Last week, I noted that God being a God of order must not make Order God. Let’s expand on that thought and see where we may be simplifying following God and then making a god out of some principle. Do we put our foot down for God and fall outside Jesus teaching? Our relationship with God and with the people around us needs more art than rule bound thinking. Let us not simplify God and become cold people. Jesus called …
God is about order as seen in 1st Corinthians below. But is he against chaos? God loves order, but is order God? How can we think about this? In 1 Corinthians 14:33 it says For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people. In the passage, the Apostle Paul says that having people speak in unknown tongues for the church is nonsense as people cannot understand. He then indirectly says that God is about order. Christianity Today has a …
Jesus knew us completely. He knew how incredibly selfish and lost we were. He also wanted to reach us and all peoples everywhere. So he did not specify too much. Take a look. 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law …
Many of us have read the whole Bible while still in high school. So why do we still read it? Or, we have read the gospels countless times. Yet we read them again. Why to read the Bible more? Living the Christian life can be likened to swimming up stream in a river going down to a shark infested ocean. When we do not swim against the current, we get moved toward the sharks. When we swim, we hold even …
I have concerns about how we use and see water baptism. John the baptist set the table on this topic. John answered them all, “I baptize you with[a] water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with[b] the Holy Spirit and fire. In Acts, many people are baptized with the Holy Spirit and many people are baptized with water. One time when the Apostles baptized …
Living in China where the government makes explicit efforts to make sure every school child believes in Atheism leads to certain difficulties for people who want to believe. Having lived in this context, let’s talk about faith, and see what it is. As such, I know a handful of people who love Christianity, but cannot bring themselves to believe though they try. Let’s Talk About Faith of My Dear Wife Let me tell you my wife’s story. As a freshman …
Genesis begins with the iconic words. In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth. How about we all say Wow!! First, we can all see this means God is not a part of this universe and so cannot be studied by our scientific means. God is bigger than us by a degree that we cannot imagine. If God took no initiative to explain Himself to us, then we would be lost completely, As soon as He does, …
We are children of our loving God. Unfortunately, like in the Crusades, are we Christians losing the moral high ground? A long term Christian evangelist to college campuses says 20 and 30 years ago was a great time for bearing fruit on campuses. Now, they spend their energy: Trying to convince them that Christians aren’t inherently racist, sexist, and abusive. How did we get here? The Kingdom of God is about love and compassion for the lost. Did Jesus ever …
In 1517, Martin Luther gave new life to the Biblical idea of Salvation by faith alone by discovering that Romans 1:16 -17 means we are saved by faith. That led to Martin studying and teaching on Romans a lot and modern evangelicals developing the Roman Road for simply sharing the gospel. However, it is not only in Romans that the main thing is clarified. See here the Gospel in Galatians. 15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that …
What do you think if someone tells you they are Christian, but “I don’t go to church very often.” This happened to me May 11, 2005 which proved to be life changing and it happened again just now. This makes me think. When that guy said that, I was leading a Christian non-profit in China. He was interviewing to get a job for our non-profit. I asked him why he did not go to church, and he said, “People at …
