"Mom always loves you"

Even in disasters do we see touching moments, or maybe, the touching moments in disasters are more precious than that during normal times.

In the recent earthquakes in China, a mother, in the attempt to protect her 3 month old baby, shielded her baby underneath her, and she bore all the weight of the torn-down pieces of the building and lost her life.

The baby was sound asleep when she was rescued, and there was a mobile phone found there, and this message was found on the screen "My baby, if you can survive, remember, Mom always loves you"

What a touching story.

What prompts a mother to sacrifice her life for her baby? It's her love, is it not?

Inevitably, it reminds me of the story of Jesus. He came down, laid aside the adoration in heaven, laid aside His omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence; became a man, bound by the law of nature, subject to tiredness, pain, hunger, thirst; and He took every step of His life relying on His Father.

Walking towards the cross, His agony caused Him to sweat blood; carrying the cross, He told the women not to mourn for Him; on the cross, He refused to save Himself, but cared to tell John to take care of His mother, and to give the thief next to Him a promise.

Then when the guilt of the whole world crushed Him, He could not see Himself as a victorious conqueror beyond the grave, in His eyes, the grave was His destination. In utmost agony, He cried out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me"

People were mocking Him, Oh, if only He wanted, He could have saved Himself and left the ungrateful world to its own course. No, looking at the ungrateful world, He, not only had forgiven them, but chose to sacrifice His eternal throne in Heaven so that we may go in.

Sin is so evil that Jesus could not even see His Father.

If this was not enough to demonstrate us how much God loves us, what will?

I believe the baby rescued from the earthquake will believe she had a loving mother when she is told how she survived the earthquake; will we not believe how much God loves us, that even when faced with the equivalent of eternal destruction Himself and us seeing what God is like, and saving Himself and slain the ungrateful crowd; He chose self-sacrifice.

And I wish to ask, isn't this enough to convince us there is nothing to be afraid of our God, but He wholeheartedly wants to be our best friend?

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Christians and politics?

Although compared to the US, Australia's politics is less dominated by ideological issues and religious movements, more or less, its policies are still influenced by various religious groups. Christian Democrats have little influence now, but in the Federal Senate, Family First still holds a seat, and performs as the balance of power with the Greens and the South Australian independent member.

Looking at US politics, it is even more so; Religious Right groups seek to exert their points of view, and that is fine, but quite often, they seek to legislate morality; and that is very unfair and counter productive to the cause of the Kingdom of Heaven.

There are some Christian denominations and sects that totally abstain from politics, and I respect their choice; but I do not believe it is a rule for all Christians to abstain from politics.

In fact, there are quite a few examples in the Bible where followers of Yahweh were involved in politics. Starting from Joseph, Moses, Daniel, King David, King Solomon, Esther though was not directly a politician, used her privilege as the Queen to save Israel, even King Nebuchadnezzar, a gentile king, was so loved by God that he experienced so many miracles, including dreams and a fulfilled prophecy--turning into a cow, which finally led him to the knowledge of Yahweh. (Funny though, I always had this misconception that in the Old Testament time, all gentiles were condemned and only Israel was saved; now looking back, though in totality Israel was the elect of God, most of them were rebellious and did not really know God on a personal level.)

If the followers of God could be politicians, why can't we? But before we jump into the other extreme and start trying to advance our "religious cause", let us learn something from the Old Testament politicians, I believe there are somethings that we can learn from them.

First of all, these politicians all did stand as a witness of God. They were not perfect, some were better behaved than the others, but their hearts were all toward God. They served their position for the good of the people of that land.

Secondly, for them being witnesses for God did not mean they were all using their power to enforce their religion to the rest. Well, King David was the King of Israel, which was the elect of God, so it was right for them to worship Yahweh. But in reality, God's kingdom is not of this world, but above. Israel was a symbol that pointed to the Kingdom of Heaven. And therefore, on earth, there is no single country or a political entity that is the Kingdom of Heaven. So the example of Israel does not apply. In fact, we are all living in the heathen land. That's why we could use Joseph and Daniel as our examples. They were both powerful men in the government of Egypt and Babylon respectively. And they did not command others to worship the same God they were worshiping. They did not force their religion upon everyone else. Their duty was to govern the nation, to serve the people. When Joseph was the Prime Minister of Egypt, the Pharaoh did not convert to Joseph's religion; when Daniel was the Prime Minister of Babylon, he stood as a witness for Yahweh the only and true God, he told the King who only could interpret dreams and explain prophecies, but in the end, King Nebuchadnezzar's conversion was entirely the work of God.

Too many Religious Right groups today see their involvement with politics being for the sole purpose to convert everyone else or to legislate morality. But don't they know faith is not something that can be forced, let alone love of God. If you cannot force anyone to love God, you have no way to force them to become Christians; and if they are not even Christians, what is the point to force them to live like Christians? As if they could be saved through living like Christians without the substance of Christianity which is, the love of God, a personal relationship with God?

No wonder many people hate Christianity today, and this hatred is not that they want to persecute us, in fact, to the contrary, it is their reaction to our persecution of them. The Bible's prophecy of true Christians is that we shall be persecuted, true Christians shall not persecute those who do not agree with us.

Jesus never exercised force to convert people, if we think we can use political powers to make people followers of Christ, we are seeing a wrong picture of God.

If Christians ever get involved in politics, it should be for the purpose of serving others. Not to force this world to become the Kingdom of Heaven.

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Earthquake

No words can express my agony when I open the newspapers and am faced with the heart wrenching photos taken in Sichuan, China.

It is only normal for people to cry, to weep, to mourn when such things happened, particularly when parents lose their children; as for children, they are not even supposed to lose their parents and become orphans. It is too much for them to bear, their lives have just started, and an earthquake crushed their childhood.

Yet, on the news, I have also seen a woman who apparently had no tears on her face, and at that sight, my stomach churned, others crying is totally normal and understandable; but this woman whose face showed no emotion, or perhaps I sensed some helplessness and a loss of direction; it made me wonder, what was going through her mind and heart at that moment? Maybe she did not even have the strength, the power and the energy to think anything, and maybe the devastation paralyzed her heart...

I can't tell.

And as I saw more and more photos taken of children buried under collapsed buildings, I could only feel my chest tightened with each new photo I saw; I was suffocating, but what is my pain compared to theirs?

This, could be one of those moments we lift up our faces, look into the sky, and ask "God, where were you when the earthquake happened?" And even this, is a modest question. I do not dare to get close to the notion some might claim "It's God's judgment, hallelujah!"

I shall not allow myself to dwell upon the process of reasoning the latter notion, because it will bring up a traumatising, sick, twisted picture of God. And I dare not to be traumatised.

I believe my God is good, He is love. I believe His heart hurt more than we could fathom when so many people were buried under the collapsed buildings. I especially believe Jesus was literally crying in Heaven when He saw the children had become orphans, and parents had lost their children.

No, it is not an act of God, the very idea such disasters could be an act of God tramples the character of my God. God's will is for us to live, and to live an abundant eternal life with Him.

But this world is a dying world, each earthquake, each tornado, each hurricane, each hailstorm, is merely a sign of our dying world. If not because of God's preservation, the human race would have committed total self-destruction thousands of years ago. The horror of sin is that if we are left to ourselves, we would even nail God to the cross. And we would not even have lived long enough to now when this earthquake happened.

The very fact that we are still here, though facing disasters, sorrows, stands to testify of our God's constraining love. For without God, we would have perished long ago.

And God will not leave the human race on this earth; one day He is coming back for us, and to take us to our true home, where there is no disasters, no sorrow; we will see the scars in His hands, His feet and His side; and we will not dare to think about starting the "great controversy" all over again. For we would all have tasted the sorrow caused by sin.

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How deep have we probed into the character of God?

And the years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character. As Jesus opens before them the riches of redemption and the amazing achievements in the great controversy with Satan, the hearts of the ransomed thrill with more fervent devotion, and with more rapturous joy they sweep the harps of gold; and ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to swell the mighty chorus of praise. (Chap. 42, The Great Controversy, Ellen White)


It has been an amazing journey for me since the latter half of 2006 when I started to see a clearer image of God's character; with my old views rebutted and shattered, and learning to see God with new eyes, I have been experiencing more and more love of God.

Sometimes, it seems with my foundational image of Yahweh changed, I am so close to the full image of God; and immediately I'd exclaim, how naive am I!

Naive, because even Paul did not claim a complete image of God.

Mathematics is a deep deep science to me, with all the numbers, you can study maths and be rest assured there are always new laws to be discovered; but even more so is God's character. The character of God is our eternal pursuit, and this love between God and us will only deepen through the endless time.

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Jesus is coming soon! And?

There are two attitudes toward the Second Coming of the Messiah, one is "Hallelujah!", the other is, "Get Ready!"

There is a place for the message of "be ready", because the Bible tells us so! But I really want to probe into the mentality of both proclamations.

To respond the message of the Second Coming with "Hallelujah", expresses our hope for this event, that we look forward to the return of our Saviour; we rejoice at the thought of it, and we would love to see the face of Jesus because we know that He love us, and we, in turn, love Him.

While the proclamation of "Be Ready!" denotes another emotion.

Those who spread the second message may well say that the Second Coming of Christ is a blessed hope, but their message sounds to entail more fear and terror than hope and love.

"Jesus is coming again, and by then, we may not even be holy enough to see Him yet, Oh, I dread this thought, what if I'm not ready by then, I will perish!" To them, the concept of the Second Coming is like we as the whole human race is running a marathon with God, and we want to run ahead of God, so we can reach the destination before Him, and so when He gets to the destination we are already there, so we will be ready, and He will have to let us into heaven even if He doesn't want to; we will have our merit to show Him "Look God, we're ready now, so you can't send us to hell now!"

There really are problems with this mentality, it views God as our competitor, and we have to outrun Him, and I just do not see any love for God reflected in this mindset.

The Bible says Jesus is the bridegroom, and we are His bride. When the bride is waiting for the groom, she should be glad and happy and looking forward to her beloved. If the bride only dreads the arrival of the bridegroom, but tells herself that she has to be ready because if she doesn't, there's going to be trouble! Then, there certainly is no love in her heart for the man she is going to marry; and this marriage would better not to take place.

But if the bride says, I want to see my beloved, but I will have to get everything ready, so when I see him, I will not embarrass myself; and she would say "my beloved is coming soon, and yes! What a blessing! Now, before he gets here, let me get everything in place, so when he gets here, everything will be set. He will be comfortable and I will not embarrass myself."

Now this is a different attitude.

Christianity has been twisted so much that we are so self-centred, our goal is self-preservation, so God will not find a reason to cast us into the fire; we care so little about how beautiful God is, and that it is n fact a pleasure to know Him and to spend time with Him. And naturally, how can we be expected to look forward to the return of the Messiah?

They do not feel like children of God, but merely servants, and always afraid of God. They have no perfect love; because perfect love casts out fear.

They will keep God's commandments and do His works, but not for their love for God, but for their own preservation; but then, that is not commandment keeping at all, because the first principle of the Ten Commandments is to love God with all our heart!

I read this on a blog of someone

"A reading from the book of Python

O Lord, please don't burn us.
Don't grill or toast Your flock.
Don't put us on the barbecue
Or simmer us in stock.
Don't braise or bake or boil us
Or stir-fry us in a wok.
Oh, please don't lightly poach us
Or baste us with hot fat.
Don't fricassee or roast us
Or boil us in a vat,
And please don't stick Thy servants, Lord,
In a Rotissomat.

Thanks be to God.

I still vividly remember the seemingly endless "hellfire and brimstone" sermons from my childhood and youth in a Southern Baptist church. I also recall, that when I was "saved" at the age of 12 or so, it was because I was filled with fear and dread of dying "lost" and going to hell.

What I do not recall is having a sense of loving or being loved by God... What I had instead developed was an image of God as a taskmaster who kept a list of my sins and shoved a lightning bolt up my ass every time I messed up.

This sort of fear-based faith did not hold for me, and I left the church, any church for many years."

And who can say that this is not exactly what a "gospel of fear" would do to anyone?

If people are scared to heaven, but without love for God, then, even geographically they are in heaven, they won't love being there, because they are going to spend eternity with someone who they don't love, but only afraid of.

Isaiah 40:9
"O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!"

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incidence

At the station today, 3 young men yelled at me "Hey!"
I turned my face to them.
"Do you have 2 spare dollars?"
"Sorry, I don't"
Then, they swore at me.
Walking on the street, I got quite angry. First of all, they yelled at me "Hey!", did not even say "excuse me". Who is the one asking for favour? They were the ones asking for favour! Whether to help them or not was up to me. I didn't owe them. And they had the attitude.
I didn't have the spare money, and even if I had, I would not give them just for their bad attitude.
Why do I see young men like that a lot?
While I was feeling angry, I was thinking, it's in times like these I really wish there will really be a hell burning for an extended period of time, to let them know what they deserve.
Though I had another thought, they need the gospel, too; they could actually become Christians.
And then I had another thought, even if I could, I would not share the gospel with them, let them perish.
Then I realized just how evil my thoughts were.
Luke 9:
51 ¶ And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,  52And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.  53And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.  54And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?  55But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.  56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. 
Comparing the way I think to the way my Saviour thinks, I feel so short of His glory.
What happened to me was simply a few ungrateful young men, what happened to Yahshua was being crucified innocently, and that He volunteered for it. No one took His life, He freely gave it away.
Pondering on His story, His character, I feel embarrassed; yet again, feel attracted to His beauty, and actually feeling proud for worshiping a God like that.

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He Knows My Name

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The good fight

Wayne, I don't know how to address him, was our group leader for that week at the Living Waters conference at Collaroy; one week long, I got to know him a bit better, and he was a patient, firm and  enthusiastic leader. He had such a smile that was telling everyone he was approachable. During the regular Living Waters course, we did not have much time together which would make it convenient for us to get to know each other. That one week at Collaroy was mainly the only time he made an impression in my eyes.
Nearly 2 months after his death, I learned this tragedy while reading the Summer newsletter of Living Waters. To me, it was a complete shock; and it did not only surprise me, it actually made me sad.
One week of getting to know each other better, generally should not make us friends, and after the conference, I hardly talked to him again; after 2006 Living Waters, I've never seen him ever since. Yet when I was moving home, doing the pack-up, I did again notice this particular greeting card with his nearly-doctor's-handwriting; telling me something like this "I sense God is doing a work in you" that he gave me during the conference. It always brought my memory back to that sunny week at Collaroy, an unforgettable week.
Ron summarises it well, definitely much better than my knowledge of Wayne; yet I still remember what I heard during 2006 Living Waters, when Ron was sharing with us Wayne's testimony, how God transformed his life. A former sex addict, he learned to surrender to God, and redirected his passion to the Father, pressing his brokenness into Christ, and found his true self in the Father's heart.
Instead of going to Canada with his fiancee, he chose to remain in Sydney to serve God in this special way at Living Waters.
And just 4 months after he got married, a car accident took away his life. He no longer feels any pain, resting in peace; his widow, however, was left with a sorrowful heart. I feel deeply sorry for her.
As for Living Waters, it is also indeed a great loss that such a leader of integrity has left us.
Yet, I feel such a relief to know that he fought the good fight. For Christian men especially, sexual temptation is such an intense and ongoing struggle; (I say for Christian men especially, because Christian men still have a conviction while facing the enormous temptation); and Wayne, having found his true identity in God the Father, he found victory and peace; in the fight for purity, he was a victor, and left us a precious legacy. He was an inspiration.
And I can't help but to think about myself. I still have unresolved issues that I still need to work on; I've got heaps of wounds that I desperately still need to find healing in Yahshua-yet I have delayed it; I've not yet learned to fully throw myself in the hands of God the Father and to let Him define who I am, my true identity; to rest in His love, and to surrender myself fully to Him without reservation or compromise. I have in fact experienced substantial losses in my own battle by refusing to trust in the good will and wisdom of Yahweh.
I sense, he was a true man of strength by acknowledging his weaknesses and trading it for Yahshua's strength; he became a victorious warrior because he allowed himself to become weak first; he became
who he was meant to be in the first place by hiding himself in Yahshua.
We don't know how many days lay ahead of us. It is of no use to threaten ourselves into good behaviours because of the uncertainty in our lives; I still believe God's love compels us; will I fix my eyes on His glory, give HIs truth my ears, pay Him my "sh'ma", and allow Him to be the One I always talk to? I do not wish to see regrets in my life near the end of it, whenever it will be.
Wayne was an example of what it means to deny ourselves, trade our failures, our lies, our brokenness in order to find out our true selves.
Wayne died in victory, while countless of Christian men died in failures and struggles.
I am afraid I will not find myself in the stage Wayne stepped in anywhere in the foreseeable future, I am afraid I will fail. What Wayne went through seems so unreachable. However, shouldn't I know it is God who is behind, working in us.
Wayne allowed God to take over in each of his decisions. God's strength was made great in his weaknesses; I shall admit my own weaknesses to God and let Him take over.
It is a tragedy to still be unable to find out who I am; and Wayne's death reminded me it is time to catch up.
No one can tell if it was God who wished to take the life of Wayne. I am not in a position to make comments; but it is possible that it was simply an accident that killed him; or maybe Satan hated him so much because he was reflecting God's character more and more day by day; and he was doing a service so pleasing to God.
I feel sorry for the loss of Wayne-my group leader for a week.

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For with Thee there is forgiveness, that Thou mayest be feared.

Psalm 130:4 For with Thee there is forgiveness, that Thou mayest be feared.

In the past, when I read this verse, I felt a sense of awkwardness, because forgiveness doesn't seem to match fear, when we are forgiven, we are relieved instead of afraid. People say, Fear God, because He knows everything that you do, and He will bring judgment for all you have done, and be afraid of His punishment.
In fact, immediately precedes this verse, in verse 3, it says, "If Thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?"
The writer did not write "if Thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? That Thou mayest be feared."
Instead, he put in between these 2 ideas, "For with Thee there is forgiveness".
Knowing that God knows everything we do, and that none of us can stand when He marks our iniquities, may indeed make us tremble, and it may indeed make us be afraid, but it is not the fear in verse 4 here. We would be afraid of the punishment, for the consequence of our sins; but God doesn't ultimately want that kind of fear, what He wants, is that we fear God Himself.
This fear translates to our acknowledgment of His greatness, a surrender of our hearts; and it is the result of our realisation of just how different God is to us; how differently He thinks, feels and acts; and yet we so easily fall in the trap of thinking what would God think about me based on our own pattern of thinking and feeling; we try to interpret God's character and what He wants to tell us with our finite mind.
Isaiah 55:8For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the LORD.  9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.

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Saddened

In the past, I have mainly put my focus on the human rights violations in China, today, however, as my sight was widened, I am getting saddened day by day.
There are several kinds of human rights abuses: the institutional abuse that is either enforced or sanctioned by the governments; by civilians; terrorism; and there is the kind of abuse we tend to overlook, domestic abuse.
Sometimes when I am reflecting upon the news I have read, the tragedies around the world, people's overt abuses; and people's indifference to what's happening in the rest of the world, and many of them are ignorant, and wish to remain that way.
And as a person, an individual, 1 among 6 billion people, I feel so powerless. I cannot change the legislations; and I cannot change people's opinions; and as for terrorism, I am frightened. My personal concern over the tragedies seems a waste of time.
Seeing so much injustice, sometimes I even kind of wish there really would be a hell that burns the human rights abusers on and on; but there isn't such a thing; then I am also reminded, I am not perfect, and I am a sinner myself.
Yet my saddened heart just tells me how difficult for God. The people who impose abuses are not my relatives, I do not see any connection between them and me. God created the whole world, and how sad must He be feeling to see His own creation doing harm to each other. I am only seeing the tip of an iceberg, whereas God is omnipresent, and He sees the tragedies around the world every second, and I believe He sees more bad than good.
Which just marvels me even more when the Bible tells us that the wicked will not be burned on and on and on without an end; but instead, they will be consumed away.
He is not interested in keep torturing the wicked (as much as they deserve it, some of us may feel), He simply desires to put an end to the whole tragedy of the human race.
God is great, because His heart is great, and we cannot comprehend it.
And we see it especially in the so called Christian nations.
Yes, secular countries like Japan and Islamic countries show even less compassion; but it is a disgrace to Christianity when people from the so called Christian nations show indifference to so many people suffering under tyrannies in other parts of the world. Particularly when their "brothers and sisters in the Lord" cannot worship God freely, the Christians in the western Christian nations do not really care about what's going on elsewhere. As if Yahweh was God of only them.
It is always easy to say God loves the world, but it is always difficult for us to love the world God wants us to.

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Who Am I

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Womb Lottery

This is one world, one planet earth under one sky. Yet, it is divided, it feels like, we all live in different worlds.
While we are complaining we are having financial hardship, most of us who are complaining, are really richer than most people in the world. Think of those poor kids in Africa who have nothing to eat, no clean water to drink, and medication is a luxury.
What do we have to complain about?
The term "womb lottery" describes that the destiny of a person is pretty much secured the moment this fetus is conceived. On a wide scale, which continent, which country, which region of that country; on a smaller scale, the family background, whether the parents are both really caring, whether they can afford to bring up the kid, whether the kid would be born with any genetic mutation or any sickness.
I highly regard the words in the US Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
I still hold this claim as truth, I still firmly believe this principle.
Yet, I feel a sense of weakness when I proclaim it; because the world that we live in does not reflect it; If we could find someone with no pre-conception, and let him take a good look at the world, and he will not get to the conclusion that we are in practice all created equal, that we are all actually excercising our rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Some won the Womb Lottery, they were born in Western Europe, Japan, the Four Tigers of Asia, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand--what we call as the developed countries; born with no birth defects; and the majority of the world's population were born into the other division of the world.
Just because of the place they were born in, kids are trained to commit terrorist attacks, girls never get access to education, or they never survive to their 10th birthday because they have all starved to death...
Tragedies, I can make a long list, to the point it will make the listerner either numb and insensitive to anything he is going to hear; or make a sane person depressed.
Apart from these objective uncomfortable truths, we hold bias against those from the lower half of the world, we see them as filthy, unlovable, or that, they should just remain in their status quo, they do not deserve anything better.
While we get in our cars or get on the train and commute to work or university.
We may not actually owe most of those living in a state not half as good as our pets; and the indifference is indeed deafening.
Then I am reminded that this was not what  was in God's mind when He created the world, in His world, there was no discrimination, no classes, there wasn't the privileged and the disadvantaged. There was no pain and suffering.
We forfeited the happiness.
In the Garden of Eden, there was no
"Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
"Britons never will be slaves."
There was no slavery at all, no one would ever be a slave.
Here we live in a world where some people have never known the pursuit of happiness.

It's been six thousand years, it has been a long time. This morning in the news, I heard the astromoners found another solar system similar to ours, 5000 light years away. Light would have to travel 5000 years to reach there, suppose we could travel as fast as light, by the time we reach there, it's another 5000 years. From the beginning of human history to now, we have already made the earth a miserable place, would God allow us to ruin another planet?

It is nearly the time the Messiah should come back and receive up back home, nearly, only if we let the whole world hear the good news of the soon coming Kingdom; when the sufferings of this world will be put to an end, and no more "womb lottery" to determine if one will have a happier life than the rest.
Heaven, a place we human being were meant to live in.

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Untitled

This man has a magnetic voice.

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National Anthems

Quite a few years ago, I started to appreciate the national anthems of different countries; take the anthem of UK for example, I was totally moved by its tunes, it sounded really solemn; and well, it did not really matter that I could not understand the words.
Then, the anthem of Israel, it sounds historic; as a condensed version of the dream of Zion of the Israel nation. One day sitting on the train, a phone rang, and the ring-tone was Israel's national anthem; I thought there was a Jew; but no, when she picked up the phone, she started talking Cantonese! How interesting!
And I love the US anthem for the history it embodies; the Civil War, the national flag, and it fully reveals the patriotism of the Americans.
I also love O Canada; just like its broad land; the song sounds so broad, I mean, the melody actually does make me see a scene of its endless plains and mountains.
Australian anthem, "we are young and free"; lovely song; the tune isn't all that unique, but the words are meaningful.
National anthem of PRC, well, if it was not for the reason the song was chosen to be the anthem of Communist China; I'd rather like this song; in fact, what other song would better suit the current situation in China? Government exploiting the people to the extreme; and the people need to "stand up".
Of course, I won't, and most of us won't have an opportunity to sing all the meaningful national anthems as our own right; it does make me think, hundreds of countries in the world, some are really priveledged, the others aren't; but one day these are all going to pass, what's left for us to think about is, will we have a pass to enter the Kingdom Eternal?
Or are we so shortsighted that, all we see and think about is what's in this life and in this world?

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Review "Into the Wild"

There are those films which I wish I had never seen in the first place, “The Dawn of the Dead”, “The Reaping” and the most recent one “Into the Wild”.
Each of these films left me feeling worse than when I first stepped into the cinema. And I think “Into the Wild” has the biggest impact, because it is based on a true story.
When I saw the interview of the author, the director and the actor on Oprah Show, it really pushed my desire to watch this film. On the interview, a lot of emphasis was given to the process of the filming, how real the whole experience was to the actor, how he had to put himself into a kayak and actually paddle down the roaring river; how he was floating in the icy-cold water, how he nearly lost his life during the process.
The actor actually specifically mentioned it was once in a life time experience-in a positive way, he got to experience a lot of the things Christopher did; he got to see all the beautiful natural sceneries of the continent of North America; though on the other hand, don’t forget, beautiful sceneries as such, often seem challenging, and remind us just how powerless we are as human beings.
I knew finally Christopher died, and I thought I was ready to handle seeing the dead body of Christopher in the film, but apparently I wasn’t.
The story happened in the early 1990s, when I just started to learn how to write pinyin and basic Chinese characters, started to learn basic numeracy, when I did not know anything.
Christopher grew up in a dysfunctional family, family life was a torture to him and his sister, he excelled in his studies, but contrary to other graduates which the same grades, he did not start to seek employment, and he did not go straight into Harvard Law. Instead, he took this drastic move, he chose to run away. In his own eyes, though at least, in his words, he did not admit he was in escape, he just wanted to live for just once; he wanted to retreat, but to retreat to the “real life”, he wanted liberation, liberation from the materialism of the society, he wanted simplicity, a life where money is no longer meaningful, and people don’t need to be cautious.
“20 or so years olds who don’t believe in Communism don’t have a dream, and those above 40 who still believe in Communism are foolish.”
Christopher wanted a life without all the strives he had witnessed in the society, so he sought a life all on his own in the wild Alaska.
On his way, he spent time with the Hippies. I don’t know if Hippies was still a fashionable thing by then. But really, watching the Hippies made me feel weird, made me feel hopeless, disoriented, it poses a life without a direction. Pure rebellion, a community that was totally unrelated to the value of the main stream American society, but they themselves were seeking, via different means, including drugs and Eastern mysticism.
Christopher was so disgusted with the American dream, that he felt more at home with the Hippies value; he was never brought up in that system, but this word family seemed so revolting to him, that it drove him further and further away from what his parents attempted to form him into.
Christopher went on with his “Great Alaskan Adventure”, and finally in Alaska, he tried to survive under the toughest conditions, he never wanted to die, he wanted to “live”, yet he knew there were a lot of risks that he had to take if he even wanted to “survive” in the wilderness all on his own. He took no map, limited supplies, refused to get oriented with the landscape before he set his food in the thick snow. He wanted to feel strong, at least, once in his lifetime.
All the beautiful natural sceneries could constitute an unforgettable, even pleasant (albeit extremely harsh) journey. But it ended a tragedy.
Having eaten poisonous plants, he literally had to watch himself die. It’s one thing to be struck by lightning, and another thing to starve to death as a result of poisoning.
Before he died, he penned down “happiness is real when shared”; he though he was happy, he felt happy in his “Great Alaskan Adventure”, but at the final moments, he found out, he’d rather reward his parents’ evil with a smile and a hug. But I know, it could never have become possible, he had his “principles”, he had his own set of values, and he would not bow down his head before the materialism he so despised and his parents who represented the value of the American society, the embodiment of the American dream.
An adventure ended in a fatal tragedy. It’s hard to watch someone die. I felt extremely uncomfortable listening to the accelerating heart beat of Christopher and then its sudden end.
He did realize he he had been running away from reality, though in his own words “seeking the truth”, instead of facing what had been his nightmare.
Having enjoyed the nature of America, it became the last page in his life, and all was too late, no more chance to face the reality, and to deal with it, to come up with a solution, or at least, some improvement.
Movies like this naturally make me think of my own life; we are all going to die, in our last minutes, if we are conscious, how will we evaluate our whole life, will we regret, be sorry and wish we could get another chance?
King Solomon’s wisdom still amazes me just when it’s least expected.
He said:
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these [things] God will bring thee into judgment. (Ecc 11:9)
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low; Also [when] they shall be afraid of [that which is] high, and fears [shall be] in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all [is] vanity... And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books [there is] no end; and much study [is] a weariness of the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this [is] the whole [duty] of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether [it be] good, or whether [it be] evil. (Ecc 12)

Love life, and live it to the full, even do go on journeys of unforgettable adventure, traveling around New Zealand sounds like a cool idea. Bu treasure it, treasure life, take necessary steps to protect yourself, take a map, keep in touch with family and friends; because we only get to live this life once, and there is no repeat if we fail ourselves.
“Happiness is real when shared”

Initial 03.12.2007
Revised 04.12.2007

Blogged with Flock

Worried about Myanmar

Peaceful demonstration, people's support; the government's crack down.

All seem so familiar, and all seem so scary.

It has reminded me of the Tian'anmen Square Massacre 18 years ago; students protesting against the government peacefully, demanding the punishment of the corrupt officials, and the government sent tanks into the city, it is estimated 2000-4000 civilians were killed.

Will this be the outcome of this pro-democracy demonstration in Myanmar?

I don't want a massacre like the one in Beijing to ever happen again anywhere in the world; I deeply feel for the Burmese people, and I wish them a soon coming democratic Myanmar.

Eyes of a King

Eyes of a King
NKJ Exodus 33:18-20—And he [Moses] said, “Please, show me Your glory.” Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”

Moses was truly a man of God, he was a prophet, and a leader Yahweh has chosen for Israel. Of the whole Israel, if anyone were qualified to see Yahweh, it would have been Moses-or so we suppose. But the verse above seems to indicate that even Moses could not see God face to face. Why? Is it because God's face is like a top secret that whoever has seen it would be killed afterwards? Or was God's face so ugly that we just cannot bear it?

Regardless, it is however interesting to see another verse that is somehow related to this verse.

Hebrews 12:22-29
22But ye have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the Jerusalem that is in heaven; and to the assemblies of myriads of angels; 23and to the church of the first-born, who are enrolled in heaven and to God the judge of all; and to the spirits of the just, who are perfected; 24and to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant; and to the sprinkling, of his blood, which speaketh better than that of Abel. 25Beware, therefore, lest ye refuse to hear him who speaketh with you. For if they escaped not, who refused to hear him who spake with them on the earth, how much more shall we not, if we refuse to hear him who speaketh with us from heaven? 26Whose voice then shook the earth; but now he hath promised, and said, yet again once more, I will shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 27And this his expression, Once more, indicateth the mutation of the things that are shaken, because they are fabricated; that the things which will not be shaken, may remain. 28Since, therefore, we have received a kingdom that is unshaken, let us grasp the grace whereby we may serve and please God, with reverence and fear. 29For our God is a consuming fire.

This paragraph says Mount Zion is the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and where myriads of angels dwell. Zion means he peak, the most elevated place, Zion is the top, the crescendo, the zenith, the high point, and the Bible calls you and me to Mount Zion. But the problem is, in verse 22 we are called to come to Mount Zion, up up up, yet in verse 29, we encounter a God who is a consuming fire, we encounter the most solemn of all realities; we are called to encounter a consuming fire.

There are other Mount Zion verses in the Bible.

Psalm 48:2 Beautiful in elevation, the joy of all the land, Is Mount Zion, in the recesses of the north,—The city of a great king.

Psalm 84: 1-7
1To the Chief Musician. On "the Gittith." For the Sons of Korah. A Melody. How lovely are thy habitations, O Yahweh of hosts! 2My soul, longeth—yea even languisheth—for the courts of Yahweh,—My heart and my flesh, shout aloud for a Living GOD. 3Even the sparrow, hath found a home, And, the swallow, a nest for herself, where she hath laid her young, Thine altars, O Yahweh of hosts, My king and my God! 4How happy are they who abide in thy house,—Still are they praising thee. Selah. 5How happy the men whose strength is in thee, Festive processions are in their heart. 6Passing through the balsam-vale, A place of fountains, they make it, Yea, with blessings, is it covered by the early rain. 7They go from strength to strength, Each one appeareth before God in Zion.

What a passion, what a longing, for those who have made their pilgrimage to Mount Zion to appear before a consuming fire! And not only that, they equated Mount Zion to the nest of swallows, they felt perfectly at home on Mount Zion.

But why is Mount Zion so attractive? Because God is beautiful, God is delightful.
Psalm 27:4 One thing, have I asked of Yahweh, That, will I seek to secure,—That I may dwell in the house of Yahweh, all the days of my life, To view the delightfulness of Yahweh, And to contemplate in his temple.

Psalm 99:1 Yahweh, hath become king, Let the peoples, tremble, He is enthroned on the cherubim, Let the earth, shake. 2 Yahweh, in Zion, is great, And, high, is he over all the peoples.

Our God who dwells in Mount Zion is high above all people, and we are called to ascend the hill of Yahweh, we are called to move to an elevated direction towards Him.
And there is an awakening truth awaiting us on Mount Zion, we are more and more deeply impressed with how beautiful God is, yet, there is fire there, between the cherubim, there is glory, at a level of brightness that is illuminating, that everything becomes open and exposed, becomes clear in that light.
Isaiah 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw My Lord, sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and, his skirts, did fill the temple, 2Seraphim, were standing above him; six wings severally, had each one,—With twain, he covered his face And with twain, he covered his feet And with twain, he did fly. 3And they continued crying out one to another, and said, Holy—holy—holy, is Yahweh of hosts,—the fullness of the whole earth, is his glory. 4And the foundations of the porch, were moved at the voice of him that cried,—and the house, was filled with smoke. 5Then said I—Woe to me!—for I am undone, Because a man of unclean lips, am, I, And in the midst of a people of unclean lips, do I dwell,—For the King. Yahweh of hosts, have mine eyes seen!
In the presence of Yahweh's glory, we suddenly become keenly aware that we are out of harmony, seeing God, apart from seeing His perfect brightness, we also see ourselves in a crystal clear way, that our heart, our thought, our intention, they are all exposed to ourselves, with no part hidden.
Some verses indicate that our God is unapproachable, but we are called to approach; but cautiously, not with arrogance, no chest uplifted, but with humble boldness before the throne of grace, with confidence that is overwhelmed, with a sense of worthlessness there, boldness no less, confidence no less.
However, interestingly, though the Bible tells us sinners shall die, woe are we when we see the face of God, it does not say God will smite them.
NKJ Revelation 6:15-16—And the kings of the earth, the great men,
the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of
the Lamb.”
Have you ever seen an angry lamb? There is truly nothing terrifying in a lamb, but why are they all terrified? That a lamb caused them to run? Yahshua here does not appear as the lion of Judah, but the lamb that was slain, ever so humble, ever so non-condemning. It's because before the consuming fire, they see themselves clearly, and they become intensely uncomfortable in the presence of God, seeking to relieve themselves.
Isaiah 33:17-18—Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; they will
behold a far-distant land. Your heart will meditate on terror.
Proverbs 28:1—The wicked flee when no one is pursuing.
The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, the people are afraid of the Lamb, when the Lamb was not pursuing, when they are smitten by their own conscience. But it is at the same moment when these people are molten by their terror, the other people welcome the arrival of their God, with open arms, they, the pilgrims to Mount Zion, finally feel perfectly at home in the presence of God.
If God is not holding a condemning attitude, why do we run away from Him then?
This started from all the way back in Genesis.
When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they realized what they had just done; they thought God was condemning them; we might also imagine that, but if we take a closer look at the story, God asked them, where are you. Can you imaging His tone? Suppose if His tone was harsh and condemning, they wouldn't have answered Him, would they? The very act that they dared to answer God and told Him they ate the fruit was a sign God was not asking them in a judgmental tone. Yet why did they still try to push their responsibility away? Because even being questioned by God in a caring manner, the feeling of being condemned was still in their heart.
If you are a clean freak, I would not let you into my room, as it is very messy. Unless we are very close friends. You may not actually say anything about my room, but internally I would feel inferior, I would think, My goodness, what would he think about my room, especially compared to his own room. I would just be so embarrassed to let you see my room.
But this is just on a microscale level.
When we talk about the wicked, we most often talk about what's going on with their body, the physical loss. We focus on the physical burning; yet have you noticed, when you are experiencing internal conflicts, sorrows, heartache, it actually hurts more?
For example, why are there self-injurers? One of the reasons people cut or hit themselves is, they are experiencing intense internal pain, emotional and psychological pain, that one way for them to divert their attention is to inflict physical pain so they would feel better.
And sometimes, internal suffering causes external results; if an old lady with a heart condition suddenly loses her only child, there is a greater likelihood for her to have a heart attack as well.
The reason the sinners tremble in the presence of God's glory is not so much of a condemnation from God, but when they see God, and in His brightness they see their own sins, all in a nanosecond they see all the things they have ever done in their whole life, compared to God's perfect beauty, they feel they are undone, they feel they are totally out of harmony with God, what they will experience is like me letting a clean freak taking a tour of my room, I would feel so embarrassed; and what the sinners will experience is even larger, they will feel the intense shame, guilt, self-condemnation. These emotional and psychological torments are so intense that they will cause them to shout to the mountains and rocks to fall on them, to hide them from God.
But it is another story if we know we are perfectly loved by God, that he absolutely will never stop loving you, if you know that God's love for you is fully unconditional, is not based on who you are or what you do, but solely on the fact that God is love; then He can talk to you, you can feel, you can respond to His embrace.
Let's look at the woman caught in adultery, brought to Yahshua.
What would have she felt in front of Yahshua? What would she have felt about God's attitude towards her?
Being brought up in a Jewish society, she would have thought, now I'm finished, they'll all stone me, and God hates me, God must have forsaken me, and I'll be cut off.
Yet, Yahshua standing before her, God Himself standing in front of the woman, and His very first words were “I don't condemn you”. What does Yahshua mean? It means, Yahshua has forgiven her, He doesn't hate her, He is not angry, We might focus more on the “go and sin no more”, but ignore the forgiveness which empowers us to go and sin no more. Before, her image of Yahshua this man, followed by crowds, respected as a Rabbi, a man of God, would execute justice towards her, and be the first one to stone her; now her image of God was changed. When everyone wanted to represent God to terminate her life, God His very self stood up, having forgiven the woman before she ever repented yet, protected her, released her, gave her assurance that she is much more valuable than how she thought of herself. Now the woman will start her journey to a place where she will feel at home in the house of Yahweh.
Ephesians 5:13All things, however, when reproved by the light, become manifest, for, all that of itself maketh manifest, is, light; 14Wherefore it saith—Up! thou sleeper, and arise from among the dead, and the Christ will shine upon thee.
What God is like exposes what we are like, it reveals how we are unlike Him; when we see God selflessness, we realize our selfishness; when we see God's generosity, we see our meanness, when we see God's long-suffering, we see our inpatience...
Have you ever wronged someone, then found it difficult to make eye contacts with them? Because you were feeling intensely guilty before them? If we would experience in front of people, let alone that we have wronged God, and when we see Him, see his selflessness, love, mercy, greatness, we just become keenly aware of what we have done.
And we would experience guilt, shame, emotional and psychological torment, under which, we cannot bear the weight, we are crushed. That is why God is so beautiful, and the Bible does call us to Mount Zion, the Mountain of Yahweh, but even the prophets could not see God face to face, lest they see their own sins all in a nanosecond and the self-condemnation, shame and guilt, emotional and psychological torments would crush them right there and then.
God is beautiful, He is so beautiful and He longs to show His beauty to us; but He knows if we could see His face, we would be overwhelmed and die. That was why in the sanctuary, there was a courtyard, the holy place and the most holy place, and God dwelling in the most holy place, unapproachable by the common people, yet revealing indications of His glory through all the details regarding the sanctuary, serious rituals, through His design of the sanctuary.
God reveals Himself to His children as the rising of the sun, gradually, leading us closer and higher, showing His glory which is His character, so that we are not blinded by the light, but become in tune with His characters; so that we are not dead in His immediate presence, but gradually we come to a point that even our faces would reflect God's glory as if our faces are shining.
In the sanctuary, Yahweh dwells behind the courtyard, the Holy Place, and the Most Holy Place; He veiled Himself mercifully, but painfully, because He is so willing to reveal Himself to us bright and beautiful, reveal Himself in His full glory, but He knows we would perish if we see His perfect characters, and our own imperfect characters, we shall vanish.
So we can take measured steps, slowly taking in, steps by steps towards him, until finally we are perfectly at home right in the immediate radiance of His glory.
God does not warn us against sin because sin is fun, and He does not want us to have pleasure; But because sin produces guilt and shame and all the emotional and psychological torment. Angels hang around with God and they do not die; if all in a sudden we can see all our sins, they would be too much, and overwhelm us.
Genesis 2:17 in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shelf die.
God is not saying, if you eat the fruit, I will kill you; He was portraying a mere cause and effect, if you eat the fruit, death will be a natural consequence.
Herb was caught smoking by his mother, and his mother warned him, “if I ever catch you smoking again, you don't need to worry about lung cancer, because I'll kill you.” Herb never smoked again, initially because of his fear of being caught by his mother; because when he was trying out smoking, lung cancer seemed so far away, what his mother was doing was to bring the consequence of his smoking closer to him, to remind him that the final consequence of smoking was death, he might not have been able to see that, so she was there to let him know. After Herb became an adult, he still chose not to smoke, though his mother was not physically capable of killing him now, but now Herb realized what would kill him was not his mother, but smoking; now not for the fear of mom, but the consequence of smoking, he is wise enough not to smoke. His mother did not want to kill him, and did not want Herb to quit smoking due to his fear of her, but that he would understand the reason behind it, so he would have the wisdom to make such a choice that was best for him.
There are a lot of instances in the Bible when God warned people that if they continued in sin, He would scatter them, or He would smite them.
Harsh language.
But isn't that similar to what Herb's mother was doing to Herb? It may seem that God just wants to punish us when we do wrong, but really, it is the sins that will finally kill us, yet, when we are in the temporary pleasure of sin, we cannot see the future result of our sinning, we think we are having fun, making some choices that are good for us; so now God needs to step in, and bring the consequences of our sinning forward, in hope that we could realize it, and grow up, become mature enough not to sin, and not for the cause of fear of God, but that we shall know sin is our enemy, not God.
God does not say all the fun stuff are wrong, and all the boring stuff are good; He knows what will truly bring us pleasure.
Yahshua came to save us from our sins, but not from an angry God.
Hebrews 9:14—How much more, then, will the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God,
cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may
serve the living God!
The blood of Christ is not to inspire God to forgive us, nor is it to cleanse God's heart from His anger towards the human race; rather, as plainly stated in this verse, it is to cleanse our consciences from our own sins.

And when we realize, and experience that God is a consuming fire, He is hot, yet to some, the word “hot” means attractive; to the others, it means burning. Nevertheless He is not the one who is hostile towards us; it is merely such a consequence of our sins, that if we cannot feel totally at home in His immediate presence, our conscience will torment us, the condemnation we have towards ourselves will devour us. God does not change, He holds the same love for each one of us, what is different is our perception of Him, finally, the destruction of the wicked is better described as suicide.
Come to Mount Zion, where our God dwells, where His glory and beauty shine, step by step, “Behold your God”, and “by beholding, we become changed.”

WHY DID GOD ALLOW THIS?

WHY DID GOD ALLOW THIS?
Sometimes I hear preachers say, the word “love” is used so often in this society that this word has lost its weight, its significance. Christians still tell people that God loves them, sometimes vague, sometimes specific; and some people ponder on what the words mean, and become angry, some respond with an “amen”, while there are some others just ignore what we are telling them.
Sometimes, I believe, those who respond with anger are more honest than those who say “amen”.
Once, my while my favorite preacher encountered a woman after one of his presentations. She walked straight towards him, with a look that seems to indicate that she wanted to slap him.
Then she said “Don't you dare to tell me that God loves me. If God loves me as you said He does, why did He allow me to be sexually abused by my father who was a Christian minister?”
What are you thinking? What are you feeling in your heart? Do you feel a tension in your heart, or a sense of sadness reading what had happened to this woman?
Her question is valid, isn't it? And surely I believe it does not deserve to be ignored.
I actually believe, there are a lot of people holding the same question. They wonder, if God really loves me, and I hope He does, why has He allowed so many tragedies to happen to me? A lot of them still believe that God exists, they still want to continue to believe in God, so they withhold this question in their heart, but they would not ask, dare not to mention what they are really thinking and that they are hurting, though seems as if they have ignored this concern, the question is simply buried underneath layers of other concerns, but still affecting the person's heart, mind and their daily life. They dare not ask people this very important question, and even if such a question was asked, we might tend to shun away from it; because both parties are worried that questions like this would shaken our faith.
“I want to believe th God loves me just the way you say He does, but why did God allow me to be raped.”
“I had 5 friends, and we were the best friends; and in one day, all 5 of them died in different incidences. If there was a God, I could not see how He could allow things like this to happen.”
These are genuine concerns.
The Bible actually does not promise that we will all live a wonderful life, though it has stated clearly that this world was created by God. We will all get hurt to some degree, in fact, I believe all of us have experienced hurts more than enough; though, the Bible also tells us that is not the way the world was intended to be when God was creating the universe.
One of the greatest obstacles for people to feel, and not just to intellectually know that God loves them is, they look at their lives, the things gong on in their lives, the things going on in this world, and the tragedies, they either see God as the responsible one, or they say, I can't see how there could be a God allowing all these to be happening, there isn't God. For those who still believe that there is a God, whether He allowed or caused the sad things to happen, it doesn't matter to them, they hold God accountable.
We may tell people we love them, we care for them; but if we do nothing for them, would they believe our words? Action or words, which speaks louder?
When one parent abuses the child, the other parent knows what's happening, has the power to help the child, but stands by; is there any difference between these 2 parents in the eyes of the child?
I'd figure no.
So, though intellectually, most of us Christians might know Satan is the great propeller behind all these tragedies, we don't blame Satan or the people who have chosen to do bad things, we blame God: Why are You allowing him to do this to me?
And underlying our reaction is a mindset, a way of thinking:
If God wanted to prevent something, He would or He could, if He didn't prevent something, it mens He must have wanted it to happen.
When when something bad happens to us, we ask God, “Why did You want this to happen to me? I thought You loved me!”
But if this line of thinking was true, then everything that happens in this world, God has wanted them to happen, and we would say, everything happens is God's will; and then we would say, everything happens for a divine reason or a divine purpose.
But I want to throw you a few words, and think about these words, in the context of a God of love, that these are His will, He has a purpose for all these happening.
Rape.
Child molestation.
Terrorist attacks.
Organ harvesting.
The Holocaust.
Could a God of love will these to happen for a divine reason?
If this is not true, then logically we come to the conclusion that there are things happening in this world that are not willed by God. And therefore, there isn't a purpose for these things to happen.
In the Lord's prayer, we pray, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
From this part of the prayer, we learn that God's will is currently carried out in Heaven, but it is not so on earth, or we would not need to pray that God's will to be done on earth.
Luke 7:30 “...the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel ('will' used in the stead of 'counsel') of God against themselves...”
According to this verse, is it possible for us to reject the will of God? Yes.
But, in Christian history, there was one man, who shaped Christianity, across Catholicism, Orthodox Church and even Protestant churches, like no other person but Yahshua; and his name was Augustine. He taught, nothing happens unless the divine will wanted it to happen.
Scriptures like Luke 7:30 brought to him, and he would say, in rejecting God's will, they fulfilled the will of God, because it was God's will for them to reject His will.
And this also leads to the conclusion that God wills some to be lost.
So did they reject God's will or fulfill God's will?
Why don't we just let the Bible speak for itself?
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is ... not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
The Bible indicates us that God wills all to be saved, Augustine, however, taught God wills some not to be saved.
Process this for a minute, and we'll come back in a few lines.
Is it possible for us to delay, to reject God's will?
Is it possible for us to prevent God's will from happening? According to the scripture we discussed earlier, it is absolutely possible.
But is it possible for us to prevent God's will from ever taking place through the ceaseless age of eternity?
Think about it.
I can sense a controversy.
Well, does God will everyone to be saved? Will there be some people who prevent that from ever taking place through the ceaseless age of eternity?
Will all be saved? Is God's will for all to be saved? Will there be some who will never be saved?
And I think the answer is quite obvious.
So there are some aspects of God's will that we can even prevent from happening through the ceaseless ages of eternity.

Now, we say God is all powerful, El Shadai meaning God Almighty, we say God is omnipotent. So can God do absolutely anything?
Titus 1:2 “...God, that cannot lie...”
So, at least, there is one thing that God cannot do; He cannot lie.
Can God make a round triangle?
Some may say yes, and I'm not going to ask you how. But look at the definition of a triangle, it has three straight sides; and if you make it round, it becomes a circle, it's no longer a triangle.
There are things that even God cannot do, yet it's not saying God is not really all powerful, it's to say, there are certain things, that by their very definition and nature, even God cannot do.
Can God make you love Him?
I'm not asking will God make you love Him, I'm asking, can He make you love Him?
Let's imagine there was a computer chip that, once installed behind someone's ear, could manipulate his brain wave so he can love the one who controls the computer chip. Imagine a man has installed this computer chip behind the ear of his wife, and he now could make his wife willing to do anything for him. Now, can you say, now, his wife is loving him? I don't think so. Because really, it's not his wife loving him, it's the computer chip, and who is using the computer chip, the man himself. So it's the man loving himself. But we learned earlier, love by definition must starts with one, and ends somewhere else, if it starts with one, and ends with him, then we cannot even call it love, because now it is not other centered, but self centered.
If God made us “love” Him, it's not even us loving Him, but He is “loving” Himself, and it's not even love now.
So God cannot even make us love Him.
To apply force to the subject of love, the source of that ove and the recipient of the love becomes one and the same, and it ceases to be love any more. God made us for love, love cannot be forced, the capacity to love requires something in order for it to happen.
It requires freedom.
2 Cor 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
God has given us freedom, it's His principle. He will do anything to ensure that we are free.
Because only in freedom, can love exist. Since at the very moment He makes us “love” Him, it ceases to be love; the only moment we can love Him is when there is no force. When we can freely choose whether or not we will love Him.
But if we are free, that means, there are times when we can say No to God.
A lot of people think, God is in control of everything going on in this world, but the Bible tells us:
The heaven, even the heavens, are Yahweh's: but the earth hath he given to the children of men. Psalm 115:16
So, we are the legal managers of this earth, and God has given us the freedom to choose if we will let God's will to be done on earth or not; and God respects this freedom He's given us.
Now, I would like you to imagine a scenario.
If a man controls everything his wife does, when she gets up, when and what she makes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, when she does grocery shopping, what friends she can make, he even sets up bathroom break times for her. Would you call him a loving husband?
I think not.
Another point I want to make is, for freedom to be meaningful, it needs to be irrevocable.
What does it mean?
It means, if I give you 2 options, I really really want you to choose A, but if you choose B, I can't do anything to make you choose A. All because of the freedom you have.
Ecc 9:11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
This verse tells us, things can go wrong, there are chances.
Acts 10:38 God anointed Yahshua of Nazareth ... healing all that were oppressed of the devil...
Yahshua healed ALL that were oppressed of the devil, and I think we can see His attitude towards all.
I can say with confidence that He wants to prevent all rapes, all murders, all child molestations, all holocausts...
But there are times that He just cannot.
One Sabbath, a lady gave a testimony, giving thanks to God because the Friday before, she prayed for her child's safe arrival back home, as it was his first time driving that long. And he arrived home safely. But another lady stood up, and walked out of the church. When the preacher asked her what was going on, she said, she, too was praying for her daughter's safe arrival, but she was hit by a drunk driver, and she was in hospital. She asked, was she so much a sinner that God would not listen to her prayers?
I don't think it's fair to have God exclusively in this picture.
Maybe the driver was drunk was because he felt depressed, he felt depressed was because he just lost his job, and he lost his job was because of the downsizing economy, which is so complex that it is affected by multiple factors.
But really, whatever God can prevent, He always will.
Remember, the earth is given to the sons of men. He has given us freedom, but freedom takes risks. And we are the residents of this earth, we can exercise our freedom to invite God to participate in what we do, or we can choose to follow Satan.
When we pray, we align ourselves with God's will, but the problem is, we are not the only residents on the earth, right now there are more people choosing to let Satan in.
That's when we need to balance out by praying, by giving God permission.
You may argue, I'd rather have a world that's secure but not risky, without all the freedom and the complications.
Well, there is a place where the people do get 3 meals a day, they have a bed to sleep in, they have a job to do, with minimal pay, they may even have a gym to work out; but they have no freedom.
What is this place?
The jail.
It's only in freedom can love be generated, therefore we can truly experience the pleasure of love.
You ask, what about the freedom of the victims?
Well, true, it's scientifically proven, a theory called 6 degrees of separation, which means, name one person in this world, anyone, would know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows you. We all do things everyday, may be good, may be bad, and they do not only affect ourselves, they affect people who we cannot even name them. And the Bible doesn't tell us that what we do to each other is always fair, but what God does is always fair.
In Daniel 10; it tells us a story of Daniel asking God for the interpretation of a vision. He prayed for 21 days, before he heard the interpretation from the angel sent to him.
We might tend to think, if by day 10 there's no anything happening, probably God doesn't want me to pray about it.
But Daniel persisted, and on the 21st day, he saw the result.
Surprisingly to us though, is, God did not wait until the 21st day to answer Daniel's prayer; He immediately sent the angel to answer Daniel's prayer, but because the enemy tried to stop God's will being carried out, it took that long for Gabriel to reach Daniel.
Imagine if Daniel stopped praying on the 18th day, Satan would have had another accusation against Daniel, telling Yahweh, Daniel doesn't need You any more, he's not interested in the interpretation any more.
A final word.
We are suffering, a lot of the times caused by other people. When bad things happen, we cannot call them good, because
Isa 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
But the Bible does promise, God first of all is suffering with us.
Matt 25:42-45
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
Never has a woman been raped, a child been molested, a man been murdered, that God was not raped, molested or murdered.
The Bible also tells us, though the bad things are bad, God can heal us, like the story of Joseph, he was sold to Egypt, his brothers meant evil, but God delivered him.
God also promised
Rev. 21:4
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
It may take days, weeks, months, years or even decades for Him to wipe away our tears with His gentle hand, not to force us to abandon our emotions, but to truly experience His healing, and no matter how long it will take, we will be healed.

Finally, investors risk their investment depending on the payout, the more payout there could be, the more money they are willing to invest, to risk.
God took a risk, He gave us freedom, knowing we could misuse this freedom against Him, but He also fully knew only on the foundation of freedom, can He get our love.

To Love and Be Loved

Look deep into your heart, what are you looking for? What's your deepest desires? What do you think can satisfy you?
Think deep.

Have you found what you are looking for? And have you found satisfaction?

Psalm 63:1—My soul thirsts . . . , my flesh yearns . . . , in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
How often do I feel the same way? How often do you feel the same way? How often do we feel the same way that King David felt? Do we feel the thirst, the yearning for God in our soul, in our flesh?
The world tells us there are a magic 3 that can guarantee us satisfaction.
Money is the big one, the more the better, and if you've got money, you will live a life that's the envy of others. The second one is power. The third one, sex.
They tell us, if we just can have these 3 things, we will be happy.
But it's interesting, because King David penned these words, his soul thirsts, his flesh yearns, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Did he have money? Did he have power? Did he have women? As a king who possessed all these things, in modern days, we would say, they've got a life that we can only dream of, they must be very happy. But wait, why was King David still longing for something more?
What did not satisfy King David, we think they will satisfy us. What King David was longing for, which is God, the society shuns away from Him, having this phobia of God, that we just do not want to talk about Him.
I don't really think it's because God is so boring, but that we hold a wrong image of Him. If we can see Him as He truly is, everything else will seem pale. Just like the famous Hymn, turn your eyes upon Jesus and look in His wonderful face, and the things of this world will grow strangely dim.
Psalm 63:1—A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of
Judah. O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; my soul
thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where
there is no water.
King David was saying, my flesh is not yearning for money power and sex, but my flesh is yearning for God.
Psalm 145:15-16—The eyes of all look to You. . . . You open Your hand
and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
Do you believe what this verse is saying?
Do you believe right now, the eyes of all are looking to God?
Yes? No?
The world doesn't seem like a place where everyone is being a totally devout Christian, right? But the Bible still says, the eyes of all, even right now, are looking to God.
But, do they know it? Most of them do not. They may think they are looking for money power and sex, but what are they really looking for? They are looking for God.
BBE Psalm 145:16—By the opening of Your hand, every living thing
has its desire in full measure.
Whatever your desire is, in God you will find the full measure.
Do you feel a resistance to that? Do you feel hard to believe it?
If so, I would like to suggest, it really is not because there is something wrong with God, that God is not fulfilling, but because there's something defects in our perception of Him.
"Every time a man knocks on the door of a brothel he is looking for God." G. K. Chesterson
Agree? Don't agree?
What is a man looking for when he goes to a brothel? I would say, he is looking for love, but he is just looking for it in a place that is not capable of giving him true love.
The Bible, however, tells us that love comes from God because “God is love”.
Religion has painted God lots of dark pictures of a God who is not defined by love. But if we could see God as He truly is, we will find, actually, the eyes of all, right now are looking to God. And in Him, we will find full measure of all our desires.

Isaiah 6:8—Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I
send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
When we talk about “I”, how many people are there? One, it's singular. But wait, “who will go for US?” Why did it become a plural?
It seems that God can refer to Himself as an “I”, He can also refer to Himself as an “Us”.
I will call God a Singular Plurality.
Genesis 2:18—Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to
be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
Why did God say, it is not good for man to be alone? Was it because there was some defects with Adam that God needed to create someone better?
Because there are good things that are by nature impossible for one to experience all alone. Like, telling jokes and laugh; like back massage; like giving surprises...
Like love.
It is impossible to experience love all by yourself.
You may say, you could love yourself.
But pay attention, love by definition, is something that begins with one, and finishes somewhere else. Love is a relationship, and love is other centered.
When you talk about love, if it begins with me, and ends with me, call it something else, but don't call it love. It's self respect, or self worth, but it is no love. And if it is other centered, it requires more than one person.
1 Cor 13 “Love... seeketh not her own things”
The Bible says, God is love.
Did God create love? No, love is not what God made, love is the identity of God, love is what God is. Has God always been existent?
Yes.
And if God is love, has love always been existent?
Sure.
Can you find a reason why God exists?
I don't think so.
Can you find a beginning for God?
No.
So can you find a beginning for love?
Impossible I would say.
Can you find a reason why love exists then?
The same thing.
Crystal asks Herb “Why do you love me?”
That question plagues Herb, because he reasoned in his heart, “If I say, it's because of your beautiful eyes, then what if one day she has a car accident and loses her eyes? If my love is based on her eyes, if her eyes fail, my love will fail. If I say, it's because of your winning personality. What if one day she just becomes grumpy? If my love is based on her personality, and her personality fails, my love will also fail. If I say it's because of you character, what if one day she has a moral failure, my love would fail with her moral failure.
But look at 1 Cor 13.
“Love, at no time, faileth”.
The definition of true love does not permit love to fail; that would mean, true love cannot be based on something that can fail.
Herb says, “If I can give a reason why I love, it would prove that is not true love. Because there is no reason for the existence of love.”
Let's take this concept back to God.
Why does God love you?
How many of us try to create reasons why God should love us?
“I've done this, I've done that; if only I can do this, I can have the assurance that God loves me.”
Does God love you because of who you are or because of who He is?
God loves you not because you are loving, but because God is loving. God is nice to you, not because you are a nice person, but because God is nice.
Many times, has religion painted a different picture of God?
But let's throw away what religion has painted, rather, let's just look at what the Bible portrays of God.
So stop trying to find reasons why God should love you, just accept the fact God loves you.
For love to be existent, there must be more than one person.
Has love always existed? Then has there always been an existence of more than one?
Yes, and the Bible paints them as this:
Matthew 28:19—“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 13:14—The grace of the Lord Yahshua the Messiah, and the love
of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
So the Bible seems to indicate the God whom we call a singular plurality is one, but made up of 3 also.

Imagine, back to the time before any creation. There was God and God alone, and yet He was not alone. The Father was living for the Son and the Spirit, the Son was living for the Father and the Spirit, and the Spirit was living for the Father and the Son.
They were simultaneously loving while being loved by each other.
Imagine you were married to the most unselfish person in the world, your marriage was really wonderful. What adjectives would you use to describe you marriage?
How about “pleasurable”, would you say it is a pleasurable relationship?
We say “a pleasure to have this chat with you”, or “pleasure to be here”; but have you noticed how often we use this word to describe our relationship with God?
In Christian history, traditionally, spending time in the morning with God is called a discipline, or a Christian duty.
But imagine telling your loved one, spending time with you is a discipline and a duty.
We won't normally do that, right? But we do that with God.
Why?
We have a wrong picture of God. If your experience with God is filled with duty and discipline, instead of pleasure, you still do not see Him as He truly is.
God is the most unselfish person in the universe.
When we experience pleasure, what do we want to do?
Do we want to share it?
God, 3 persons, while loving and simultaneously being loved, were experiencing tremendous pleasure, and they had only one desire, they decided to share love with others.
He looked around in the universe, and no one else was there, so He decided to create free moral beings with the capacity to experience love.
Why are you here in the world today?
Not because God needed someone to worship Him-if that was God's motive, He's self-centered; but because He wanted you to experience pleasure of unselfish love.
God made you for pleasure. Pleasure! Not duty and discipline.
Why do we human beings long for love, to love and to be loved above everything else? Because we were made for it. And nothing can satisfy your heart like love can. If you think you've experienced love with another human being, wait till you experience love with God. Not just on an intellectual level, but experience His love for you.

What does a marriage become if love is taken out from it? Would you still get married if there was no love?
What we see determines what we think, what we think determines what we feel, what we feel determines how we behave.
Choose to believe that God loves you, period; and how you feel about Him will change.
We were made for love, we fell from it by believing lies about God's characters. Yahshua came to restore us back to love, by revealing us what God is like.
John 17: Righteous Father! And so, the world, came not to know thee
There was idolatry, there was adultery, there was robbery and all other things back then, but Yahshua was saying “the problem of this world is not idolatry, adultery, robbery, violence... but it's they don't know You, Father, who You are. They need to know You as You are.”
If we would just know God, we will experience true love, and we will be satisfied.
Do you want it?

To Love and Be Loved