The Vine and the Branch

Tips to Help You Grow as a Christian

2011-02-04T10:26:00.000-08:00

1. When we surrender to Jesus Christ, He gives us eternal life.
Jesus said: "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned: he has crossed over from death to life." (John 5:24)

2. Did you surrender to Jesus Christ in prayer be faith? If you did, where are you now according to the Lord's promise? (in eternal life)

3. On what do you base your confidence? (In God's promise in the Bible)

4. Would God deceive you? Can God lie to you? (of course not)
"This is the testimony: God has give us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life: he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." (1 John 5:11-13)

5. Give thanks to God because you have now eternal life.

6. What happened when you surrendered to Christ Jesus? At the moment you surrendered to Christ Jesus by faith, big things happened to you:
a. You went from death to life. (John 5:24)
b. Your sins were forgiven. (Colossians 1:14)
c. You were made a child of God. (John 1:12)
d. You are free from fear. (John 8:36)
e. You are a new creation in Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

7. Can you imagine anything more glorious than this happening to you? Give thanks to God now for what He has done for you through Christ.

8. Read the Bible everyday.
"Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4)

9. Pray to God always.
"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

10. Confess to God every sin.
"If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)

11. Tell others of your experience.
Jesus said, "Return home and tell how much God has done for you." (Luke 8:39)

12. Meet with other believers.
"Let us not give up meeting together... but let us encourage one another." (Hebrews 10:25)

Jesus Prophesied in the Old Testament

2011-01-09T07:33:00.000-08:00

Psalm 22:1-7 NIV Psalm 22:1 For the director of music. To the tune of "The Doe of the Morning." A psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? 2 O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent. 3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel. 4 In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. 5 They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed. 6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. 7 All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: 8 "He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him." 9 Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother's breast. 10 From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother's womb you have been my God. 11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. 12 Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. 13 Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths wide against me. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. 16 Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. 17 I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. 18 They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. 19 But you, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me. 20 Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs. 21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

Matthew 27
Matthew 27:39-44 39 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!" 41 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42 "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.'" 44 In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

From John
John 19:23-24 23 ¶ When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. 24 "Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it." This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, "They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing." So this is what the soldiers did.

Authority of Bible: How can we trust that the Bible is inerrant word of God? 1

2010-12-19T09:16:00.000-08:00

HOW WE GOT THE BIBLE
CANONICITY: WHO DECIDED WHAT TO INCLUDE IN THE BIBLE?
Many people believe that the Church (especially the Catholic Church) had a human agenda to fulfill in their canonizing of the Bible. They claim that the popes and those in authority gathered pieces of sacred literature to propagate a certain agenda and maintain the church’s political control. Yet nothing is further from the truth. The fact is that the church did not decide which books to include in the canon. A better way to put it would be that the church merely passively recognized which books were marked by the inspiration of God and were already in use by the community of believers. Simply put, it means that they had no part in any way of editorializing the content of the text; they didn’t fiddle around with the internal words, narrative, and history within Scripture nor did they make up stories that were not true. There was no addition of new writings or subtraction of portions of Scripture during the canonization process.

5 principles to recognize whether the book was inspired by God (Rule of faith)

1. Was it written by a prophet of God?

2. Was the writer confirmed by acts of God? This sometimes included miracles. Miracles were often the way God confirmed His message given to the prophet.

3. Did the message tell the truth about God? Anything that went in contradiction to the knowledge of God was thrown out.

4. Was it powerful and transformative? Did it have the power to transform a person’s life?

5. Was it accepted by the church? Was it widely used and recognized by the church?

*It was never some council that determined what books were to be read but the community of Christians already practicing their faith that recognized the transformative power of the text and gradually as time passed came to accept the writings as being normative to their faith.

What was the need for canonization?
1. They were prophetic
2. Early Church needed to know which books to be read, revered, to apply to their often hostile social religious environment. They needed to know how to apply the teachings in their daily lives.
3. Rise of Heretics- Marcion tried to come up with his own canon. The Church needed to counter his influence by gathering which books were canonical.

4. The existence of many other false writings circulating around.

5. Need for missions encouraged translation of books in other languages. They needed to know which ones were canonical in order to translate them to other languages.

6. Persecution. Diocletian called for destruction of Christian sacred books.
Many people have tried to destroy the Bible, but have failed.
“The Bible enemies come and go, but the Bible remains. Jesus was right when He said, ‘Heaven earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away’” (Mark 13:31 NKJV)

H.L. Hasting:
If this book had not been the book of God, men would have destroyed it long ago. Emperors and popes, kings and priests, princes and rulers have all tried their hand at it; they die and the book still lives. (Lea, GBW, 17-18).

The 27 books of New Testament were first canonized in 393 AD Synod of Hippo. There has been no conflict or dilemma since that time regarding the authority and canonicity of these 27 books.

OLD TESTAMENT CANON
Jamnia Theory: AD 90. Council of rabbis got together in Jamnia to finally agree upon which books be included in the Hebrew canon. Their concern was the right of certain books to remain in the canon, not acceptance of new books. “No human authority and no council of rabbis ever made and [Old Testament] book authoritative. It was recognizing God’s stamp of authority- divine authority in them.

Authority of Bible: How can we trust that the Bible is inerrant word of God? 2

2010-12-19T09:10:00.001-08:00

MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE!
One thing that the New Testament excels monumentally over other ancient writings of its time is the overwhelming number of manuscripts copies and the surprisingly short time interval between the original writing and its oldest manuscript.
In answer to the question “Is the New Testament Historically Reliable?”
There are two factors that determine the accuracy of ancient texts.
1. NUMBER OF COPIES OF MANUSCRIPT IN EXISTENCE
2. THE TIME INTERVAL BETWEEN THE ORIGINAL WRITING AND ITS OLDEST MANUSCRIPT (COPY)

The more copies there are of the original writing the greater chance to compare between versions to weed through any errors and see if it is accurate to the original. As for the time interval, the shorter the time interval between the original and its oldest copy, the less chance of any information being distorted or forgotten.

The Bible has more manuscript evidence to support it than any ten pieces of classical literature combined. John Warwick Montgomery observes: “to doubt the evidence of New Testament is to allow all other classical antiquity to slip into obscurity, for no other textual document of the ancient period is as well attested bibliographically as the New Testament.”

Old Testament Manuscript Evidence:
Bernard Ramm states that the Jews kept tabs on every letter, syllable, word and paragraph. They had special classes of men (scribes/masorites) within their culture whose sole duty was to preserve and transmit these documents with perfect fidelity.

In the North American Review:
Although Shakespeare’s writings are merely 208 years old, they are far less accurate than the New Testament which has been around over 18 centuries. Except in a few dozen to 20 areas the text of every verse in NT is far more settled (deemed accurate in its wording, grammar, and placement). Any dispute they have is regarding the meaning and interpretation of the words and not upon content. In contrast, in every one of Shakespeare’s 37 plays there are around 100 readings still in dispute- a large portion of which affects the meaning of the script significantly.

There are over 5600 Greek manuscripts of NT. Over 10,000 in the Latin Vulgate, 9300 early versions. Close to 25,000 manuscript copies in existence.

No other ancient document has as many manuscript copies
Homer’s Iliad second to the New Testament has 643 manuscripts. In no other ancient literary work is the time difference between original writing and its oldest manuscript as short as that of NT. The original writing of the New Testament is dated around the latter part of first century. Oldest manuscripts are from 4^th century. That is 250-300 difference. This may seem like a lot, but compare this to that of the plays of Sophocles.

We believe we have seven of Sophocles plays intact. Yet the earliest manuscript copy upon which they are based was written 1400 years after the poet’s death. The oldest manuscript of most Classical Greek authors date 1000 years after the writers’ death. The New Testament manuscripts, however, is written within 300 years, and some as short as within a century of the original writings.

The following is a chart that shows the date of original writings for well known classical texts, the time gap between the oldest manuscripts, and how the New Testament figures in comparison.

AUTHOR	BOOK	DATE WRITTEN	EARLIEST COPIES	TIME GAP	NO. OF COPIES
Homer	Iliad	800 B.C.	c. 400 B.C.	c. 400 yrs.	643
Herodotus	History	480-425 B.C.	c. A.D. 900	c. 1,350 yrs.	8
Thucydides	History	460-400 B.C.	c. A.D. 900	c. 1,300 yrs.	8
Plato		400 B.C.	c. A.D. 900	c. 1,300 yrs.	7
Demosthenes		300 B.C.	c. A.D. 1100	c. 1,400 yrs.	200
Caesar	Gallic Wars	100-44 B.C.	c. A.D. 900	c. 1,000 yrs.	10
Livy	History of Rome	59 B.C.- A.D. 17	4^th cent. (partial) mostly 10^th cent.	c. 400 yrs. c.1000 yrs.	1 partial 19 copies
Tacitus	Annals	A.D. 100	c. A.D. 1100	c. 1,000 yrs.	20
Pliny Secundus	Natural History	A.D. 61-113	c. A.D. 850	c. 750 yrs.	7
New Testament		A.D. 50-100	c. 114 (fragment) c. 200 (books) c. 250 (most of N.T.) c. 325 (complete N.T.)	+50 yrs. 100 yrs. 150 yrs. 225 yrs.	5366

The books of the New Testament were written down not a century or more after the events described in them but during the lifetimes of those writers themselves. If the disciples had spread false reports or wrote things that were not accurate there would have been many eyewitnesses alive to have refuted their false evidence, and this not only from the faithful followers of Jesus but especially from those hostile to the Church who would have loved to catch some slight error so they could put a stop to the growth of the Church.

Jesus = God?

2010-11-17T13:03:00.000-08:00

In talking with Jehovah's witnesses, Mormons, we see that the doctrine of Christ's divinity (Jesus Christ being God) is often challenged. The following are some biblical basis for why Jesus is indeed the incarnate God:

Christ claims the authority to forgive sins. Only God has the authority to forgive sins.
Mark 2:5-7.

“A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins….” he said to the paralytic, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Jesus’ question to the teachers of the law whether it is easier for one to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or “Get up, take your mat and walk?” is a puzzling one. The answer is neither. For if any man would say to another “Your sins are forgiven” in front of the teachers of the law he would be in danger of being stoned to death for blasphemy. It would be easy merely to say it, but it wouldn’t mean anything because a mere human being does not have the authority to forgive sins. Only God. Just as easily, one could say to the paralytic “get up, take your mat and walk” but if he didn’t have the divine power to heal he would make himself a laughing stock before the onlookers. Jesus however, boldly announces both statements and shows that He is more than competent to claim these words by first pronouncing that the paralytic’s sins are forgiven, then in order to prove He has God's authority to forgive sins He heals the man- a miracle that can only be done by God.

Christ is comfortable with receiving worship due only to God

Many Mormons and Jehovah’s witnesses although they recognize Jesus to be “Son of God” (this merely means for them that he is “one of the many sons” of God, or one of the angels) do not worship Jesus Christ. In the Bible however we see that Jesus is worshiped as God.

There are several instances where this occurs:
John 9:35-38
After Jesus heals a man born blind from birth, the man is taken to the Pharisees according to Jewish custom. When the Pharisees realize that he has been healed on the Sabbath and by Jesus they refuse to believe and accuse him of being a liar. When he is driven out from the religious community for his association with Jesus, Jesus finds him alone, distraught and abandoned. He asks the healed blind man. “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The man replies, “Who is he sir? Tell me that I may believe in him.” Jesus answers him “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” Then the man says “Lord I believe,” and he worshiped him.

The word for worshiped in the original Greek is proskuneo, meaning to bow down, or kneel or to fall prostrate before someone in an act of reverence. This kind of posture is taken only before a deity in the ancient near east culture and particular in the Jewish culture before Jehovah their God, never before human beings or angels. To point this out when John the apostle tries to bow down to the angel who was announcing him the message about the end times, the angel urgently stops him saying, “Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!”

Jesus does not stop the man from worshiping him, but receives his full worship.

When Jesus is being tempted by the devil in the desert and the devil asks Jesus to bow down to him Christ replies, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” Christ affirmed the unchanging truth that man is to worship God and God only. If he then did not stop the formerly blind man from worshipping him, wasn’t his silence confirming the fact that he is God? For if Jesus was not God, he would have lied to himself and to the devil. Jesus by being in very nature God would not lie.

In a second instance, when Jesus is entering into Jerusalem on a donkey all of the people are praising him, shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord (Matthew 21:9)!”

Jesus receives this worship without any qualms or denial while the Pharisees demand Jesus to stop the people from praising him. To this Jesus replies “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out” (Luke 19:37). Who is Jesus that even the rocks will cry out and praise him if the people are silent? Jesus is God. Therefore, Jesus is confident to receive the praise and honor from men.

Luke 5:1-11 Luke 5:1 ¶ One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, ² he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. ³ He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. ⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." ⁵ Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." ⁶ When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. ⁷ So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. ⁸ When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" ⁹ For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, ¹⁰ and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." ¹¹ So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

This is a remarkable reaction from Peter. Why would Peter say such a thing? One would expect him to be jumping up and down shouting “Wow! how did you do that?!” or even disbelief… “I can’t believe it…!” Perhaps even of fear, “Who are you…?”
But Peter says “Go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man!”
Why this odd reaction about sin and wanting Jesus to turn away from him? If anything it seems more likely that Peter should have been begging Jesus to show him how to catch more fish.

There is one passage in the Bible where a similar reaction occurs to someone encountering the power of God. In Isaiah 6 when the prophet Isaiah standing before the majesty of the Lord sees God in His glory and is lost for words, he has this deep contrition that he is a sinful person and deems himself unworthy to stand before the Almighty. “Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips”. It is only natural then that when mortals encounter the awesome presence of God, they recognize their sinful state and are humbled to the point of trembling and reverence. Jesus’ miraculous display of divine power made Peter get a glimpse into the identity of the Son of God and bring him to recognizing his own sinful state. Peter, like the prophet Isaiah had a sudden realization that he was standing before the holy God and shows the same reverence.

Verses that refer to Christ being God
John 1:1
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John1:18
“No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.”

John 20:24-29
“But Thomas (Who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’”

Romans 9:5
“and from ^kwhom, according to the flesh, Christ came, ^lwho is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.” (NKJV)

“Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.” (NIV)

^{^[1]}

Philippians 2:6-
“…who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited.”

Colossians 1:19, 2:9

“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…”

“For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”

Hebrews 1:8
But about the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.”

1 John 5:20
And we are in Him who is true- even in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

2 Peter 2:1

“…who share the same precious faith we have, faith given to us by Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, who makes us right with God.”

k [Luke 1:34, 35; 3:23]

l Jer. 23:6

^{^[1]}The New King James Version. 1996, c1982 . Thomas Nelson: Nashville

Hell is Real

2008-10-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

A Story of My Uncle.

One Sunday afternoon in 2004 my dad got an international call from Korea. My grandmother who usually shows as much emotion as a block of marble was in tears on the other line. "Your brother... he's in the emergency room. The doctors told him to prepare for the worst."

Apparently my uncle drank himself to the point of no recovery. The last time he was in a similar rut the doctors told him that if he was to have another drop that would be the end of it. He did not listen.

The experts came up with this ridiculous number, 300 percent fatality rate. Blood filled his lungs causing an infection in his veins, a temporary kidney failure, and his prior diabetes along with the alcohol shot up the sugar level way above the norm. The complications were enough to kill him three times over.

My parents got on a plane the next day, praying all the while that at least someone would share the Gospel with him before his death. Dad was worried that he would lose his brother the same way he lost his father, without ever having the chance to tell him about Jesus.

When they had arrived at the emergency room however, my uncle was in stable conditions, awake, and in his right mind and proceeded to tell of what he saw while he was in his coma. The following is an account of his experience.

My uncle had been in the emergency room for two days and in the intensive care unit for one day. But he was adamant in claiming that he had been in the hospital for a total of ten days. Day in and day out he saw doctors and nurses fighting and arguing over where to place him. Through the opening of the ventilator shaft in the ceiling he could see figures staring intently at him. The stucco patterns of the ceiling panels morphed into an image of hell, of men, women, and babies tangled up together in piles. The same image played out like a film projection onto the sides of the hospital wall. Voices of deceased hometown friends whispered behind the window curtains all the while a pastor was saying the last rites. The most peculiar thing that he saw was a white misty glow, like lightning, near his feet. At the time he did not know what to make of it. He thought perhaps it was either an evil force that was draining his life source or a benign one that was protecting him.

To explain something about my uncle, he is not religious. He is a "non-practicing Buddhist" as a lot of Koreans of his generation are. He does not know a thing about the Bible nor has he ever been a churchgoer. From his father he inherited a rice winery and in his younger days he would take free rice wine to the local home for the elderly for several years without telling anyone. Eventually the local newspaper found out about it and acknowledged him as a "Good Samaritan." He was sort of a hometown hero for his charitable contributions to improve the welfare of the poor.

The only person who is Christian in his family is his daughter. After her conversion, she was concerned for the spiritual well-being of her family and had been praying for their salvation ever since. When this tragedy struck, all she could do was to pray the Lord's Prayer near her father’s side. Instinctively she knew that if she stopped praying her father would die. In the midst of her desperation, she saw a vision of Christ reaching over to her father on his deathbed and lay hands on his chest. At that point a quiet calmness and assurance came over her that her father would live.

By the time my parents had arrived at the hospital room with the heavy burden of trying to convert a dying, obstinate sinner they found that the job was already finished; he was healthy, converted, and giving a testimony to a room full of unbelieving relatives. This was the sovereign work of God.

My parents and I had been praying for the salvation of the relatives from my father’s side for over ten years. We had never had the courage to share our faith with the stout, traditionalist, mostly Buddhist relatives. They were not entirely known for being gregarious either; rather they spoke mostly in silence and in watching TV or eating together. In such an environment I can understand why sharing something as personal as one’s own conversion account or religious beliefs would have seemed as unnatural as singing bluegrass at a funeral.

The breakthrough had come when the aforementioned uncle’s daughter had come from Korea to live with us for over a year. During that time she was gradually introduced to the Gospel and naturally attended church along with us. Eventually she was converted. As she left for Korea we were worried about how she would fare amidst her non-Christian family members and relatives, especially since she was the frail and sensitive type. God had other thoughts in mind however.

This was how God had answered both her and our prayers. He had caused a supernatural breakthrough in the wall of unbelief in my father’s family through the conversion of its eldest member, my uncle, and this through the intercession of a frail, burgeoning recent convert. All the more surprising, it was exactly out of my uncle’s lips the rest of them were able to hear of the eternal realities of the Gospel, not out of some well-trained preacher. In this way God had put to silence all qualms my parents had in confronting the non-believing relatives directly regarding matters of faith. This was the way God worked. It also spoke of a greater truth that God was sovereign in bringing about his works of salvation despite human shortcomings.

Post Secret

2008-10-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

I found this posting on the Post Secret website.

As much as I know of Buddhism, it is about trying to reach enlightenment or a godlike state within you. All of your life is spent trying to free yourself from your desire, your ego, and attachment to this world. Once you reach that place of complete selflessness called nirvana, you have become in a sense a god- a Buddha. This is self-realized awakening is attained by following the Noble Eight Path: right view, right aspiration, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. It leaves all of the struggle and striving for freedom and spiritual perfection to our own devices.

This is essentially different from what God has done in Christianity when he entered the world as a mortal man. The essence of Christianity is rooted in the event when the holy, perfect God broke into this imperfect world, in the likeness of an imperfect man, to dwell with imperfect people. This was the meaning of the term Immanuel- “God with us.”

His job wasn't to call morally spotless, “good” people to himself. Jesus mentions to the religious people who were claiming to be perfect and sinless, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mark 2:17). If perfection could be reached by the mere efforts of sinful people God would not have come to this earth in the first place. There is one person who lived the perfect life however. When Jesus died and resurrected, no one helping him along in this feat, he is in essence saying, "Look, you're not perfect. That's why I am perfect. I lived it. I died it. You look to the perfection that is me. Don't trust in your own perfection." The ones to whom God's grace was offered were those who were willing to admit their brokenness, their imperfections, their need for a Savior.

"If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains" (John 9:41).

I remember one incident in the Light of Love Class, a church service for people with developmental disabilities. One of the students with mild mental retardation had misbehaved; he did something so utterly inappropriate to the environment of worship. It was one of those moments you get a glimpse of someone in their stripped bare human nature that it makes you uncomfortable. My face grew red hot with disgust and turned the other away; it embarrassed me. I found myself paralyzed to do anything at that moment, either to reproach him or to excuse him. But another volunteer teacher, much older than I squarely confronted him without blinking an eye, reproved him gently and gave him a big bear hug.

That same week I did something terribly shameful (for privacy I can’t disclose what it was). Afterwards I felt like utter trash and wanting to crawl into a hole. That's when I heard a quiet still voice in my heart.

"David I see you. I will not turn my eyes away." It was not a voice of condemnation but one of reassurance. "You want to run away from yourself. You want to separate yourself from this "real" you. But I see you. I see the whole you, even the parts you utterly despise. You don't have to hide it. I will not turn my eyes away in disgust. I will be here." It was an affirmation that God was accepting me, the whole of my being even with such fallacies.

I wondered how I would have fared if I were left completely and utterly to fend for my own spiritual well-being. Perhaps it would cure my laziness and dispel all my excuses of why I shouldn’t be in an exercise regimen, but would I really learn compassion? Would I really learn to love and accept myself the way I have? Would I really have a peace of mind and rest in God?

My LIfe in a Nutshell

2008-10-24T19:01:00.000-07:00

I was born in Masan Korea in 1981. My family moved down to Salt Lake City, Utah when I was 9 in 1991. I guess my dad thought a small mostly white city of Mormons would be a good place to raise a family.

I had always been a good, obedient child...until I got to be the age of 15. That's when my brother left home for college and I moved to a new high school. That is also when I begin to question whether I had had a real personal encounter with God or just holding onto spoon-fed religion from my parents.

I heard stories of people who lived recklessly and by some miraculous act of God get in a car crash and survive and now they are changed forever. I was jealous of such a surefire encounter with God. It seemed like a good excuse to live life the way we want to and pay for it later.

So for about the next three years I turned off the light switch on God… Not that I was going out and causing havoc. Exactly opposite. Most of my time away from school would be spent in my room with the earphones on. I couldn't talk to people. I was all nerves. It was simply the worst time of my life. Looking back I think it was a severe depression.

When I just couldn't take it anymore I finally threw in the towel. For whatever reason, I could never deny the existence of God. I said, "God, if I can't find happiness and satisfaction in life unless I surrender to you, then go ahead. Just do with my life as you will."

Things started to open up in my life. I stopped hating and despising my utter being. I started to see that God wasn't some tyrant trying to take away my freedom. He knew what was in my heart. He was just waiting for that moment of surrender.

It took some time later for me to surrender to Christ as my Lord and Savior.
Yet, even after that initiation, it wasn't all an easy ride. Being in art school and on my own for the first time had its share of temptations. Yet I think I was so desperate not to go back to the cycle of laziness and self loathing in high school that I was all the more desperate in trying to hold onto God. College was when I seriously delved into the Bible. I felt that without His help I would not be able to face another day.

Looking back I believe it was God who had led me through all of that to come out still intact, still me, still holding onto the faith. Since I have let Christ into my life, one thing is different however. I have never felt that utter sense of vacancy and hopelessness that I did when I had turned my back on God.

Invitation

2008-10-24T18:24:00.000-07:00

Prayer

2008-10-24T17:49:00.000-07:00

Prayer

The act of prayer is the most selfless thing one can ever do.
It is admitting that we can do nothing to change ourselves, the nature of who we are.
It is an act of surrender to God.

The most selfless, yet most powerful way to reach out to another is by prayer.

In prayer, we admit that we fallen mortals cannot truly affect others' souls. We cannot unlock and bandage up those secret wounds of the heart. We're mere mortals. All we can do is as a fellow mortal and sinner bring that person to the feet of the Savior-
Christ who is our Healer saw our infirmities; He saw through us. He didn't just see our infirmities, He lived and breathed them in the flesh. He is the only one who is able to remove the stains and the scars of sin in man's heart. He is the only One. And prayer for another person is admitting that. We are as helpless to help ourselves as we are to help others.

Sometimes I wonder if God has a big scarred heart.

Praying Hands

2008-10-24T17:32:00.000-07:00

These were photos we had taken in the Navajo Reservations.
The reality of these native lands are terrible. Domestic violence, drug use, sexual abuse, and no prospects for the young. Sounds much like L.A.? Plus they have a long list of white settlers who've in the name of Christians raped an pillaged them.

All we could do was to pray, and cry with them. These people who've lost their connection with the Creator, because of others and because of themselves.

Prayer is powerful. To such broken people we can only reach them when we're broken. We hold their hands with God's broken heart.

Let the weak say I am strong

2008-10-10T16:34:00.000-07:00

Let the weak say I am strong,
Let the poor say I am rich,
Let the blind say I can see,
It's what the Lord has done in me.

Hosanna, hosanna, to the Lamb that was slain.
Hosanna, hosanna, Jesus died and rose again.

When I am with the Light of Love Class (service for people with mental disabilities) the lyrics to this song becomes real. We are all fractured and weak in our human, sinful nature. But there is one who is greater than us, who has gone through the worst in humanity's suffering, who has experienced the hunger and the pain of cold. Who received death as ultimate price in order that we might have life in Him. That is our God Jesus Christ. And I see that He does exactly that to us in the class each week. That's why I keep going back.