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Today's Scripture Reading
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"The Christian resolve to find the world evil and ugly, has made the world evil and ugly."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Today, the xtian church does not have the power it once had, yet, we have witnessed the xtian abuses of children, child rape, molestation and other vile acts that reveal the true nature of many xtians and the effects their "god" has upon his followers. The pedophilia scandals are just a small sample of what xtians are capable of.
Years ago, when the xtian church had complete control over government, human life and spirit, we can see from the inquisition, just how sick these people are and just what lengths they will go to get you to accept "jesus." Just as is seen in the numerous xtian abuses of children today, years ago, with the inquisition, girls as young as nine and boys as young as ten were tried for witchcraft. Children much younger were tortured to extract testimony against their parents.¹ Children were then flogged while they watched their parents burn.
A documented case in the Silesian town of Neisse reveals a huge oven was constructed, which over a ten year period, more than a thousand "condemned witches, some as young as two years old" were roasted alive.² Many victims were also extremely old, some in their 80's. This made no difference to the church.
The xtian church murdered, tortured, mutilated and destroyed millions and millions of lives both directly through the Inquisition and indirectly through all of the wars they incited. The damage and destruction this foul religion has perpetrated against humanity is almost beyond comprehension. Most people aren't even aware of the facts. Between the years of 1450-1600, the xtian church was responsible for the torture, and burning of some 30,000 alleged "witches."³
During the reign of the Roman Emporer Constantine CE 306-337 the doctrines of the xtian church were regarded as the foundation of law.4 Heretics (persons who opposed church teachings) were sought out, tortured and eventually murdered. Heresy was an offense against the state as well as the church. For hundreds of years, civil rulers tried to stamp out all heresy.
As early as CE 430, the church leaders declared heresy punishable by death. In CE 906, "The Canon Episcopi" was the first church body to expressly forbid the use of witchcraft.5 Before the Inquisition was fully underway, the church accepted heretics back into the fold, under terms it considered reasonable. The following is an example:
For three Sundays, the heretic was stripped to the waist and whipped from the entrance of the town/village all the way to the church door. He/she was to permanently deny him/herself meat, eggs and cheese except on Easter, pentecost and xmas, when he/she is to eat of them as a sign of his/her penance. For twenty days, twice a year he/she was to avoid fish and for 3 days in each week fish, wine and oil, fasting, if his/her health would permit.
He/she was to wear monastic vestments with a small cross sewn on each breast. He/she was to hear mass daily. Seven times a day, he/she was to recite the canonical hours and in addition, at Paternoster ten times each day and twenty times each night.
He/she was to observe total abstinence from sex. Every month he/she was to report to a priest who was to keep the heretic under close observation. He/she was to be segregated from the rest of the community.6
There is no precise date for the beginning of the Inquisition, most sources agree it manifested during the first 6 years of the reign of the catholic pope, Gregory IX, between 1227 and 1233. Pope Gregory IX who ruled from 1227-1241 is often referred to as the "Father of the Inquisition."
The Inquisition was a campaign of torture, mutilation, mass murder and destruction of human life perpetrated by xtians. The church increased in power until it had total control over human life, both secular and religious.
The Vatican wasn't satisfied with the progress made by regional leaders in rooting out heresy. Pope Innocent III commissioned his own inquisitors who answered directly to him. Their authority was made official in the papal bull of March 25th, 1199.7Innocent declared "anyone who attempted to construe a personal view of god which conflicted with the church dogma must be burned without pity.
In 1254, to ease the job of the inquisitors, Pope Innocent IV decreed that accusers could remain anonymous, preventing the victims from confronting them and defending themselves. Many churches had a chest where informants could slip written accusations against their neighbors. Three years later, he authorized and officially condoned torture as a method of extracting confessions of heresy. 9
Victims were tortured in one room, then, if they confessed, they were led away from the chamber into another room to confess to the inquisitors. This way it could be claimed the confessions were given without the use of force. The Inquisitional law replaced common law. Instead of innocent until proven guilty, it was guilty until proven innocent.
Inquisitors grew very rich, accepting bribes and fines from the wealthy who paid to avoid being prosecuted. The wealthy were prime targets for the church who confiscated their property, land and everything they had for generations. The Inquisition took over all of the victims' possessions upon accusation. There was very little if any chance of proving one's self innocent, so this is one way the catholic church grew very wealthy. Pope Innocent stated that since "god" punished children for the sins of their parents, they had no right to be legal heirs to the property of their parents. Unless children came forth freely to denounce their parents, they were left penniless. Inquisitors even accused the dead of heresy, in some cases, as much as seventy years after their death. They exhumed and burned the accused's bones and confiscated all property from their heirs, leaving them with nothing. 10
The actions of the inquisitors had devestating effects on the economy that left entire communities totally impoverished while the church glutted with wealth. They also crippled the economy by holding certain professions suspect. Inquisitors believed the printed word to be a threat to the church and interfered with the communication brought about by the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. Maps, cartographers, traveling merchants and traders were all placed under intense suspicion; a threat to the church.
Although the church had begun murdering people it deemed heretics in the 4th century and again in 1022 at Orléan, papal statutes of 1231 insisted heretics suffer death by fire. Burning people to death prevented spilling of blood. John 15:6 "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."
The nazarene quote incited all of this.
The pedophilia witnessed today is just a small example of the insanity and the twisted, warped minds of most xians and where any power that they obtain leads to.
The Witch hunts, 1450-1750 were what R H Robbins (The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology) called "the shocking nightmare, the foulest crime and deepest shame of western civilization." In this 300 year period, the church stepped up the mass murder and systematic torture of innocent human beings. Torturers were allowed as much time as they needed to torture their victims. Most courts demanded that prior to the torture, the victim be thoroughly shaved, claiming that any Demon left undetected in the victim's body hair might intervene to deaden the pain that the torturers inflicted or answer for the victim.11
Doctors would be in attendance if it seemed the victim might die from the torture. The victim would then be allowed to recover a little before more torture was applied. If the victim died during the torture, inquisitors claimed the Devil intervened with the purpose of sparing the victim further pain or preventing them from revealing his secrets.12 Those who fainted had vinegar poured into their nostrils to revive them. The victim's families were required under law to reimburse the courts for the costs of torture. Entire estates were seized by the church. Priests blessed the torture instruments prior to their being used. Certain devices were employed to inflict the maximum pain; indisputable evidence of the sick xtian mind:
http://www.exposingchristianity.com/Inquisition.html
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Today, the xtian church does not have the power it once had, yet, we have witnessed the xtian abuses of children, child rape, molestation and other vile acts that reveal the true nature of many xtians and the effects their "god" has upon his followers. The pedophilia scandals are just a small sample of what xtians are capable of.
Years ago, when the xtian church had complete control over government, human life and spirit, we can see from the inquisition, just how sick these people are and just what lengths they will go to get you to accept "jesus." Just as is seen in the numerous xtian abuses of children today, years ago, with the inquisition, girls as young as nine and boys as young as ten were tried for witchcraft. Children much younger were tortured to extract testimony against their parents.¹ Children were then flogged while they watched their parents burn.
A documented case in the Silesian town of Neisse reveals a huge oven was constructed, which over a ten year period, more than a thousand "condemned witches, some as young as two years old" were roasted alive.² Many victims were also extremely old, some in their 80's. This made no difference to the church.
The xtian church murdered, tortured, mutilated and destroyed millions and millions of lives both directly through the Inquisition and indirectly through all of the wars they incited. The damage and destruction this foul religion has perpetrated against humanity is almost beyond comprehension. Most people aren't even aware of the facts. Between the years of 1450-1600, the xtian church was responsible for the torture, and burning of some 30,000 alleged "witches."³
During the reign of the Roman Emporer Constantine CE 306-337 the doctrines of the xtian church were regarded as the foundation of law.4 Heretics (persons who opposed church teachings) were sought out, tortured and eventually murdered. Heresy was an offense against the state as well as the church. For hundreds of years, civil rulers tried to stamp out all heresy.
As early as CE 430, the church leaders declared heresy punishable by death. In CE 906, "The Canon Episcopi" was the first church body to expressly forbid the use of witchcraft.5 Before the Inquisition was fully underway, the church accepted heretics back into the fold, under terms it considered reasonable. The following is an example:
For three Sundays, the heretic was stripped to the waist and whipped from the entrance of the town/village all the way to the church door. He/she was to permanently deny him/herself meat, eggs and cheese except on Easter, pentecost and xmas, when he/she is to eat of them as a sign of his/her penance. For twenty days, twice a year he/she was to avoid fish and for 3 days in each week fish, wine and oil, fasting, if his/her health would permit.
He/she was to wear monastic vestments with a small cross sewn on each breast. He/she was to hear mass daily. Seven times a day, he/she was to recite the canonical hours and in addition, at Paternoster ten times each day and twenty times each night.
He/she was to observe total abstinence from sex. Every month he/she was to report to a priest who was to keep the heretic under close observation. He/she was to be segregated from the rest of the community.6
There is no precise date for the beginning of the Inquisition, most sources agree it manifested during the first 6 years of the reign of the catholic pope, Gregory IX, between 1227 and 1233. Pope Gregory IX who ruled from 1227-1241 is often referred to as the "Father of the Inquisition."
The Inquisition was a campaign of torture, mutilation, mass murder and destruction of human life perpetrated by xtians. The church increased in power until it had total control over human life, both secular and religious.
The Vatican wasn't satisfied with the progress made by regional leaders in rooting out heresy. Pope Innocent III commissioned his own inquisitors who answered directly to him. Their authority was made official in the papal bull of March 25th, 1199.7Innocent declared "anyone who attempted to construe a personal view of god which conflicted with the church dogma must be burned without pity.
In 1254, to ease the job of the inquisitors, Pope Innocent IV decreed that accusers could remain anonymous, preventing the victims from confronting them and defending themselves. Many churches had a chest where informants could slip written accusations against their neighbors. Three years later, he authorized and officially condoned torture as a method of extracting confessions of heresy. 9
Victims were tortured in one room, then, if they confessed, they were led away from the chamber into another room to confess to the inquisitors. This way it could be claimed the confessions were given without the use of force. The Inquisitional law replaced common law. Instead of innocent until proven guilty, it was guilty until proven innocent.
Inquisitors grew very rich, accepting bribes and fines from the wealthy who paid to avoid being prosecuted. The wealthy were prime targets for the church who confiscated their property, land and everything they had for generations. The Inquisition took over all of the victims' possessions upon accusation. There was very little if any chance of proving one's self innocent, so this is one way the catholic church grew very wealthy. Pope Innocent stated that since "god" punished children for the sins of their parents, they had no right to be legal heirs to the property of their parents. Unless children came forth freely to denounce their parents, they were left penniless. Inquisitors even accused the dead of heresy, in some cases, as much as seventy years after their death. They exhumed and burned the accused's bones and confiscated all property from their heirs, leaving them with nothing. 10
The actions of the inquisitors had devestating effects on the economy that left entire communities totally impoverished while the church glutted with wealth. They also crippled the economy by holding certain professions suspect. Inquisitors believed the printed word to be a threat to the church and interfered with the communication brought about by the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. Maps, cartographers, traveling merchants and traders were all placed under intense suspicion; a threat to the church.
Although the church had begun murdering people it deemed heretics in the 4th century and again in 1022 at Orléan, papal statutes of 1231 insisted heretics suffer death by fire. Burning people to death prevented spilling of blood. John 15:6 "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."
The nazarene quote incited all of this.
The pedophilia witnessed today is just a small example of the insanity and the twisted, warped minds of most xians and where any power that they obtain leads to.
The Witch hunts, 1450-1750 were what R H Robbins (The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology) called "the shocking nightmare, the foulest crime and deepest shame of western civilization." In this 300 year period, the church stepped up the mass murder and systematic torture of innocent human beings. Torturers were allowed as much time as they needed to torture their victims. Most courts demanded that prior to the torture, the victim be thoroughly shaved, claiming that any Demon left undetected in the victim's body hair might intervene to deaden the pain that the torturers inflicted or answer for the victim.11
Doctors would be in attendance if it seemed the victim might die from the torture. The victim would then be allowed to recover a little before more torture was applied. If the victim died during the torture, inquisitors claimed the Devil intervened with the purpose of sparing the victim further pain or preventing them from revealing his secrets.12 Those who fainted had vinegar poured into their nostrils to revive them. The victim's families were required under law to reimburse the courts for the costs of torture. Entire estates were seized by the church. Priests blessed the torture instruments prior to their being used. Certain devices were employed to inflict the maximum pain; indisputable evidence of the sick xtian mind:
http://www.exposingchristianity.com/Inquisition.html
[Anyone is at liberty to use the message posted here with or without credit. In preparing this message, I have received help from many sources, some acknowledge and many unacknowledged. I believe the message herein set forth to be a true statement of Scripture teaching, and it is my desire is to further, not to restrict, its use.]
Today’s Scripture Reading [May 29, 2011]
Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evildoers, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound. [2 Timothy 2:9. KJV]
The Bible is so widely available today that it is easy for us to take for granted. But it hasn’t always been that way. Needless to say, this is the most controversial book that the world has ever published. In spite of the controversy, it is estimated that there are over 5 billion copies of Bible have had been printed and sold since it was translated into English some 400 years ago. In spite of the progress made in the modern world regarding freedom of religion, in several countries those who possessed a copy of the Bible can run the risk of being severely persecuted and prosecuted.
As many of us know, English is not the language that was used in the original texts or manuscripts of the Bible. Rather, the language of Hebrew and the language of Greek were used in most of original Bible texts. Before the Bible was translated into other languages and was allowed to print for mass distribution some 400 years ago, only the priests and ‘authorized’ religious leaders were allowed to access and, of course, to read and study the manuscripts. In fact, it was a serious crime to translate, or even read, any parts of the Bible without the express Episcopal permission. Any violator could run the risk of being executed. Reading and studying the Bible was the exclusive right to only a few 'choosen' elites. But this did not prevent William Tyndale, an English bishop from translating the Bible into English. His motive was to fulfill the divine calling that God’s word is to be preached to all the people. He adamantly refused to obey the prohibition to translate the Bible into English and for his attempt, he paid a dear price. He was burnt to death but as he bravely faced the death penalty, his last words were “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes!”
God heard his pray, not once but twice when two kings of England did open their eyes. First, within months after he was burnt to death in 1536 for translating the Bible into English, Britain, then under King Henry VIII, allowed the publication and circulation of English language Bible. Back then there was already some English translations. The second one was in 1604 when King James ‘opened his eyes’ and commissioned 47 scholars and theologians from the Church of England to translate the Bible into another English version which is now popularly known as the King James Bible. King James attempt was to translate the Bible from the original texts of Hebrew and Greek into simple English so that every of his subject could read and understand the word of God. The translation was completed in 1611. Although King James Version of the Bible was not the first English Bible, it was (and still is) the most widely used Bible even till this day. Even though there were less than 40,000 English vocabularies some 400 years ago when KJV Bible was being translated, it is considered as the most important piece of English ‘literature’. It is the master piece of ‘literature’ that has influenced the lives of people from all walks of life from great scientists, politicians, to average people. It is going to be the master piece throughout the age, not just of the English-speaking world, but for the whole world at large.
This year marks 400 years since the publication of the King James Version of the Bible. A point that we all must admit, even to many bible skeptics, that the Bible is not a museum piece, and it will never be one. Perhaps the second most published or printed book that we all know is “Mao’s Little Red Book”. It was estimated that about 100 million copies were printed, and factually, this is a far cry from the 5 billion copies of the Bible. However in less than 50 years, this “Little Red Book” apparently is now out of print. The Little Red Book which contained the thoughts, speeches and quotations by Chairman Mao Tze Tung had mesmerized the Chinese for just few decades but it has now fallen into pieces. The old copies of this Little Red Book are now merely collectors’ items! The Bible, being the word of God is going to be from everlasting to everlasting. It contains the thoughts and the ways of God, and just as God has Himself declared: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9). The living word of God is going to live forever, and we shall all live “by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, that is the Bible (Matthew 4:4).
The commandment by Jesus to His disciples to go to all the nations to proclaim the Good News was the very last words given by our Living God, Lord Jesus, before He ascended to the heavenly throne of grace (Matthew 28:19-20). As we all know, English is one of the most popular languages and with its military and political influence of Britain (or the British Empire) up to early 1900, the English language version of the Bible was the most significant tool upon when the Gospel was preached. This provided ‘spiritual oil’ for the Gospel to move forward and nothing could stop the Gospel to reach to all the four corners of the earth. It is still the most important tool because the power of the Gospel is in His word. Nothing can change this gospel truth!
It is interesting to note that the most popular ‘English literature’ – the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible – could not nor had not been copyrighted. For that matter, you can simply go and print the KJV Bible and distribute them and no one can take legal action against you for infringing the ‘copyright’ because God is the only rightful owner; He is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), and His word is not bound (2 Timothy 2:9), that is His word is not be restricted or limited whether by copyright law or otherwise. Sadly, we now being warned by publishers and printers of God’s word (of other 'versions') to be careful. We are now prohibited to share God’s word because of the copyright law. We are told not to reprint nor transmit the Bible, not even in parts. Typically, these copyright warnings go like these: “No part of this publication (that is the Bible) may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanic, photo-copy, recording, or otherwise – without the prior permission of the copyright owners.” You can also find an alternative warning go like this: “Quotations and/or reprints in excess of five hundred verses must be approved in writing by the Publishers.” Perhaps one of the advices that I could offer to you is that, to avoid being wrongfully accused of infringing the copyright of God’s word, you should consider using only the King James Version of the Bible since the version allows you to use it in any way and by any means you wish. You don’t need to get any permission’to reprint, to reproduce, to transmit the verses in the KJV Bible because God is the Author and Sole-owner of His word. On the contrary, we are told to sacrificially and selflessly “ to reprint, to reproduce, to transmit” His word to all the nations!
The Gospel, the Good News of God’s love for us in Christ Jesus is really the most powerful force on earth. Pharaoh couldn’t stop it. Emperors could not destroy it. Nero couldn’t stamp it out. Mao Tze Tung, Stalin, Kim Jong Il – all have failed. The more subtle but dangerous instruments of Satan – ridicule, skepticism, pop-culture, philosophical enlightenment, evolutionists – though has worked (but up to only a certain point ) has not been able to stop the spread of the Gospel because Jesus himself has told us, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18) because the Bible, the word of God, is the cap-stone upon which the church is to be built upon.
Let us therefore not let this law of copyright binds us and lost our freedom and our liberty to share God’s word. This copyright law, though is beneficial in so far as protecting the intellectual properties of the intellectuals and corporations is concerned, it has no place when it comes to the spread of the Gospel. The copyright law limits, restricts and binds the word of God which God has Himself declared that His word is not bound (2 Timothy 2:9).The gospel of salvation in Christ is moving forward, marching forward, liberating captives along the way, setting them free from their prisons of sin and death, unchaining the captives long held under Satan’s sway. That’s you. That’s me. We have been redeemed, set free by the blood of Christ, as the life-giving gospel declares. The word of God is not bound, and indeed it sets us free who were bound by the evil force before we came to His knowledge of grace and mercy. The word of God gives us the courage and the strength to move forward to live our life in abundance, spiritually and physically.
The unbound word of KJV version of the Bible is alive, is active and is setting people free. There is great encouragement here for all of us, knowing that God’s word cannot be chained up and stopped, no matter how much the powers of this world may try to stop it, no matter how many preachers of the gospel are chained up and persecuted and put to death. Let the preaching of the word of God be the sole-motivation of our daily living. We certainly don’t want those great saints whose relentless and fearless effort to translate the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into other languages be in vain. Yes, they have gone to be with the Lord in glory but their effort of translating the Bible and often at the expense of their lives on earth must be reflected in our zeal to share the Good News to our friends and relatives. Yes, 400 years is a long time but we must remember that our absence from this earth will be our presence with the Lord, and our dear ones can enjoy this heavenly privilege of the presence with our Lord only when they have heard and responded positively and submissively to the Gospel: That Jesus is the Lord and we can be only redeemed by His precious blood.
We must remind ourselves that the modern-day copyright law, though has a large part to play in promoting and in advancing the knowledge of mankind, it is highly for commercial purposes to protect the intellectual properties of the owners. There is nothing wrong in this because as owners, regardless of the types of property we owned, we have all the rights to protect them from theft, from destruction. But when it comes to God’s word, God’s message, He is the rightful owner and it is His intention that His word, His message be transmitted and shared without limit and without restriction. Nonetheless, if you still feel there is a need to copyright your message of God that you are going to pen, you may want to use the following copyright statement that can be found in the books penned by Loraine Boettner, an American theologian and author:
“Anyone is at liberty to use material from this book with or without credit. In preparing this book the author has received help from many sources, some acknowledge and many unacknowledged. He believes the material herein set forth to be a true statement of Scripture teaching, and his desire is to further, not to restrict, its use.”
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The Christian Church has done everything in its power to suppress and control sexuality. Sexual energy is the creative life force that liberates the kundalini, and is a direct threat to their agenda for enslaving humanity.
There is nothing spiritual about Christianity. Christianity is a tool to remove all spiritual knowledge and spirituality. This has been effectively accomplished by attacking the second chakra, which is the sexual chakra, thus keeping the kundalini serpent bound in the base. In order for the kundalini energy to ascend, and ascend safely, all of the chakras must be free and open. Psychological hang-ups manifest themselves in the chakras, which are the key components of the soul, and create blocks that prevent the ascension and circulation of spiritual energy, both in the 7 main chakras and in the 144,000 nadis.
Christianity, Islam, and other related programs to destroy spirituality vehemently attack sexuality in any way they can, whether it is heterosexuality, homosexuality, etc. They work to instill sexual inhibitions, guilt, shame, and turn something beautiful and spiritually empowering into something ugly. Few if any Christians or Muslims are even aware of what spirituality really is. All of these nefarious programs have replaced spiritual concepts with imposter Jewish characters, Jewish places, and other fictitious Jewish archetypes, such as Jesus, the Nazarene. Jesus has been used as a diversion and distraction, keeping followers from accessing true spirituality and working on their souls. Truth be known, we save our own souls. "Jesus" is a fictitious Jewish character that is nothing more than an imposter to a CONCEPT.
Kundalini liberates the soul and also opens up the psyche. The Christian Church has also done everything in its power to keep us from communicating with beings such as Satan and his Demons, and deliberately cut us all off from any knowledge and power. This keeps us all in the dark, and has cut us off from our True Creator God.
"WE SHALL DESTROY GOD" - Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
The sexual suppression creates an imbalance in the base and second chakras which bleeds over into the emotional level (chakra) this extends to the next chakra and from here, we have a further imbalance, creating fear and guilt, and other emotional and psychological disorders. Because of the cut-off, there is no outlet and humanity degenerates spiritually from generation to generation. Each generation has been indoctrinated and conditioned to view sexuality in the Judeo/Christian/Muslim way. Those of us who are completely free from this influence are few. Sexuality= Life, liberation, and spiritual advancement. The Church knows this and has denied the general population this knowledge for centuries.
Now, when I mention "the Church" I am referring to those on top, not the average pedophile priest or minister. The Catholic priesthood is a prime example of the level of indoctrination, ignorance, and stupidity all the way down the line with blind obedience. The child raping and molestations are chief illustrations of what occurs when one consciously suppresses the powerful sex drive, which is the life force, itself.
Because of the suppression of this knowledge, humanity is operating at 1/5th-1/10th of the total potential. The energy centers remain closed and dormant, cutting the world off from other dimensions, blocking spiritual, mental, emotional and physical potential, in order to keep power in the hands of a "chosen" few.
All of this is the use of black magick at the top levels that has been handed down through the centuries. The new age movement teaches helplessness, and strongly discourages any forms of black magick to ensure this power only remains in the hands of a few. Justice and righteousness are strongly discouraged and attacked. People are being indoctrinated to be victims and slaves. Fear is used incessantly, no different from Jewish communism, which is where Christianity eventually leads.
The new agers who dabble in magick are also imbalanced. The Ancient Egyptians knew that to be adept, one must be versed in both the white and black aspects of magick. Black magick is suppressed and controlled by the few in power at the top who make liberal use of it. The average person is not only ignorant to this fact, but helpless against it.
The denigration and exclusion of women in RHP religions is also for a specific purpose. As Thoth stated, everything comes in two's for balance and harmony. Two is the creative force. The female energy within us all is the subconscious and the psyche. The female aspect connects us to the higher dimensions of the mind in balance to the male logical side of the brain. The two ideally, should work together in harmony. The kundalini energy is of the female part of the soul. By attacking and denegrating women, this further suppresses this energy subliminally.
Destroying this female energy is fundamental to the enemy agenda. Once this feminine energy is completely subdued, the intuition and higher consciousness are switched off and become dominated by the lower consciousness. The chakras below the heart, which is the switch off point and connector of the seven chakras, remain disconnected and a serious imbalance results. The Church and its controlling cohorts are well aware of the imbalance that occurs when this female energy is cut off. The chakras all work together.
What then occurs is a total loss of a much needed sense, also known as "the sixth sense." Humanity is spiritually blind and through this, have become total victims. This is the goal of the Christian Church, to prepare Gentiles to be ignorant and unquestioning slaves who are unable to fight back at the hands of Jewish masters [the communist state]. For example, when an adept Jew throws a curse, the Gentile victim who has been indoctrinated with the lies of Christianity is helpless and succumbs to it. He/She can't even see it coming, and doesn't even know. This way, the Jews become "God."
Quote from the Jewish Talmud:
Simeon Haddarsen, fol. 56-D: "When the Messiah comes every Jew will have 2800 slaves."
There is nothing spiritual about Christianity. Christianity is a tool to remove all spiritual knowledge and spirituality. This has been effectively accomplished by attacking the second chakra, which is the sexual chakra, thus keeping the kundalini serpent bound in the base. In order for the kundalini energy to ascend, and ascend safely, all of the chakras must be free and open. Psychological hang-ups manifest themselves in the chakras, which are the key components of the soul, and create blocks that prevent the ascension and circulation of spiritual energy, both in the 7 main chakras and in the 144,000 nadis.
Christianity, Islam, and other related programs to destroy spirituality vehemently attack sexuality in any way they can, whether it is heterosexuality, homosexuality, etc. They work to instill sexual inhibitions, guilt, shame, and turn something beautiful and spiritually empowering into something ugly. Few if any Christians or Muslims are even aware of what spirituality really is. All of these nefarious programs have replaced spiritual concepts with imposter Jewish characters, Jewish places, and other fictitious Jewish archetypes, such as Jesus, the Nazarene. Jesus has been used as a diversion and distraction, keeping followers from accessing true spirituality and working on their souls. Truth be known, we save our own souls. "Jesus" is a fictitious Jewish character that is nothing more than an imposter to a CONCEPT.
Kundalini liberates the soul and also opens up the psyche. The Christian Church has also done everything in its power to keep us from communicating with beings such as Satan and his Demons, and deliberately cut us all off from any knowledge and power. This keeps us all in the dark, and has cut us off from our True Creator God.
"WE SHALL DESTROY GOD" - Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
The sexual suppression creates an imbalance in the base and second chakras which bleeds over into the emotional level (chakra) this extends to the next chakra and from here, we have a further imbalance, creating fear and guilt, and other emotional and psychological disorders. Because of the cut-off, there is no outlet and humanity degenerates spiritually from generation to generation. Each generation has been indoctrinated and conditioned to view sexuality in the Judeo/Christian/Muslim way. Those of us who are completely free from this influence are few. Sexuality= Life, liberation, and spiritual advancement. The Church knows this and has denied the general population this knowledge for centuries.
Now, when I mention "the Church" I am referring to those on top, not the average pedophile priest or minister. The Catholic priesthood is a prime example of the level of indoctrination, ignorance, and stupidity all the way down the line with blind obedience. The child raping and molestations are chief illustrations of what occurs when one consciously suppresses the powerful sex drive, which is the life force, itself.
Because of the suppression of this knowledge, humanity is operating at 1/5th-1/10th of the total potential. The energy centers remain closed and dormant, cutting the world off from other dimensions, blocking spiritual, mental, emotional and physical potential, in order to keep power in the hands of a "chosen" few.
All of this is the use of black magick at the top levels that has been handed down through the centuries. The new age movement teaches helplessness, and strongly discourages any forms of black magick to ensure this power only remains in the hands of a few. Justice and righteousness are strongly discouraged and attacked. People are being indoctrinated to be victims and slaves. Fear is used incessantly, no different from Jewish communism, which is where Christianity eventually leads.
The new agers who dabble in magick are also imbalanced. The Ancient Egyptians knew that to be adept, one must be versed in both the white and black aspects of magick. Black magick is suppressed and controlled by the few in power at the top who make liberal use of it. The average person is not only ignorant to this fact, but helpless against it.
The denigration and exclusion of women in RHP religions is also for a specific purpose. As Thoth stated, everything comes in two's for balance and harmony. Two is the creative force. The female energy within us all is the subconscious and the psyche. The female aspect connects us to the higher dimensions of the mind in balance to the male logical side of the brain. The two ideally, should work together in harmony. The kundalini energy is of the female part of the soul. By attacking and denegrating women, this further suppresses this energy subliminally.
Destroying this female energy is fundamental to the enemy agenda. Once this feminine energy is completely subdued, the intuition and higher consciousness are switched off and become dominated by the lower consciousness. The chakras below the heart, which is the switch off point and connector of the seven chakras, remain disconnected and a serious imbalance results. The Church and its controlling cohorts are well aware of the imbalance that occurs when this female energy is cut off. The chakras all work together.
What then occurs is a total loss of a much needed sense, also known as "the sixth sense." Humanity is spiritually blind and through this, have become total victims. This is the goal of the Christian Church, to prepare Gentiles to be ignorant and unquestioning slaves who are unable to fight back at the hands of Jewish masters [the communist state]. For example, when an adept Jew throws a curse, the Gentile victim who has been indoctrinated with the lies of Christianity is helpless and succumbs to it. He/She can't even see it coming, and doesn't even know. This way, the Jews become "God."
Quote from the Jewish Talmud:
Simeon Haddarsen, fol. 56-D: "When the Messiah comes every Jew will have 2800 slaves."
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Xians believe the Nazarene to be perfect, a peaceful, loving, healing and understanding being. Most are too lazy to read the facts. The bible may be the most purchased book, but it is the least read.
The Nazarene was slothful, indolent and lazy. He never worked like everyone else.
He freeloaded and lived off the work and labors of others.
He was a rude and inappreciative guest who often insulted his hosts.
He STOLE and ordered others to do so.
He condoned and advocated MURDER.
He is one of the worst hypocrites who ever existed.
The Seven Deadly Sins:
Pride
The Nazarene was a very arrogant, selfish and conceited individual. His overwhelming sense of negative pride and self exhaltation was seen in many of the scriptures:
He was arrogant enough to insult his host and leave her with the burden of work while he hogged all of the attention, indicating an extreme sense of self importance:
Luke 10: 38-42
38 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.
40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Anyone who does not love him more than their own parents is not worthy of him. What happened to honor thy father and mother? Here, the nazarene is placing himself above the family members of his followers, AGAIN, indicating pride and extreme arrogance:
Matthew 10: 37
37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. This is also the sin of ENVY- he is so jealous of anyone who might share their love for another.
The pleasure of being massaged with expensive ointment was more important than selling the ointment and giving the money to the poor.
Mark 14: 3-7
3 And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious, and she brake the box and poured it on his head.
4 And there were some who had indignation within themselves and said, “Why was this waste of the ointment made?
5 For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor.” And they murmured against her.
6 But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me.
7 For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will, ye may do them good; but me ye have not always.
The nazarene calls other human beings "dogs" and "swine," indicating they are way beneath him:
Matthew 7: 6
6 "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."
He stated he was "greater" then Jonas and Solomon:
Matthew 12: 41-42
41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
Envy
The nazarene was so envious of any devotion or affections shown for anyone other than himself, even close family members, he demanded that his disciples leave their families behind.
Luke 9: 59-62
59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.
61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.
62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
There are many more scriptures that blatantly expose the envious resentful character of the nazarene. These are indicated in this article.
Wrath
Because of an excessive sense of pride, exaggerated self importance, arrogance and an overwhelming belief of being first and being entitled, the nazarene was often subject to the sin of wrath:
Matt: 11: 20-24
20 Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not:
21 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
22 But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you.
23 And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
24 But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.
The nazarene is forever condeming, insulting and threatening others:
Matt. 23:33
33 "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"
Mark 3: 5
5 And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, "Stretch forth thine hand."
John 2: 15
15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables
In the above verse, the nazarene is condemning money making in the temple and greed, but by his actions and demands, the nazarene is the greediest of them all.
The nazarene makes it plain he comes to bring war on earth and conflict, hatred and enmity among family members; breaking up the family unit and home:
Matthew 10: 34-36
34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
He showed impatience and upset by the presence of a father who's child could not speak, that petitioned him for help. His personal time and energy were more important than spending a few seconds to help a small child who was handicapped. He also insulted his disciples and those around him who he spoke to in reply to the asking for help.
Mark 9: 19
19 “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.”
Greed
The nazarene's distaste for labor was highly impractical. Because he lived off of the charity of others, there were times when charity couldn’t satisfy his needs, so he STOLE.
On the Sabbath, he and his disciples helped themselves to a farmer’s corn. When asked why he violated the law by eating on the Sabbath, he justified stealing by calling himself "lord of the Sabbath."
Luke 6: 1-5
1 And it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands.
2 And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days?
3 And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungred, and they which were with him;
4 How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone?
5 And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
The nazarene's sloth and greed often led to more theft:
He sent two disciples to steal an ass and a colt. He had no consideration as to whether taking the animals for himself would place any hardship upon whom he stole them from. Here, in addition to the act of stealing, the nazarene does not have the nerve to go and steal these animals himself, he orders others to do so.
Luke 19: 29-35
29 And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,
30 Saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither.
31 And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him.
32 And they that were sent went their way, and found even as he had said unto them.
33 And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt?
34 And they said, The Lord hath need of him.
35 And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon.
Sloth
The nazarene has always been known for his hatred of physical labor. The nazarene also hated washing and bathing: Here, the nazarene encourages not washing:
Matt. 15: 1-20
1 Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,
2 Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
Mark 7: 1-9
1 Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.
2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.
3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.
4 And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.
5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctines the commandments of men.
8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
Also, the stretch in the desert speaks for itself. (Matthew 4: 1-2)
Gluttony
Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires. Although the nazarene preached abstinence, he did not intend this for himself.
He gets defensive about complaints directed at him and his followers who are always seen eating and drinking.
Luke 5:33-34
33 And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink?
34 And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?
35 But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.
He was known as a glutton and a drunkard.
Luke 7:34
34 The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!
The nazarene was wrathful when his sources for free meals were not readily available. w. Once he cursed a fig tree for not having any fruit. The tree died.
Mark 11:12-14, 20-22
12 And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry:
13 And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.
14 And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.
20 And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.
21 And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.
22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
Lust
Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.
The nazarene preached celibacy for his followers, but being the hypocrite that he is, he did not apply these teachings to himself. Both men* and women put out sexual favors for him as did others in the way of food, shelter and other needs.
Luke 8:1-3
1 And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him,
2 And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils,
3 And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.
*There are deleted passages in the gospel of Mark. The nazarene had intercourse with one of his disciples while the others slept in the garden before his crucifixion.
The nazarene advocated and encouraged MURDER for selfish reasons:
Luke 19: 27
27 But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.
The nazarene not only ADVOCATED SLAVERY, but encouraged and condoned the abuse of slaves:
Luke 12: 47
47 And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
In addition to the sermon on the mount being ant-life and against nature (artificial), the nazarene's actions speak much louder than his words and reveal his true nature- that of a big hypocrite:
Matthew 5
1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The nazarene was ANYTHING but "poor in spirit." He was arrogant, self righteous and always put his own needs and desires before that of others.
Luke 10: 38-42
Matthew 10: 37
(see above scriptures)
4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Matthew 8:21-22
21 And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
"Meek" means "humble." Read the above paragraph of scriptures revealing the nazarene's pride and arrogance.
6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
The nazarene openly advocated and encouraged chaos and lawlessness. These unethical, suicidal, anti-life teachings have worked to undermine and destroy legal systems, resulting in the punishing of the victim, while crimminals are rewarded and encouraged in their behavior. The end result is the collapse of civilization. Any speices that fails to defend itself will end up extinct. If the human body ignored the germs, bacteria and viruses that invaded it, nearly all people would be dead in less than a day. These teachings are anti-life and designed to destroy human lives.
Matthew 5: 38-44
38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
The nazarene was anything but "merciful." He is forever condemning, threatening and damning people.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
The nazarene was anything but "pure of heart."
He LIED:
John 5: 31
31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
The nazarene told his disciples that they would not die before his second coming:
Matthew 16: 28
28 Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
Revelation 3: 11
11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
He STOLE:
Luke 19: 29-35
Luke 6: 1-5
(see above)
He ADVOCATED and ENCOURAGED MURDER on a whim:
Luke 19: 27 (see above)
He was one of the worst hypocrites that ever lived.
Matthew 5: 19
19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Matthew 10: 34-36
34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The nazarene condemns righteousness and works against it- see the other scriptures on this page.
Matthew 5: 11
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
This is blatant of the nazarene's hatred of humanity.
The nazarene preached self mutilation:
Matthew 19: 12
12 For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.
A "eunuch" is a castrated male; in other words, a male with his balls cut off. The catholic church routinely castrated young choir boys in order to prevent their voices from changing.
Matthew 5: 29-30
29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
The nazarene's CRUELTY TO ANIMALS:
Matthew 8: 30-32
30 And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding.
31 So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.
32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Nazarene was slothful, indolent and lazy. He never worked like everyone else.
He freeloaded and lived off the work and labors of others.
He was a rude and inappreciative guest who often insulted his hosts.
He STOLE and ordered others to do so.
He condoned and advocated MURDER.
He is one of the worst hypocrites who ever existed.
The Seven Deadly Sins:
Pride
The Nazarene was a very arrogant, selfish and conceited individual. His overwhelming sense of negative pride and self exhaltation was seen in many of the scriptures:
He was arrogant enough to insult his host and leave her with the burden of work while he hogged all of the attention, indicating an extreme sense of self importance:
Luke 10: 38-42
38 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.
40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Anyone who does not love him more than their own parents is not worthy of him. What happened to honor thy father and mother? Here, the nazarene is placing himself above the family members of his followers, AGAIN, indicating pride and extreme arrogance:
Matthew 10: 37
37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. This is also the sin of ENVY- he is so jealous of anyone who might share their love for another.
The pleasure of being massaged with expensive ointment was more important than selling the ointment and giving the money to the poor.
Mark 14: 3-7
3 And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious, and she brake the box and poured it on his head.
4 And there were some who had indignation within themselves and said, “Why was this waste of the ointment made?
5 For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor.” And they murmured against her.
6 But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me.
7 For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will, ye may do them good; but me ye have not always.
The nazarene calls other human beings "dogs" and "swine," indicating they are way beneath him:
Matthew 7: 6
6 "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."
He stated he was "greater" then Jonas and Solomon:
Matthew 12: 41-42
41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
Envy
The nazarene was so envious of any devotion or affections shown for anyone other than himself, even close family members, he demanded that his disciples leave their families behind.
Luke 9: 59-62
59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.
61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.
62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
There are many more scriptures that blatantly expose the envious resentful character of the nazarene. These are indicated in this article.
Wrath
Because of an excessive sense of pride, exaggerated self importance, arrogance and an overwhelming belief of being first and being entitled, the nazarene was often subject to the sin of wrath:
Matt: 11: 20-24
20 Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not:
21 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
22 But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you.
23 And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
24 But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.
The nazarene is forever condeming, insulting and threatening others:
Matt. 23:33
33 "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"
Mark 3: 5
5 And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, "Stretch forth thine hand."
John 2: 15
15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables
In the above verse, the nazarene is condemning money making in the temple and greed, but by his actions and demands, the nazarene is the greediest of them all.
The nazarene makes it plain he comes to bring war on earth and conflict, hatred and enmity among family members; breaking up the family unit and home:
Matthew 10: 34-36
34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
He showed impatience and upset by the presence of a father who's child could not speak, that petitioned him for help. His personal time and energy were more important than spending a few seconds to help a small child who was handicapped. He also insulted his disciples and those around him who he spoke to in reply to the asking for help.
Mark 9: 19
19 “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.”
Greed
The nazarene's distaste for labor was highly impractical. Because he lived off of the charity of others, there were times when charity couldn’t satisfy his needs, so he STOLE.
On the Sabbath, he and his disciples helped themselves to a farmer’s corn. When asked why he violated the law by eating on the Sabbath, he justified stealing by calling himself "lord of the Sabbath."
Luke 6: 1-5
1 And it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands.
2 And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days?
3 And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungred, and they which were with him;
4 How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone?
5 And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
The nazarene's sloth and greed often led to more theft:
He sent two disciples to steal an ass and a colt. He had no consideration as to whether taking the animals for himself would place any hardship upon whom he stole them from. Here, in addition to the act of stealing, the nazarene does not have the nerve to go and steal these animals himself, he orders others to do so.
Luke 19: 29-35
29 And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,
30 Saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither.
31 And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him.
32 And they that were sent went their way, and found even as he had said unto them.
33 And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt?
34 And they said, The Lord hath need of him.
35 And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon.
Sloth
The nazarene has always been known for his hatred of physical labor. The nazarene also hated washing and bathing: Here, the nazarene encourages not washing:
Matt. 15: 1-20
1 Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,
2 Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
Mark 7: 1-9
1 Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.
2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.
3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.
4 And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.
5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctines the commandments of men.
8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
Also, the stretch in the desert speaks for itself. (Matthew 4: 1-2)
Gluttony
Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires. Although the nazarene preached abstinence, he did not intend this for himself.
He gets defensive about complaints directed at him and his followers who are always seen eating and drinking.
Luke 5:33-34
33 And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink?
34 And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?
35 But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.
He was known as a glutton and a drunkard.
Luke 7:34
34 The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!
The nazarene was wrathful when his sources for free meals were not readily available. w. Once he cursed a fig tree for not having any fruit. The tree died.
Mark 11:12-14, 20-22
12 And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry:
13 And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.
14 And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.
20 And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.
21 And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.
22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
Lust
Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.
The nazarene preached celibacy for his followers, but being the hypocrite that he is, he did not apply these teachings to himself. Both men* and women put out sexual favors for him as did others in the way of food, shelter and other needs.
Luke 8:1-3
1 And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him,
2 And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils,
3 And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.
*There are deleted passages in the gospel of Mark. The nazarene had intercourse with one of his disciples while the others slept in the garden before his crucifixion.
The nazarene advocated and encouraged MURDER for selfish reasons:
Luke 19: 27
27 But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.
The nazarene not only ADVOCATED SLAVERY, but encouraged and condoned the abuse of slaves:
Luke 12: 47
47 And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
In addition to the sermon on the mount being ant-life and against nature (artificial), the nazarene's actions speak much louder than his words and reveal his true nature- that of a big hypocrite:
Matthew 5
1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The nazarene was ANYTHING but "poor in spirit." He was arrogant, self righteous and always put his own needs and desires before that of others.
Luke 10: 38-42
Matthew 10: 37
(see above scriptures)
4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Matthew 8:21-22
21 And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
"Meek" means "humble." Read the above paragraph of scriptures revealing the nazarene's pride and arrogance.
6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
The nazarene openly advocated and encouraged chaos and lawlessness. These unethical, suicidal, anti-life teachings have worked to undermine and destroy legal systems, resulting in the punishing of the victim, while crimminals are rewarded and encouraged in their behavior. The end result is the collapse of civilization. Any speices that fails to defend itself will end up extinct. If the human body ignored the germs, bacteria and viruses that invaded it, nearly all people would be dead in less than a day. These teachings are anti-life and designed to destroy human lives.
Matthew 5: 38-44
38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
The nazarene was anything but "merciful." He is forever condemning, threatening and damning people.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
The nazarene was anything but "pure of heart."
He LIED:
John 5: 31
31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
The nazarene told his disciples that they would not die before his second coming:
Matthew 16: 28
28 Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
Revelation 3: 11
11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
He STOLE:
Luke 19: 29-35
Luke 6: 1-5
(see above)
He ADVOCATED and ENCOURAGED MURDER on a whim:
Luke 19: 27 (see above)
He was one of the worst hypocrites that ever lived.
Matthew 5: 19
19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Matthew 10: 34-36
34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The nazarene condemns righteousness and works against it- see the other scriptures on this page.
Matthew 5: 11
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
This is blatant of the nazarene's hatred of humanity.
The nazarene preached self mutilation:
Matthew 19: 12
12 For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.
A "eunuch" is a castrated male; in other words, a male with his balls cut off. The catholic church routinely castrated young choir boys in order to prevent their voices from changing.
Matthew 5: 29-30
29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
The nazarene's CRUELTY TO ANIMALS:
Matthew 8: 30-32
30 And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding.
31 So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.
32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.
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I just came from reading the two posts subsequent to yours and I must say that they can be used as examples to justify why the Bible should not be translated.
Just kidding.
Whoever holds the knowledge and the position holds the key to the kingdom of power. Those in absolute power will want to retain them using the keys of religion or anointment or progression of power through the office, etc. It has been the case whenever there is man. For some cases, it comes with God's instruction. For others, with man's desires.
I remember hearing an established and revered pastor who believe that the elders who served Christ in Heaven are offices which are rotated. My interpretation of his words is that his turn will come as one of the elders.
My interpretation of another is that he is a prince in God's Kingdom and he is destined to reign over others and with his status, will be given the Kingdom's perks of high-end condos and bmw cars.
There is the established interpretation of scripture, there is divine revelation to the various people, there is individual understanding of the scripture and as the two posts subsequent to yours show, there is satanic revelation to those who want to believe as such.
Given the above, there is a need to have a standard of beliefs.
But the protestant religion is such as people wants to have their beliefs, want others to acknowledge their beliefs as otherwise they will form their own church and cult, create deviations from established beliefs and want the sheep to be subjected to them as shepherds even as they refuse to accept the shepherding of others. It is not exactly a linking of hands and singing of praises to Christ.
Sometimes it is a matter of doctrine. In practical Singapore, it can also be a matter of church members which translates to the amount of tithes. It is also a definition of 'tithes' - money that must come to the pastor's church and no others.
As such, I believe it is better to have power in the hands of a globalized church. The problems to that is that such a church can be deeply influenced by Satan and that will happen one day when the AntiChrist comes.
A normal God-fearing and God-loving christian may turn corrupt or money-loving when given power as have been amply illustrated in current christianity with followers of their churches resolutely denying this had happened to their pastor.
Thus Tyndale is right after all. The message must be easily readable and the power to interpret God's word must reside in each Christian. Never mind if all of a sudden, some church leaders start to believe they are now apostles, just below St Peter but ahead of all the rest. We can live with that, as a knowledge of who and what we believe in, make it difficult to bluff the entire church.
After all, we protestants have a tradition of arguments, not submission. That is our failure as well as our safeguard against those who worship Satan, false shepherd and Christ's shepherds who also seek to gain from the position which Christ gave them.
Today’s Scripture Reading [June 5, 2011]
Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. [John 6:26-27. KJV]
Eating is a major part of life. Some scholars have estimated that in the Bible there are over 700 references to the word that is associated with “eating”. The abundant life that Jesus proclaims is that He wants all of us to lead hinges upon what we eat spiritually and physically. We must make a major effort to feed our minds and bodies with the best nutrition available, if we desire good spiritual and physical health. Since the Bible mentions eating over 700 times, it has therefore highlighted the broad practicality of God’s instruction concerning the consumption of food. Its lessons for us are drawn from life itself, and eating is a major part of everyone's experience. Regardless of race, wealth, education, gender, or age, everybody eats, and for the more wealthy people, eating can simply be their main pastime indulgence. When it comes to eating, some may do it more carefully than others. I believe you must have known of friends who are very careful in choosing what to eat, and you too must have known of some who simply eat what is laid on the table. Perhaps we can call the first group of people ‘eat to live’ and the second group of people “live to eat” and it seems that by studying the eating habits and experiences of others, we can tell, in some small manner, their character.
Should we eat or should we not eat? This is a question that many people are now asking when they go and buy certain food from the market. Since 2008 when the news of the infamous Chinese-made milk and milk products were found to have been contaminated with an industrial chemical, melamine, the news of food contamination seems to be rolling out almost monthly. The latest food scare of contaminated cucumbers is another bad news for all of us. Mysteriously, this seemingly harmless E-coli bacteria is now infecting the food chain with a new incurable strain of its cousin. This newly-discovered strain of the deadly E-coli bacteria has claimed several lives in Europe and made many sick. Is this a warning from God about the impending calamity of famine (and infected food will certainly have the effect in reducing the supply of the already food shortage), of human wickedness to introduce man-made substances into the food chain that ultimately we all must pay the price for upsetting the His law. Is the latest food scare going to be the reason for the scientific world to step up the research into producing man-made food commonly known as genetic-modified food. Sadly, we always turn to science and technology to look for answers and solutions when the problems are really of human heart. We all know that it s just a wishful thinking that science can be of any help to solve the heart problem of man. Yes, we see it can and it has solved some problems of immediate concerns but we know that over the long-term, the effect of using science to solve human problems is anything but fallen short of the very solutions that man is seeking. In many cases, the solutions from science produced more problems that what it had meant to solve.
The problems associated with food like rising cost of grains, contaminated products, made-man produce are not going to go away. It’s going to get worst and we are all seeing this coming out from the news. The hard-truth is that we all need food and we need it every day. It’s hard to just miss one meal let alone to miss one day’s meal. In many third world poor countries, we see million of people are surviving just on one meal each day with just plain grains, corn, potatoes or wild fruits and vegetables that grew in their backyards. People will do anything to protect their ‘rice-bowl’ to ensure that they have at least three meals a day for their families. For the more wealth, they have, of course, taken it for granted that they will be fed every day and so they focus their efforts in filling up our stomach, not just with food, but with ‘good’ food (albeit many of the so-called ‘good’ food do more harm to our bodies than we can really realize). Many of us are not ignorant of eating this so-called harmful ‘good’ food. We just ignore and refuse to take knowledge and hope that our body can handle it. But bad news! Our body cannot take these foods for too long and sooner or later we will have to pay the price from some diet-related diseases.
One of a better known stories concerning food can be found the gospel according to John chapter 6. The day after feeding the 5,000, this miracle of Jesus feeding the multitude with just five barley loaves of bread and two small fishes graciously given to Him by a young boy (John 6:9) becomes an important spiritual lesson for Christians to go and seek the best spiritual nourishment. Jesus knew pretty well that the people who witnessed this miracle did not properly understand what they had witnessed. This is no different from today. We see that many Christians and even non-Christians flooded auditorium just to listen preachers preaching on the subject of miracles and to witness some miracles that were being promoted or performed them. Interestingly, we notice one very important thing that is common to both eating and miracle: both simply address the inward needs of people. We eat to satisfy ourselves. We can never eat and to fill the hunger of other people. We simply eat to fill our own hunger. Likewise, when we attempt to seek miracle, we seek for our own selfish needs – we want to be healed for sickness; we want to ask God to perform miracle on our investment; we want miracle from God to intercede for our children’s examination that they can pass with flying colors. We expect miracle will fill our inward desire that our many wishes and dreams are be fulfilled. When it comes to eating and miracles, its’ all about “It’s me! It’s me! It’s me!” But Jesus has warned us on this search for self-gratification as we can see in verses 26 and 27 of the gospel according to John chapter 6. He warns us not to seek miracle, and instead to see Him, neither should we focus on our attention on our gluttony because no matter how good a food is, it can never satisfy our hunger for long. Instead, our hunger can only be satisfied through consuming the Bread of Life, the word of God. Remember Jesus rebuked Satan when He was attempted in the wilderness with these words: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). The word of God is the only spiritual nourishment that we need in order to be a member of His Kingdom. Unlike eating the perishable and never-satisfying food of the world, we need to put up special efforts to eat the spiritual nourishment. These efforts include exercising self-control and allowing the spiritual of God to take control over what we think, what we do, what we eat, and not to be motivated by self interest in attempts to search for best food or the most convincing miracles as promoted or performed by some preachers.
We are also told of the best food that we need to eat which can be found in 1 Corinthians 11:24. In this verse, we are reminded to take and eat ‘the body of Christ’ that is broken for us. Jesus has broken a piece of bread which is used for Communion to symbolically represent His body. Commonly referred to as the Last Supper, it is in fact a picture of our physical salvation. Remember, the food we eat could only last us a day but Jesus is offering us food that endures to eternal life. We must not let the kingdom of this world to revolve around us, but Him. We must seek Jesus and to totally embrace Him as part of our lives. It requires effort. It requires sacrifices. It takes time. Yes, it is difficult because we are going to face disappointment when we sincerely and truthfully want to eat the Bread of Life that Jesus is offering to us and to let the Spirit of God to master over us. We must, however, endure all the difficulties or disappointments because of the ultimate blessings and rewards that we can surely expect from the broken body of our Saviour and His body was broken for us in a number of ways: the crown of thorns, the beatings, the strips, the injuries He suffered, the pain He suffered. He didn’t have to suffer all that for our sins. He only had to shed His blood and die for our sins. But His body suffered so that through this, He could also atone for our sicknesses: "By His stripes we are healed!" (Isa.53:5) To save our bodies, God took His body. The best medicine in the world is the body of Jesus Christ which was broken for our healing! This healing miracle was already performed in full when Jesus was preparing His for journey to Calvary. When we partake of the bread, it shows we have faith that His body was broken for our health, so claim His healing by faith when we partake. If we eat of it by faith, we are healed by faith. It's part of His atonement for Salvation for us - body, soul and spirit.
While the world is still recovering from the scares because of infected and contaminated foods (and I believe more to come bad news of these are yet to come), we can take comfort that as children of God, we have the Bread of Life of Jesus. This Bread of Life that we are eating will never be contaminated and it is this Bread that gives us the hope of being re-created to be in God's image. It is this Bread that will finally put us back to where we are supposed to be at: The garden of Eden. But the new garden of Eden, the New Heaven and the New Earth that God has promised for us will be far, far awesome than the one originally created for Adam and Eve. Come to this living Bread of Life of Jesus while you can! We don't know what we are eating these days and prayfully our gracious God can spare us from the contaminated food. But, we must not be too confident because diseases travel and they travel, quite literally, at the speed of sound. We import more than 90% of the food products and although the government agencies have been very vigilant and have an excellent job in keeping away unsafe food from us, we must acknowledge there is risk. Let me repeat, we don't really know exactly what we eat these days but thankfully we have the living Bread of Life of Jesus. Take up His free offer and eat it while you may.
Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. [John 6:26-27. KJV]
Eating is a major part of life. Some scholars have estimated that in the Bible there are over 700 references to the word that is associated with “eating”. The abundant life that Jesus proclaims is that He wants all of us to lead hinges upon what we eat spiritually and physically. We must make a major effort to feed our minds and bodies with the best nutrition available, if we desire good spiritual and physical health. Since the Bible mentions eating over 700 times, it has therefore highlighted the broad practicality of God’s instruction concerning the consumption of food. Its lessons for us are drawn from life itself, and eating is a major part of everyone's experience. Regardless of race, wealth, education, gender, or age, everybody eats, and for the more wealthy people, eating can simply be their main pastime indulgence. When it comes to eating, some may do it more carefully than others. I believe you must have known of friends who are very careful in choosing what to eat, and you too must have known of some who simply eat what is laid on the table. Perhaps we can call the first group of people ‘eat to live’ and the second group of people “live to eat” and it seems that by studying the eating habits and experiences of others, we can tell, in some small manner, their character.
Should we eat or should we not eat? This is a question that many people are now asking when they go and buy certain food from the market. Since 2008 when the news of the infamous Chinese-made milk and milk products were found to have been contaminated with an industrial chemical, melamine, the news of food contamination seems to be rolling out almost monthly. The latest food scare of contaminated cucumbers is another bad news for all of us. Mysteriously, this seemingly harmless E-coli bacteria is now infecting the food chain with a new incurable strain of its cousin. This newly-discovered strain of the deadly E-coli bacteria has claimed several lives in Europe and made many sick. Is this a warning from God about the impending calamity of famine (and infected food will certainly have the effect in reducing the supply of the already food shortage), of human wickedness to introduce man-made substances into the food chain that ultimately we all must pay the price for upsetting the His law. Is the latest food scare going to be the reason for the scientific world to step up the research into producing man-made food commonly known as genetic-modified food. Sadly, we always turn to science and technology to look for answers and solutions when the problems are really of human heart. We all know that it s just a wishful thinking that science can be of any help to solve the heart problem of man. Yes, we see it can and it has solved some problems of immediate concerns but we know that over the long-term, the effect of using science to solve human problems is anything but fallen short of the very solutions that man is seeking. In many cases, the solutions from science produced more problems that what it had meant to solve.
The problems associated with food like rising cost of grains, contaminated products, made-man produce are not going to go away. It’s going to get worst and we are all seeing this coming out from the news. The hard-truth is that we all need food and we need it every day. It’s hard to just miss one meal let alone to miss one day’s meal. In many third world poor countries, we see million of people are surviving just on one meal each day with just plain grains, corn, potatoes or wild fruits and vegetables that grew in their backyards. People will do anything to protect their ‘rice-bowl’ to ensure that they have at least three meals a day for their families. For the more wealth, they have, of course, taken it for granted that they will be fed every day and so they focus their efforts in filling up our stomach, not just with food, but with ‘good’ food (albeit many of the so-called ‘good’ food do more harm to our bodies than we can really realize). Many of us are not ignorant of eating this so-called harmful ‘good’ food. We just ignore and refuse to take knowledge and hope that our body can handle it. But bad news! Our body cannot take these foods for too long and sooner or later we will have to pay the price from some diet-related diseases.
One of a better known stories concerning food can be found the gospel according to John chapter 6. The day after feeding the 5,000, this miracle of Jesus feeding the multitude with just five barley loaves of bread and two small fishes graciously given to Him by a young boy (John 6:9) becomes an important spiritual lesson for Christians to go and seek the best spiritual nourishment. Jesus knew pretty well that the people who witnessed this miracle did not properly understand what they had witnessed. This is no different from today. We see that many Christians and even non-Christians flooded auditorium just to listen preachers preaching on the subject of miracles and to witness some miracles that were being promoted or performed them. Interestingly, we notice one very important thing that is common to both eating and miracle: both simply address the inward needs of people. We eat to satisfy ourselves. We can never eat and to fill the hunger of other people. We simply eat to fill our own hunger. Likewise, when we attempt to seek miracle, we seek for our own selfish needs – we want to be healed for sickness; we want to ask God to perform miracle on our investment; we want miracle from God to intercede for our children’s examination that they can pass with flying colors. We expect miracle will fill our inward desire that our many wishes and dreams are be fulfilled. When it comes to eating and miracles, its’ all about “It’s me! It’s me! It’s me!” But Jesus has warned us on this search for self-gratification as we can see in verses 26 and 27 of the gospel according to John chapter 6. He warns us not to seek miracle, and instead to see Him, neither should we focus on our attention on our gluttony because no matter how good a food is, it can never satisfy our hunger for long. Instead, our hunger can only be satisfied through consuming the Bread of Life, the word of God. Remember Jesus rebuked Satan when He was attempted in the wilderness with these words: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). The word of God is the only spiritual nourishment that we need in order to be a member of His Kingdom. Unlike eating the perishable and never-satisfying food of the world, we need to put up special efforts to eat the spiritual nourishment. These efforts include exercising self-control and allowing the spiritual of God to take control over what we think, what we do, what we eat, and not to be motivated by self interest in attempts to search for best food or the most convincing miracles as promoted or performed by some preachers.
We are also told of the best food that we need to eat which can be found in 1 Corinthians 11:24. In this verse, we are reminded to take and eat ‘the body of Christ’ that is broken for us. Jesus has broken a piece of bread which is used for Communion to symbolically represent His body. Commonly referred to as the Last Supper, it is in fact a picture of our physical salvation. Remember, the food we eat could only last us a day but Jesus is offering us food that endures to eternal life. We must not let the kingdom of this world to revolve around us, but Him. We must seek Jesus and to totally embrace Him as part of our lives. It requires effort. It requires sacrifices. It takes time. Yes, it is difficult because we are going to face disappointment when we sincerely and truthfully want to eat the Bread of Life that Jesus is offering to us and to let the Spirit of God to master over us. We must, however, endure all the difficulties or disappointments because of the ultimate blessings and rewards that we can surely expect from the broken body of our Saviour and His body was broken for us in a number of ways: the crown of thorns, the beatings, the strips, the injuries He suffered, the pain He suffered. He didn’t have to suffer all that for our sins. He only had to shed His blood and die for our sins. But His body suffered so that through this, He could also atone for our sicknesses: "By His stripes we are healed!" (Isa.53:5) To save our bodies, God took His body. The best medicine in the world is the body of Jesus Christ which was broken for our healing! This healing miracle was already performed in full when Jesus was preparing His for journey to Calvary. When we partake of the bread, it shows we have faith that His body was broken for our health, so claim His healing by faith when we partake. If we eat of it by faith, we are healed by faith. It's part of His atonement for Salvation for us - body, soul and spirit.
While the world is still recovering from the scares because of infected and contaminated foods (and I believe more to come bad news of these are yet to come), we can take comfort that as children of God, we have the Bread of Life of Jesus. This Bread of Life that we are eating will never be contaminated and it is this Bread that gives us the hope of being re-created to be in God's image. It is this Bread that will finally put us back to where we are supposed to be at: The garden of Eden. But the new garden of Eden, the New Heaven and the New Earth that God has promised for us will be far, far awesome than the one originally created for Adam and Eve. Come to this living Bread of Life of Jesus while you can! We don't know what we are eating these days and prayfully our gracious God can spare us from the contaminated food. But, we must not be too confident because diseases travel and they travel, quite literally, at the speed of sound. We import more than 90% of the food products and although the government agencies have been very vigilant and have an excellent job in keeping away unsafe food from us, we must acknowledge there is risk. Let me repeat, we don't really know exactly what we eat these days but thankfully we have the living Bread of Life of Jesus. Take up His free offer and eat it while you may.
Today’s Scripture Reading [June 5, 2011]
Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. [John 6:26-27. KJV]
Eating is a major part of life. Some scholars have estimated that in the Bible there are over 700 references to the word that is associated with “eating”. The abundant life that Jesus proclaims is that He wants all of us to lead hinges upon what we eat spiritually and physically. We must make a major effort to feed our minds and bodies with the best nutrition available, if we desire good spiritual and physical health. Since the Bible mentions eating over 700 times, it has therefore highlighted the broad practicality of God’s instruction concerning the consumption of food. Its lessons for us are drawn from life itself, and eating is a major part of everyone's experience. Regardless of race, wealth, education, gender, or age, everybody eats, and for the more wealthy people, eating can simply be their main pastime indulgence. When it comes to eating, some may do it more carefully than others. I believe you must have known of friends who are very careful in choosing what to eat, and you too must have known of some who simply eat what is laid on the table. Perhaps we can call the first group of people ‘eat to live’ and the second group of people “live to eat” and it seems that by studying the eating habits and experiences of others, we can tell, in some small manner, their character.
Should we eat or should we not eat? This is a question that many people are now asking when they go and buy certain food from the market. Since 2008 when the news of the infamous Chinese-made milk and milk products were found to have been contaminated with an industrial chemical, melamine, the news of food contamination seems to be rolling out almost monthly. The latest food scare of contaminated cucumbers is another bad news for all of us. Mysteriously, this seemingly harmless E-coli bacteria is now infecting the food chain with a new incurable strain of its cousin. This newly-discovered strain of the deadly E-coli bacteria has claimed several lives in Europe and made many sick. Is this a warning from God about the impending calamity of famine (and infected food will certainly have the effect in reducing the supply of the already food shortage), of human wickedness to introduce man-made substances into the food chain that ultimately we all must pay the price for upsetting His law of nature. Is the latest food scare going to be the reason for the scientific world to step up the research into producing man-made food commonly known as genetic-modified food. Sadly, we always turn to science and technology to look for answers and solutions when the problems are really of human heart. We all know that it s just a wishful thinking that science can be of any help to solve the heart problem of man. Yes, we see it can and it has solved some problems of immediate concerns but we know that over the long-term, the effect of using science to solve human problems is anything but fallen short of the very solutions that man is seeking. In many cases, the solutions from science produced more problems that what it had meant to solve.
The problems associated with food like rising cost of grains, contaminated products, made-man produce are not going to go away. It’s going to get worst and we are all seeing this coming out from the news. The hard-truth is that we all need food and we need it every day. It’s hard to just miss one meal let alone to miss one day’s meal. In many third world poor countries, we see million of people are surviving just on one meal each day with just plain grains, corn, potatoes or wild fruits and vegetables that grew in their backyards. People will do anything to protect their ‘rice-bowl’ to ensure that they have at least three meals a day for their families. For the more wealth, they have, of course, taken it for granted that they will be fed every day and so they focus their efforts in filling up our stomach, not just with food, but with ‘good’ food (albeit many of the so-called ‘good’ food do more harm to our bodies than we can really realize). Many of us are not ignorant of eating this so-called harmful ‘good’ food. We just ignore and refuse to take knowledge and hope that our body can handle it. But bad news! Our body cannot take these foods for too long and sooner or later we will have to pay the price because of some 'rich' diet-related diseases.
One of a better known stories concerning food can be found in the gospel according to John chapter 6. The day after feeding the 5,000, this miracle of Jesus feeding the multitude with just five barley loaves of bread and two small fishes that were graciously given to Him by a young boy (John 6:9) becomes an important spiritual lesson for Christians to go and seek the best spiritual nourishment. Jesus knew pretty well that the people who witnessed this miracle did not properly understand what they had witnessed. This is no different from today. We see that many Christians and even non-Christians flooded auditorium just to listen preachers preaching on the subject of miracles and to witness some miracles that were being promoted or performed by them. Where these miracles are real or being staged, we cannot (and must not) judge. Let God Himself be the witness. But interestingly, we notice one very important thing that is common to both eating and miracle: both simply address the inward needs of people. We eat to satisfy ourselves. We can never eat and to fill the hunger of other people. We simply eat to fill our own hunger. Likewise, when we attempt to seek miracle, we seek for our own selfish needs – we want to be healed for sickness; we want to ask God to perform miracle on our investment; we want miracle from God to intercede for our children’s examination that they can pass with flying colors. We expect miracle will fill our inward desires and that many of our self-centered wishes and dreams be fulfilled. When it comes to eating and miracles, its’ all about “It’s me! It’s me! It’s me!” But Jesus has warned us on this search for self-gratification as we can see in verses 26 and 27 of the gospel according to John chapter 6. He warns us not to seek miracle, and instead to seek Him, neither should we focus on our attention on our gluttony because no matter how good a food is, it can never satisfy our hunger for long. Instead, our hunger can only be satisfied by seeking the living Bread of Life of Jesus and by our daily consumption of the living the word of God. Remember Jesus rebuked Satan when He was tempted in the wilderness with these words: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). The living word of God is the only spiritual nourishment that we need in order to be a member of His Kingdom. Unlike eating the perishable and never-satisfying food of the world that any one can eat when is being offerred without much effort, we need to put up special efforts to eat the spiritual nourishment. These efforts include exercising self-control and allowing the spiritual of God to take control over what we think, what we do, and not to be motivated by self interest in our attempts to search for best food of the world or to seek the most convincing miracles as promoted or performed by some preachers.
We are also told of the best food that we need to eat which can be found in 1 Corinthians 11:24. In this verse, we are reminded to take and eat ‘the body of Christ’ that is broken for us. Jesus has broken a piece of bread which is used for Communion to symbolically represent His body. Commonly referred to as the Last Supper, it is in fact a picture of our physical salvation. Remember, the food we eat could only last us a day but Jesus is offering us food that endures to eternal life. We must not let the kingdom of this world to revolve around us, but Him. We must seek Jesus and to totally embrace Him as part of our lives necause His is our living Bread of Life. It requires effort. It requires sacrifices. It takes time. Yes, it is difficult because we are going to face disappointment when we sincerely and truthfully want to eat the living Bread of Life that Jesus is offering to us. But we all can be fruitful in our effort when we let the Spirit of God to master over us and not let the desires for the love of the food of the world to master over us. We must, however, endure all the difficulties or disappointments because the ultimate blessings and rewards that we can surely expect from the broken body of our Saviour comes in a number of ways: the crown of thorns, the beatings, the strips, the injuries He suffered, the pain He suffered. He didn’t have to suffer all that for our sins. He only had to shed His blood and die for our sins. But His body suffered so that through this, He could also atone for our sicknesses: "By His stripes we are healed!" (Isa.53:5) To save our bodies, God took His body. The best medicine in the world is the body of Jesus Christ which was broken for our healing! This healing miracle was already performed in full when Jesus was preparing His for journey to Calvary. When we partake of the bread, it shows we have faith that His body was broken for our health, so claim His healing by faith when we partake. If we eat of it by faith, we are healed by faith. It's part of His atonement for Salvation for us - body, soul and spirit.
While the world is still recovering from the scares because of infected and contaminated foods (and I believe more bad news of these are yet to come), we can take comfort that as children of God, we have the Bread of Life of Jesus. This Bread of Life that we are eating will never be contaminated and it is this Bread that gives us the hope of being re-created to be in God's image. It is this Bread that will finally put us back to where we are supposed to be at: The garden of Eden. But the new garden of Eden, the New Heaven and the New Earth that God has promised for us will be far, far awesome than the one originally created for Adam and Eve. Come to this living Bread of Life of Jesus while you can! We don't know what we are eating these days and prayfully our gracious God can spare us from the contaminated food. But, we must not be too confident because diseases travel and they travel, quite literally, at the speed of sound. We import more than 90% of the food products and although the government agencies have been very vigilant and have done excellent job in keeping away unsafe food from our dining tables, we must acknowledge that the risk is high, very high indeed. Let me repeat, we don't really know exactly what we eat these days but thankfully we have the living Bread of Life of Jesus. Take up His free offer and eat it while you may. The broken body of Jesus is our only answer to the food problem.
Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. [John 6:26-27. KJV]
Eating is a major part of life. Some scholars have estimated that in the Bible there are over 700 references to the word that is associated with “eating”. The abundant life that Jesus proclaims is that He wants all of us to lead hinges upon what we eat spiritually and physically. We must make a major effort to feed our minds and bodies with the best nutrition available, if we desire good spiritual and physical health. Since the Bible mentions eating over 700 times, it has therefore highlighted the broad practicality of God’s instruction concerning the consumption of food. Its lessons for us are drawn from life itself, and eating is a major part of everyone's experience. Regardless of race, wealth, education, gender, or age, everybody eats, and for the more wealthy people, eating can simply be their main pastime indulgence. When it comes to eating, some may do it more carefully than others. I believe you must have known of friends who are very careful in choosing what to eat, and you too must have known of some who simply eat what is laid on the table. Perhaps we can call the first group of people ‘eat to live’ and the second group of people “live to eat” and it seems that by studying the eating habits and experiences of others, we can tell, in some small manner, their character.
Should we eat or should we not eat? This is a question that many people are now asking when they go and buy certain food from the market. Since 2008 when the news of the infamous Chinese-made milk and milk products were found to have been contaminated with an industrial chemical, melamine, the news of food contamination seems to be rolling out almost monthly. The latest food scare of contaminated cucumbers is another bad news for all of us. Mysteriously, this seemingly harmless E-coli bacteria is now infecting the food chain with a new incurable strain of its cousin. This newly-discovered strain of the deadly E-coli bacteria has claimed several lives in Europe and made many sick. Is this a warning from God about the impending calamity of famine (and infected food will certainly have the effect in reducing the supply of the already food shortage), of human wickedness to introduce man-made substances into the food chain that ultimately we all must pay the price for upsetting His law of nature. Is the latest food scare going to be the reason for the scientific world to step up the research into producing man-made food commonly known as genetic-modified food. Sadly, we always turn to science and technology to look for answers and solutions when the problems are really of human heart. We all know that it s just a wishful thinking that science can be of any help to solve the heart problem of man. Yes, we see it can and it has solved some problems of immediate concerns but we know that over the long-term, the effect of using science to solve human problems is anything but fallen short of the very solutions that man is seeking. In many cases, the solutions from science produced more problems that what it had meant to solve.
The problems associated with food like rising cost of grains, contaminated products, made-man produce are not going to go away. It’s going to get worst and we are all seeing this coming out from the news. The hard-truth is that we all need food and we need it every day. It’s hard to just miss one meal let alone to miss one day’s meal. In many third world poor countries, we see million of people are surviving just on one meal each day with just plain grains, corn, potatoes or wild fruits and vegetables that grew in their backyards. People will do anything to protect their ‘rice-bowl’ to ensure that they have at least three meals a day for their families. For the more wealth, they have, of course, taken it for granted that they will be fed every day and so they focus their efforts in filling up our stomach, not just with food, but with ‘good’ food (albeit many of the so-called ‘good’ food do more harm to our bodies than we can really realize). Many of us are not ignorant of eating this so-called harmful ‘good’ food. We just ignore and refuse to take knowledge and hope that our body can handle it. But bad news! Our body cannot take these foods for too long and sooner or later we will have to pay the price because of some 'rich' diet-related diseases.
One of a better known stories concerning food can be found in the gospel according to John chapter 6. The day after feeding the 5,000, this miracle of Jesus feeding the multitude with just five barley loaves of bread and two small fishes that were graciously given to Him by a young boy (John 6:9) becomes an important spiritual lesson for Christians to go and seek the best spiritual nourishment. Jesus knew pretty well that the people who witnessed this miracle did not properly understand what they had witnessed. This is no different from today. We see that many Christians and even non-Christians flooded auditorium just to listen preachers preaching on the subject of miracles and to witness some miracles that were being promoted or performed by them. Where these miracles are real or being staged, we cannot (and must not) judge. Let God Himself be the witness. But interestingly, we notice one very important thing that is common to both eating and miracle: both simply address the inward needs of people. We eat to satisfy ourselves. We can never eat and to fill the hunger of other people. We simply eat to fill our own hunger. Likewise, when we attempt to seek miracle, we seek for our own selfish needs – we want to be healed for sickness; we want to ask God to perform miracle on our investment; we want miracle from God to intercede for our children’s examination that they can pass with flying colors. We expect miracle will fill our inward desires and that many of our self-centered wishes and dreams be fulfilled. When it comes to eating and miracles, its’ all about “It’s me! It’s me! It’s me!” But Jesus has warned us on this search for self-gratification as we can see in verses 26 and 27 of the gospel according to John chapter 6. He warns us not to seek miracle, and instead to seek Him, neither should we focus on our attention on our gluttony because no matter how good a food is, it can never satisfy our hunger for long. Instead, our hunger can only be satisfied by seeking the living Bread of Life of Jesus and by our daily consumption of the living the word of God. Remember Jesus rebuked Satan when He was tempted in the wilderness with these words: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). The living word of God is the only spiritual nourishment that we need in order to be a member of His Kingdom. Unlike eating the perishable and never-satisfying food of the world that any one can eat when is being offerred without much effort, we need to put up special efforts to eat the spiritual nourishment. These efforts include exercising self-control and allowing the spiritual of God to take control over what we think, what we do, and not to be motivated by self interest in our attempts to search for best food of the world or to seek the most convincing miracles as promoted or performed by some preachers.
We are also told of the best food that we need to eat which can be found in 1 Corinthians 11:24. In this verse, we are reminded to take and eat ‘the body of Christ’ that is broken for us. Jesus has broken a piece of bread which is used for Communion to symbolically represent His body. Commonly referred to as the Last Supper, it is in fact a picture of our physical salvation. Remember, the food we eat could only last us a day but Jesus is offering us food that endures to eternal life. We must not let the kingdom of this world to revolve around us, but Him. We must seek Jesus and to totally embrace Him as part of our lives necause His is our living Bread of Life. It requires effort. It requires sacrifices. It takes time. Yes, it is difficult because we are going to face disappointment when we sincerely and truthfully want to eat the living Bread of Life that Jesus is offering to us. But we all can be fruitful in our effort when we let the Spirit of God to master over us and not let the desires for the love of the food of the world to master over us. We must, however, endure all the difficulties or disappointments because the ultimate blessings and rewards that we can surely expect from the broken body of our Saviour comes in a number of ways: the crown of thorns, the beatings, the strips, the injuries He suffered, the pain He suffered. He didn’t have to suffer all that for our sins. He only had to shed His blood and die for our sins. But His body suffered so that through this, He could also atone for our sicknesses: "By His stripes we are healed!" (Isa.53:5) To save our bodies, God took His body. The best medicine in the world is the body of Jesus Christ which was broken for our healing! This healing miracle was already performed in full when Jesus was preparing His for journey to Calvary. When we partake of the bread, it shows we have faith that His body was broken for our health, so claim His healing by faith when we partake. If we eat of it by faith, we are healed by faith. It's part of His atonement for Salvation for us - body, soul and spirit.
While the world is still recovering from the scares because of infected and contaminated foods (and I believe more bad news of these are yet to come), we can take comfort that as children of God, we have the Bread of Life of Jesus. This Bread of Life that we are eating will never be contaminated and it is this Bread that gives us the hope of being re-created to be in God's image. It is this Bread that will finally put us back to where we are supposed to be at: The garden of Eden. But the new garden of Eden, the New Heaven and the New Earth that God has promised for us will be far, far awesome than the one originally created for Adam and Eve. Come to this living Bread of Life of Jesus while you can! We don't know what we are eating these days and prayfully our gracious God can spare us from the contaminated food. But, we must not be too confident because diseases travel and they travel, quite literally, at the speed of sound. We import more than 90% of the food products and although the government agencies have been very vigilant and have done excellent job in keeping away unsafe food from our dining tables, we must acknowledge that the risk is high, very high indeed. Let me repeat, we don't really know exactly what we eat these days but thankfully we have the living Bread of Life of Jesus. Take up His free offer and eat it while you may. The broken body of Jesus is our only answer to the food problem.
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Today’s Scripture Reading [June 12, 2011]
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. [1 Peter 5:8-9. KJV]
Staying sober and be free from influence is one of the most difficult things for people to do. Prior to the internet technology when people were all dependent on newspaper, TVs and radio broadcast for news, many of us were already news-dependent (or rather news-addict.) Without failed, after a cup of our morning coffee or tea, the next thing most people did was to flip through the newspaper and look for headlines or breaking news. Many of us would feel agitated when the newspaper vendors, for some reasons, failed to deliver the newspaper to us. Thankfully, this urge or addiction to glance at morning newspaper had never created any problem for people and we had never heard of people going to psychiatrists to seek treatment because they were addicted to newspaper.
What actually constitutes addiction? Well, I am not a psychiatry expert but commonsense can tell us that if we cannot control ourselves and we are dependent on or under absolute control of something (be it drug, tobacco, alcohol, gambling, surfing of internet, etc) we are in danger of being an addict to these activities. We must, however, admit that some addictions are easier to cure, some harder and some do seem to have a cure. We must also admit that although some addictions brings no harm to others (like suffering a severe urge to spend 15 minutes to read the morning paper), most addictions can cause harm not just to ourselves but also to our friends and family members. For example, it is well-documented that hard-core drug addicts will do anything to anyone (including their family members) to cheat, steal or rob money just to feed their drug habits, and hard-core gamblers will do all kinds of tricks to cheat money from other people to feed their gambling addiction.
While we can take some comfort that at least there are strict laws prohibiting or discouraging people from indulging and engaging in some illicit addictions like taking of drugs, tobacco and alcohol, at the same time we are now facing a grim future because we are facing a severe addiction of a differnt kind that is going to take a huge toll on people’s lives. I am referring to something that most of us are very familiar with: the social networking tools we can find them in the internet. Since the start of the ‘Information Age’ several decades ago, we are heading towards the road of no return of being controlled by internet and endless flow of electronic and digital products and services. In fact, the term ‘Information Age (DA)’ is not commonly used now. It is replaced by terms like “Digital Age’ and ‘Virtual Reality (VR)’. For some computer technocrats, they may have different definitions to these two terms – Digital Age and Virtual Reality - but as far as their implications to the society, to the culture, to the practical life of the people, they make no difference - they are simply destructive. Our modern society is unconsciously penetrated by the digital-information (some useful but most useless) and we are all struggling with it. The change of the term “Information Age’ to ‘Digital Age and Virtual Reality’ is not merely cosmetic. The new technology of Digital Age and Virtual Reality acts like digital knife. It can cut, dissect and destroy the very fabric of the society. We have heard of children spent hours and hours on the computers and have become ‘digital robot’ themselves. They eat and sleep next to their computers! They skip school classes and spent hours at the internet cafe surfing the internet. Many people are truly living in a virtual reality environment and yet they are unaware of it.
The following is a message which I have adapted substantially from an article written by a church news editor, Joe R. Rice which, prayerfully, can provide you the wisdom needed when using social networking tools as part of your communication needs. If we had been careless in posting our messages just like what I had done before, it’s not too late to make an effort and to pray for God’s wisdom and guidance in our attempt to communicate godly message of God’s love to the world.
It is estimated that there are at least 500 million people worldwide are connected to social networking sites such as Facebook. Many Christians have social networking pages. As with most other things, social networking using internet technology or digital technology can be a benefit to or blight upon one’s spiritual life. As Christians, we must exercise wisdom and great care when engaging tools such like these. Once we are part of the game in the social networking sites, anyone can be our friends and as warned by God, we must not be unequally yoke with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14).
While we can use the tools in the internet and social networking sites to advance the gospel of Christ, sadly there is also a great deal of sin and danger on internet and social networking tools. Christians are not immune to its temptations. Pride and arrogance, anger and hate, gossip and backbiting, immodesty and profanity – all these and more are among the sins that can be observed and participated in the exchange of messages on the social networking sites. Much of the chatter on the internet amounts to “thinking out loud”. That is not always a good thing (especially with 500 million people “listening”). Once your thoughts are proclaimed – rightly or wrongly, wholesomely or unwholesomely – you have 500 million ‘friends’ listening! These ‘friends’ are just a couple of mouse clicks away from every word and every picture you post on the internet. In split seconds, every written word or picture you posted is accessible by your ‘friends’ and they could download into their computers. You can erased them from yours or from the internet service providers but you cannot erase from your friends’ computers. Your information and pictures are there forever.
In spite of so much news about the misuse and abuse of the social networking which has caused many famous people to fall in disgrace, the question we ask is, why then social networking such as Facebook so popular? What makes people post things on Facebook they would not otherwise say or do? What are some of the follies of social networking sites?
First, social networking sties present a false sense of freedom from accountability. Typing away on a keyboard can lull you into thinking that whatever you write and post is just “keeping it real” and that you are “just being yourself” – and “that’s always a good thing”. Well, not if the “words of (your) mouth and the meditation of (your) heart” are not acceptable to God (Psalm 19:14). Some things should neither be thought nor spoken (Matthew 12:35). We must remember Jesus said: But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned (Matthew 12: 36-37). That goes for postings in the social networking sites, too.
Secondly, postings on the social networking sites can lead one to erroneously believe that it has apparently remove the moral restraints. We see photos of people immodestly dressed provocatively display attitudes of worldliness. We must not quick to judge that these are only posted by unbelievers. We see now Christians – so they proclaimed to be – displaying and showing off their bodies. We see young and sometime no-so-young Christian ladies wearing shorts or hotpants participating in church worship. We are not to love the worlds, and for all the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world (1 John 2:15-17). Christians must deny ungodliness and worldly lusts to live “soberly, righteously and godly in this present world” (Titus 2:12). Brother or sister in Christ, if you are on the social networking sites, be sure your speech is pure and your photos are decent! And, that those posted on your page are, too. You should have zero tolerance here. Delete the offensive postings and remove “friends” who are not decent. Guard your influence, and do not be deceived because evil communications corrupt good manners (1 Corinthinas 15:33).
Thirdly, social networking sites hold up privacy to public display and discussion. The decorum of decency and privacy is gone. Manners and common courtesy should be hallmarks of Christians; instead, they seem to be ancient relics. Additionally, some of the things on internet, in particular on the social networking sites, are, frankly, mundane. Who in the world is interested that you “ate my dinner” or are “headed to bed”? God’s word says, “He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding Proverbs 17:27-28).If we have nothing to say, just simply sign off of your Facebook, and at least be considered perceptive. Better still, stay away from it.
Fourthly, social networking sites provide the perfect venue for those without tongue control. Please don’t misunderstand because this is not to say that if you are on Facebook then you have no tongue control. We must, however, admit that writing on Facebook or on other social networking tool makes it easy to exercise “loose lips” (or in this case, loose fingers). All kinds of disruptions, distortions, evil surmising, gossip and rumormongering has found its way onto the internet postings. And that means these sins have already found their way into the hearts, the thinking, the attitudes, the language and the conduct of those who post such destructive words. Instead of carefully choosing words, the social networking tools make it easy to post before you think. And that gets you into trouble. Remember, great forest fires begin with a small spark (James 3:5). So, don’t light the digital match and set the digital forest on fire; Post the truth in love so that others can grow into Him in all things (Ephesians 4:15).
Fifth, social networking sites lend itself to mindless chatter – and worse. Once written and published, words can do much good or great harm. We should be thoughtful and careful with what and how we write and post, knowing our words will outlive us. Facebook (along with all the other social networking sites – plus email, for that matter), makes it very easy to thoughtlessly write without considering the consequences. Mothers used to tell their daughters not to write anything in your diary you don’t want others to read. It is interesting to note that years back when you tried (and you shouldn’t) peek into diaries of someone you will be accused of being rude, immoral, unethical, uncivilized. But now, everyone’s diary is open to everyone else on Facebook!
If you ridicule someone you have become arrogant and unloving. If you post profanity and join in coarse joking you have lowered yourself to join the world in the sewer of vulgarity (Ephesians 4:29; 5:3-4). If you post unfounded rumors, malicious gossip and tale bearing you have left the land of brotherly love and crossed over into the land of bitterness and malice (Ephesians 4:31-32).
Sixth, an uncontrolled, reckless use of social networking tools can consume your time. We must be good stewards of our time (Ephesians 5:16) and we must realize that we can be addicted and glue to our computers, stealing away hours of productivity in school, on the job, in the family and in the kingdom of Christ. A word to parents. Children are particularly vulnerable to the abuse of social networking sites. Do you know what your child is posting on Facebook? Do you know who are their virtual friends or strangers? If not, find out. Do not let them indiscriminately bring strangers into their lives on Facebook. Adolescent brains are not fully developed yet to be able to completely assess actions and consequences. Don’t be naïve, don’t make assumptions, but get the facts. Such knowledge is vital in order to train your children in the way they should go (Proverbs 22:6). And what better way for us to educate our children on the danger of social networking sites such as Facebook? Well, just get out of it ourselves. We must live by examples, by our actions and by our deeds.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. [1 Peter 5:8-9. KJV]
Staying sober and be free from influence is one of the most difficult things for people to do. Prior to the internet technology when people were all dependent on newspaper, TVs and radio broadcast for news, many of us were already news-dependent (or rather news-addict.) Without failed, after a cup of our morning coffee or tea, the next thing most people did was to flip through the newspaper and look for headlines or breaking news. Many of us would feel agitated when the newspaper vendors, for some reasons, failed to deliver the newspaper to us. Thankfully, this urge or addiction to glance at morning newspaper had never created any problem for people and we had never heard of people going to psychiatrists to seek treatment because they were addicted to newspaper.
What actually constitutes addiction? Well, I am not a psychiatry expert but commonsense can tell us that if we cannot control ourselves and we are dependent on or under absolute control of something (be it drug, tobacco, alcohol, gambling, surfing of internet, etc) we are in danger of being an addict to these activities. We must, however, admit that some addictions are easier to cure, some harder and some do seem to have a cure. We must also admit that although some addictions brings no harm to others (like suffering a severe urge to spend 15 minutes to read the morning paper), most addictions can cause harm not just to ourselves but also to our friends and family members. For example, it is well-documented that hard-core drug addicts will do anything to anyone (including their family members) to cheat, steal or rob money just to feed their drug habits, and hard-core gamblers will do all kinds of tricks to cheat money from other people to feed their gambling addiction.
While we can take some comfort that at least there are strict laws prohibiting or discouraging people from indulging and engaging in some illicit addictions like taking of drugs, tobacco and alcohol, at the same time we are now facing a grim future because we are facing a severe addiction of a differnt kind that is going to take a huge toll on people’s lives. I am referring to something that most of us are very familiar with: the social networking tools we can find them in the internet. Since the start of the ‘Information Age’ several decades ago, we are heading towards the road of no return of being controlled by internet and endless flow of electronic and digital products and services. In fact, the term ‘Information Age (DA)’ is not commonly used now. It is replaced by terms like “Digital Age’ and ‘Virtual Reality (VR)’. For some computer technocrats, they may have different definitions to these two terms – Digital Age and Virtual Reality - but as far as their implications to the society, to the culture, to the practical life of the people, they make no difference - they are simply destructive. Our modern society is unconsciously penetrated by the digital-information (some useful but most useless) and we are all struggling with it. The change of the term “Information Age’ to ‘Digital Age and Virtual Reality’ is not merely cosmetic. The new technology of Digital Age and Virtual Reality acts like digital knife. It can cut, dissect and destroy the very fabric of the society. We have heard of children spent hours and hours on the computers and have become ‘digital robot’ themselves. They eat and sleep next to their computers! They skip school classes and spent hours at the internet cafe surfing the internet. Many people are truly living in a virtual reality environment and yet they are unaware of it.
The following is a message which I have adapted substantially from an article written by a church news editor, Joe R. Rice which, prayerfully, can provide you the wisdom needed when using social networking tools as part of your communication needs. If we had been careless in posting our messages just like what I had done before, it’s not too late to make an effort and to pray for God’s wisdom and guidance in our attempt to communicate godly message of God’s love to the world.
It is estimated that there are at least 500 million people worldwide are connected to social networking sites such as Facebook. Many Christians have social networking pages. As with most other things, social networking using internet technology or digital technology can be a benefit to or blight upon one’s spiritual life. As Christians, we must exercise wisdom and great care when engaging tools such like these. Once we are part of the game in the social networking sites, anyone can be our friends and as warned by God, we must not be unequally yoke with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14).
While we can use the tools in the internet and social networking sites to advance the gospel of Christ, sadly there is also a great deal of sin and danger on internet and social networking tools. Christians are not immune to its temptations. Pride and arrogance, anger and hate, gossip and backbiting, immodesty and profanity – all these and more are among the sins that can be observed and participated in the exchange of messages on the social networking sites. Much of the chatter on the internet amounts to “thinking out loud”. That is not always a good thing (especially with 500 million people “listening”). Once your thoughts are proclaimed – rightly or wrongly, wholesomely or unwholesomely – you have 500 million ‘friends’ listening! These ‘friends’ are just a couple of mouse clicks away from every word and every picture you post on the internet. In split seconds, every written word or picture you posted is accessible by your ‘friends’ and they could download into their computers. You can erased them from yours or from the internet service providers but you cannot erase from your friends’ computers. Your information and pictures are there forever.
In spite of so much news about the misuse and abuse of the social networking which has caused many famous people to fall in disgrace, the question we ask is, why then social networking such as Facebook so popular? What makes people post things on Facebook they would not otherwise say or do? What are some of the follies of social networking sites?
First, social networking sties present a false sense of freedom from accountability. Typing away on a keyboard can lull you into thinking that whatever you write and post is just “keeping it real” and that you are “just being yourself” – and “that’s always a good thing”. Well, not if the “words of (your) mouth and the meditation of (your) heart” are not acceptable to God (Psalm 19:14). Some things should neither be thought nor spoken (Matthew 12:35). We must remember Jesus said: But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned (Matthew 12: 36-37). That goes for postings in the social networking sites, too.
Secondly, postings on the social networking sites can lead one to erroneously believe that it has apparently remove the moral restraints. We see photos of people immodestly dressed provocatively display attitudes of worldliness. We must not quick to judge that these are only posted by unbelievers. We see now Christians – so they proclaimed to be – displaying and showing off their bodies. We see young and sometime no-so-young Christian ladies wearing shorts or hotpants participating in church worship. We are not to love the worlds, and for all the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world (1 John 2:15-17). Christians must deny ungodliness and worldly lusts to live “soberly, righteously and godly in this present world” (Titus 2:12). Brother or sister in Christ, if you are on the social networking sites, be sure your speech is pure and your photos are decent! And, that those posted on your page are, too. You should have zero tolerance here. Delete the offensive postings and remove “friends” who are not decent. Guard your influence, and do not be deceived because evil communications corrupt good manners (1 Corinthinas 15:33).
Thirdly, social networking sites hold up privacy to public display and discussion. The decorum of decency and privacy is gone. Manners and common courtesy should be hallmarks of Christians; instead, they seem to be ancient relics. Additionally, some of the things on internet, in particular on the social networking sites, are, frankly, mundane. Who in the world is interested that you “ate my dinner” or are “headed to bed”? God’s word says, “He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding Proverbs 17:27-28).If we have nothing to say, just simply sign off of your Facebook, and at least be considered perceptive. Better still, stay away from it.
Fourthly, social networking sites provide the perfect venue for those without tongue control. Please don’t misunderstand because this is not to say that if you are on Facebook then you have no tongue control. We must, however, admit that writing on Facebook or on other social networking tool makes it easy to exercise “loose lips” (or in this case, loose fingers). All kinds of disruptions, distortions, evil surmising, gossip and rumormongering has found its way onto the internet postings. And that means these sins have already found their way into the hearts, the thinking, the attitudes, the language and the conduct of those who post such destructive words. Instead of carefully choosing words, the social networking tools make it easy to post before you think. And that gets you into trouble. Remember, great forest fires begin with a small spark (James 3:5). So, don’t light the digital match and set the digital forest on fire; Post the truth in love so that others can grow into Him in all things (Ephesians 4:15).
Fifth, social networking sites lend itself to mindless chatter – and worse. Once written and published, words can do much good or great harm. We should be thoughtful and careful with what and how we write and post, knowing our words will outlive us. Facebook (along with all the other social networking sites – plus email, for that matter), makes it very easy to thoughtlessly write without considering the consequences. Mothers used to tell their daughters not to write anything in your diary you don’t want others to read. It is interesting to note that years back when you tried (and you shouldn’t) peek into diaries of someone you will be accused of being rude, immoral, unethical, uncivilized. But now, everyone’s diary is open to everyone else on Facebook!
If you ridicule someone you have become arrogant and unloving. If you post profanity and join in coarse joking you have lowered yourself to join the world in the sewer of vulgarity (Ephesians 4:29; 5:3-4). If you post unfounded rumors, malicious gossip and tale bearing you have left the land of brotherly love and crossed over into the land of bitterness and malice (Ephesians 4:31-32).
Sixth, an uncontrolled, reckless use of social networking tools can consume your time. We must be good stewards of our time (Ephesians 5:16) and we must realize that we can be addicted and glue to our computers, stealing away hours of productivity in school, on the job, in the family and in the kingdom of Christ. A word to parents. Children are particularly vulnerable to the abuse of social networking sites. Do you know what your child is posting on Facebook? Do you know who are their virtual friends or strangers? If not, find out. Do not let them indiscriminately bring strangers into their lives on Facebook. Adolescent brains are not fully developed yet to be able to completely assess actions and consequences. Don’t be naïve, don’t make assumptions, but get the facts. Such knowledge is vital in order to train your children in the way they should go (Proverbs 22:6). And what better way for us to educate our children on the danger of social networking sites such as Facebook? Well, just get out of it ourselves. We must live by examples, by our actions and by our deeds.
Acknowledgment
[The message in bold letters is substantially adapted from the article by Joe R. Rice, however Psalm23 takes sole responsibility – scriptural or otherwise – of all errors which are mine and mine alone. Your comments are welcome.]
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Today’s Scripture Reading [June 19, 2011]
I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And I am now no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. [Luke 15:18-19. KJV]
We all like to hear stories, more specifically stories about famous people like well-known politicians or movie celebrities. Couple months ago, our church invited a Bible principal from a well-known Bible college to preach and his chosen topic was from the Book of Habakkuk. He is a great preacher because of his theological understand of the Holy Scriptures, the Bible. Among his many lessons, one that really caught my ears was one of his comments that if we removed all the news (or stories) of violence out of the newspaper, there isn’t anything to report. How true! I want to add that in addition if we remove those ‘juicy’ scandal news of famous people, virtually all the newspaper companies will need to fold up because there is nothing to report which can really attract people’s reading interest. At best, let’s admit, the news that we read in the newspaper or from the internet are mainly good for us to gossip. We can’t learn anything from those ‘juicy’ news or news of scandals and violence.
Story-telling is not new. It is as old as the history of mankind. In both the Old and the New Testaments, we read about stories of God’s dealing with man. The central theme of the stories from Genesis to Revelation is simply just one: To recreate man into His image which was lost in the garden of Eden. We are now unworthy lots and we are all in need of God’s miraculous power to recreate us into His image. We can’t do it ourselves. Let’s further admit, it is pretty ‘boring’ to read the Bible. But once you have fully understand yourself, you will come to the realization that the Bible is ‘the most fascinating book’ that has ever written, and rightly so because the Bible is written by God Himself. Just as I have mentioned, this Book has only one theme: It’s about God’s plan to recreate man into His image which was lost in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve chose to break the image of God, and instead to chose to obey the directives of the Serpent.
In today’s message, I would like to share with you the story or rather the parable of the Prodigal Son which we all can read in the Book of Luke 15: 11-32. Unlike, the news that we read from the newspaper, there are valuable lessons for us to learn in this story and this even goes beyond the spiritual side of our lives. If you are parents, and if you are one of the more fortunate ones – and frankly there are very, very few in the world – you may be blessed with a prodigy child. It’s a world of having a prodigy child and a prodigal child. For most music lovers, especially classical music lovers, they must have heard about the name “Mozart’. He was (and still is) one of the most widely appreciated prominent musical maestro ever live in the history. The name ‘Mozart’ is synonymous to ‘child prodigy’. Musical genius Mozart started to learn music at a very young age and by the age of five, he could compose music and just at the age of six (when most of our children are still in kinder-gardens learning basic alphabets), Mozart and his elder sister were already performing in many concerts in European Courts both in Paris and London. They also gave performances at major cities where they met many prominent music lovers, including royal families and the Austrian empress. There were many musical talents in the days of Mozart and there are also many talents today but very, very few can come to be the close second. He is a dreamt child of all music-loving parents.
On other hand, in the Book of Luke (chapter 15:11-32), we are told about a child of a different kind – a prodigal son, and having a prodigal son is a real nightmare to parents. When we read this story we may feel that it’s just a story and we are not likely to have such a son. Sorry! Bad news! This is a story of man (and not of a man). It is a story of you and me – scripturally speaking. Just like this man as told in Luke 15:11-32, we all desire the world and what it could offer us – pleasures and good. Just like the man, we all try to take as much as we could from the world’s offer and we take every effort to go after it. Just like the man, we seek the world at all cost. Just like the man, the love of pleasures and luxuries of this man is weighed against the love of parental authority. In itself there is no wrong in seeking pleasures and possessions because these are necessary and enriching as long as they are subjected to our will to serve the Lord. But just like this man, they became our sole goals. When it became our sole goals, our relentless seeking of pleasures and possessions become destructive, so destructive that they can drive us to become mere scavengers.
It was clearly a mistake that the man did. His father knew but he did not go and seek him, to interfere what his son was doing. Just the father, our God will not interfere in our affair because He doesn’t want to violate our will or the right of choice. The outcome for this man was tragic. He paid an expensive price. Just like the man, we could also face the same outcome. It cost him his home and family; his true friends, his pride; his possessions; his inheritance, his grand plans that his father had for him. He thought what he was doing was alright but not until the very last moment that he had to share his meals with pigs, to become mere scavenger. He got, ironically and paradoxically, the most ‘expensive’ meal that was fit only for the pigs. His blindness to the right of choice gained him the title as the “Prodigal Son”, the term we common use on people who have squandered away their families’ fortune. For him, his good times were short lived and sure he had some fun perhaps like eating sushi off topless woman body that we read about in today’s newspaper, he had to end up eating with pigs. We think money can solve problems. We think money can turn a naked body into dinner table. We think money can make the world go round. But no! It makes us worst.
We are all hungry for food and we know that somewhere around this globe, there are people die of hunger every minute and the international aid agencies are taking evry effort to help those who are in need. Time is running out. We read in the news of food aids are pouring in to help these people but let’s be honest, there is a limit as to what these agencies can do. But there is a lesser but much more important hunger that is seldom reported – the spiritual hunger of the people. The world is starving from this spiritual hunger of broken relationship that we have with God that instead of taking the effort to rebuild our broken relationship, most of us take the road that leads to the garbage pile.
The parable of the Prodigal Son gives us one very important message: Please come home! Yes, we have failed in our journey but we can always return. Our journey on this earth is not a one-way ticket, not when we are still alive, and so we must not behave like as if it is so. Just like the prodigal son that Jesus was referring to, we must quickly take cognizant of how precious home is and the sooner we take cognizant of this, the sooner we can be accepted by God – unconditionally. The parable of the Prodigal Son is a simple spiritual fact of the loss spiritual life through egotism, and it shows us how we can return for being spiritually lost. It is a very clear reminder to us that unless we repent, we all are going to perish (Luke 13:5). Just like all earthly parents, it’s a nightmare to have prodigal children, and our Heavenly Father is no difference to our earthly parents. He got nightmare to when He sees all His children squandering away His inheritance. God is weeping for you and for me. He wouldn’t just leave us without a hope. He came to sacrifice for all His children – prodigal children, rather. The Calvary Cross is a clear symbol for our Heavenly Father’s sacrifice. None of us really can know when our last supper or our last meal is going to be, hence, it is time now for us to sincerely, truthfully and faithfully confess to Him: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. I am back home. Please take me back".
I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And I am now no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. [Luke 15:18-19. KJV]
We all like to hear stories, more specifically stories about famous people like well-known politicians or movie celebrities. Couple months ago, our church invited a Bible principal from a well-known Bible college to preach and his chosen topic was from the Book of Habakkuk. He is a great preacher because of his theological understand of the Holy Scriptures, the Bible. Among his many lessons, one that really caught my ears was one of his comments that if we removed all the news (or stories) of violence out of the newspaper, there isn’t anything to report. How true! I want to add that in addition if we remove those ‘juicy’ scandal news of famous people, virtually all the newspaper companies will need to fold up because there is nothing to report which can really attract people’s reading interest. At best, let’s admit, the news that we read in the newspaper or from the internet are mainly good for us to gossip. We can’t learn anything from those ‘juicy’ news or news of scandals and violence.
Story-telling is not new. It is as old as the history of mankind. In both the Old and the New Testaments, we read about stories of God’s dealing with man. The central theme of the stories from Genesis to Revelation is simply just one: To recreate man into His image which was lost in the garden of Eden. We are now unworthy lots and we are all in need of God’s miraculous power to recreate us into His image. We can’t do it ourselves. Let’s further admit, it is pretty ‘boring’ to read the Bible. But once you have fully understand yourself, you will come to the realization that the Bible is ‘the most fascinating book’ that has ever written, and rightly so because the Bible is written by God Himself. Just as I have mentioned, this Book has only one theme: It’s about God’s plan to recreate man into His image which was lost in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve chose to break the image of God, and instead to chose to obey the directives of the Serpent.
In today’s message, I would like to share with you the story or rather the parable of the Prodigal Son which we all can read in the Book of Luke 15: 11-32. Unlike, the news that we read from the newspaper, there are valuable lessons for us to learn in this story and this even goes beyond the spiritual side of our lives. If you are parents, and if you are one of the more fortunate ones – and frankly there are very, very few in the world – you may be blessed with a prodigy child. It’s a world of having a prodigy child and a prodigal child. For most music lovers, especially classical music lovers, they must have heard about the name “Mozart’. He was (and still is) one of the most widely appreciated prominent musical maestro ever live in the history. The name ‘Mozart’ is synonymous to ‘child prodigy’. Musical genius Mozart started to learn music at a very young age and by the age of five, he could compose music and just at the age of six (when most of our children are still in kinder-gardens learning basic alphabets), Mozart and his elder sister were already performing in many concerts in European Courts both in Paris and London. They also gave performances at major cities where they met many prominent music lovers, including royal families and the Austrian empress. There were many musical talents in the days of Mozart and there are also many talents today but very, very few can come to be the close second. He is a dreamt child of all music-loving parents.
On other hand, in the Book of Luke (chapter 15:11-32), we are told about a child of a different kind – a prodigal son, and having a prodigal son is a real nightmare to parents. When we read this story we may feel that it’s just a story and we are not likely to have such a son. Sorry! Bad news! This is a story of man (and not of a man). It is a story of you and me – scripturally speaking. Just like this man as told in Luke 15:11-32, we all desire the world and what it could offer us – pleasures and good. Just like the man, we all try to take as much as we could from the world’s offer and we take every effort to go after it. Just like the man, we seek the world at all cost. Just like the man, the love of pleasures and luxuries of this man is weighed against the love of parental authority. In itself there is no wrong in seeking pleasures and possessions because these are necessary and enriching as long as they are subjected to our will to serve the Lord. But just like this man, they became our sole goals. When it became our sole goals, our relentless seeking of pleasures and possessions become destructive, so destructive that they can drive us to become mere scavengers.
It was clearly a mistake that the man did. His father knew but he did not go and seek him, to interfere what his son was doing. Just the father, our God will not interfere in our affair because He doesn’t want to violate our will or the right of choice. The outcome for this man was tragic. He paid an expensive price. Just like the man, we could also face the same outcome. It cost him his home and family; his true friends, his pride; his possessions; his inheritance, his grand plans that his father had for him. He thought what he was doing was alright but not until the very last moment that he had to share his meals with pigs, to become mere scavenger. He got, ironically and paradoxically, the most ‘expensive’ meal that was fit only for the pigs. His blindness to the right of choice gained him the title as the “Prodigal Son”, the term we common use on people who have squandered away their families’ fortune. For him, his good times were short lived and sure he had some fun perhaps like eating sushi off topless woman body that we read about in today’s newspaper, he had to end up eating with pigs. We think money can solve problems. We think money can turn a naked body into dinner table. We think money can make the world go round. But no! It makes us worst.
We are all hungry for food and we know that somewhere around this globe, there are people die of hunger every minute and the international aid agencies are taking evry effort to help those who are in need. Time is running out. We read in the news of food aids are pouring in to help these people but let’s be honest, there is a limit as to what these agencies can do. But there is a lesser but much more important hunger that is seldom reported – the spiritual hunger of the people. The world is starving from this spiritual hunger of broken relationship that we have with God that instead of taking the effort to rebuild our broken relationship, most of us take the road that leads to the garbage pile.
The parable of the Prodigal Son gives us one very important message: Please come home! Yes, we have failed in our journey but we can always return. Our journey on this earth is not a one-way ticket, not when we are still alive, and so we must not behave like as if it is so. Just like the prodigal son that Jesus was referring to, we must quickly take cognizant of how precious home is and the sooner we take cognizant of this, the sooner we can be accepted by God – unconditionally. The parable of the Prodigal Son is a simple spiritual fact of the loss spiritual life through egotism, and it shows us how we can return for being spiritually lost. It is a very clear reminder to us that unless we repent, we all are going to perish (Luke 13:5). Just like all earthly parents, it’s a nightmare to have prodigal children, and our Heavenly Father is no difference to our earthly parents. He got nightmare to when He sees all His children squandering away His inheritance. God is weeping for you and for me. He wouldn’t just leave us without a hope. He came to sacrifice for all His children – prodigal children, rather. The Calvary Cross is a clear symbol for our Heavenly Father’s sacrifice. None of us really can know when our last supper or our last meal is going to be, hence, it is time now for us to sincerely, truthfully and faithfully confess to Him: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. I am back home. Please take me back".
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Today’s Scripture Reading [June 19, 2011]
I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And I am now no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. [Luke 15:18-19. KJV]
We all like to hear stories, more specifically stories about famous people like well-known politicians or movie celebrities. Couple months ago, our church invited a Bible principal from a well-known Bible college to preach and his chosen topic was from the Book of Habakkuk and one of the key warnings of this book is about judgment of the unrighteous. He is a great preacher because of his indepth theological understanding of the Holy Scriptures, the Bible. Among his many lessons, one that really caught my ears was one of his comments that if we removed all the news (or stories) of violence out of the newspaper, there isn’t much news to report. How true! I want to add that in addition if we remove those ‘juicy’ scandal news of famous people, virtually all the newspaper companies will need to fold up because there is nothing to report which can really attract people’s reading interest. At best, let’s admit, the news that we read in the newspaper or from the internet are mainly good for us to gossip. We can’t learn anything from those ‘juicy’ news or news of scandals and violence.
Story-telling is not new. It is as old as the history of mankind. In both the Old and the New Testaments, we read about stories of God’s dealing with man. The central theme of the stories from Genesis to Revelation is simply just one: To recreate man into His image which was lost in the garden of Eden. We are now unworthy lots and we are all in need of God’s miraculous power to recreate us into His image. We can’t do it ourselves. Let’s further admit, it is pretty ‘boring’ to read the Bible. But once you have fully understand yourself, you will come to the realization that the Bible is ‘the most fascinating book’ that has ever written, and rightly so because the Bible is written by God Himself. It is all about God Himself and us. Just as I have mentioned, this Book has only one theme: It’s about God’s plan to recreate us into His image which was lost in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve chose to break the image of God, and instead to chose to obey the directives of the Serpent.
In today’s message, I would like to share with you the story or rather the parable of the Prodigal Son which we all can read in the Book of Luke 15: 11-32. Unlike, the news that we read from the newspaper, there are valuable lessons for us to learn in this story and this even goes beyond the spiritual side of our lives. If you are parents, and if you are one of the more fortunate ones – and frankly there are very, very few of these parents in the world – you may be blessed with a prodigy child. It’s a world of having a prodigy child and a prodigal child. For most music lovers, especially classical music lovers, they must have heard about the name “Mozart’. He was (and still is) one of the most widely appreciated prominent musical maestro ever live in the history. The name ‘Mozart’ is synonymous to ‘child prodigy’. Musical genius Mozart started to learn music at a very young age and by the age of five, he could compose music and just at the age of six (when most of our children are still in kinder-gardens learning basic alphabets), Mozart and his elder sister were already performing in many concerts in European Courts both in Paris and London. They also gave performances at major cities where they met many prominent music lovers, including royal families and the Austrian empress. There were many musical talents in the days of Mozart and there are also many talents today but very, very few can come to be the close second. He is a dreamt child of all music-loving parents.
On other hand, in the Book of Luke (chapter 15:11-32), we are told about a child of a different kind – a prodigal son, and having a prodigal son (or a prodigal daughter) is a real nightmare to parents. When we read this story we may feel that it’s just a story and we are not likely to have such a son. Sorry! Bad news! This is a story of man (and not of a man). It is a story of you and me – scripturally speaking. Just like this man as told in Luke 15:11-32, we all desire the world and what it could offer us – pleasures and good. Just like the man, we all try to take as much as we could from the world’s offer and we take every effort to go after it. Just like the man, we seek the world at all cost. Just like the man, the love of pleasures and luxuries of this man is weighed against the love of parental authority. In itself there is no wrong in seeking pleasures and possessions because these are necessary and enriching as long as they are subjected to our will to serve the Lord. But just like this man, the search for pleasures and good have become our sole goals. When they become our sole goals, they are destructive, so destructive that they can drive us to become mere scavengers.
It was clearly a mistake that the man did. His father knew but he did not go and seek him, to interfere what his son was doing. Just the father, our God will not interfere in our affair because He doesn’t want to violate our will or the right of choice. The outcome for this man was tragic. He paid an expensive price. Just like the man, we could also face the same outcome. It cost him his home and family; his true friends, his pride; his possessions; his inheritance, his grand plans that his father had for him. He thought what he was doing was alright but not until the very last moment that he had to share his meals with pigs, to become mere scavenger. He got, ironically and paradoxically, the most ‘expensive’ meal that was fit only for the pigs. His blindness to the right of choice gained him the title as the “Prodigal Son”, the term we commonly use on people who have squandered away their families’ fortune. For him, his good times were short lived and sure he had some fun perhaps like eating sushi off topless woman body that we read about in today’s newspaper, he had to end up eating with pigs. We think money can solve problems. We think money can turn a naked body into dinner table. We think money can make the world go round. But no! It makes us worst. It can turn us into scavengers.
We are all hungry for food and we know that somewhere around this globe, there are people die of hunger every minute and the international aid agencies are taking every effort to help those who are in need. Time is running out. We read in the news of food aids are pouring in to help these people but let’s be honest, there is a limit as to what these agencies can do. But there is a lesser but much more important hunger that is seldom reported – the spiritual hunger of the people. The world is starving from this spiritual hunger of broken relationship that we originally had with God, and instead of taking the effort to rebuild our broken relationship, most of us take the road that leads to the garbage pile.
The parable of the Prodigal Son gives us one very important message: Please come home! Yes, we have failed in our journey but we can always return. Our journey on this earth is not a one-way ticket, not when we are still alive, and so we must not behave like as if it is so. Just like the prodigal son that Jesus was referring to, we must quickly take cognizant of how precious home is and the sooner we take cognizant of this, the sooner we can be accepted by God – unconditionally. The parable of the Prodigal Son is a simple spiritual fact of the loss spiritual life through egotism, and it shows us how we can return for being spiritually lost. It is a very clear reminder to us that unless we repent, we all are going to perish (Luke 13:5). Just like all earthly parents, it’s a nightmare to have prodigal children, and our Heavenly Father is no difference to our earthly parents. He got nightmare because He sees all His children are squandering away His inheritance. God is weeping for you and for me. He wouldn’t just leave us without a hope. He came to sacrifice for all His children – prodigal children, rather. The Calvary Cross is a clear symbol for our Heavenly Father’s sacrifice. None of us really can know when our last supper or our last meal is going to be, hence, it is time now for us to sincerely, truthfully and faithfully confess to Him: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. I am back home. Please take me back".
I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And I am now no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. [Luke 15:18-19. KJV]
We all like to hear stories, more specifically stories about famous people like well-known politicians or movie celebrities. Couple months ago, our church invited a Bible principal from a well-known Bible college to preach and his chosen topic was from the Book of Habakkuk and one of the key warnings of this book is about judgment of the unrighteous. He is a great preacher because of his indepth theological understanding of the Holy Scriptures, the Bible. Among his many lessons, one that really caught my ears was one of his comments that if we removed all the news (or stories) of violence out of the newspaper, there isn’t much news to report. How true! I want to add that in addition if we remove those ‘juicy’ scandal news of famous people, virtually all the newspaper companies will need to fold up because there is nothing to report which can really attract people’s reading interest. At best, let’s admit, the news that we read in the newspaper or from the internet are mainly good for us to gossip. We can’t learn anything from those ‘juicy’ news or news of scandals and violence.
Story-telling is not new. It is as old as the history of mankind. In both the Old and the New Testaments, we read about stories of God’s dealing with man. The central theme of the stories from Genesis to Revelation is simply just one: To recreate man into His image which was lost in the garden of Eden. We are now unworthy lots and we are all in need of God’s miraculous power to recreate us into His image. We can’t do it ourselves. Let’s further admit, it is pretty ‘boring’ to read the Bible. But once you have fully understand yourself, you will come to the realization that the Bible is ‘the most fascinating book’ that has ever written, and rightly so because the Bible is written by God Himself. It is all about God Himself and us. Just as I have mentioned, this Book has only one theme: It’s about God’s plan to recreate us into His image which was lost in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve chose to break the image of God, and instead to chose to obey the directives of the Serpent.
In today’s message, I would like to share with you the story or rather the parable of the Prodigal Son which we all can read in the Book of Luke 15: 11-32. Unlike, the news that we read from the newspaper, there are valuable lessons for us to learn in this story and this even goes beyond the spiritual side of our lives. If you are parents, and if you are one of the more fortunate ones – and frankly there are very, very few of these parents in the world – you may be blessed with a prodigy child. It’s a world of having a prodigy child and a prodigal child. For most music lovers, especially classical music lovers, they must have heard about the name “Mozart’. He was (and still is) one of the most widely appreciated prominent musical maestro ever live in the history. The name ‘Mozart’ is synonymous to ‘child prodigy’. Musical genius Mozart started to learn music at a very young age and by the age of five, he could compose music and just at the age of six (when most of our children are still in kinder-gardens learning basic alphabets), Mozart and his elder sister were already performing in many concerts in European Courts both in Paris and London. They also gave performances at major cities where they met many prominent music lovers, including royal families and the Austrian empress. There were many musical talents in the days of Mozart and there are also many talents today but very, very few can come to be the close second. He is a dreamt child of all music-loving parents.
On other hand, in the Book of Luke (chapter 15:11-32), we are told about a child of a different kind – a prodigal son, and having a prodigal son (or a prodigal daughter) is a real nightmare to parents. When we read this story we may feel that it’s just a story and we are not likely to have such a son. Sorry! Bad news! This is a story of man (and not of a man). It is a story of you and me – scripturally speaking. Just like this man as told in Luke 15:11-32, we all desire the world and what it could offer us – pleasures and good. Just like the man, we all try to take as much as we could from the world’s offer and we take every effort to go after it. Just like the man, we seek the world at all cost. Just like the man, the love of pleasures and luxuries of this man is weighed against the love of parental authority. In itself there is no wrong in seeking pleasures and possessions because these are necessary and enriching as long as they are subjected to our will to serve the Lord. But just like this man, the search for pleasures and good have become our sole goals. When they become our sole goals, they are destructive, so destructive that they can drive us to become mere scavengers.
It was clearly a mistake that the man did. His father knew but he did not go and seek him, to interfere what his son was doing. Just the father, our God will not interfere in our affair because He doesn’t want to violate our will or the right of choice. The outcome for this man was tragic. He paid an expensive price. Just like the man, we could also face the same outcome. It cost him his home and family; his true friends, his pride; his possessions; his inheritance, his grand plans that his father had for him. He thought what he was doing was alright but not until the very last moment that he had to share his meals with pigs, to become mere scavenger. He got, ironically and paradoxically, the most ‘expensive’ meal that was fit only for the pigs. His blindness to the right of choice gained him the title as the “Prodigal Son”, the term we commonly use on people who have squandered away their families’ fortune. For him, his good times were short lived and sure he had some fun perhaps like eating sushi off topless woman body that we read about in today’s newspaper, he had to end up eating with pigs. We think money can solve problems. We think money can turn a naked body into dinner table. We think money can make the world go round. But no! It makes us worst. It can turn us into scavengers.
We are all hungry for food and we know that somewhere around this globe, there are people die of hunger every minute and the international aid agencies are taking every effort to help those who are in need. Time is running out. We read in the news of food aids are pouring in to help these people but let’s be honest, there is a limit as to what these agencies can do. But there is a lesser but much more important hunger that is seldom reported – the spiritual hunger of the people. The world is starving from this spiritual hunger of broken relationship that we originally had with God, and instead of taking the effort to rebuild our broken relationship, most of us take the road that leads to the garbage pile.
The parable of the Prodigal Son gives us one very important message: Please come home! Yes, we have failed in our journey but we can always return. Our journey on this earth is not a one-way ticket, not when we are still alive, and so we must not behave like as if it is so. Just like the prodigal son that Jesus was referring to, we must quickly take cognizant of how precious home is and the sooner we take cognizant of this, the sooner we can be accepted by God – unconditionally. The parable of the Prodigal Son is a simple spiritual fact of the loss spiritual life through egotism, and it shows us how we can return for being spiritually lost. It is a very clear reminder to us that unless we repent, we all are going to perish (Luke 13:5). Just like all earthly parents, it’s a nightmare to have prodigal children, and our Heavenly Father is no difference to our earthly parents. He got nightmare because He sees all His children are squandering away His inheritance. God is weeping for you and for me. He wouldn’t just leave us without a hope. He came to sacrifice for all His children – prodigal children, rather. The Calvary Cross is a clear symbol for our Heavenly Father’s sacrifice. None of us really can know when our last supper or our last meal is going to be, hence, it is time now for us to sincerely, truthfully and faithfully confess to Him: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. I am back home. Please take me back".
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Today’s Scripture Reading [June 26, 2011]
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. [Exodus 20:7. KJV]
We feel offended when people call us: “Hi, joker. Haven’t seen you for a long time.” We may respond with some false courtesies like “I am fine” or “I am ok” but inside us, we are disgusted when people call us “joker” or other disrespectful names. Name-calling is a disrespectful and we too must not call people by any of these names. Their parents have given names to them and we must respect them – both your friends and their parents – by addressing them appropriately.
At home, children called their father dad or daddy. This is not by choice. Rather, this is simply a God-built ‘instinct’ that all children must address their fathers (and mothers, too) appropriately. If we have come across one of your friends’ children called his or her father by name, we will raise our eye-brows. We are likely to think that the child is his step-child, adopted child or has had bad relationship with the father. If the friend is our close friend, we are likely to be inquisitive and enquire why the child addresses his or her father by name because even the child is the step-child or adopted-child, we all expect him or her to call the father “dad’ or “daddy.”
The Lord knew of this human tendency to use names and words in vain. Shortly after the Lord revealed Himself in the Bible, He commanded us not to misuse His name or speak it in vain (Exodus 20:7). The Lord wanted His name to be used with highest degree of respect, to be set high above all other names. When the Lord introduced Himself for the very first time to Moses, He called Himself "I AM THAT I AM (Exodus 3:14)” and the Jews at that time would not call Him "I AM,” they would say "Yahweh," which means "He Is." They did so out of respect. The name of God is so sacred and so feared by the Jews that when the scribes came to write out the name of God, they never wrote it out in full, but only the four consonants - YHWH. There are historical records to prove that when the scribes came to write the Hebrew letters ‘YHWH’ they would wash, put on new clothes, use a new quill, write the name and then throw the quill away. When they came to read the word aloud, rather than pronounce it in full they substituted the word ‘the LORD’. Such practices by the ancient Jews underscored the importance of God’s name. For the Jewish community in general, the significance of the Commandment “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD in vain (Exodus 20:7)” forbids them of using God’s name in profanity, making a false pledge or vow using his name (Leviticus 19:12), using God’s name in a manipulative way such as in magic or to curse someone for selfish or evil purposes (Psalm 139:20), using God’s name carelessly, frivolously, unthinkably such as needless repetition of God’s name without a deep sense of reverence or concentration. They even made cultural laws for the use of "YHWH" or the Lord's name, so as to keep it sacred. While the practices by the ancient Jewish religious leaders and the Jewish people could be extreme, it is certainly opposite of what we see and do today in the Christian community. Often, in sermons or when someone sharing their testimonies, the name of God is frivolously and carelessly use to make them look good or to further their own projects or to lend credibility to what is their hunch or their fleshly wishes.
We must be reminded ourselves of the seriousness of misusing God’s name. When the Lord told us not to use His name in vain, He was not saying to us not to use it in any circumstances. Rather, when we use the name of God, we must use it out of full respect and reverence. This is something we failed often. Our Living God is the most important persona in the universe, yet we use His name so loosely attaching no significance neither convey any respect to what the name means to us and to Him. Yes, the Lord wants us to call upon Him in times of trouble but He certainly wants us to do this out of absolute respect and godly necessity. He doesn’t want us to be put on a plane of equality with anyone else.
How then can we help to live up to God’s commandment that commanded us not to misuse His name? In my own view, there are seven areas of our lives we can observe so that the Third Commandment : “Thou shalt not take the name of thy God in vain (Exodus 20:7) will not be violated.
(a) Avoid Misusing God’s name in our everyday speech
Due to our daily work pressures both in the office and at home, we tend to be quite careless in our speech. Hence, the first and most obvious area for us is to be careful that we do not address or speak about God in our everyday speech unnecessarily. By this, I don’t mean we should not tell people about Jesus. By this I mean we must avoid blurting out terms or phrases like “Oh, my God! How could this be!” or similar disrespectful, careless and meaningless proclamations when something have gone wrong us.
(b) Making careless or taking false oaths
Swearing and taking of oath may be required for some legal purposes like making a declaration when applying for certain official documents or during a marriage when we are required to make the marriage vows. Other than such events, we must be careful not to make any careless or false oaths or vows. We should not swear for all trivial matters. Yet so many say or swear and hardly have put any serious thought about what they are saying or swearing such as “If you don’t believe what I say, let me swear to God”, or using such words as ‘damn” because the word “damn” is a curse. When we use the word “damn” we can inadvertently be calling on God to condemn ourselves or others.
(c) Speaking abusively of things or people that God has created
Our God is the Creator of all things both in heaven and on earth. Everything – including our lives – is created by our God. Hence, it is important that we do not speak abusively about things or other people that have been made by God because this would directly put God’s creation into question. By speaking abusively of things or people that God has created, we are questioning His ability and also our own faith in Him. One of the most commonly words that we trivialize during our daily usage is the word “Hell”. Remember, in the New Testament, Jesus spoke more of hell than of heaven and warned us that all unrighteous will be condemned to this awful place. Hell is very real and we must not treat it as trivial thing or something that we can joke about. We must not joke about Hell, about the Blood of Jesus, about His Virgin Birth, about His Resurrection. Even though unbelievers may make ‘fun’ out of all these, we must stay about from the discussions and oh, yes, we must continue to share these to them but in the way the Scriptures taught.
Another commonly joke about or abusively talked about is the word ‘sex’. In one way or another, many of us are drawn into the discussion on the topic or the world “sex”. We must acknowledge that the need for wholesome sex education is never more urgent when we see that there are so many unwed mothers and fathers, abortions, pornography, prostitution. But sadly, the use of the word sex is often misused or abused with. Sex is something which is beautiful and good in its right context, within marriage. If you use crude and abusive words which refer to sex or with some sexual connotations, then you are despising a precious gift of God, and therefore dishonouring God.
(d) Misusing the name of God in the prayer
I believe you must have come across or heard many prayers where the words “Father” and “Jesus” are repeated needlessly and senselessly. In Mathew 6:7 we are told not to babbling like pagans when we pray because we can reduce God’s name to an empty formula. Yes, we all need to pray in Jesus’ name because His Name is about all names but we must pray and ask for the sort of things that He would ask for, and in the way He would ask. Our prayer requests must conform to the will of God, otherwise we bring dishonor to His name.
(e) Complaining against God
A fifth area that this commandment addresses is our speech about God. If we complain about God, about His character, about the way in which He has ordered the circumstances of our lives, the way in which He is allowing the world to be governed and all the injustices that we are seeing today, then we are bringing dishonour to His name, and therefore misusing His name. Remember, moaning, grumbling and complaining are all ultimately complaints against God, because God is the Sovereign Ruler of all things. Instead of grumbling and complaining, our lives should be characterized by thanksgiving and praise. We should trust that God knows best, even in perplexing and tragic circumstances, and give thanks to Him and honour Him at all times.
(f) Having a wrong attitude to Scripture
A sixth area where this commandment applies is in terms of our attitude to Scripture. If we dishonour God’s word, then we dishonour God’s name. We should never have an arrogant and mocking attitude towards the word of God and hence we should not make jokes at the expense of the Bible or be flippant about it. God will uphold those who are humble, whose hearts are contrite heart, and who tremble at His word (Isaiah 66:2).
(g) Dishonouring God with our daily living
Lastly, and I think this is the most important area upon which all the others are rested upon, and that is our daily living. As believers, our lives should not contradict the confession of our faith. If we are believers, we must bear the name of Christ upon us. If we live in a way which contradicts God’s word, we profane the name of God and the name of Christ. This implied profanity of our life due to the contradiction of our lifestyle may be a closely guided secret to ourselves but God is fully aware because He knows what is in our heart. Words and confessions mean nothing to Him neither calling out His name can be of any benefits to us if we disallow our heart to be occupied by Him and refuse to bear His name. Just like calling another person ‘daddy’ would not make him your father, it is futile to call out the name of God and wish that He can be our Heavenly Father if we disallow Him to be the Ruler of our lives. By contrast, if we live in a way which is in accordance with the Gospel, entirely trustworthy and good, the doctrine and word of God will receive the credit, people will find our Saviour attractive(Titus 2:10). Regardless of whether we call out His name or not, what better way to honour God than to live our lives according to the Gospel and to let people find our Saviour attractive and worthy to be their Father!
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. [Exodus 20:7. KJV]
We feel offended when people call us: “Hi, joker. Haven’t seen you for a long time.” We may respond with some false courtesies like “I am fine” or “I am ok” but inside us, we are disgusted when people call us “joker” or other disrespectful names. Name-calling is a disrespectful and we too must not call people by any of these names. Their parents have given names to them and we must respect them – both your friends and their parents – by addressing them appropriately.
At home, children called their father dad or daddy. This is not by choice. Rather, this is simply a God-built ‘instinct’ that all children must address their fathers (and mothers, too) appropriately. If we have come across one of your friends’ children called his or her father by name, we will raise our eye-brows. We are likely to think that the child is his step-child, adopted child or has had bad relationship with the father. If the friend is our close friend, we are likely to be inquisitive and enquire why the child addresses his or her father by name because even the child is the step-child or adopted-child, we all expect him or her to call the father “dad’ or “daddy.”
The Lord knew of this human tendency to use names and words in vain. Shortly after the Lord revealed Himself in the Bible, He commanded us not to misuse His name or speak it in vain (Exodus 20:7). The Lord wanted His name to be used with highest degree of respect, to be set high above all other names. When the Lord introduced Himself for the very first time to Moses, He called Himself "I AM THAT I AM (Exodus 3:14)” and the Jews at that time would not call Him "I AM,” they would say "Yahweh," which means "He Is." They did so out of respect. The name of God is so sacred and so feared by the Jews that when the scribes came to write out the name of God, they never wrote it out in full, but only the four consonants - YHWH. There are historical records to prove that when the scribes came to write the Hebrew letters ‘YHWH’ they would wash, put on new clothes, use a new quill, write the name and then throw the quill away. When they came to read the word aloud, rather than pronounce it in full they substituted the word ‘the LORD’. Such practices by the ancient Jews underscored the importance of God’s name. For the Jewish community in general, the significance of the Commandment “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD in vain (Exodus 20:7)” forbids them of using God’s name in profanity, making a false pledge or vow using his name (Leviticus 19:12), using God’s name in a manipulative way such as in magic or to curse someone for selfish or evil purposes (Psalm 139:20), using God’s name carelessly, frivolously, unthinkably such as needless repetition of God’s name without a deep sense of reverence or concentration. They even made cultural laws for the use of "YHWH" or the Lord's name, so as to keep it sacred. While the practices by the ancient Jewish religious leaders and the Jewish people could be extreme, it is certainly opposite of what we see and do today in the Christian community. Often, in sermons or when someone sharing their testimonies, the name of God is frivolously and carelessly use to make them look good or to further their own projects or to lend credibility to what is their hunch or their fleshly wishes.
We must be reminded ourselves of the seriousness of misusing God’s name. When the Lord told us not to use His name in vain, He was not saying to us not to use it in any circumstances. Rather, when we use the name of God, we must use it out of full respect and reverence. This is something we failed often. Our Living God is the most important persona in the universe, yet we use His name so loosely attaching no significance neither convey any respect to what the name means to us and to Him. Yes, the Lord wants us to call upon Him in times of trouble but He certainly wants us to do this out of absolute respect and godly necessity. He doesn’t want us to be put on a plane of equality with anyone else.
How then can we help to live up to God’s commandment that commanded us not to misuse His name? In my own view, there are seven areas of our lives we can observe so that the Third Commandment : “Thou shalt not take the name of thy God in vain (Exodus 20:7) will not be violated.
(a) Avoid Misusing God’s name in our everyday speech
Due to our daily work pressures both in the office and at home, we tend to be quite careless in our speech. Hence, the first and most obvious area for us is to be careful that we do not address or speak about God in our everyday speech unnecessarily. By this, I don’t mean we should not tell people about Jesus. By this I mean we must avoid blurting out terms or phrases like “Oh, my God! How could this be!” or similar disrespectful, careless and meaningless proclamations when something have gone wrong us.
(b) Making careless or taking false oaths
Swearing and taking of oath may be required for some legal purposes like making a declaration when applying for certain official documents or during a marriage when we are required to make the marriage vows. Other than such events, we must be careful not to make any careless or false oaths or vows. We should not swear for all trivial matters. Yet so many say or swear and hardly have put any serious thought about what they are saying or swearing such as “If you don’t believe what I say, let me swear to God”, or using such words as ‘damn” because the word “damn” is a curse. When we use the word “damn” we can inadvertently be calling on God to condemn ourselves or others.
(c) Speaking abusively of things or people that God has created
Our God is the Creator of all things both in heaven and on earth. Everything – including our lives – is created by our God. Hence, it is important that we do not speak abusively about things or other people that have been made by God because this would directly put God’s creation into question. By speaking abusively of things or people that God has created, we are questioning His ability and also our own faith in Him. One of the most commonly words that we trivialize during our daily usage is the word “Hell”. Remember, in the New Testament, Jesus spoke more of hell than of heaven and warned us that all unrighteous will be condemned to this awful place. Hell is very real and we must not treat it as trivial thing or something that we can joke about. We must not joke about Hell, about the Blood of Jesus, about His Virgin Birth, about His Resurrection. Even though unbelievers may make ‘fun’ out of all these, we must stay about from the discussions and oh, yes, we must continue to share these to them but in the way the Scriptures taught.
Another commonly joke about or abusively talked about is the word ‘sex’. In one way or another, many of us are drawn into the discussion on the topic or the world “sex”. We must acknowledge that the need for wholesome sex education is never more urgent when we see that there are so many unwed mothers and fathers, abortions, pornography, prostitution. But sadly, the use of the word sex is often misused or abused with. Sex is something which is beautiful and good in its right context, within marriage. If you use crude and abusive words which refer to sex or with some sexual connotations, then you are despising a precious gift of God, and therefore dishonouring God.
(d) Misusing the name of God in the prayer
I believe you must have come across or heard many prayers where the words “Father” and “Jesus” are repeated needlessly and senselessly. In Mathew 6:7 we are told not to babbling like pagans when we pray because we can reduce God’s name to an empty formula. Yes, we all need to pray in Jesus’ name because His Name is about all names but we must pray and ask for the sort of things that He would ask for, and in the way He would ask. Our prayer requests must conform to the will of God, otherwise we bring dishonor to His name.
(e) Complaining against God
A fifth area that this commandment addresses is our speech about God. If we complain about God, about His character, about the way in which He has ordered the circumstances of our lives, the way in which He is allowing the world to be governed and all the injustices that we are seeing today, then we are bringing dishonour to His name, and therefore misusing His name. Remember, moaning, grumbling and complaining are all ultimately complaints against God, because God is the Sovereign Ruler of all things. Instead of grumbling and complaining, our lives should be characterized by thanksgiving and praise. We should trust that God knows best, even in perplexing and tragic circumstances, and give thanks to Him and honour Him at all times.
(f) Having a wrong attitude to Scripture
A sixth area where this commandment applies is in terms of our attitude to Scripture. If we dishonour God’s word, then we dishonour God’s name. We should never have an arrogant and mocking attitude towards the word of God and hence we should not make jokes at the expense of the Bible or be flippant about it. God will uphold those who are humble, whose hearts are contrite heart, and who tremble at His word (Isaiah 66:2).
(g) Dishonouring God with our daily living
Lastly, and I think this is the most important area upon which all the others are rested upon, and that is our daily living. As believers, our lives should not contradict the confession of our faith. If we are believers, we must bear the name of Christ upon us. If we live in a way which contradicts God’s word, we profane the name of God and the name of Christ. This implied profanity of our life due to the contradiction of our lifestyle may be a closely guided secret to ourselves but God is fully aware because He knows what is in our heart. Words and confessions mean nothing to Him neither calling out His name can be of any benefits to us if we disallow our heart to be occupied by Him and refuse to bear His name. Just like calling another person ‘daddy’ would not make him your father, it is futile to call out the name of God and wish that He can be our Heavenly Father if we disallow Him to be the Ruler of our lives. By contrast, if we live in a way which is in accordance with the Gospel, entirely trustworthy and good, the doctrine and word of God will receive the credit, people will find our Saviour attractive(Titus 2:10). Regardless of whether we call out His name or not, what better way to honour God than to live our lives according to the Gospel and to let people find our Saviour attractive and worthy to be their Father!
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Bible was written over a period of 1,500 years with cut and paste articles and stories so how can it be Word of God? The story of Abraham, Jacob and Joseph were separate stories from 3 different regions. Abraham story was place first becos he was a Jew story but the Jews forget that camels were only domesticated in 700 BC so the Bible is just another Jews fairy tale.
Keep praying to your ancestors you will do just fine. 拜祖衳
Keep praying to your ancestors you will do just fine. 拜祖衳
Today’s Scripture Reading [June 26, 2011]
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. [Exodus 20:7. KJV]
It is quite normal for us to be offended when our friends call us: “Hi, joker. Haven’t seen you for a long time.” We may respond with some false courtesies like “I am fine” or “I am ok” but inside us, we are disgusted when people call us “joker” or other disrespectful names. Name-calling is disrespectful and we must not call people by any of these names. Their parents have given names to them and we must respect them – both your friends and their parents – by addressing them appropriately.
At home, children called their father dad or daddy. This is not by choice. Rather, this is simply a God-built instinct that all children must address their fathers (and mothers, too) appropriately. If we have come across one of your friends’ children called his or her father by name, we will raise our eye-brows. We are likely to think that the child is his step-child, adopted child or has had bad relationship with the father. If the friend is our close friend, we are likely to be inquisitive and enquire why the child addresses his or her father by name because even the child is the step-child or adopted-child, we all expect him or her to call the father “dad’ or “daddy" and certainly not by his name!
The Lord knew of this human tendency to use names and words in vain. Shortly after the Lord revealed Himself in the Bible, He commanded us not to misuse His name or speak it in vain (Exodus 20:7). The Lord wanted His name to be used with highest degree of respect, to be set high above all other names. When the Lord introduced Himself for the very first time to Moses, He called Himself "I AM THAT I AM (Exodus 3:14)” and the Jews at that time would not call Him "I AM,” and they would say "Yahweh," which means "He Is." They did so out of respect although we all knew from the Bible, that their lifestyles of greed, lust and idolatry had caused them severe griefs. Nonetheless, the name of God was so sacred and so feared by the Jews that when the scribes came to write out the name of God, they never wrote it out in full, but only the four consonants - YHWH. There are historical records to prove that when the scribes came to write the Hebrew letters ‘YHWH’ they would wash, put on new clothes, use a new quill, write the name and then throw the quill away. When they came to read the word aloud, rather than pronounce it in full they substituted the word ‘the LORD’. Such practices by the ancient Jews underscored the importance of God’s name. For the Jewish community in general, the significance of the Commandment “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD in vain (Exodus 20:7)” forbids them of using God’s name in profanity, making a false pledge or vow using his name (Leviticus 19:12), using God’s name in a manipulative way such as in magic or to curse someone for selfish or evil purposes (Psalm 139:20), using God’s name carelessly, frivolously, unthinkably such as needless repetition of God’s name without a deep sense of reverence or concentration. They even made cultural laws for the use of "YHWH" or the Lord's name in order to keep it sacred. While the practices by the ancient Jewish religious leaders and the Jewish people could be extreme, it is certainly opposite of what we see and do today in the Christian community. Often, in sermons or when someone sharing their testimonies, the name of God is frivolously and carelessly used and to make them look good, to further their own material projects or to lend credibility to what is their hunch or their fleshly wishes.
We must be reminded ourselves of the seriousness of misusing God’s name. When the Lord told us not to use His name in vain, He was not saying to us not to use it in any circumstances. Rather, when we use the name of God, we must use it out of full respect and reverence. This is something we failed often. Our Living God is the most important persona in the universe, yet we use His name so loosely attaching no significance neither convey any respect to what the name means to us and to Him. Yes, the Lord wants us to call upon Him in times of our trouble but He certainly wants us to do this out of absolute respect and godly necessity. He doesn’t want us to be put on a plane of equality with anyone else.
How then can we help to live up to God’s commandment that commanded us not to misuse His name? In my own view, there are seven areas of our lives we can observe so that the Third Commandment: “Thou shalt not take the name of thy God in vain (Exodus 20:7)" is not violated.
(a) Avoid Misusing God’s name in our everyday speech
Due to our daily work pressures both in the office and at home, we tend to be quite careless in our speech. Hence, the first and most obvious area for us is to be careful that we do not address or speak about God in our everyday speech unnecessarily. By this, I don’t mean we should not tell people about Jesus. By this I mean we must avoid blurting out terms or phrases like “Oh, my God! How could this be!” or similar disrespectful, careless and meaningless proclamations when something have gone wrong us. When something goes wrong, it's not God's fault, but by exclaiming certain phrases, you may impliedly infer this is God's fault.
(b) Making careless or taking false oaths
Swearing and taking of oath may be required for some legal purposes like making a declaration when applying for certain official documents or during a marriage when we are required to make marriage vows. Other than such events, we must be careful not to make any careless or false oaths or vows. We should not swear for all trivial matters. Yet so many say or swear and hardly have put any serious thought about what they are saying or swearing such as “If you don’t believe what I say, let me swear to God”, or using such words as "damn” because the word “damn” is a curse word. When we use the word “damn” we can inadvertently be calling on God to condemn ourselves or others.
(c) Speaking abusively of things or people that God has created
Our God is the Creator of all things in heaven and on earth. Everything – including our lives – is created by our God. Hence, it is important that we do not speak abusively about things or other people that have been made by God because this would directly put God’s creation into question. By speaking abusively of things or people that God has created, we are questioning His ability and also our own faith in Him. One of the most commonly words that we trivialize during our daily usage is the word “Hell”. Remember, in the New Testament, Jesus spoke more of hell than of heaven and warned us that all unrighteous will be condemned to this awful place. Hell is very real and we must not treat it as trivial thing or something that we can joke about. We must not joke about hell, about the blood of Jesus, about His virgin birth, about His resurrection, about His ascension to heaven. Even though unbelievers may make ‘fun’ out of all these, we must stay away from the discussions and oh, yes, we must continue to share these to them but in the way the Scriptures taught.
Another commonly joke about or abusively talked about is the word ‘sex’. In one way or another, many of us are drawn into the discussion on the topic or the word “sex”. We must acknowledge that the need for wholesome sex education is never more urgent when we see today that there are so many unwed mothers and fathers, abortions, pornography, prostitutions. But sadly, the use of the word sex is often misused or abused with. Sex is something which is beautiful and good in its right context, that is it must be done within marriage. If you use crude and abusive words which refer to sex or with immoral sexual connotations, then you are despising a precious gift of God, and therefore dishonouring God.
(d) Misusing the name of God in the prayer
I believe you must have come across or heard many prayers where the words “Father” and “Jesus” are repeated needlessly and senselessly. In Mathew 6:7 we are told not to babbling like heathen when we pray because we can reduce God’s name to an empty formula. Yes, we must pray in Jesus’ name because His Name is about all names but we must pray and ask for the sort of things that He would ask for, and in the way He would ask. Our prayer requests must conform to the will of God, otherwise we bring dishonor to His name.
(e) Complaining against God
A fifth area that this commandment addresses is our speech about God. If we complain about God, about His character, about the way in which He has ordered the circumstances of our lives, the way in which He is allowing the world to be governed and all the injustices that we are seeing today, then we are bringing dishonour to His name, and therefore misusing His name. We must, however, pray for deliverance, for God's mercy, but remember, moaning, grumbling and complaining are all ultimately complaints against God because God is the Sovereign Ruler of all things. Instead of grumbling and complaining, our lives should be characterized by, praying, thanksgiving and praise. We should trust that God knows best, even in perplexing and tragic circumstances, and give thanks to Him and honour Him at all times.
(f) Having a wrong attitude to Scripture
A sixth area where this commandment applies is in terms of our attitude to Scriptures. If we dishonour God’s word, then we dishonour God’s name. We should never have an arrogant and mocking attitude towards the word of God and hence we should not make jokes at the expense of the Bible or be flippant about it. God will uphold those who are humble, whose hearts are contrite, and who tremble at His word (Isaiah 66:2). These are some of the clear signs of repented heeart.
(g) Dishonouring God with our daily living
Lastly, and I think this is the most important area upon which all the others are rested upon, and that is our daily living. As believers, our lives should not contradict the confession of our faith. As believers, we must bear the name of Christ upon us. If we live in a way which contradicts God’s word, we profane the name of God and the name of Christ. This implied profanity of our daily living due to the contradiction of our lifestyle may be our closely guided secret and we think no one knows about them. We are fooling ourselves if we have such attitude because God is fully aware. He knows what is in our heart. Words and confessions mean nothing to Him neither calling out His name can be of any benefits to us if we disallow our heart to be occupied by Him and refuse to bear His name. Just like calling another person (other than your own father) ‘daddy’ would not make him your father, it is futile to call out the name of God and wish that He can be our Heavenly Father if we disallow Him to be the Ruler of our lives. By contrast, if we live in a way which is in accordance with the Gospel, entirely trustworthy and good, the doctrine and word of God will receive the credit, people will find our Saviour attractive (Titus 2:10). Regardless of whether we call out His name or not, what better way to honour God than to live our lives according to the Gospel so that will people find our Saviour attractive and worthy to be their Father!
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. [Exodus 20:7. KJV]
It is quite normal for us to be offended when our friends call us: “Hi, joker. Haven’t seen you for a long time.” We may respond with some false courtesies like “I am fine” or “I am ok” but inside us, we are disgusted when people call us “joker” or other disrespectful names. Name-calling is disrespectful and we must not call people by any of these names. Their parents have given names to them and we must respect them – both your friends and their parents – by addressing them appropriately.
At home, children called their father dad or daddy. This is not by choice. Rather, this is simply a God-built instinct that all children must address their fathers (and mothers, too) appropriately. If we have come across one of your friends’ children called his or her father by name, we will raise our eye-brows. We are likely to think that the child is his step-child, adopted child or has had bad relationship with the father. If the friend is our close friend, we are likely to be inquisitive and enquire why the child addresses his or her father by name because even the child is the step-child or adopted-child, we all expect him or her to call the father “dad’ or “daddy" and certainly not by his name!
The Lord knew of this human tendency to use names and words in vain. Shortly after the Lord revealed Himself in the Bible, He commanded us not to misuse His name or speak it in vain (Exodus 20:7). The Lord wanted His name to be used with highest degree of respect, to be set high above all other names. When the Lord introduced Himself for the very first time to Moses, He called Himself "I AM THAT I AM (Exodus 3:14)” and the Jews at that time would not call Him "I AM,” and they would say "Yahweh," which means "He Is." They did so out of respect although we all knew from the Bible, that their lifestyles of greed, lust and idolatry had caused them severe griefs. Nonetheless, the name of God was so sacred and so feared by the Jews that when the scribes came to write out the name of God, they never wrote it out in full, but only the four consonants - YHWH. There are historical records to prove that when the scribes came to write the Hebrew letters ‘YHWH’ they would wash, put on new clothes, use a new quill, write the name and then throw the quill away. When they came to read the word aloud, rather than pronounce it in full they substituted the word ‘the LORD’. Such practices by the ancient Jews underscored the importance of God’s name. For the Jewish community in general, the significance of the Commandment “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD in vain (Exodus 20:7)” forbids them of using God’s name in profanity, making a false pledge or vow using his name (Leviticus 19:12), using God’s name in a manipulative way such as in magic or to curse someone for selfish or evil purposes (Psalm 139:20), using God’s name carelessly, frivolously, unthinkably such as needless repetition of God’s name without a deep sense of reverence or concentration. They even made cultural laws for the use of "YHWH" or the Lord's name in order to keep it sacred. While the practices by the ancient Jewish religious leaders and the Jewish people could be extreme, it is certainly opposite of what we see and do today in the Christian community. Often, in sermons or when someone sharing their testimonies, the name of God is frivolously and carelessly used and to make them look good, to further their own material projects or to lend credibility to what is their hunch or their fleshly wishes.
We must be reminded ourselves of the seriousness of misusing God’s name. When the Lord told us not to use His name in vain, He was not saying to us not to use it in any circumstances. Rather, when we use the name of God, we must use it out of full respect and reverence. This is something we failed often. Our Living God is the most important persona in the universe, yet we use His name so loosely attaching no significance neither convey any respect to what the name means to us and to Him. Yes, the Lord wants us to call upon Him in times of our trouble but He certainly wants us to do this out of absolute respect and godly necessity. He doesn’t want us to be put on a plane of equality with anyone else.
How then can we help to live up to God’s commandment that commanded us not to misuse His name? In my own view, there are seven areas of our lives we can observe so that the Third Commandment: “Thou shalt not take the name of thy God in vain (Exodus 20:7)" is not violated.
(a) Avoid Misusing God’s name in our everyday speech
Due to our daily work pressures both in the office and at home, we tend to be quite careless in our speech. Hence, the first and most obvious area for us is to be careful that we do not address or speak about God in our everyday speech unnecessarily. By this, I don’t mean we should not tell people about Jesus. By this I mean we must avoid blurting out terms or phrases like “Oh, my God! How could this be!” or similar disrespectful, careless and meaningless proclamations when something have gone wrong us. When something goes wrong, it's not God's fault, but by exclaiming certain phrases, you may impliedly infer this is God's fault.
(b) Making careless or taking false oaths
Swearing and taking of oath may be required for some legal purposes like making a declaration when applying for certain official documents or during a marriage when we are required to make marriage vows. Other than such events, we must be careful not to make any careless or false oaths or vows. We should not swear for all trivial matters. Yet so many say or swear and hardly have put any serious thought about what they are saying or swearing such as “If you don’t believe what I say, let me swear to God”, or using such words as "damn” because the word “damn” is a curse word. When we use the word “damn” we can inadvertently be calling on God to condemn ourselves or others.
(c) Speaking abusively of things or people that God has created
Our God is the Creator of all things in heaven and on earth. Everything – including our lives – is created by our God. Hence, it is important that we do not speak abusively about things or other people that have been made by God because this would directly put God’s creation into question. By speaking abusively of things or people that God has created, we are questioning His ability and also our own faith in Him. One of the most commonly words that we trivialize during our daily usage is the word “Hell”. Remember, in the New Testament, Jesus spoke more of hell than of heaven and warned us that all unrighteous will be condemned to this awful place. Hell is very real and we must not treat it as trivial thing or something that we can joke about. We must not joke about hell, about the blood of Jesus, about His virgin birth, about His resurrection, about His ascension to heaven. Even though unbelievers may make ‘fun’ out of all these, we must stay away from the discussions and oh, yes, we must continue to share these to them but in the way the Scriptures taught.
Another commonly joke about or abusively talked about is the word ‘sex’. In one way or another, many of us are drawn into the discussion on the topic or the word “sex”. We must acknowledge that the need for wholesome sex education is never more urgent when we see today that there are so many unwed mothers and fathers, abortions, pornography, prostitutions. But sadly, the use of the word sex is often misused or abused with. Sex is something which is beautiful and good in its right context, that is it must be done within marriage. If you use crude and abusive words which refer to sex or with immoral sexual connotations, then you are despising a precious gift of God, and therefore dishonouring God.
(d) Misusing the name of God in the prayer
I believe you must have come across or heard many prayers where the words “Father” and “Jesus” are repeated needlessly and senselessly. In Mathew 6:7 we are told not to babbling like heathen when we pray because we can reduce God’s name to an empty formula. Yes, we must pray in Jesus’ name because His Name is about all names but we must pray and ask for the sort of things that He would ask for, and in the way He would ask. Our prayer requests must conform to the will of God, otherwise we bring dishonor to His name.
(e) Complaining against God
A fifth area that this commandment addresses is our speech about God. If we complain about God, about His character, about the way in which He has ordered the circumstances of our lives, the way in which He is allowing the world to be governed and all the injustices that we are seeing today, then we are bringing dishonour to His name, and therefore misusing His name. We must, however, pray for deliverance, for God's mercy, but remember, moaning, grumbling and complaining are all ultimately complaints against God because God is the Sovereign Ruler of all things. Instead of grumbling and complaining, our lives should be characterized by, praying, thanksgiving and praise. We should trust that God knows best, even in perplexing and tragic circumstances, and give thanks to Him and honour Him at all times.
(f) Having a wrong attitude to Scripture
A sixth area where this commandment applies is in terms of our attitude to Scriptures. If we dishonour God’s word, then we dishonour God’s name. We should never have an arrogant and mocking attitude towards the word of God and hence we should not make jokes at the expense of the Bible or be flippant about it. God will uphold those who are humble, whose hearts are contrite, and who tremble at His word (Isaiah 66:2). These are some of the clear signs of repented heeart.
(g) Dishonouring God with our daily living
Lastly, and I think this is the most important area upon which all the others are rested upon, and that is our daily living. As believers, our lives should not contradict the confession of our faith. As believers, we must bear the name of Christ upon us. If we live in a way which contradicts God’s word, we profane the name of God and the name of Christ. This implied profanity of our daily living due to the contradiction of our lifestyle may be our closely guided secret and we think no one knows about them. We are fooling ourselves if we have such attitude because God is fully aware. He knows what is in our heart. Words and confessions mean nothing to Him neither calling out His name can be of any benefits to us if we disallow our heart to be occupied by Him and refuse to bear His name. Just like calling another person (other than your own father) ‘daddy’ would not make him your father, it is futile to call out the name of God and wish that He can be our Heavenly Father if we disallow Him to be the Ruler of our lives. By contrast, if we live in a way which is in accordance with the Gospel, entirely trustworthy and good, the doctrine and word of God will receive the credit, people will find our Saviour attractive (Titus 2:10). Regardless of whether we call out His name or not, what better way to honour God than to live our lives according to the Gospel so that will people find our Saviour attractive and worthy to be their Father!
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eh..........why bother discussing about a completely fabricated man-made religion.........that's full of flaws and loopholes.....???
talk about Harry Potter better lah................
talk about Harry Potter better lah................
Palsm23 cloned Goodnews (self confession),
God in the Bible come in 6 different names, so God is a collective noun for all the 6 names, including Chinese Gods. So how can it be taking 'god' name in vain?
So are you parroting your Church sermon you heard on the weekend. I know which church you attend so be advise you better seek your church paster on your writing here.
God in the Bible come in 6 different names, so God is a collective noun for all the 6 names, including Chinese Gods. So how can it be taking 'god' name in vain?
So are you parroting your Church sermon you heard on the weekend. I know which church you attend so be advise you better seek your church paster on your writing here.
Today’s Scripture Reading [July 3, 2011]
O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! Even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! [Habakkuk 2:2. KJV]
Over the last two or three weeks, we read of spouses who are mainly elderly housewives have cried out openly and expressed their great distress. Their problem: They have husbands addicted to gambling and gave their life-savings to casinos. I believe that many of those who are suffering because one of their family members is an gambling addict and has emptied the bank accounts to feed the habit are praying to God that the government must do ‘something’ to address the situation. As it seems, the current means of getting an exclusion order to ban people from the casino is not really working. This was exactly the prayer of one of the women. This woman might or might not be a Christian but that’s not my point. My point is that often when we face insurmountable problems which we don’t really know what to do next, our attempt is to go and seek some divine intervention. As Christians, we believe our divine “Helper’ is Jesus Christ and for non-believers, they may have their own divine helper or god. Regardless of our beliefs, and because of the dire situations we are in, many of us are just running out of ideas but can simply pray, pray and pray that our government must do something about these situations. Of course, the best answered prayer is for the government to close down the two casinos. This may be a long praying battle and perhaps a wishful thinking, but what else can we hope for in order to solve this dire situation. Some may conclude that we should be ‘fortunate’ that there is not going to be a third casino let alone closing the current one altogether. Then, there are some of the more fortunate people who do not have any of their family members addicted to gambling but they, nonetheless, are questioning God why such establishment has found its way into our beloved country. After all it was simply a total impossibility just 10 years ago. Right before our eyes, today our beloved city is being transformed into a gambling city! Into another Macau! Well, we are going to see many dead bodies. People are committing suicide because they have borrowed so much from loan-sharks to feed their gambling habit amd the only way out for them is to take their own lives! It shouldn't be that way but sadly that was what some people did just that.
Questioning God is not unacceptable especially when we are feeling so helpless in certain situations that demand swift justice and swift intervention from God. I don’t want to sound contradictory to my last week’s sharing when I mentioned that we must not make any complaint against God. There is a big difference between ‘questioning God’ and ‘complaining against God.’ The main difference is that when we make complain against God, we put ourselves above others; for example, when we complain to God why, in spite of my higher education, my stronger abilities, I am not promoted and instead my colleague who is more inferior to me, got promoted; why God is so unfair? These complaints are nothing but they are the self-perceived injustices because of our self-centeredness. Questioning God is just the opposite because through our questioning, we want to address the real (rather than perceived) injustices and, often than not, we are not directly involved or being affected. We just feel that these injustices demand God’s immediate action because people are suffering and those people may not even be our friends or even relatives but we just simply feel sorry for them, for the community or society at large. One of the best lessons that we could learn on how to question God unselfishly and with godly love is to read the Book of Habakkuk. As pointed by Richard W. De Haan, President of the Radio Bible Class and active contributors to the Daily Bread: "Habakkuk was not a self-centered person concerned only with the comfort and safety of himself and his family. As a true patriot, he was deeply distressed by the moral and spiritual conditions about him. He loved his nation, and knew it was moving ever closer to the precipice of destruction by continuing to break the laws of God. Therefore two anguished questions burst forth from his lips: How long? and Why?" Do these cries to God sound familiar to many of us when we read news of lawyers cheated clients by the million and simply ran away or the news of the food contamination that is now so rampant just because some businessmen wanted to make more money!
The name Habakkuk means to “embrace” or “wrestle” and his name suggested that he has something to do with the message of the Book. As we examine and go through this Book, we will soon discover that the message relates to the fact that Prophet Habakkuk was wrestling with some difficult or unjust issues. If God is good, then why is there evil in the world? And if there has to be evil, then why do the evil or evil people prosper? Why God is so slow in punishing wickedness? What is God doing in the world? These are questions also often felt by men and women of faith. Just like Prophet Habakkuk, their worries about the injustices around them ended up them praying and worshipping God and from questioning God to trusting God. It is noteworthy to realize Prophet Habakkuk did not witness injustices that were ‘out of this world’. In fact, these evil injustices were as prevalent 2,600 years ago when the Book of Habakkuk was written as they are today. Virtually, nothing has changed. The evilness of people – Proud (Habakkuk 2:4-5), Greedy (Habakkuk 2:6-8), Dishonest (Habakkuk 2:9-11), Violent (Habakkuk 2:12-14), Sensual (Habakkuk 2:15-17), Idolater (Habakkuk 2:18-20) - as penned by Habakkuk are what we see today in the daily news.
Some people think that men of faith never question God. They just sit and wait faithfully and patiently. But one thing we can learn from Habakkuk is that this is a misconception. Those who trust in God can and do question God. Those who trust in God pray, and those who trust in God share of His goodness, His ultimate plan for the sinners. Regardless of our religious faith, one can hardly walk away after watching the evening news with all the violence and injustice in the world and in frustration without asking: Why isn’t God doing something? One lesson that we can also learn from this Book is that God is not inactive. In fact, He is very active because nothing can be more important to Him than for Him to destroy all evilness from the world. When justice tarries, we have the feeling that it will never come, but God promises that it will. The current calamities and catastrophes from economic and financial instability, political conflicts, earthquakes, volcanoes, flood, drought are the warning messages to us that our days on earth are numbered (Matthew 24:7-8) and He is just doorstep away from destroying the evilness of the world. We may not expect the answers the way God has answered us but we can be assured of the final result: He will establish a perfect Kingdom in the form of a New Heaven and a New Earth and nothing impure can enter into His Kingdom. Right now, even though we seem to see that there is no end in sight that evilness can come to an end any sooner, we are reminded by Prophet Habakkuk to continue to rejoice in God and to let Him be our strength (Habakkuk 3:18-19). In the meantime, wherever we are, it could be we are at the comfort of our home or right in the most uncompromising military training ground, we can always pray to God that His intervention is urgently needed. We may stop questioning but we must not stop praying.
O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! Even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! [Habakkuk 2:2. KJV]
Over the last two or three weeks, we read of spouses who are mainly elderly housewives have cried out openly and expressed their great distress. Their problem: They have husbands addicted to gambling and gave their life-savings to casinos. I believe that many of those who are suffering because one of their family members is an gambling addict and has emptied the bank accounts to feed the habit are praying to God that the government must do ‘something’ to address the situation. As it seems, the current means of getting an exclusion order to ban people from the casino is not really working. This was exactly the prayer of one of the women. This woman might or might not be a Christian but that’s not my point. My point is that often when we face insurmountable problems which we don’t really know what to do next, our attempt is to go and seek some divine intervention. As Christians, we believe our divine “Helper’ is Jesus Christ and for non-believers, they may have their own divine helper or god. Regardless of our beliefs, and because of the dire situations we are in, many of us are just running out of ideas but can simply pray, pray and pray that our government must do something about these situations. Of course, the best answered prayer is for the government to close down the two casinos. This may be a long praying battle and perhaps a wishful thinking, but what else can we hope for in order to solve this dire situation. Some may conclude that we should be ‘fortunate’ that there is not going to be a third casino let alone closing the current one altogether. Then, there are some of the more fortunate people who do not have any of their family members addicted to gambling but they, nonetheless, are questioning God why such establishment has found its way into our beloved country. After all it was simply a total impossibility just 10 years ago. Right before our eyes, today our beloved city is being transformed into a gambling city! Into another Macau! Well, we are going to see many dead bodies. People are committing suicide because they have borrowed so much from loan-sharks to feed their gambling habit amd the only way out for them is to take their own lives! It shouldn't be that way but sadly that was what some people did just that.
Questioning God is not unacceptable especially when we are feeling so helpless in certain situations that demand swift justice and swift intervention from God. I don’t want to sound contradictory to my last week’s sharing when I mentioned that we must not make any complaint against God. There is a big difference between ‘questioning God’ and ‘complaining against God.’ The main difference is that when we make complain against God, we put ourselves above others; for example, when we complain to God why, in spite of my higher education, my stronger abilities, I am not promoted and instead my colleague who is more inferior to me, got promoted; why God is so unfair? These complaints are nothing but they are the self-perceived injustices because of our self-centeredness. Questioning God is just the opposite because through our questioning, we want to address the real (rather than perceived) injustices and, often than not, we are not directly involved or being affected. We just feel that these injustices demand God’s immediate action because people are suffering and those people may not even be our friends or even relatives but we just simply feel sorry for them, for the community or society at large. One of the best lessons that we could learn on how to question God unselfishly and with godly love is to read the Book of Habakkuk. As pointed by Richard W. De Haan, President of the Radio Bible Class and active contributors to the Daily Bread: "Habakkuk was not a self-centered person concerned only with the comfort and safety of himself and his family. As a true patriot, he was deeply distressed by the moral and spiritual conditions about him. He loved his nation, and knew it was moving ever closer to the precipice of destruction by continuing to break the laws of God. Therefore two anguished questions burst forth from his lips: How long? and Why?" Do these cries to God sound familiar to many of us when we read news of lawyers cheated clients by the million and simply ran away or the news of the food contamination that is now so rampant just because some businessmen wanted to make more money!
The name Habakkuk means to “embrace” or “wrestle” and his name suggested that he has something to do with the message of the Book. As we examine and go through this Book, we will soon discover that the message relates to the fact that Prophet Habakkuk was wrestling with some difficult or unjust issues. If God is good, then why is there evil in the world? And if there has to be evil, then why do the evil or evil people prosper? Why God is so slow in punishing wickedness? What is God doing in the world? These are questions also often felt by men and women of faith. Just like Prophet Habakkuk, their worries about the injustices around them ended up them praying and worshipping God and from questioning God to trusting God. It is noteworthy to realize Prophet Habakkuk did not witness injustices that were ‘out of this world’. In fact, these evil injustices were as prevalent 2,600 years ago when the Book of Habakkuk was written as they are today. Virtually, nothing has changed. The evilness of people – Proud (Habakkuk 2:4-5), Greedy (Habakkuk 2:6-8), Dishonest (Habakkuk 2:9-11), Violent (Habakkuk 2:12-14), Sensual (Habakkuk 2:15-17), Idolater (Habakkuk 2:18-20) - as penned by Habakkuk are what we see today in the daily news.
Some people think that men of faith never question God. They just sit and wait faithfully and patiently. But one thing we can learn from Habakkuk is that this is a misconception. Those who trust in God can and do question God. Those who trust in God pray, and those who trust in God share of His goodness, His ultimate plan for the sinners. Regardless of our religious faith, one can hardly walk away after watching the evening news with all the violence and injustice in the world and in frustration without asking: Why isn’t God doing something? One lesson that we can also learn from this Book is that God is not inactive. In fact, He is very active because nothing can be more important to Him than for Him to destroy all evilness from the world. When justice tarries, we have the feeling that it will never come, but God promises that it will. The current calamities and catastrophes from economic and financial instability, political conflicts, earthquakes, volcanoes, flood, drought are the warning messages to us that our days on earth are numbered (Matthew 24:7-8) and He is just doorstep away from destroying the evilness of the world. We may not expect the answers the way God has answered us but we can be assured of the final result: He will establish a perfect Kingdom in the form of a New Heaven and a New Earth and nothing impure can enter into His Kingdom. Right now, even though we seem to see that there is no end in sight that evilness can come to an end any sooner, we are reminded by Prophet Habakkuk to continue to rejoice in God and to let Him be our strength (Habakkuk 3:18-19). In the meantime, wherever we are, it could be we are at the comfort of our home or right in the most uncompromising military training ground, we can always pray to God that His intervention is urgently needed. We may stop questioning but we must not stop praying.
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God's intervention to help with disasters ???
so someone else was creating them ???
and God can't stop that fella from creating more tragedies ???
then God is not ALONE...................and not all knowing and powerful................
so someone else was creating them ???
and God can't stop that fella from creating more tragedies ???
then God is not ALONE...................and not all knowing and powerful................
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Tell God to let me win today's TOTO $1.5 million dollar draw...
OK Leave it with me.
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