心连心，向前进。

u got to read this post in unicode.

pap's election slogan this year is 心连心，向前进。
well some online forums were suggesting this: 金连金，向钱进。　haha..

anyway, I am not going to discuss about politics here lest my blog gets shut down or something. but as I went through the weekend's sermon and bible study, one theme was rather glaring. and it was that of sin. and I suggest to you this: sin连sin, 向泉进。　泉是指黄泉的泉。

this topic of sin is rather hard to broach.. I mean deep down we are all proud people, and we do not want people to tell us that we are bad people.. so even when some churches evangelise to non-christians, theirs is a message of comfort, solace and meaning in life. come embrace christianity, God loves you and will give you life. God will comfort you in your sorrows. Christianity will provide you the meaning you are looking for in your life. if you want to know how to live the perfect life, Christianity is the answer.

but if I tell you that the true message of Christianity is that you need Jesus because you have sinned, many of you will be rather turned off.. i think the message of the true meaning of life and the love and comfort Jesus can provide is probably more palatable and easy to swallow. but I don't think that is the point. if I were to be faithful and true to God's word, then the message of sin must be told first before the message of love.

the rationale is simple. there is a problem. there is a consequence of this problem. and there is a solution. without a problem, there is no consequence and obviously, what solution is there to talk about?

The bible says, "As it is written: there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. all have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." the problem of mankind is this: all man have sinned by rejecting God and refusing to obey his commands. the consequence: "the way of the wicked will perish." (Psalms 1)

the consequence of sin is death. therefore, as much as we can prolong our lives in this day, all of us will one day die. and this death is a result of the sin we all have.

I don't know about you, but I have never failed to realise how bad or sinful a person I am, even before I became a Christian. perhaps that makes it easier for me to believe in the bible. and in fact, one of the reasons why I was first convinced of the message is that what the bible says about sin really applies to me. and it makes a whole lot of sense to me. and that is a crucial first step, to acknowledge that all of us here, no matter how hard we try to be good people, have sinned and have fallen short of God's standards.

I am not sure if I can explain this well but I shall try. we are all born with a conscience, murderers, rapists, liars, cheaters all included. we are able to decipher what is right and what is wrong. and quite amazingly, this idea of right and wrong is generally consistent even across ethnicity and geography. let's say the same act of B sticking out his leg and causing A to trip. A will not so much as cast a frown on B if it was not intentional. but if A knows that B had a bone to pick with him and had purposely done so, A will confront B and start a quarrel with him. so although it is the same act, we can somehow say that the latter act is wrong and the former is not. and that applies for many things. things like murder. things like stealing. have you ever wondered why it seems so natural for us to think that murder and stealing are wrong? where did we get this idea from? is it taught to us? so at 4 years old before you received any education, do you sincerely believe that killing someone is the right thing to do? so it seems that all of us share this natural law inside us which tells us what is right and what is wrong. and CS Lewis who wrote Chronicles of Narnia had this to say to skeptics: "whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real right or wrong, you will find him going back on this a moment later. he may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking one to him he will be complaining 'it's not fair' even before you can say jack robinson."

my next point, or actually it's CS lewis' point, is that none of us are keeping to this law within us. so if u have been a perfect person all your life, and have never done anything wrong, I think whatever I have said and am going to say now and in future does not apply to you. and this is where I will refute the claim that Christians are conceited and arrogant snobs. because one definition of a true Christian is a person who accepts that he has sinned and fallen short of God's standards and has come to believe in God and accepted God's gift of salvation. in short, he is one who feels that he needs to be saved.

for myself, while I was still exploring the faith, this verse from romans 7 was very true to me. "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. for what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing.. so I find this law at work: when I want to do good, evil is right there with me. for in my inner being I delight in god's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. what a wretched man I am!"

sometimes, we read the newspapers and delight in condemning the murderers and the sexually depraved people.. why is he so cruel? why did he had to resort to killing her? why did the father rape his daughters? this doctor had a wife and a nice family, why did he have to take upskirt photos of women? why did Hitler and Pol Pot have to resort to massacring millions of people to attain their political ambitions? it seems so stupid of them, so inexplicable to us.. but the bible has always been right in its assessment of mankind.. all have sinned. what about you? no, I am a good person. I donated $5 to charity that day. I helped an old lady cross the road. what wrong have I done? but really, what the murderers, the rapists and the robbers did were just a manifestation of what is deep within everyone. he hated his wife who had slept with another man. so he killed her. the murder was just a outward manifestation of the hatred in him. when I hate another person, the difference between me and the murderer is that this hatred was not that deep. what this person did to me was not as serious as what the wife did to the man. and if really there is one day when that hatred is so deep, the only thing stopping me from killing my enemy is just the law and the dire consequences. but the heart of mine and the heart of the murderer are the same. sin is in 心. it comes from within us. when we hate someone, when we feel conceited and proud, when we look at someone lustfully, when we put our own interests above others, we have already sinned even though outwardly, we can pretend to be the most angelic creatures on earth.

and God looks right through our heart and sees all our evil thoughts. and the only rightful result of our sin is death. we can never escape that.

so what hope is there for us? by our own human efforts, we can never achieve God's standards. God is holy and his standards are high. he wants us spotless and clean. we can help a thousand people in our lives. we can meditate at home all day. we can become vegetarians. we can even give up all our possessions. but nothing is ever going to change the fact that we are sinful people. and nothing is ever going to blot over our sins. given the wrong circumstances, we are always going to fall into sin. there is absolutely no hope for us except Jesus Christ. I know, I know.. u will say: how can you guys claim that Jesus Christ is the only way? yes, I also wished there were other ways and other alternatives. but the bible says this is the only way. if the bible is true, then this is the only way. if it is false, either there is no way and everyone is condemned or there is some other way/s.

but why is there even a way for us explained in the bible? since we have done wrong, we deserve punishment.. by right, God doesn't have to provide us with a solution. but by left, because of his mercy, he has provided us a solution in the way of Jesus Christ. that he has come to die on the cross. Jesus was absolutely clean and spotless in God's eyes. he did not sin like us because he is god. by being perfect and yet accepting God's punishment on our behalf, he is the perfect sacrifice for all our sins.. and we are saved from God's anger because of him. and this only if we believe in Jesus Christ and believing that what he had done really happened and his act is sufficient to wipe away all our sins. the result of believing in him is eternal life. physically we will still die, but spiritually we will be raised up after our death and live happily ever after, literally.

it doesnt make sense at first. absurd. but if u think about it properly, how can imperfect man make peace with God? but only on God's terms and God's solution can we be saved. by sending a perfect person to die for imperfect man.. and after 2 years as a Christian, it seems a perfect solution. God's gift of salvation (being saved) is free and unconditional. oh I need to do steps 1 to 10 to become a Christian. I need to go to church. I must donate this amount of money to the church. I must be born in a Christian family. Nope! all God wants is for you to recognise that you are a sinful person, confess to him that u have sinned and tell him that you truly believe that Jesus Christ has died on the cross for your sins and you are willing to accept this gift of salvation from him..

my sincere prayer for all of you reading this blog: that all of u will be saved and we will see each other in heaven in future.. =)