God will keep His promise no matter what!

I just listened to a really very awesome sermon by Tommy Tenney. I listened one time in the late afternoon and it was so revelational and mind blowing that I had to listen again and take down sermon notes!

Have you ever wonder why Jesus had to have a virgin birth? I mean if Jesus was born any other way we would still believe in Him by the miracles and signs that He exhibited. Why was it that He has to be born of a virgin?

You know God's promises to us are yes and amen but there may be a long time between the giving of a promise and the fulfillment of a promise. God gave David a promise in 1 Chronicles 17:11-14...

"When your days are over and you go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my love away from him, as I took it away from your predecessor. I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will be established forever."

When God says forever..literally He means forever! So here was a promise to David that out of his lineage, there will come a king whose kingdom will be established forever.

But though God may promised something...He is just and He still has to establish His justice. Along the way...David's sons were judged due to their rebellion. Absalom rebelled against David and died and it came to Jehoiakim who had Jeremiah as his "pastor" who was also known as the weeping prophet. He disregarded everything that Jeremiah said. It came to Jehoiachin, the son of Jehoiakim and reached a point when God really had it and was fed up with the disobedience. In Jeremiah 22:30..

This is what the LORD says: "Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah."

Notice now that God says NONE! Now..how can God go against His own Word? Didn't He said FOREVER previously? How can He reconcile this? This was a problem and it's like a lock that needs a key to open.

If a lock is the problem, a key is the answer. But sometimes in life, we try all kinds of keys to turn the lock. When a door is close and locked, we try to open it. We search high and low and find a key that seems to be the right one and insert it into the lock. But it doesn't turn.. Sometimes we are impatient and try all kinds of keys but the door just doesn't open! You see God doesn't play around with your destiny. You need a miracle and a miracle only comes when there is a problem. But sometimes the waiting gets really really tough...and you are looking around you and thinking..when is my career breakthrough coming, or when am I getting this or that...and the thing is that God will fulfill His promise!

David's royal line was cursed and many years later Joseph was born. Joseph was a descendant of the royal line of David. But he did not have access to the throne to fulfill what was spoken by God. Mary was a direct descendant of David but not through the royal line. She was a descendant of Nathan who was not royalty. So Mary had David's blood rushing through her body. And here in this weirdest circumstance and contradictory situation in the history of mankind that had generated so many debates over the centuries, God began to cut His master key, the Key of David to open this lock of David..the fulfillment of His promise in 1 Chronicles. Mary had to have a virgin birth because the promise, Jesus couldn't have Joseph's blood rushing through His veins!

Jesus was born of a virgin to fulfill what God has spoken. God's justice was established yet His promise was fulfilled. No matter what kinds of situations you are going through now...it may seems like you have waited and waited...maybe for something..for a change.. a call.. a breakthrough..a restoration whatever it is..God will fulfill His promise to you! He will even go so far as to suspend the laws of nature to fulfill that promise that you are waiting for. Nothing is beyond the reach of God to keep His promise! He will walk on water to get to His disciples who are caught in a storm and He will ensure that the messiah is born through David's line. What else will He not do for you?

I was very touched and even teared after listening to this sermon. It shows that God is really faithful and His love for you transcends what you can think or imagine. If you want to listen to the entire sermon you can listen to it here...http://www.godchasers.net/files/podcasts/TheKeyofDavid-Podcast.mov

Remember that God loves you and will never forsake you. He will keep His promise no matter what!

Bruce Lee and God

I was thinking about Jeet Kune Do and its philosophy awhile ago. Jeet Kune Do was a fighting philosophy constructed by Bruce Lee and essentially it means "Way of the intercepting fist." Haha..I used to be a crazy Bruce Lee fan and really I think some of the things that he mentioned and taught are also quite applicable to our life and in fact after thinking about it I kind of draw certain parallels from Jeet Kune Do's philiosphy to our relationship with God.

Every relationship is unique and we cannot in a way try to model one relationship after another relationship. I think it just doesn't work that way because every individual is different. And when you put 2 individuals together you are mixing 2 sets of quirkiness, peculiarities and eccentricities together. Similarly in our relationship with God we cannot expect to behave, serve, act in exactly the same way as another christian. I believe that God is a personal God. But sometimes...we allow institutions, culture and people to dictate to us what God is like.

I believe that God relates differently to every individual. For example, God speaks to us differently in such a way that only we can understand. Some of us feel God the strongest in a nature setting, some of us can experience God very strongly in a fellowship, some of us sees God in Science..some in Arts. I think for me I feel God the strongest when I'm in nature. There's no presence stronger to me than when I'm surrounded by trees..or looking out into the sea and seeing the wonders of nature. That's why I make it a point to go to the beach once in awhile just to experience the majesty of God.

In the philosophy of Jeet Kune Do to bring it down basically it is the way of no way. Heh...very "sage" right? But what Bruce Lee was trying to do was that he knew that every individual is different so he wanted to create a fighting concept to accommodate every individual's strength and weakness. In a way it is more of a concept than a system. Some people are stronger..so grappling will work for them..some have longer limbs so maybe punching or kicking is better. Some are weaker, so maybe fighting forms like Aikido and Wing Chun can be incorporated. What Jeet Kune Do is about is basically choosing techniques from any fighting system in the world that works best for you. It is like finding the clothes and accessories that fit and suit you the best..taking into account your height, skin colour and personality. So in a way Jeet Kune Do amplifies your strengths and find ways to minimize your weaknesses.

Ok..so why am I talking about Jeet Kune Do? Ain't God like that in relating to us? God knows we are all different. Some of us are introverts, some extroverts. Some sporty, some intellectuals and some just so full of faith. God knows that He doesn't have a fixed way to relate to us. He knows that for us to know He is there, He has to do things differently. He knows some of us doubt more so He has to create certain circumstances and situations in our lives so that we can believe and trust Him more. My point is that God doesn't expect us to conform to a certain culture or way of behaving. But that doesn't mean there's no principles to follow. In Jeet Kune Do...there are certain principles to adhere to such as taking the shortest distance in attacking. Similarly there are principles in the bible we adhere to..such as the ten commandments and having the right attitudes. Essentially, God doesn't expect and need us to relate to Him in a certain set way.

I was reading Obama's biography. He mentioned the dilemma he faced as a senator in dealing with the issue of abortion. He is a Christian and baptized. In dealing with conseravtives and the public he expressed in his book that he understood the moral implications of abortions but he cannot put a ban to it. He believed that few women made the decision to terminate unborn babies casually but he feared that a ban on abortion will force women to seek unsafe abortions. In a situation like that..I think God will not condemn or judge by saying that his lack of aggression and concreteness in a decision is a sin. Where you are, what you are doing, the family background you come from...the position you hold..the experiences you have been through are all taken into account when God relates to you.

I believe that Jesus is very personal. I believe that in our relationship with God, there is room for flexibility and personalization. So be yourself! Your individuality is what makes you so special.

The Debt

A little boy came up to his mother in the kitchen one evening while she was fixing supper, and he handed her a piece of paper that he had been writing on. After his Mom dried her hands on an apron, she read it, and this is what it said: 

For cutting the grass: $5.00

For cleaning up my room this week: $1.00

For going to the store for you: $0.50

For baby-sitting my kid brother while you went shopping: $0.25

For taking out the garbage: $1.00

For getting a good report card: $5.00

For cleaning up and raking the yard: $2.00

Total owed: $14.75

Well, his mother looked at him standing there, and the boy could see the memories flashing through her mind. She picked up the pen, turned over the paper he'd written on, and this is what she wrote: 

For the nine months I carried you while you were growing inside me: No Charge

For all the nights that I've sat up with you, doctored and prayed for you: No Charge

For all the trying times, and all the tears that you've caused through the years: No Charge

For all the nights that were filled with dread, and for the worries I knew were ahead: No Charge

For the toys, food, clothes, and even wiping your nose: No Charge

Son, when you add it up, the cost of my love is: No Charge

When the boy finished reading what his mother had written, there were big tears in his eyes, and he looked straight at his mother and said, "Mom, I sure do love you." And then he took the pen and in great big letters he wrote: "PAID IN FULL"

Sacrifice?

I've just been thinking about this concept of sacrifice.. A few questions are running through my head...do we have to sacrifice something before we are accepted by God? Does God only love us when we sacrifice?

The bible says that love does not demand..love is not self seeking..so doesn't it put God in a bad light if we see God as someone whom we must sacrifice to to gain His love and acceptance?

A very popular story is the one in Genesis 22 when Abraham was tested. Abraham was commanded by God to take his son Issac to Mount Moriah to sacrifice as a burnt offering. Most of us when we read this story we applaud Abraham of his sacrificial love for God that he's willing to even part with his only precious son. But is this all that God is trying to tell us in this story? If we read further into the story...God stopped Abraham from killing Issac and provided a ram for him to sacrifice as a burnt offering instead.

From this reading of the bible I believe that the lesson that God is trying to teach Abraham was that it is not about his sacrifice that matters to God, but rather his obedience to the word of God that matters to Him. God provided the ram and I believe that the ram is quite symbolic of God's grace. In a sense we can say that the ram represents Jesus Christ whom God sacrificed instead. You see...I believe that God was making a point to Abraham that it is not by his sacrifice that he can gain favor but rather it is his obedience to God's word. The whole message of the gospel is that we are saved through grace into a life of grace. And grace after all is unmerited favor. And maybe even this incident is prophetic of what God will be doing many many years later when He sacrificed Jesus. God intervened in the last possible moment and stopped Abraham before he could kill Issac. It wasn't the sacrifice that matters to God it was more of Abraham's heart.

The creator of the whole universe doesn't need our money. He doesn't need our burnt offerings. He wants our love. When you are in love, it is not about what your other half can do for you. You are not asking that person to sacrifice but you want that person's heart. To you..what matters most is that the person is happy. Do you think that God will want Isaac's life? Do you think that God will want Abraham to be miserable? God just wanted to know where He stands in Abraham's heart. That's why in Genesis 22:1..It says God tested Abraham. He doesn't want his sacrifice..He just wants to know his heart. And He proved to Abraham even more how much He loves him when He manifested His grace by providing the ram.

In 1 Samuel 15:22..it says that to obey is better than sacrifice. Someone told me today that sacrifice doesn't mean obedience. You can sacrifice a lot but that doesn't mean it is right and it may not be from God also. Sometimes as Christians we think that we need to sacrifice and sacrifice and sacrifice even more. And we shouldn't even be tired of sacrificing. But how is that possible? Theoretically it is delusional, biologically I think it is definitely impossible and psychologically I think you are stressing yourself. After awhile if we are not careful.. we think that all God does is to demand from us. But is that what God is like? I believe Jesus didn't say come to me you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you more burden. The God we serve is full of grace. I believe that Jesus is the grace of God personified.

If anyone of you is going through any tough situation right now, I believe that Jesus understands exactly how you feel. He is not asking you to sacrifice more but to trust Him..to rely on Him..because His grace is truly sufficient for you. It is only when you cannot, He can. Grace is when you can't do it any more..you don't understand anymore...Jesus comes and take over and start restoring and reconciling. He takes every setback and set it up for your comeback. He comes and fills you with His love, His presence and reassure you that everything is really going to be alright.

Jesus loves you just the way you are. You don't need to prove to Him anything to win His love. Even if you can't and come to a point when you are so weary and don't do anything..Jesus still loves you. You don't need to qualify to be in His love. To Him..you are the reason the world exists.

Milk!!!

This morning I woke up having to go to the toilet at multiple intervals again...yea again. Think I'm a bit lactose intolerant. But cannot be...since I didn't really drink milk yesterday...only soy milk. Think my body is acting weird.. But it's getting better compared to last time. Last time when I drank 2 glasses of milk I had to hit the loo hard the next day.

I did some research on lactose intolerance and this is what I found. Basically people with lactose intolerance cannot properly digest lactose due to problems with the lactase enzyme.The problem is not normally due to lactase deficiency, but rather it is caused by reduced lactase activity. Since lactase cannot split the lactose molecule, it cannot be absorbed and therefore remains in the small intestine.

This increases the amount of solutes in the small intestines which causes water to be pulled into the small intestine to dilute the concentration of the solutes. This causes adominal pain, bloating or diahorrhea. The high concentration of lactose in the small intestine also causes the bacteria present in the small intestine to ferment the lactose with produces carbon dioxide..which causes flatulence (FARTING)

There are basically a few ways to fix the problem. One way is to take lactase enzyme supplements with meals containing dairy. You can get these enzymes at supplement stores. A more long term solution is to try to make the lactase enzymes in your body more active. Lactase is an inducible enzyme so if it is not used for a period of time, its activity become reduced. So people who don't drink milk for some time will experience bloating and diarrhea after drinking again. So we can build up the enzyme activity by gradually drinking more milk over a period of time. After a while the lactase activity in the body will gradually increase.

I think this is what happened to me. I'm not that "lactose intolerant" anymore. But this method doesn't work for everyone also. So if drinking milk makes you "LS" all the time..maybe you can replace with soy milk? Or try milk with low lactose level. Hi-Low milk is one of the "low lactose" milk. But that only applies to the original flavor..not the strawberry and chocolate ones. I had a mighty time in the toilet that time when I didn't know.

Hmmm..but that still doesn't explain what happened to me today. But anyway there you go...if possible I still prefer milk over soy milk any time.

Cultural fallacy

Culture is often known as the set of values, beliefs and rituals that a certain group of people within a society abide to and practise. In a sense, culture is functionalistic in that it binds the people within a society together and promote social solidarity which is basically a sense of belonging. In other words...culture promotes synergy and supposedly helps to minimize anomie which is the strain that individuals feel when there is an inability to fulfill certain societal goals due to the lack of means available. Essentially, culture when seen in this perspective promotes social order in that it serves to create norms and certain sets of behavior that is acceptable to society.

Let's just step back a bit now....and see. Well basically who creates the culture in any given society? It is usually the dominant group...the governing authority..the upper strata..officialdom..the institutions.. They police the norms, the values and create certain forms of acceptable behavior. And basically everyone within a given social group, a given society looks at the world through these norms. In a sense everyone of us whether you like it or not is looking through this veil..this glass.

The thing is this..functionally speaking having a given culture is good. But when it is brought to the extreme to the point that it becomes ethnocentric and take the form of a bias actor I think that's when the process of acculturation of dubious perspectives within the members of that social group or society occur.

In every society there are cultural goals..and the culture within a given social group may be such that according to Robert K.Merton, an American sociologist, it will lead individuals to center their emotional convictions upon the complex of culturally acclaimed ends with far less emotional support for prescribed methods of reaching out for these ends. With such differential emphases upon goals and institutional procedures, the latter may be so vitiated by the stress on goals as to have the behavior of many individuals limited only by the consideration of technical expediency. In other words..individuals are socialized into accomplishing goals in the most technically efficient and effective way. As this process of fervent strive for success continues..deregulation within a social group occurs which leads to "anomie".

Basically anomie as mentioned before is a state when there is an insatiable desire to achieve a given cultural goal. Anomie according to Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist was even considered as a pathological state of sin. It is this state where the insatiable desire to achieve a given goal due to perhaps unavailable means...lead to strain and stress. According to Robert Merton..there are 5 types of individual adaptation in a culture when anomie occurs.

1. Conformity..essentially working harder within the prescribed means to achieve the cultural goals. It is the most commonly subscribed conviction. The continuity of a society, a social group, the prevention of an internal split would otherwise not be possible.

2. Innovation...This is basically manipulation. This is usually practised by people from the lower starta due to the inability to achieve the cultural goals using prescribed means.

3. Ritualism...This can be readily identified as the rejection or scaling down of the cultural goals to stay where you are as the goals seem to be almost unachievable. It's liken to you asking them.."Why don't you want to do more?" And all you get may be perhaps a muted response. It is a subscription to the fact that they will never be able to be in any leadership position due to the seemingly exclusive nature of the cultural goals.

4. Retreatism..These people have relinquished culturally prescribed goals and their behavior does not accord with institutional norms. The continual pressure on the group members to perform may cause them to detach themselves from the social group or society.

5. Rebellion... Basically these are the people that seek to bring in a new social structure. In other words this adaptation sees the victims of suppression replacing the machine. Essentially like a revolution.

My point is this...the existential nature of culture brings with it many forms of advantages..but when a certain form of culture with its norms and goals becomes dogma, it suppresses individual freedom. The emphasis on its merits without an objective form of self-reflexivity amplifies any form of detraction as devianization. This fear of devianization, of being labeled as someone that is not loyal to the vision of the cultural goals further stifle the emotive development of this social organism through the suppression of free expression. The very fear of devianization within the social organism may actually amplifies the development of anomie with its accompanying responses.

I think an interesting question to think about is this...which individual adaptation will you choose when you realize if ever you are in a suppressive culture?

Clarity

Clarity...something that occurs when you remove all the debris and things blocking your view. Life gets choked full of dirt and debris at times. Some call it the issues of life and if we are not diligent in removing them..after a while our view and perspectives of situations are tainted.

I noticed something interesting that happens in our body. Many of us have woken up in the morning with this yellowish gooey stuff coming out from our eyes. Usually when you just woke up...as you rub your eyes you will notice this "eye wax" or "crusties" as it is known to some people. You see around our eye there is an organ also known as the plica semilunaris. This is the “crusty” or "eye wax" factory. It secretes a sticky mass that collects any foreign materials such as dust, pollen or debris. All this trash is surrounded by the sticky goo so that it does not scratch the sensitive cornea in your eye. Once the garbage is collected, the plica semilunaris “escorts” it out of the eye.

I'm a contact lens wearer and usually after wearing contacts for long hours, your vision gets blurred. My eyes start to feel itchy and uncomfortable. Usually when that happens, the next morning when I wake up, there is a substantial amount of "eye wax". I realize that the accumulation of the "eye wax" is most obvious after a good night 's rest.

Likewise in life..sometimes we go around collecting thrash..maybe in the form of disappointments, emotional hurts, bitterness and stress. After a while our vision gets distorted. We no longer see clearly. We start to see every situation through these "tharsh". That's why we start feeling insecure and defensive at times. We make poor judgment calls and become very confused. What happens biologically in our body I feel is very relevant also to our lives. Like the eye that collects all the debris, sometimes we need a good rest to allow the plica semilunaris to work effectively. Rather than continuing to do all the same things..going through the same routines, we need rest to re-examine ourselves. We need to set time aside for our plica semilunaris to work. This plica semilunaris is liken to our communication with God that sets the thrash apart. It is liken to our evaluation of our own lives to realize the distractions. This time set apart protects you from deeper hurts or more mistakes.

Clarity comes to our biological vision when the thrash is escorted out via the "eye wax". I have instances when my vision gets very blurred throughout the day because of all the accumulation of protein in the contact lens as well as the debris that collects around my eye area. Likewise we need to slow things down sometimes to get rid of all the distractions that is blocking our perspectives. So don't feel guilty if you need to slow down sometimes. To all the workaholics out there sometimes that is the hardest thing to do. And even for myself I feel uneasy when I'm not doing much.

The truth is this...you will go further and have less detours if you are willing to remove all the thrash that is blocking your view.