be better Ambassadors for Christ, how to shrewdly, yet graciously, maximise on opportunities to promote the cause of Christ in our conversations. Greg gives us incredibly simple but extremely powerful techniques to help us engage better with non-believers, whether they are earnest seekers wanting to know more or combative aggressors who are only interested in skewering a Christian with their words.

And these techniques aren’t mere gimmicks or tricks of manipulation! These are effective tools that help open eyes and clear minds if used honestly and appropriately. It’s not about just “dressing up the facts” or “talking it up”, but about taking away the trash and clearing the mist from people’s eyes.

Despite its aggressive-sounding title, Greg consistently focusses us on the gracious use of these techniques. Because these techniques are so powerful, they can be easily abused and misused to push people into a defensive corner. In picking up this book, be very careful about how you use what you learn from it: We are here to be Ambassadors of Christ, to win people to Christ, not to merely win arguments.

Although the points made in this book are incredibly powerful and useful, the book itself is surprisingly easy to read. It took me 2-3 weeks to read, in a time when I was quite busy with other things in my life, which is amazing for me since I haven’t finished a non-fiction Christian book for maybe the last 2 years! It is very compelling to read and if you sit down to read it you may be tempted to devour it in one sitting. Greg skilfully distils complicated philosophical concepts into simple, easy-to-understand bites, so that a reader with high-school level English will be able to easily read and learn from his book.

Another thing I found amazing about this book was how practically instructive it was. It felt like I was doing mental martial arts practice with Greg while I was reading this book! After going through the theory of a concept, Greg would bring out real and practical examples from his life about how these concepts could be applied, and gives you a ste-by-step, move-by-move, guide on how to address people’s questions and challenges appropriately. Each chapter has a very useful “What we learned” summary at the end to make sure you know what you have gone through in the chapter you have just read.

So have I enticed you enough to read this book yet?

Well, because I know most of you won’t be picking up this book, I will share with you a few of the key points that I have learnt from this book:

• If in doubt, ask. Too often, non-Christians go on the offensive and make aggressive claims against Christianity and demand that we answer for our belief. But what we often forget is that it’s not only we who have to answer for our beliefs; THEY have to too! Christians are often much more well-versed in the reasons for their faith than non-Christians simply because non-Christians aren’t often asked to figure out why they believe what they believe! And when these non-Christians are asked, they find that they actually haven’t fully thought through the implications and reasons for their belief! It is amazing how far the simple questions of, “What do you mean by that” and “How did you arrive at that conclusion?” can get you.
• Practice makes perfect. As with any human task, the more practice we have at being Ambassadors, the better we get at it. We can’t expect to be experts without having ever answered a question under pressure!
• Irrationality abounds! It is amazing how incoherent and illogical some common ideological slogans/catch-phrases are! If we take a moment to think, you realise that some popular ideas are actually rubbish! For example, think about the phrases “Don’t judge”, or “There is no truth”.
• Pick up the bat. One of my favourite quotes from Greg is this one: “You don’t need to hit home runs. You don’t even need to get on base. Just getting up to bat – engaging others in friendly conversation – will do.” And my question from this quote for you is this: Will you get up to bat?

To finish off, I want to leave you with more words from Lee Strobel, again, from the foreword of this book: “We live in a day when militant atheism is on the march. Christianity is coming under attack, not just from best-selling books, sceptical college professors, and television documentaries, but increasingly from neighbours and co-workers… Each day the chances are increasing that you will find yourself in a conversation with someone who dismisses Christianity as a mythology-ridden anachronism. What will you do when they paint you into a rhetorical corner and belittle your beliefs? How will you persuasively present “the reason for the hope that you have”? How will you seize opportunities to get into potentially life-changing spiritual discussions with people you meet?”

I hope you will read this book.

Love is

The middle of a flight must be one of the oddest places to be touched by God. But I suppose stranger things have happened.

I have a long history of finding it difficult to feel loved. And I have always struggled to understand why. Why is it that no matter what anyone does for me, I still don't feel that they really love me, and I keep doubting their sincerity?

More importantly: Why is it that I can't feel that God loves me? I know in my head the Sunday School answer that Jesus came and died for my sins. "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son…" everyone knows that verse.

Yet, deep inside me, something within rejects that. It refuses to be moved by such a profound truth. When I am honest with myself, deep down inside, there is a quiet, terrified voice saying, "Yes, Jesus came to die for the sins of everyone… except for me".

On the flight home from NZ, I began reading CJ Maheney's "Living the Cross Centred Life". There is stuff I read there that I don't think I fully emotionally "get". But then I got to part where he went through Isaiah 53 and painted the picture of Jesus' death for our sake. He went on to say: "Who killed Jesus? God did. God the Father was ultimately responsible for the death of His Son. God is telling us, "I purposefully determined to crush My Son with My wrath - for your sins, as your substitute. Why? Because I love you." When you're tempted to doubt God's love for you, stand before the cross and look at the wounded, dying, disfigured Saviour, and realise why He is there. I believe His Father would whisper to us, "Isn't that sufficient? I haven't spared My own Son; I deformed and disfigured and crushed Him - for  you. What more could I do to persuade you that I love you?"

As I read those words and Isaiah 53, realisations started to grow within me slowly. As I gazed with my mind's eye upon Jesus' battered body on the cross, the blood dripping down from His body with the Wrath of God upon His shoulders, I realised that I have made a grave, grave error throughout my life.

Why did I not feel loved by God? Because I had rejected His love. It wasn't that He had not poured out His love to me as well; it was that He had done so but I had wilfully rejected it in my heart because I was bitter and angry at Him for all the wrong reasons. I refused to see that His outstretched arms on the Cross embraced me as well.

When I heard that phrase, "What more could I do to persuade you that I love you?" though, I was struck numb. Every time I repeated that in my head, it was as if a battering ram repeatedly slammed against the cold stone walls of my hard and bitter heart. What more could He do? He had spared nothing to get to me. He had sacrificed even His only Son, the most precious thing to Him.

Finally, the blood dripping from Jesus' body onto me reached my cold heart and brought life back into it. Finally, I realise that His arms have been around me all along, but I had simply refused to see it. Finally I could breathe in deep and be nourished by His cleansing Spirit, rather than be poisoned by my pervasive bitterness.

I don't know how far I will go before I get tripped up and fall down again. But at least I know what to do now: If you're ever doubtful about God's love, just gaze at the Cross.

Mr Nice Guy

What's so different about Christianity?

Why the fuss? Why does it matter? Who cares?

Aren't they just like us? Look, I'm a pretty decent guy. I haven't murdered anyone; I help out at community events; I take care of my mother. I don't drink; I don't smoke; I don't gamble. Isn't that what Jesus was all about? Everyone loving each other and treating each other with respect?

Isn't that all?

In a post-Christian world, in which the Judeo-Christian after-effects still permeate throughout its culture, it can sometimes feel hard for Christians to stand out from their non-Christian neighbours. It may be remarkable in mainland China to be an honest businessman that keeps firmly to the law, but it's pretty standard in Australia to do the right thing… otherwise you get caught! In Afghanistan, Christians may have to die for standing up for their faith, but no one's going to shoot you for following Jesus in England.

What does Christianity have to offer the Western ("Modern") World, apart from its Bible-based morality, which no one really wants any more anyway. We're "much too advanced" for the backward and ancient rules of the Bible, after all. How can a Christian be "different" enough to be noticed in this pluralistic post-Christian society?

The answer is - and always has been - Jesus. The Bible doesn't offer a way to improve life on Earth, because it says that God will do away with the current world to make way for a new, perfect, one! It doesn't offer Morality, contrary to public opinion; it states that no one is righteous enough before God and that Morality gets you nowhere! Sin isn't a negative bank account where if you pay enough good deeds you can get yourself out of debt; it's a terminal illness of the soul that has no cure apart from the blood of Jesus!

Jesus was never about turning us into "Mr Nice Guy". When He lived on earth, His main aim wasn't to make us all love each other and treat each other right. His Mission was to come to die, in our place, for our sins. His primary objective was to take the bullet for us, so that we may live on in the loving arms of our Father in Heaven.

So what's so different about a Christian? It's simple: Jesus. Our entire existence is viewed in light of Jesus. We live in, for, to, through Jesus. "To live is Christ, and to die is gain". Yes, maybe that would push some of us more towards a more "morally acceptable" life according to some people (Although many of us can testify to the fact that we probably stumble a lot more than we ought to!). We're not better people; we're SAVED people, and that only because Jesus was gracious enough to give us what we did not deserve.

A Christian is not defined by what he/she does, but by what has been done for him/her. We may not necessarily ACT differently (though we really should); but we ARE different.

We have been taken by Jesus, and that changes EVERYTHING.

Will my dog go to heaven?

And no, I am not implying that cats will definitely go to heaven whereas dogs might not :P

A friend posed a question to me about whether dogs would go to heaven or not. She loves her dog dearly, and finds the possibility that her dog would not go to heaven with her quite devastating. Many of us have dearly beloved furry (or not-so-furry) friends, and you often hear the naïve-sounding wish that they would be there in heaven waiting for us at the end of the day. And yet, nowhere in the Bible says that they would get to go to heaven! In fact, there is a thought among some that they won't.

This question has been sitting at the back of my mind for ages. But then, I heard a sermon from Mark Driscoll on Habakkuk 2, and the question was brought back to me. In a part of this sermon, Mark was talking on Habakkuk 2:17 where it says "The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them." (The "violence done to Lebanon" is a reference to the deforestation that occurred in Lebanon because the cedars of Lebanon were prized greatly.) Mark's point in this section was that God cared very much about the rest of His creation too, not just the humans, and He will call humans to account for their treatment of the world that He had given them the responsibility to tend.

Of course, Habakkuk is not the only book of the Bible where God's concern for the rest of creation is shown. In Luke 6, it says, "Aren't five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight." Granted this passage is aimed at showing us how precious we are in God's sight; even so, the basis for this stems from the fact that even the sparrows are worthy of attention in His sight. In the book of Job from chapters 38 to 41, God declares His greatness to Job by showing how he provides for everything, even the animals.

So what can we gain from this? How will this help us address the question of whether our furry friends will come to heaven with us or not?

God is Sovereign, out-of-this-world, and His ways are beyond our full comprehension. It would be natural that we would not understand or know how things will pan out; He does not have to include us in His decision making.

However, remember this: God cares. He loves in a way that is beyond our imagination. His attention to detail is exquisite.  If we think we love our cats and dogs, He loves them in a way that is infinitely more perfect than we do. Not only that, He is the Creator, the Designer, of these creatures, and He knows what is best for them (and us).

While I do not know exactly how God will take care of our furry friends, one thing I do know is that God will take care of our furry friends. I do not know what He has in mind for them (whether it be heaven or oblivion), but I do know that He is a much more caring person than I am, and that He loves perfectly whereas I am merely human. I know that my cat and my dog is more precious in His sight than they are in my sight.

And I also know that I am much more precious in His sight than any other animal :)

So while I have no clue about whether dogs will go to heaven or not, I have faith in God's character, and I know He will do what is best for all. :)

Come, Lord Jesus

When it comes to the Second Coming, many Christians are quite ambivalent

If we are honest with ourselves, many of us Christians would have to admit a certain ambivalence to the Second Coming. Yes, it's going to be good; yes, we're going to be with Jesus again; yes, it will be a happier place.

But life in the World as it currently is just feels so good.

Until

You meet someone like a patient I met today. And it is revealed that some very evil things were done to her as a child.

And a cold fire clenches your heart at the injustice of her situation; at how terrible, awful and evil human beings just could be.

Then you can't help but say, "Come! Lord Jesus!"

Come ! And put an end to this miserable race called humanity;

Come! And stop this world from turning so that humans can no longer inflict such evil upon each other;

Come! And purge from Creation this blight called humanity.

Come! And stop this madness.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Come.

Broken

"The Lord is near the brokenhearted;

He saves those crushed in spirit."

Psalm 34:18

 “The poor in spirit are blessed,

for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

 Those who mourn are blessed,

for they will be comforted."

Matthew 5:3-4

I often get angry at God for the circumstances in my life that have broken my heart into a thousand pieces. At times I rale at how unfair it seems for God to have allowed such pain into my heart.

But this I have realised:

It is in my brokenness that His love shines through.

It is because He has broken me that I am able to submit to His good, glorious and perfect Will.

Through this pain God has given me the gift of compassion.

Through my hurt He has taught me to love.

He has torn open my heart so that graciousness could blossom;

My sensibilities assaulted so that I can be sensitive to other people's pain.

It is a bittersweet gift.

But it is a gift nonetheless;

And I wouldn't have it any other way :)