Thoughts...

You hold in your hand a valuable treasure,

The power to keep a gift beyond measure.

The places you go, the people you touch,

The time that you give to some mean so much

A life lived for God on earth’s temp’ral sod…

Oh what could compare…

What could compare to heaven my home !

What compare to God in his throne !

The things of this earth to some mean so much,

With nothing at all when heaven I touch

This beautiful place, the clear crystal sea

The mansions that He has waiting for me

The things I have there, the joy I found here..

Oh what cold compare !

We’ll not understand, the value of serving

“Till holding His hand, we stand before our King

And then face to face we’ll see the reward !

A life lived for God on earth can afford.

So keep all your goal, here’s life evermore !

O what could compare !

There are really big churches all over the world! A small peripheral city like mine, creeps new emergent churches anchored in America. Some friends used to say “Look how many members they have. How they treated each other in “love”. They must have been the real church !” I wonder does the size of the congregation and those who appeared so friendly, so loving, so caring would truly be the basis that one is in the right track ?

Honestly, I find these churches very attractive to many, sadly and admittedly who in many ways does fulfill something that lacks in our churches these days. Yet if we look closely these kind of churches, it occurred to me, does they meant real “loving”  and not just the facade of good treatment so that people would be drawn ? Does people these days care on what the Bible says ? or do we look for something that can satisfy our human desires, something that would promise you food in your stomach and yet compromises the true gospel of Christ ?

Using various methodologies, the appeal to emotions, proving point for experiences and breaking the stereotype. Cool ?

Recalling one of John MacArthur’s article, “What’s wrong with user-friendly” he puts it this way:

“That is precisely my concern about today’s pragmatic church-growth trend. The strategy focuses on attracting and keeping the unchurched. For what? To entertain them? To get them to attend church meetings regularly? Merely "churching" the unchurched accomplishes nothing of eternal value. That is where their strategy seems to end.

What's worse is when seeker-focused churches baptize the masses with their watered-down gospel, assuring them that positive decisions, feelings, or affirmations about Christ equal genuine conversion. There are now multitudes who are not authentic Christians identifying with the church. The church is literally invaded with the world's values, the world's interests, and the world's citizens. It isn't an invasion prompted by overt hostility; people are simply responding to a survey that came in the mail. Ironically, Satan isn't sowing the tares; church leaders are.

As you set your strategy for church ministry, you dare not overlook the primary means of church growth: the straightforward, Christ-centered proclamation of the unadulterated Word of God. If you trade the Word for amusements or gimmicks, you will not only find that you have no effective means to reach people with the truth of Christ, but you will find yourself working against the Lord Himself".

An atheist professor of philosophy speaks to his class on the problem science has with God, the Almighty. He asks one of his new students to stand and.....


Prof: So you believe in God?
Student: Absolutely, sir.
Prof: Is God good?
Student: Sure.
Prof: Is God all-powerful?
Student: Yes.
Prof: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn't. How is this God good then? Hmm? (Student is silent.)
Prof: You can't answer, can you? Let's start again, young fellow. Is God good?
Student: Yes.
Prof: Is Satan good?
Student: No
Prof: Where does Satan come from?
Student: From...God...
Prof: That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?
Student: Yes.
Prof: Evil is everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything. Correct?
Student: Yes.
Prof: So who created evil?
(Student does not answer.)
Prof:Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don't they?
Student: Yes, sir.
Prof: So, who created them?
(Student has no answer.)
Prof: Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and serve the world around you. Tell me, son...Have you ever seen God?
Student: No, sir.
Prof: Tell us if you have ever heard your God?
Student: No, sir.
Prof: Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, and smelled your God? Have you ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter?
Student: No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.
Prof: Yet you still believe in Him?
Student: Yes.
Prof: According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your GOD doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?
Student: Nothing. I only have my faith.
Prof: Yes, faith. And that is the problem science has.
Student: Professor, is there such a thing as heat?
Prof: Yes.
Student: And is there such a thing as cold?
Prof: Yes.
Student: No sir. There isn't.
(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.)
Student: Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat.
But we don't have any thing called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can't
go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence
of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of
it.
(There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre.)
Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?
Prof: Yes. What is night if there isn't darkness?
Student: You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright
light, flashing light.... But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and it is called darkness, isn't
it? In reality, darkness isn't. If it were you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?
Prof: So what is the point you are making, young man?
Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.
Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?
Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?
Prof: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.
Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?
(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument is going.)
Student: Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process
is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?
(The class is in uproar.)
Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor's brain?
(The class breaks out into laughter.)
Student: Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's brain, felt it, touched or smelled it?..... No one
appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable
protocol, science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your
lectures, sir?
(The room is silent. The professor stares at the student.)
Prof: I guess you'll have to take them on faith, son.
Student: That is it, sir.. The link between man and God is FAITH. That is all that keeps things moving alive.
Guess who that young man was ?

(copied with permission)

Frances Jane "Fanny" Crosby (1820-1915)

Known as an American hymn writer and poetess, Fanny Crosby wrote over 9,000 hymns during her life. She entered the NY Institute in at the age of fifteen and afterward taught English and history (1847-58). As a pupil and as a teacher, Fanny spent 35 years at the school. Her first book of poems was published in 1844 was called The Blind Girl and Other Poems.

Blessed Assurance

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

This is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long;
this is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long ....

God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to…

" You can give without loving but you cannot love without giving"

Amy Beatrice Carmichael (December 16, 1867 – January 18, 1951)

Early in her life, Amy was called to the Lord's work. She never hesitated to answer Him. After extensive mission work in her native Northern Ireland, Amy set off to distant shores. She longed to be in China where many of her missionary friends had gone to spread the Gospel and help those in need, but the Lord had another plan for Amy. She would soon find herself in the mysterious land of India where the suffering was great and where her faith would be tested to the utmost -- a place called Dohnavur, where God's love truly exists.

Dohnavur village is in Tamil Nadu, near the southernmost point of India where, in 1901, Miss Amy Carmichael of Millisle, Co. Down, began rescuing children in need. In due course she built up a large Christian community. She remained at Dohnavur for the rest of her life, dying there in 1951, without ever returning to Ireland.

The Family she built up continues to this day, now led by those who were themselves brought up in the community. A home and family is provided for children in moral and/or physical danger who have no one to care for them. Total responsibility is taken for such children. A hospital is run and staffed predominately by women who grew up in the Fellowship

Amy Carmichael or Amma, as she was affectionately called by everyone in her community, was a gifted writer who produced many books and hundreds of hymns and poems. Amy Carmichael's work also extended to the printed page. She was a prolific writer, producing thirty-five published books including His Thoughts Said . . . His Father Said (1951), If (1953), and Edges of His Ways (1955). Best known, perhaps, is an early historical account, Things as They Are: Mission Work in Southern India (1903).

read her life story ....

Sources: wiki, amycarmichael.org

1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 

 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

When asked to led a small group of young ladies, I was clueless to what topic to start with. As I seek opinions of some friends whose ideas are brilliant (thanks to y’all) what comes next is a long list of subjects to choose from. After a thorough consideration and prayers, I finally come to the topic on appearances and entitling it with…”Looks, Does it Matter ?”

Summarizing those points in my notes;

-         Men and women alike are dissatisfied with the way they look like.

-         We may be able to conceal our outer appearances but not on the inner one.

-         God charge us to be responsible with our bodies not with excessive looks and vanities.

-         Nurturing our inner part before Him would reflect that true beauty naturally that will overflow towards the outer looks.

 
The session ended with a shaking, sweaty hands as I hear soft “Amens”, while some give a hand, what comforts me the most is the young lady approaches me and give me a note “Te, borrow ako full notes nyo” hehehe. .. that’s quite a relief.

PTL.

Tired and empty.. I walk through the doorsteps of my room asking God to come and take me away, I almost have nothing in my hands..as my spirit is filled with indignation, towards some unruly conduct unwilling for correction, Christians with hardened heart …or are they truly are God’s kind ? Yeah who am I to questioned then ….Thoughts battered my mind, my heart broke , my tears starts to fall away.  Left out with unanswered questions in the dark… .. God, spare them !

We often heard among the christian circles that a person needst to be saved....I am saved.The concept in itself encompasses justification, sanctification, adoption, election, and even glorification. 

In the most basic or primary sense I am not being saved by faith, I am being saved by Christ. He is not only the object of my faith, but the source of all and any righteousness attributed to me by God. A depraved sinner who doesnt have anything to do with God's goodness, neither had in anyway part of this wonderful work of God fulfilled only on Christ behalf.

Saved ? It is such a joy for a  soul like mine, joining God from eternity to eternity... So as  Mary says: " My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour" So am I have a reason to REJOICE !

"Is there a logical problem with a supposedly perfect God having desires?" When we look at human desire from a humanistic frame, we could certainly see all desire as being an internally motivated deficiency because for a naturalist, all human action is caused by an internal deficiency, and usually, an internal determination of all external actions whether or not the actor recognizes the fact. One historical example would be Freud, who I'm sure you're familiar with. Do you do something in your family, or community, or culture? All actions are external manifestations of internal subconscious causes that are the ultimate explanation of any activity. Thus whatever you think is the reason you are doing this or that, the real reason is unseen forces determining all.

Everything is ultimately guttural drives for sex and domination. We are less than beasts. We are confused machines. Or, as in Christian thought, desire itself is a real and normal manifestation of what conscious personal beings are by nature. Logic, reason, desire for good, condemnation of evil, loving truth, promoting it and enjoying it, are not accidental illusory effects of biology but aspects of what we most really are. Instead of the clues to the real impersonality of all things human and Divine they are essential attributes of personality that transcend and give meaning to any thing less than personal. In other words, impersonality cannot explain persons; it takes persons to explain everything else. "Forces", "Matter", "Motion", "Cause and Effect", whatever else you've got going, have no meaning in and of themselves and are thus unintelligible non-sense outside of their meaningful environment. When the Christian allows that wholly backward method of analysis to be pushed upon them they inevitably end up sharing the confusion of the world and that darkness of mind they have escaped.

For God, and we are speaking of God in relation to Christian theology here and not merely some metaphysical entity X' for the sake of philosophical discourse, to desire nothing would be to affirm an inert static Parmenidean "thing" of who knows what description, while its opposite, an absolute Heraclitean flux of constant and unidentifiable change would be equally meaningless. The Christian God being both eternal and unchanging in attributes and fully personal would by necessity desire some things, if even the fellowship and inter-communal loves of the three persons of the Trinity to each other. To ignore Trinitarian implications is a common flaw in intramural debates about what "god", some god, this or that god's, properties and character might be. God, being personal, desires things, because that is a condition of being good and thinking truth. A will and an intellect are basic and irreducible prerequisites to personality. As far as deficiency or need, is there any reason to think that a desire for our own existence for example, is a deficient need? We can have it, and desire it, and enjoy it, all without any necessary inference of some kind of lack.

We actually have what we desire and still desire it. It seems that most basic desires are neither externally answerable nor internally motivated by some impoverishment of the soul. Should God desire His own goodness? If He is an ultimate and perfect good, He should. Does it make sense that for us to desire our own existence is a real and faultless desire? I think so. At least I can't see any reason why not. To say that we don't desire our own existence seems obviously contrary to fact and to say it is a sign of imperfection seems to be a claim without an intelligible explanation. Sometimes we call for a measurement of the difference between God's desire of Himself in all of His eternal goodness, which seems natural to the perfect good of a personal being, and His desire to create other things. As if the intent to create other things is different and shows some inherent flaw in the happiness or blessedness of the tri-personal God in His own intra-trinitarian relations. But the question would be why? Why would God desiring to do anything that pleased Him or something that posed as the stage for the manifestation of His own god-ness imply that doing something is lesser than doing nothing?

What's so great about doing nothing? For a self existent being that is perfectly good and exists in and of Himself, there really can be no external critique of the good or bad, lack or sufficiency, of His own action. They would of course be self definitive and self motivated. They would neither be 'needed' in any regular use of the term nor would they be coordinated with the intent of filling some pre-existing vacuum inherent in the Godhead, but only an expression of a pre-existing fullness. Shortly, there is no standard or canon external to God by which He can be measured in order to find out what thing He might create or add to Himself that would have a value in itself that we might judge to be super-added in such a way as to increase a previous lack. The implication of this is that God could have created any world that He chose to create, or, and this is something the Christian mind needs to take into account, any number of worlds in order to achieve whatever He might have in mind to accomplish. This doesn't need, by need meaning carry some inherent logical necessity, to be the only one.

Once God is done with everything that He has in mind for this particular manifestation of His eternal will, He might have other things to do. He is God. Who will tell Him different? For His own purposes He has created all things. This doesn't mean that He does things contrary to His own moral nature; that would be to fall in to Duns Scotus' irrationalist Voluntarism. But it does mean that there is no Platonic kind of 'Form' above or distinct from God by which He might be measured in order to find out what He is or is not allowed to be. There is no apriori 'good' that God is subject to. That is not to say that we do not have an innate knowledge of what the Good is because we are created in the image and likeness of God, but even an innate knowledge of goodness is an expression of the goodness of God and not a standard by which God might be measured. It is not a Canon of the Sum Bonum but an example of the Sum Bonum. In any system there is the ultimate point of reference from which everything else derives its meaning.

 For some it is nothing, and so there is no meaning. For some it is some kind of god, and their value is dependent upon such. In the thought of the Christian as measured by the revelation of God in Holy Scripture, God is the axiom and measure of valuation for everything in the Christian system. Now, this might sound like I am just saying that no matter what God does or desires that He cannot need anything because all things by necessity gain their value and meaning from their relationship to Him and so He cannot need any of them or be increased by them because they all come from Him and their meaning is defined by Him. And so I am. If a self existent being with all perfections, perfections being defined by the kind of being He is, acts, He cannot act by motivation toward an external entity because He must be the source of the external entity. There is nothing outside of Him to allow Him to be motivated externally in the way described, and if there were, its value would be something He decided, and so could add nothing to Him and provide nothing for Him, but that which He decided it should have. Nothing can give Him anything, because everything receives that which it is, from Him. In this sense, any increase from outside is a self imposed increase, and because God is the self arbiter of meaning and significance, cannot ascribe to Him any lack, because it cannot fulfill any need. But if He should choose to desire it, so be it. There is no way to judge such a thing from outside of God Himself.

- Christopher Neiswonger