Monday, September 25, 2006

Rambling on..

Tired.. that is one word which best describes my weekend.. helped organise a farewell party for 2 PUNJ friends who are leaving for overseas studies and exchange.. there was more than enough food fortunately.. and pretty good food too! there was shepherd's pie, bee hoon, fried rice, otak, chicken wings, pasta and lots more.. good fellowship with the PUNJers at HL's house.. just that the fatigue was getting a bit to me. then went home and caught the manu-reading game and regretted staying up till 2 am.. seems like i am a jinx to them.. whenever I watch manu play, they will either lose or draw.. sigh.. today's tuition was rather draining too.. had lunch with my sec 1 kid.. then had to go Popular buy a book cos had no papers to go through with him.. can't believe that he is doing O level standard biology at sec 1.. but at least he was responsive and eager to learn.

Happy.. today's service was very good.. sermon was short and simple, nothing fanciful, but very good for pre-believers.. I might type it out or something.. but this was the first time we had english and mandarin service together cos the mandarin ministry's people were joining us.. so quite interesting.. I thought bible reading and singing worship songs in mandarin was kind of interesting.. haha maybe join mandarin ministry in future.. lol.. but the amazing thing about today's service is the amount of people coming for baptisms and cofirmations and tranfers.. so encouraging to see so many people coming to ARPC and accepting Christ in their lives..
Happy for a friend too that she had accepted Christ as her Lord and saviour.. that makes it 3 friends whom I know have come to accept Christ this year.. so amazing.. sometimes I feel it's just so difficult to talk to people about Christ and telling them that they need Christ in their lives.. but God makes it so easy.. God will always find a way to find His own children..

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Baptism of repentence

In Luke 3:1-20, John the baptist came to preach a baptism of repentence for the forgiveness of sins. Not that through repentence alone, one's sins will be forgiven.. But rather how through repentence, John will prepare the people's hearts (mostly Jews) for the acceptance of Christ, and through Him salvation.

As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God's salvation.' "

And John told the crowd,"Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."

The Jews at that time believed that salvation will be guaranteed based on ancestory alone. Just because they have Abraham as their father and the mark of circumcision, they will be forgiven of their sins and saved from God's wrath. But it is clear here that ancestory will not be a criterion for salvation. Rather they were to produce fruit in keeping with repentence. That means a change of heart and turning over a new leaf, turning back from their old ways.. True repentence requires much more than lip service. It encompasses action and active change and renewal..

I used to believe that religion is very much a culture/tradition thing.. meaning u basically follow whatever your parents are doing.. and that is very much the case for most people I believe.. whether or not they really believe in the act of burning joss sticks, hell money and offering food to ancestors is questionable.. at least for myself, even when I wasn't a Christian, these were merely rituals which I don't believe in.. and almost all the Malays here are Muslims.. so I always thought that religion is a traditional or ancestral thing. if your dad is a Taoist, you will be a Taoist.. if your Dad is Muslim, you will be a Muslim.. and I thought Christianity was so.. but later on, I realised that Christianity was one of the few religions that doesn't really follow this pattern.. I mean most people born in Christian families will still become Christians, but Christianity is probably the religion that non-Christians can convert to.. in fact when you say u have converted, most people will know that u have converted to Christianity and not something else.. but that is also why some people detest Christianity for constantly looking to convert people and boost their membership..

For me, I was at first rather perplexed as to why Christians are so eager to convert other people.. and I still believed that most people are born Christians.. I think it is only when I started attending PUNJ that I realised how wrong I was.. I was quite surprised that many of the PUNJers came from non-Christian backgrounds and have come to believe in Christ only later on in life.. that really challenged my view of religion.. and furthermore, I realised that even those born in Christian families are not born Christians.. meaning no one is born a Christian.. that everyone must make a decision to follow Christ some time in their lives.. no one is a Christian by default.

I think in Christianity, I find truth and credibility based on the fact that people really believed in what they are doing.. People have made a personal decision to follow Christ and not based on ancestory or tradition. They have studied God's word and come to believe in it. Their actions and words stem from their faith in Jesus Christ. And the fact that they are actively seeking people to be converted shows that they are convinced that Christianity is the truth and the way to salvation.

At the same time, there are always "Christians" who merely wear their crosses on their chests as a fashion accessory and continue in their old worldly ways and do not portray the right image of Christianity.. ultimately it is up to God who judges us and sees our hearts.. "Christian" or "non-Christian" is merely a tag that anyone can put on whenever he wishes.. there will always be Christians who are not Christians and non-Christians who are actually Christians.. only God will know.

So I digress a lot.. But why do we need to produce fruit in keeping with repentence? why do we convert? and why do we seek people to be converted? Because the axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Jesus will come to judge and punish. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. He will come to judge man's hearts, and those that have believed in him will be saved, and the rest will perish.. To Christians, this is good news.. to others, this may be unpalatable and you may choose to not believe in it..

How certain am I of this? Never 100%.. but so much as the bible is true and is God's word to mankind, I find it hard to simply disregard it and move on with life..

Sunday, September 03, 2006

A Saviour born

Was deciding what to blog about, cos I could possibly blog about today's sermon which was quite sobering, friday's bible study or continue to blog about Luke.. Anyway decided to continue with Luke la since I have already started with it.

Luke 2 continues with a record of Jesus' birth. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Then an angel appeared to some shepherds and told them, "I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Luke then went on to record for us the response of these shepherds who returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Similarly, later in the chapter, a righteous man named Simeon and a prophetess named Anna also gave thanks to God and praised God for the birth of Jesus.

So what we see here, are the responses of 3 groups of people who responded positively to Jesus' birth and gave glory to God for it. Their response was amazing and reflected a lot of faith in the sense that they had not yet known how Jesus will come to save them of their sins. They had not come to know of Jesus' miracles and his death on the cross. However they simply trusted in what God had said. In the Old Testament, God had promised the Jews a Saviour that will come from the line of David, and who will deliver Israel from suffering and oppression. 400 years after the last book of the OT, the birth of Jesus was a fulfilment of what God had promised the Jews and provided great hope to the Jews.

At the same time, this salvation will not only be for the Jews, but will go out to all nations. We see a glimmer of this greater salvation in verses 28 to 32 of chapter 2: Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God, saying: "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel." So this greater salvation, through the person and work of Jesus Christ will go out to all people, including the Gentiles who were the non-Jews.

What does this mean for us? To some, the birth of Jesus probably gives us some reason to exchange presents, eat log cakes and buy christmas trees during Christmas. For some, it doesn't mean anything more than a day of reference for the counting of years.. That's where BC (before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini or in the year of the Lord) comes in. Oh by the way, historians have recently changed the way they name their years to BCE (before common era) and CE (common era) to replace BC and AD to remove the religious affiliations..

But the birth of Christ has greater significance and importance than that. And unlike the shepherds and the Jews living at that time, we are privileged in that we know how Jesus had provided us with salvation by dying on the cross for sinners. We know that the birth of Christ heralds a new era in the history of man and ushers in God's kingdom which will come to include all who believes.

But knowing about the birth of Christ and the crucifixion of Christ means nothing. Only a response by faith in God's offer of salvation, giving thanks and accepting His gift of salvation will save you from God's wrath and grant you entry into His kingdom. For myself and many Christians, knowing this good news about the birth of our Saviour has brought great joy and comfort in our lives. I am extremely thankful that God has not forsaken his people despite our sinfulness and unworthiness and has sent His Son down to earth to save us. Sometimes, people will ask me why there is only one way of salvation. It seems almost unfair and unreasonable that Christianity is the only way. But if you look at how sinful the world is today and has been in the past, and if you put yourself in the shoes of God who looked down at His creation, it is mind-boggling to understand how God has even bothered to offer a way out for us.

Perhaps it will be appropriate to leave you with the famous John 3:16 verse:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.