You can go to seminary too...for free

Calling all christian leaders, church members, youths and anyone interested (or those curious). If I were to make this call specifically, to all Mirians to be precise! I have been going through this website, "Biblical Training", and it is simply a breath of relief. Why so?

One of the problems we have in churches all around Miri is the lack of biblical literacy and knowledge, and this is never ever a good thing. I'm not saying that we need to be scholars. What we do need is to be at least informed. It is a pity in this day and age with all the biblical knowledge at the mercy of our finger tips (and some are even free!) Christians simply shrug off being knowledgeable of their faith. I have heard of people saying, "Theology are for pastors, not the people in the pew. All we need are straight to the point sermons with application. We want something relevant to real life." To me, hearing statements like this makes me sad.

Another problem that I see is on Christian teaching. There are many teachers of the bible but not all are biblical in their presentations and teachings. If people sitting in the pews simply gulping all the teaching that they hear because they simply trust that whosoever is standing at the pulpit is teaching 100% accurate word of God without discernment or 'some proper biblical knowledge', I can say that 90% of the time people are going to subscribe any form of biblical teaching.

My plea here is not to say that if we have some form of biblical study we will get things right all of the time but a plea that we become people who know enough to help us grow as well as discern what is good. Take this verse for example

Acts 17:11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

One of the things we cal see here is that these Bereans, although taking Paul's teachings with great delight they were weighing Paul the Apostle's teaching whether it was in line with scripture! If people during the days when the apostles were still alive did this, should this responsibility not be on us as well?

Anyway rants on the side, visit Biblical Training and sign in for free, as well as learn from seasoned scholars for free as well (such as Craig Blomberg, Bill Mounce, John Piper, Thomas Schreiner, Robert Stein and many more).

Being a help to society

I would like to share with you story that got my mind thinking.

Some few days ago Rachel heard the news that her colleague's house had burnt down. She and her family lost most of their belongings in the mishap. What struck me was that after Rachel had posted on facebook the needs of her colleague, basically it was just to inform he other colleagues on what they can do to help, a certain youth (from the youth group that I was a part of before) responded by calling Rachel that she wanted to help. So last night me and Rachel went to her house and received her token of help for Rachel's colleague. But to tell you the truth, that single response from that christian youth member made my day even if it was just one person responding, but none the less it is a part of Jesus' body extending help to people.

It got me thinking. Thinking about how we as Christians can be some sort of impact in society. I just find it so prevalent these days that the church constantly talk about being an impact in society but their actions don't really show that they are any sort of even a hint of impact. Why? Because all they meetings are geared towards a Christian setting. A Christian setting that I am trying to define here is in the form of a service sort of setting where there is singing, preaching, praying for people and refreshments after all that. Talk about being an impact to society.

I just think that for a change we quit that form of being an impact and search for other ways we can be an extension of Jesus' body. I mean with all our members in church scattered and working or studying in our city where we live in we can be an impact. One of the things we can do is extending our Christian community (Church) to the society by way of our members being the bridge to connect the two.

What I mean by this is each member of the church has his or her own sphere of life (her work place, her family, her neighbourhood, her friends). These spheres represent some part of the society in which we live in (our context is MIRI). So each member of the church plays the role of being bridges of her small section of society that the Church can extend her hands.

Lets say in Rachel's case, if her sphere of life, he slice of society as a whole is her work place when she sees a need that she thinks the church can help, she can address the need to the church and the church will do what they can to muster the best help they can give to those in need. This would eliminate just a one person extending help (just one small slice of the church) to unleash a flood of help from all segments of the church (the entire body of that particular church). In this manner everyone in the church can extend their help because on of their church member is part of that particular society.

Now if we were to remove the microscopic view of just one member and project how it would look like on the basis of all the members of the church it depicts a powerful picture and possibility of how the church can be an impact to the society that she is part of.

I would like to add to these thoughts with this video of Don Carson, John Piper and Tim Keller. I wanted to do some explanation of this issue on my own but I found their discussion stimulating to say the least in talking about how we are to think about impact. (just the beginning part actually)



Any thoughts (on the the post as a whole or the video)?

Thoughts on Hell (N T Wright)

What is Hell Like?


Where is it Located?

Salvation/ Gospel

I shared these stuff to bunch of folks who had no Christian background earlier last year. It was a different experience because it had a sort of uneasy feeling especially judging from the facial expression of those listening. There was the 'this guy has some interesting things to say' expression (thank goodness) but there were more of the 'what is this guy talking about', 'salva...what????', 'is this guy trying to convert me?', 'this guy is boooooooring' kind of expressions! Well anyway we all have to start somewhere don't we? I just wished they (those who invited me, well my youth pastor extended the invitation to me) told me earlier that these bunch of wonderful folks (they were wonderful) did not really understand English really well! I was asked to give a talk on Salvation. So I got ready to present a slightly renditioned version of salvation (slightly away from the reformed perspective that is). I will share them in point form, just like how I wrote them on my note pad.

1. The thing about humanity: Something is wrong
-people have always been at the centre stage of things
-they had their good moments as well as their bad ones
-in a lot of ways people have explained that humans are behind a lot of the destruction in the world. Some even explained that humans were the main contributor of destruction.
-Generally we have some sort of understanding that there lies a problem entailing humans.

2. The Bible explains humanity: Eikon (image of God)
-humans were created in the image of God (Gen 1:26-to rule, reproduce)
-The story goes well until "humpty dumpty had a great fall"; CRACK. The Eikon gets cracked. They disobeyed God and wanted to be solely independent of Him.
-Here lies the link to (point 1) the problem entailing humans. Humans get cracked and ceased in some degree of the original intent of being God's representative. So the crack affects humans relationship with God, himself, others and creation. This is the proposal of something has gone wrong.
-thus humans ceased to be what they were called to be.

3. Jesus: Restoring the Eikon (Jesus is the exact representation of God's image)
-He has a dual task of representation. He reflects God completely and reflected humans completely. Jesus' life and death is God's solution to save the world. God pin pointed on the source to heal the world. This is why salvation is geared towards humanity.
-God's mission is the salvation of the world and it starts with humans.
-God has made a route to end the destruction: Jesus-to save humanity.


Well that was the rough sketch. I had to cut some points out to make it simpler on the spot while I was talking to them. I'm not fully satisfied with the presentation but I was glad to be given that opportunity. Let's just say that there is never a perfect moment to start venture into new territory, as long as we start somewhere and build on how we present the Gospel. My hope is that mabey some of the things shared that day help in some sort of turning point in someones life that day.

John 3:16

Every Christian should know this verse (found on the title above) and also every Christian, young and old is well grounded in this beloved line in the Bible. But as we sometimes get so well accustomed with somethings that they become familiar and at time distorted, this is how we sometimes (or almost always treat this particular line).

John 3:16 reads

"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." (NIV)

On this particular reading I would like us to focus our attention on a particular word from the verse (the one in bold); world. It is most often taught that the particular word actually points its direction implying humans, and not the world in its literal sense.

This idea is brought to the picture because v.16b explains the word 'world' more clearly in that it means humans due to the fact that 'whoever believes' and 'shall not perish...have eternal life' points directly to people. It seems obvious that the benefactors of 'salvation' are people and that God's saving grace falls to them. With that the reading of the verse would go like this:

"For God so loved the world (humans/people) that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

A CRITIQUE

With this let me pose a critique to this particular reading of the text. I find it highly probable that we read John 3:16 in this manner because it is our theology that believes Jesus was sent by the Father, as a gift for humanity to die on their behalf so that they can receive God's salvation and ultimately the gift of eternal life. Basically we read and form theology into the verse or this particular verse.

This is good and valid according to theology, but not good in terms of how we appreciate the biblical narrative and theology based on the whole bible. Thus what we have constructed over time is the belief that God just cares for people and that the world is some sort of secondary object that He doesn't simply brushes aside. It sorts of shrinks our theology and giving us a malnutrition version of God's plan.

So with that, how then can we bring a more holistic/nourished approach of theology based on John 3:16 that is faithful to the biblical message?

Let me come with a proposal that I would deem faithful to a more holistic view of the mission of God and theology for understanding John 3:16.

We begin with Genesis. God said after creating his master piece (everything for that matter), Ge 1:31 "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good...". Reading the creation account in Genesis shows a God who was clearly pleased with what he created, and this encompasses Him just pleased with creating people.

But as we know humans were on a different pedestal then his other creations. Humans were created in God's image, His reflectors.

Ge 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

According to this humans were to be God's representative as it shows here it was humans that brought stability to the condition on the earth. As the story goes God's image bearers were deceived by the serpent (Satan) and things went down hill from there. But God didn't leave his creation to fend for themselves. The bible depicts a God who is constantly working to redeem back the world. The way he did this was through a man by the name of Abraham and through him a nation was born, Israel, who were known as the people of God. Israel represented God as bearing his name and his ways. Basically Israel was an alternative kind of society or nation. But Israel failed and were brought in captivity but were brought back to the land again only to be ruled again by a succession of powers of which we have Rome as the last to rule over them. Please note that I am just giving an overview here.

It is amidst this story which we place John 3:16. The other half of the story as we cram John 3:16 is Jesus dying on the cross and resurrected after that. This is where i believe where we have to wedge our theology and the grand biblical narrative.

God cares for the world and in his love for the world he gave his son. Jesus is the one who God sends to reconcile the world to himself. It is only fitting that God do the saving work starting with human beings because in Genesis it was the image bearer who was to account for adulterating their rights to satan. So it is only 'logical' that God pursue his redemptive plan through saving his image bearers. A good description of this can be found in the passage below:

Col 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
Col 1:16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
Col 1:17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Col 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
Col 1:19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
Col 1:20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Another helpful passage is found in Romans:

Ro 8:18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Ro 8:19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
Ro 8:20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it,in hope
Ro 8:21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
Ro 8:22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
Ro 8:23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

In view of the above we can conclude that in John 3:16 the meaning and understanding behind the word 'world' must not be narrowed to just human beings. God sent Jesus to and for the world. And God's plan in sending Jesus was to redeem back his image bearers and from then on the redemption on the world. I hope when we read John 3:16 we will have a more bigger picture in mind than just Jesus saving just human beings alone. There is a bigger picture at hand.

…We should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God

Just something to widen our horizon on Christianity...

I have been doing a lot of thinking concerning this and i think this is something that we Christians should discuss and also 'debate' (with the intention of gaining a wider perspective). The issue at hand is "proper Christian look". Does this really count? Or is it something we have made up.

Let me start by mentioning a story in Acts or better this story written in the book;

^{Ac 15:1-21}

BACKGROUND

Let me explain some of the background concerning what such a council saw it important to meet and discuss. Let it come to our knowledge that the first followers of Jesus were his own people, the Jews. After all, Jesus was and is himself a Jew. Now for starters Jews were the chosen ones, the people of God, who had the covenant and the laws that came from God. God played a vital role and part in their society. We could say that they were a nation under The True God, under YHWH.

This eventually made them not so much of what God intended. A negative result occurred actually. They became proud and very 'anti-other nations' (part of it is because how they were treated by invading nations, although it was disobedience that paved way for that).

But something happened that changed the perspective of the first Jewish Christians. Let's see. It was through Peter that God brought new realizations in a more 'in your face manner'. By that i mean, earlier although Jesus said the disciples would be his witnesses to the ends of the earth, they didn't get it. Notice the response Peter gave to God on account of that vision? Well God said to Peter "take, kill and eat!" and for your information, these were the very animals that they were not to eat following the Law.

I think peter must have though, thinking through his Jewish custom and upbringing, "heck, NO way am i eating those animals!" Well that was what he thought in a sense. But God pronounced those things clean and the rest is history, Cornelius, a gentile and not a red blooded Jew, not known to do Jewish customs or following it, became a follower of Jesus.

This was surely a revelation! But some Jews opposed Peter and said "Why did you break Jewish customs by going into a Gentile's house!!? How dare you defile yourself!!" You see, they didn't understand the whole story until Peter explained to them.

It wasn't Peter alone who caused controversy; Paul and Barnabas were even more controversial. Gentiles were invited in the fold. Being followers of Jesus. Some Jews were outraged! They were thinking that these gentiles can't be full and true Christians unless they abide Jewish customs! Well that's where the council came to discuss the matter about how the gentiles are to be incorporated.

REFLECTION

Looking into this particular thing there is one important thing that we have to ask ourselves. Are we repeating what the early Jewish Christians were doing? Making it difficult for people to come to Christ.

I think sometimes I feel like we are telling people to repent, but behind that repentance is something totally different. I think more and more we are telling people not just to repent on the important or vital things but on minor stuff. Sometimes I envision that it is asking people to repent of what to wear, what to eat, where to go, what to drink. It's really weird. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we can just brush aside on how we drink alcohol, or that we should wear really revealing clothes. That's not what I mean.

But what i mean is, we Christians in this present moment, must, like the believers who were discussing how to incorporate the gentiles being Christians, find among ourselves something like the conclusion made by James;

^{Ac 15:19}
"It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

Looking at the culture then they had their issues. It doesn't mean that we have to follow word by word what is said here but to go with the spirit of what was being said and intended.

I hope this sheds light on something. Hopefully, when we tell people to repent and follow Christ, we must know what we mean by that and not make new believers carry unnecessary weight.

The Holy Bible, New International Version, Pradis CD-ROM:Ac 15:19, Book Version: 5.1.1

What is the Price of Unity?

Phil 2:1-4
If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

The implication of the word 'If ' conjures a responsive answer, which is obviously 'yes'. Of course, we have been blessed by our experience mounting from being in Jesus-following Him, changed by his love, being in His community, welling in care and compassion. What Paul wants us to conjure up here is the emphatic answer-'Yes, this is all true for me'.

Because this is true, Paul states 'do me a favor', show the picture of unity out of your 'gotten anything out of...Christ '. Truly changed people of God really practice unity-' Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends'.

We normally stop here in our reading because we get compelled with the picture of unity that is being mentioned here. Changed people of God must also show change in their communal living. This is beautiful and this is what is supposed to be, Christians should practice unity. But what is the thing that actually is the enemy of unity in the Body of Christ?

This is where we must read on, Paul tells us:
'Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.'

For unity to be living in the body of Christ, the individual's self interest must be buried. Unity is something that gets destroyed when people are not humble, when people are thinking of themselves and of how they can be elevated, how they can make a name from themselves. Please understand that Paul did not state here that only certain members are to check themselves here, like leaders to members or the other way round. The text says nothing about submission. It talks about unity and that thing that causes disunity- self interests of individuals. Paul calls us to check on ourselves-all of us, not just certain individuals but all of us.

Who better to tutor us on how doing away with self interest looks like then Jesus. I will let the passage itself comment itself because now it can be clear in telling us-if we want to maintain unity we have to remove self motivated interests and be selfless. This is what humility looks like.

5-8Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

9-11Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.

Let us check ourselves whether we have simply let our self interests destroy the unity of His Body. That means every one, not just leaders but everyone.

Anger...confusing

James1:20 for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.
The New Revised Standard Version, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.

Mark3:5 He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
The New Revised Standard Version, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.

John2:13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
The New Revised Standard Version, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.

Matt 21:12 Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.
The New Revised Standard Version, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.

(Mark 11:15-19; Luke 19:45-48)


It is somewhat confusing when we read on the topic of anger in the bible. The bible seems to be confused in whether we are to be angry or not be angry.

Listing out some of the verses above make it more baffling. James tells us the anger that we conjure does not conjure up God's righteousness. So at a glance we are put up with a reference that tells us our anger leads to the wrong way. Other verses also calls us to put it off 2 Cor 12:20; Gal 5:20; Eph 4:31; Col 3:8; 1 Tim 2:8.



Looking at the verses above they all are pointing to our own anger.The type of anger that is motivated by self, by us. An anger that is motivated solely by our own self agenda. By reading the verses in the paragraph above this is what i believe the type of anger that the the bible teaches us, because this type of anger deals solely with our own self interest alone.

There are some verses that talks about anger also, that is the reality of it. In a world like our anger exists and will not leave us. So the bible tells us:

26 Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not make room for the devil.
The New Revised Standard Version, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.

We can get angry, it is a reality but don't let it swell on to bitterness. That is what this verse basically means. Another on in James also tell us the reality of anger and that its existence:

19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger
The New Revised Standard Version, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.

It simply tells us anger exists but make a proper assessment before it is manifested. This is being angry with a good reason.

So if i would weigh whether we can get angry or not the bible gives us a realistic look on anger.

1. Anger that is motivated by us is what the bible speaks against.
2. Anger exists and will not go away.
3. We deal with anger, by not welling it and let it lead to bitterness.
4. We do well to assess situations throughly before we jump into conclusions on being angry.

Jesus is a good example of what good anger looks like. We do good to reflect his actions and how he went about it.

What is a Greater Witness

Jn 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. Jn 13:35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Jn 17:22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: Jn 17:23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

This is my own reflection of a preaching I heard last Sunday. Coming out of the service it made me wonder what is a greater witness that the church can show or make to the society that it is living in?

Can we say a greater witness is through the music that we 'present' during our worship services? It can be a witness with the way the music is played and the way the musicians are very skillful with their instruments. It can be a witness when we have singers with really good voices, who know the timings of the songs and people who sing in key. Sure, these are important considerations for witness but i have to disagree because what will make us different that what we already see and hear in the open?

Can we say a greater witness is through the programs we create? Programs are an important aspect of what we have as a church, and we do need these sort of events for some degree of where we are heading. These programs can harness vision, educate, equip, renew, rejuvenate and help the progress a sense community. But yet again other organizations also have these kind of things and they too have the same distinctions that I mentioned above. We still hit the same brick wall.


Can we say that a greater witness is the church building that we have? It can be but are we not competing with the world on this? What good is another building in the same nature of massiveness as shopping complexes or offices? If you say that the church is contributing to something important because of it's spiritual nature (in a sense it is) but still the other buildings, although they are not spiritual in nature contribute an important aspect on human life. Just think economy. So i would not agree that a building will harness a greater witness for God, that God and his church exist and are real.

To me I think a potent and real witness is one of love-how we love our brothers. Love is a mixture of baggage-I mean the word. We get so caught up in how it is understood in the world that we loose some real sense of what it means to God. Love in how we show our brothers is in the sense of family. Bearing burdens, being with each other in tough times, having a really bad argument, being happy when your family is happy (sharing happiness) and all that sense of what we go through family. Love is the thing that works around these situations and always works to bring us together. I don't really see it as minimizing all the problems but a sense of working through the ugly and helping beauty to reveal itself.

Another potent witness for the church is unity. Unity is not what we hear on TV where our politicians are telling us to be united. Unity is almost always connected with uniformity. Unity is diversity, that is together in diversity. This is something very profound but the church has yet to archive this state. But will it ever? I believe it will if we stick with that Jesus told us.

So a potent witness for the church is more of how we show how we are as community. If we have a building and a cool service, these are added stuff, not the core. If we build or work out on the core the added stuff will come.

(Another greater witness is this post here. Read and be encouraged to act.)

I have to still clarify that this is the author's (Jonathan's) own reflection. It has nothing to do with saying that the sermon was not good. Read the post again. A reflection is simply an idea that i get from a given passage or page of writing or what i have heard people say, and with that idea I simply build on my own ideas which my thinking brain thinks through. If there is anyone offended about the post, what can i do about that. Just comment. It is as easy as that. Please know that this is a discussion Hubble and not a conspiracy act. I guess I am tired of sensitive people hounding me. pant pant.

I don't know how to count...Let me teach you

1Co 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
1Co 13:5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
1Co 13:6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
1Co 13:7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Sometimes WE read only verse 4,5,7. And forget verse 6. Man don't we know how to count. Just follow the numbers. We read in progression. We read verse 4 then 5 then 6 and only then 7. Read all and don't skip.

Resurrection

How would you understand this word: Resurrection?

Do we think of it as our spirit only resurrecting? or Our whole body being resurrected.

It is normal for us to hear that our bodies are just a temporary home in which we live in at the time we are on earth. And when we die our bodies go back to dust and our real being is taken up with God. And we go to a place called heaven.

But this is not what resurrection means. What we understand reading the line above is what we might understand as after life. There is nothing wrong with after life as far as i am concerned. I believe that when we die our soul/spirit goes to God. But that is not what resurrection means.

The implication of resurrection is that our bodies will rise up again also. This is something that i learned from N.T Wright. So if i might rephrase after life, in N.T Wright's words, the Christian position is 'Life, after life'. It basically means after the after life, there is still another life. Where our bodies will be resurrected again.

If death is to loose it's sting, victorious over body and spirit, it looses its sting via the resurrection! Did you not wonder why Jesus, when he met the disciples, he is always depicted as eating. He even let them touch his hands and side. It also says that we are to receive a resurrection just like that of Jesus. If that is the case be glad that we will not just be resurrected just spirit only but in body too.

Powerful!

Can I have tomatoes?...NO. We don't have a potato.

I was watching MTV the other day and they had 'Boiling Point' on. I like the show because it shows people looking really weird when they are angry. It's just utterly hilarious and stupid at the same time.

Well they had this Chinese guy as the actor (the one instigating a boiling reaction of people) working at a salad bar. They had vegetables, or whatever you put in a salad (you name it). So this guy is having problems with his English. So when a guy asked for tomatoes he went we don't have potatoes. So you can spell the irony here as the customer had a hard time communicating to this Chinese guy who was actually acting.

Make me wonder sometime. Do people interpret us right? I do hope so because like the guy on boiling point, he really had a hard time telling the Chinese guy! Hilarious.

Moving from a Christian culture to the beginnings of Post Christian Culture...We are Heading there

The issue at hand; 'the church in a post Christian culture' has been widely acknowledged by the Western world. We can see evidences of this in Europe in particular where Christianity is simply something of a fad. But can we actually say that this kind of influence is infecting our local context/ place?

We don't have to be experts in this (although research would make our claims more authoritative), just to see the climate of influence the church has over society as a whole. Fewer and fewer young adults are attending church or attend on an occasional basis. Youths in particular are dwindling in numbers, and to think that does not alarm us! Soon, if we continue and allow this to prolong, eventually our churches will end up like the churches in Europe.

What are our current climate in expanding our christian influence at this point of time? This question is one that i would like to answer in the local context that I am presently in.

There is not much i would say in terms of methods. It has always been the standard of holding some sort of 'evangelistic rallies' or christian functions and encouraging members to attend with the hope that they will bring their 'non-christian friends'. This could be understood as 'invitation method'. But as it always goes not many 'non-christians' would feel welcomed because the intent is only that they get converted. Furthermore the context in which we invite is not contextualized. What i mean by this is we explain the gospel in our own jargons which people who are not familiar with those words will not understand a word.

Another difficulty with the 'invitation method' is that we put the 'non-christian' always on our turf. When i explain turf here i mean our church building or our programs. What about going on their turf for a difference? When i say this i have to explain otherwise people might think that i mean condoning going to stripper club, the pub or night club. So i better spell this first for people who think i am crazy. But regardless if we are to reach people now we have to think out of the box. We could either think of attending battle of the band as a bridge to create friendships. I say this because we have a lot of musical talents.

At the moment I just want to leave it here at the moment. Maybe if i am not that lazy i might have some other ideas to plow. Until ideas start pouring in.

How does a Chrisan Suffer?

This is just some random thought for your consideration. It has been bugging me lately, the issue of 'it is better to suffer for righteousness, we don't have to speak up'. Although that is a noble thought and it depicts a pious attitude is it somewhat 'biblical'?

I would reply by saying that it is half 'biblical' truth. So you might be saying that i am proposing that we retaliate and have fights? No, not at all.

To me, there is something that is lost in understanding how a Christian should carry himself/herself in public. This has been a dilemma in my culture. Christians are depicted as 'nice' people. Sure, nice is a good depiction in some sense, but it should not be that overall depiction of a Christian. To tell you the truth, its a hoax if we subscribe to this world view of being a Christian.

In the context that i am in (Malaysia-Sarawak-Miri-SIB to be frank) a depiction of suffering as a Christian is at most in the context of eating up everything that comes in our way. Say for example being ripped off of ones rights, the way the Christian reacts is they give in, say nothing and say 'it is better to suffer for righteousness'. This is somewhat pathetic to say the very least.

Suffering is always depicted as non-retaliation. Sure i understand that but the non-retaliation is not the same as speaking up if we have valid things to say, be it harsh in a sense that we don't us swear words. What is wrong with that?

I was reading this in 1 Peter 3:17 'It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.' It says what it says when we read it but what goes up in the mind when a person influenced by my cultural context reads it? This is how the person reads it "It is better, because it is always God's will, to suffer for being nice in a way that we don't say out a single thing because if we do so we are fighting , than for us to do evil".

I don't know if you agree with me on this or not but i find it to be prevalent in my culture (for those who happen to read this and is not from Malaysia-Sarawak-Miri-SIB). I mean we have to really read and understand what the WORD is trying to communicate to us. There are instances when we read in Acts where Paul speaks up. When i say speak up what i mean is, there are times when we have to argue our case. Read Acts. There was an instance where Paul was about to be flogged and he spoke up that he was a Roman citizen and they didn't even give him a chance for trial yet. Please understand that when i say speak up i don't mean you just rant violently and hurl abusive words. I would explain these cases here as instances where it is not God's will for the person to suffer in his body yet. Because in 1 Peter above it says 'if it is God's will'. Following that one does not have to suffer on all occasions. There are some specific occasions when suffering is God's will.

The other thing that we don't really get is in understanding 'good'. To take 1 Peter again 'to suffer for doing good...'. We read it as 'suffer for being nice'. The verse explains that it is better to suffer for doing good- that would mean a course of action that is depicted as good. Lets get some explanation in some of the things that we define as good. Say we help people. That is good. Lets move on further and define help. We help people as in those who are homeless o beggars on the streets. So we might help them in ways like helping them look for work and stuff like that. But say that these beggars are somewhat controlled by some ring leader who uses them to get money. Sort of the thing we watch in the TV. Because of that we are going against something in society. Say for example this ring leader has associations with those in authority like the police or some politician. I don't have to spell the outcome to you. You will get persecuted for doing good. So i would term good here as in actions that is separate from the bad practices. Remember it says 'suffer for doing good' not being good or nice. There is actions involved!

Let me show you again in Acts 19:23ff. There was some sort of ripple in how the gospel was effecting the society in Ephesus. The gospel that Paul was bringing was making those people who made idols loose business. And because of that they were angry with Paul. There was an ugly uproar in the city. So we simply cannot say that Paul was just being good and nice and all of a sudden people hated him. That is so stupid. To get this kind of reaction from people Paul had to do something good.

Well, i can go on and on on this issue but i think my reflection will be too long and people will not read it if it gets too long. Hope that we be Christians that are not mindless people offering their bodies to be persecuted without knowing if it is actually God's will!

Everything is Spiritual!

Just got this fab DVD titled "Everything is spiritual". It's sort of like a talk...something like that. And no, it's not a movie. It's a guy talking about an hour plus. The name of the speaker is Rob Bell... a pastor (does his name ring a 'bell'?). I should tell you that it is cool and makes you think (please consider thinking and reflecting as something that we Malaysians have to do more, not to mention READING!).

So anyway about the talk...or teaching (in a hip new way)...

He goes on to explain the beginning...(Genesis for that matter), the part where God created. Tell you about some interesting things that we can (or will always miss when we get too familiar with the passage). The information that he fires at you just makes you want to grab a bible and start your own research (either it makes you curious and want to learn more or suspicious on whether there is any credibility in what this guy is saying).

Then he goes on to talk about science, galaxies and physics...to name a few. So much information that it make you wonder (in a good way), wonder about the bigness of God's creation and it truly is baffeling to say the least!

And he goes on to explaina a lot of things and...well i dont want to spoil you on this. You just have to watch it...or better still buy the DVD and experience the surge of knowledge.

Well the point of his talk resounds around the title of the talk- "Evereything is Spiritual". And at the end it does sound pretty convinsing! Get ready for a surge of light bulbs!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jzR_zKvAik
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y133Pc5Wlvw

How we Transform our Church Culture

(this was a sermon i preached a few Sunday's ago. I'm not completely satisfied but hey, we are supposed to improve from time to time. This was not what i said word for word from the pulpit but this is somewhat a summary. )

Introduction

There are disturbing similarities of the cinema/Cineplex and the church. I remember while watching the movie, everyone in the Cineplex was engaged with the giant screen up in front. Engaged in a sense, when there was a joke people would laugh kind of thing. The crowd was also engaged when there were glitches when the movie was played. Everyone seemed to be engaged for as long as the movie played. And when it was finished everyone rushed back for the fact that we were strangers. We were engaged at one point but were back to normal after that. I feel like it is church all over again. Sometimes I think that kind of thing is not what the church is supposed to be; just a service, just some place we go to on a Sunday morning, just a religious experience.
And that is a way of life that the church in modern times acts. I call this culture. Culture is in a nutshell- a way of life. The church has adopted the cinema’s way of life, that we are mere strangers seeking for the same thing: God. The church has, because of this, lost a very vital thing in the process.
Now a while back pastor talked about transitioning a church culture .It is something that we as a church are somehow working towards. Because we often get preoccupied with the big stuff, all too often, we get lost in the maze of actually doing things that reflect the transition. Today I will talk about how we how we start to change the culture; being cultural creators.
But before we can be people who create culture- what we do in transitioning a church culture we have some sort of model to follow. In this case we look to the one who change a culture- Jesus in the gospels.

The core of Jesus’ vision (what motivated him to change the culture around him)

If we want to know what brought about Jesus’ strong conviction of his mission (how he changed the culture), in reforming Israel (calling them to repentance and follow him), we have to somehow grasp the core of what spurred Jesus to action.
I know we don’t have any particular creed that we ascribe to. ‘Creed’ actually means belief or a set of beliefs. Israel had a creed. It was called the ‘shema’- meaning ‘hear’ (found in Dt 6:4-9) This was a creed that pious Jews repeated twice daily. Some added Dt 11:13-21 & Num 15:37-41. In fact this was the first prayer that young Jewish children were taught to recite and Jesus was no exception to that. There was one rabbi who said that anyone who does not recite this creed twice daily was considered to be those careless people of the land. So for the Jew the ‘shema’ or ‘creed’ was very an important aspect of Jewish life. It was the thing that formed their life through and through.
We might be asking “What is Jesus’ take on this ‘shema’ thing?” Well let’s see by looking at Mark 12:28-33 where Jesus was confronted with a question regarding his understanding on what is the most ultimate commandment of all.
Here we find the ‘shema’ but Jesus adds to the ’shema’. The thing that Jesus added was not something people put to be remembered or recited. According to Jesus there was another thing important when people are devoted to God, which is to love others as well. Jesus’ revision of the ‘shema’ he put loving God and loving people as priority.
This was the creed that Jesus lived by and the core that brought out to change the culture around him.

The story of Jesus and his take on cultural transformation in the form of a fellowship meal

Let us reflect on one of the aspects in Jesus messing around with the present culture of his day. That reflection takes us to a scenario of dining, which is table fellowship.

Background of table fellowship

Among the religious elite during those days, food laws were a central symbol to the Jews.It was in table fellowship that lay, for Jews of those days, a certain vision of Israel. Now it was not enough for the food to be kosher (holy and acceptable) but the fellowship has to be with the right people as well. If you ate with the wrong kind of people, although the food that you ate was kosher (holy) you have defiled yourself, rendering everything unholy. For the Pharisees the “table became a wall between the observant and nonobservant”. It was a vision of “social respectability, religious uprightness, proper covenant behavior, loyalty to the traditions and hence to the aspirations of Israel”. This talks about identity. Basically we can say that the table and fellowship gave meanings of identity. Who was in and who was out.
We can say then that for the Pharisees purity was to mix among themselves and them alone. If others wanted to join them they had to abide by the same rules, otherwise your identity would always be those who we not Israel. This was one of the boundary markers- the table fellowship. To the Jews of the day to the table was a place where you had to be pure to participate in.

Jesus the radical (rascal for the Pharisees and other opposing parties)

Jesus actually posed very negative response from these pious Jews, religious leaders and the likes. What made Jesus a rascal was that he did not mind the company that came to sit and dine with him. This was the problem. (Mt 11:16- 11:19; Mk 2:14 -Mk 2:17)
Here was Jesus, shaped by his belief- Love God, love others, was changing the rules of cultural and social acceptability, thus changing the vision of Israel that the Pharisees had.
Theirs was you had to be pure; Jesus’ was there is purity for those who come and accept.
Theirs looked at your social standing; Jesus’ was one that said everyone was welcomed. Theirs was just to maintain tradition, Jesus’ was that of mission and agenda- there was a purpose. Theirs were mechanical; Jesus’ table fellowship gave life.
I guess when we look at Jesus’ table there was an air of acceptance, of hope, of healing, of joy, of expectation. Jesus didn’t seem to mind the kind of people he was dining with. To him it was not an issue. His issue was to seek and save the lost, to heal the sinner-thus transforming them to follow in his mission. Just check out this story: Lk 19:1 - Lk 19:10
The meal now for Jesus instilled a different meaning altogether. A new kind of Israel. It became a table that heals because those who come to it have the chance to be pure, where sinners found grace and change; a table that envisions because Jesus showed them what Israel was supposed to be as a nation- a boundary breaker and grace giver, thus transforming the person; a table that hopes because it gives a kind of foretaste of what Jesus kingdom will be like for those who follow him. This was one aspect of how Jesus’ life transformed culture around him.

Lessons for us

The lesson for us is simple. Bringing about change to an age old structure spells difficulty. Because of this we will often succumb to the grandness of transforming a church culture. But as we find in Jesus, his vision of transforming the stiff and legalized culture of Israel started in the form of a creed. Thus for us to change the bigger picture we must remember that it stars with us first- in us. And as we slowly believe it and act it out, it will eventually affect everything. To affect big things we have to start small- transforming our church culture starts with us, all of us- Love God, love neighbor.

'Leaning' to (Christianity that makes a difference)-Brian Mclaren

Is Jesus God? by mark driscoll

Cineplex Christian

Awhile ago, me and my girlfriend went to watch this movie. It was this new flick called 'Street Kings'. I'm not really going to blog about the movie, but just the experience watching it. Well as you may know going out to the cineplex, its sort of a given, knowing that there would at least be some people watching the flick as well (DUH!). So, we were watching the movie with other people (none that i know of) but yet we were all experiencing the same environment. Watching the same movie, hearing the same thing, and experiencing the same technical complications that you get from watching movies in Miri, it's cineplex i mean.

As the story goes, there were parts that suddenly went blank, and some parts where you just couldn't hear the sound of the conversation the characters were making. And sure enough, there were groans and wails (me included). There was this uncanny togetherness that the crowd echoed. We were one with each other via the movie.

But as soon as the lights went on, and the movie came to an end, the engagement with the people also stopped. Everyone were strangers we soon realized, even after everyone sort of unanimously agreed that the quality we expected from the cineplex were not met. Well that's just in the theater right? Well i wish it was true.

Sometimes church feels this way. Like going to the cineplex. Sure we are all connecting with God, but as soon as the closing prayer is met with an amen, people become strangers. We like the saying that we go to church to get connected to God. But that is not the whole truth. The word church, actually talks about community, the church is the community of God's people, coming together and experiencing God together. Doing church is not an individual thing, its a relational thing. We get engaged with God with other brothers and sisters.

Lets get out of doing church as "cineplex Christians" but as the community of God's people experiencing God together.

'Christianity in a Box and Getting Out'

Here's a sermon i preached, my first one preaching on a sunday in my church! 'Enjoy'.

Christianity in a Box and Getting Out

The struggle that we constantly face as Christians is whether we follow the rules of this world or we follow the rules of Jesus. This is purely evident when we are in a struggle to live out our faith in the world. The common tendency for us is living below par of how we should live as Christians. This is because we are constantly subscribing to the way the world wants us to live our Christian faith.

Subscribing the World’s way of being Christian

This is what I would call being Christians in a box. How does this happen?

Compartmentalization
By way of Religion. Religion is one of the facets of life jumbled up with other avenues of life- personal life, working life, family life, hobby life and religious life is one of them. So there are neat spheres where we divide these things up, and they cannot mix. What do we do here? We leave the faith life behind when we go through the avenues or spheres of life. So in that sense faith becomes something that we wear. When we move to the religious sphere, we wear the box- being Christian! This is what we can understand as compartmentalizing. We have neat spheres of life that have no consistency, where we constantly have to wear masks, where our faith is worn at certain time and taken off at certain times.

Confinement
The tendency of confinement is, we are quite particular with practices that show that we are Christians. We say that it only in these practices we are Christian (Go to church, pray, sing p&w songs, attend Christian meetings)
These two tendencies tend to spell out a Christianity that has an escape view mentality which other religions have. Like the box Christianity, we escape life to be really Christians- we go to church- doing Christian things. Another expression that we can plum together with all that is the tendency of being disengaged- with living life. When we escape life we tend to be disengaged with life. We find no connection with faith when we are outside. The God of this world will be pretty happy when we subscribe with this way of being Christian, there will be no way that transformation to be evident. Do we really want to subscribe to this?

Subscribing to the Jesus way- how it is meant to be

John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (Message version- the word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood)
There are three expressions that we can mention when we read this-
Embrace.
Jesus embraced his surroundings and limitations when he came on earth. In other words Jesus accepted where he was put and it was there that he would be God’s representative.
Identification,
Jesus was totally identified with his new living condition- as a man- flesh and blood- being mortal. Sometimes as Christians we tend to be super-spiritual beings, like people so out of this world.(Phil 2:6-8)
Dwell
As if embrace and identification are already complete in Jesus’ incarnation- to round it up after all that Jesus has to dwell with man. He lived in their living conditions and he lived with them.

Engagement
If anything these expressions spell an emphatic picture of engagement. Jesus was fully engaged with life, in its totality. If the gospel of John tells us rightly (and it does) God sent Jesus and in the same manner Jesus sends us into the world to embody the life of Jesus. Being in the middle of things to change or transform something we have to be in the middle of things and be agents of change from within. Jesus gives us some examples of how he wants us to be- being salt and light (Matt 5:13-16), and being his witnesses (Acts 1:8).
All these word pictures communicate to us that we are called to go out, being engaged in the world and becoming change agents from the inside out. Just like Jesus, he brought change coming in our world as one of us, and so he is our example. He sends us in the same manner, into the world, engaged with it and becoming agents of change.