Right & Wrong: A Case for Moral Absolutes

"Someone has said that we live in a strange world where the relativity of Einstein is considered absolute, and the absolutes of the Bible are considered relative."

I've just finished reading a small booklet with the above title published by RBC Ministries (which is also the publisher of My Daily Bread). At a short 32 pages, it gives a short introduction to why morality is absolute and not relative, as it is claimed to be in this day and age. Just to share some excerpts:

"There is something wrong with a mind that is so open that can't tell truth from error... If Christ revealed God, then He revealed at the same time the Source of all absolute standards of moral decision. More important for us, he showed that the ultimate absolute is a God who shows us what is right only because He loves us."

On examples of moral absolutes:
"Behind all the Scriptures, is a God who by His own nature is the basis for absolute moral law." There are absolutes to protect faith and worship, absolutes to protect the family ("Cultural relativism has broken down the protective fences of sexual restraint."), absolutes to protect the sacredness of life, as well as absolutes to protect honest relationships. Moral absolutes are timeless because they are consistent with God's unchanging character.

On exceptions to the rules:
"The Bible itself shows us that amongst the laws of scripture there are some that do not qualify as absolute standards for all people, at all times, and in all circumstances." Examples include the non-absolute law against killing ("The key to understanding this is to distinguish between the absolute law against murder and the non-absolute principle of killing.") as well as the non-absolute law of submission. "Only when we see how the whole counsel of Scripture applies a law can we determine whether it is meant to be circumstantial or absolute."

This booklet also includes how we Christians can play a role in society with regards to morality and ethics, and what it means to apply the law of Christ in a pluralistic society. ("Individual Christians must make it their goal to be winsome, honest and civil as they express our spiritual and moral concern for others' welfare. Our response must reflect the spirit of Christ.")

To end off, the booklet expounds on what absolutes can and cannot do. "Only when we understand whether an 'ought' is rooted in a principle, and only when we see the relationship between a timeless principle and the character of God, will we be able to understand the real difference between right and wrong. While the law can show us what is right, that same law can never make us good. There is a great difference between knowing and keeping the law... All the absolutes laws of God could ever do was show us our need for the undeserved help of the Spirit of God."

To find out more, feel free to approach me for the book. It wouldn't take you more than a day to read it, but it'll probably take us all a lifetime to internalise and apply it everyday =)


Emmett

Prayer Meeting 6th Feb (Fri), 7:30pm

It's the 1st Friday of the month again! I hope everyone can try to make it a point to come together as a church to pray for the matters of the church. Personal prayer, prayer as a fellowship or cell group are important, and so is praying as a church with our brothers and sisters in the church.

When we come to pray as a church, we show our eollective dependence on God to bring the church forward, to guide and lead the church, including all its members. We also commit individuals in the church, who have certain needs, non-believers and ministries to the Lord, an act of love for our brothers and sisters.

Hope to see everyone there! =)


Emmett

Burned Out Christians

What is Christian burnout, and what is the cure?

Maybe you’re at church again spending long hours on a project. Nobody else is there, and you bang things around. Why are you always the one left with the responsibility? But you wonder if it’s right to be angry. After all, you said you’d do it. You sigh. You note that you’ve been sighing a lot lately, and you wonder how long you’ll be able to keep up this work for the Lord. As you are truthful with yourself, you don’t want to keep on this religious treadmill one more day. If you could escape to the Bahamas, you’d go in a heartbeat. But then you reprimand yourself. A Christian must persevere and pay the price. You pray for the energy to get this project done, but you don’t really want to pray. You’re disappointed with God. Doesn’t the Bible say we’re supposed to experience joy in serving Christ? So where is the joy?

If any of this sounds familiar, you may be experiencing burnout. And yes, good Christians do burn out in their serving.

What are some symptoms of burnout?

Loss of joy in serving Christ

Physical fatigue

Feeling of always giving and not receiving

Resenting the people we are serving

Possibly seeing diminishing effectiveness in your serving

Other people expressing concern for you

Why do Christians burn out?

The causes usually fall under four headings: Wrong Priorities, Wrong Motivation, Wrong Ministry, or Wrong Way of Serving.

What about PRIORITIES? Your serving is most satisfying and effective when it flows out of a close and growing relationship with God. Ironically, when you’re most involved with doing church work, you may think you have the least time for your own life with God. Churches often applaud “Christian workaholics”. You may not find a lot of support and encouragement to seek rest and spiritual renewal. But you can take charge and stop the activity long enough to listen to God. God may show you how you need to reorder life to have Him at the center and to experience everything flowing out of a vital relationship with Him. Recovery and renewal may start with stopping long enough to listen to God.

What about MOTIVATION? If you are showing signs of burnout, it may be time to examine your motives. Trying to please or impress people in the church, seeking to earn their approval and escape their criticism, is deadly to your own spirit. Often Christians who burn out have trouble setting boundaries and are unable to say “no” to the requests and expectations of others. But sometimes we have our own high expectations of ourselves. When we don’t see the results of our efforts we hoped to see, we get disheartened. When we continually fail to measure up to what we think effectiveness or success looks like, we may become discouraged to the point of wanting to quit. We may express the hurt as disappointment in ourselves, or perhaps as disappointment in God. Pain and disappointment can turn to bitterness when we believe that God has let us down. Recovery and renewal may start with a very honest conversation with God in which you pour out all the pain, disappointment, and bitterness within you. Then you can ask God for God’s perspective on your situation. You may hear God questioning your motives, and wanting to give you different motives, based on His purpose for your life, rather than on your own or other people’s expectations.

What about the MINISTRY you’re doing? (The use of the word “ministry” does not just apply to vocational ministry, but the particular type of service any Christian offers.) Are you doing what you’re “wired by God” to do? Is the ministry a match for your spiritual gifts and talents? Does it really engage you at a deep level? Many of us end up spending a lot of time and energy doing something for God that is not really our passion or our calling. Recovery and renewal may start with a prayerful examination of what God is calling you to do. (A helpful resource is “Writing Your Personal Mission Statement” on the Christview Ministries Web Site: www.christviewmin.org/leadership/leadership.skills.personal.mission ) It may be that a particular ministry was right at one time, but God is calling you to begin a new adventure in serving. God may be releasing you to a new ministry in a new season of your life.

What about the WAY you serve? Are you trying to do it all yourself when you could be delegating, building teams, and helping others use their gifts? Often people say, “I hate to ask anybody to do anything. I would rather just do it myself.” Granted, it can be frustrating trying to organize others. Other people can fail to show up or follow through. But the solution is not doing it all yourself. Recovery and renewal may start with prayerfully asking God how He wants you to do this ministry, and who He wants you to do it with. Renewal may continue as you ask those people to pray about serving on a team with you.

What Helps in Recovery and Renewal?

Pouring out your heart to God, expressing everything you truly think and feel

Listening for God’s response

Letting God heal you, change your inner motivations, and your priorities

Making your relationship with God a priority, and doing the things that help you grow closer

Building spiritual growth and renewal time into your life

*Pray Daily
*Worship Weekly
*Weekly “Sabbath Time” (Article on Sabbath Time in the “Thorncrown Journal” www.thorncrownjournal.com/turners )
*Annual Spiritual Retreat

Getting clear on what God is calling you to do

Learning to say “I’ll pray about it” when someone asks you to do something

Learning to say “no” unless God is not giving you a clear “yes”

Creating ministry teams and delegating

Praying with scripture passages such as:

Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God”
Mark 6:31 “Come with me by yourself to a quiet place and get some rest”
Matthew 11: 28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest

http://www.thorncrownjournal.com/turners/burnout.htm


Emmett

The Screwtape Letters

The Parables Company, a local Christian theatre company, is putting up The Screwtape Letters. The available dates and timings are:

27th Feb (Fri) 8pm
28th Feb (Sat) 3pm
28th Feb (Sat) 8pm

Tickets are priced at $32 each (incl. booking fee). Venue's at Jubilee Hall, Raffles Hotel.

I would probably be catching the 28th Feb (Sat) 8pm one. Should anyone be interested be catching it with me, please let me know by 1pm this Sunday (8th Feb). Heard that tickets are running out. (:

Synopsis
The Parables Company is proud to present, for the first time in Singapore, a new stage adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ classic satire The Screwtape Letters. At turns philosophical, mercurial and witty, the book following a senior demon’s searing correspondence with a greenhorn tempter on assignment here on earth has now become a play that will shift some long-held paradigms on what we think is “evil”.

It is London, 1938, and the personal life of trainee demon Wormwood’s human “Patient” is beginning to mirror world events. As order and sanity begin to crumble under the growing threat of a second Great War, Wormwood tries to flex his untested tempting abilities to lead his Patient unsuspectingly down a path towards Eternal Damnation. But this is not without his vastly more experienced and merciless Uncle Screwtape, Senior Undersecretary of the Department of Tempter Training, critiquing his every move.

C.S. Lewis, author also of the much-loved Chronicles of Narnia series, dedicated The Screwtape Letters, with its dark sense of inverse morality, to his friend J.R.R. Tolkien, and declared he never wrote anything ‘with less enjoyment’. However, these diabolical epistles proved to be an instant hit and remain a bestseller to this day. As we track Wormwood and Screwtape’s surprising stratagems alongside the choices faced by their Patient, the play promises to be an revealing study of evil in all its varying shades, and the fight we may, or may not, choose to put up against it.

Praise for C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters:

‘Sparkling yet truly reverent, in fact a perfect joy’
– Guardian

‘Excellent, hard-hitting, challenging, provoking’
- Observer

The Parables Company is a theatre company driven by Christian values and a mission to tell stories, for all, that answer as many questions as they ask. More information to be found at www.theparablescompany.com


Emmett

Freedom from Quiet Time Guilt - Part 6 of 6

6. The Theology of Prayer: Means of Grace

So what exactly does prayer do? That’s the question I’m often asked. There are several wrong answers to this question. Some assume that prayer furnishes God with the information he lacks. God doesn’t view it that way. He not only knows what’s going on now, he knows what will be going on next week. Indeed, he even ordained what will be going on next week, the Bible speaks of “the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Eph 1:11).

Neither is prayer an attempt to convince God to do what he wouldn’t otherwise do. He will grant our requests only insofar as they accord with his eternal purpose—his will. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 Jn 5:14-15).

And I hope we’ve dismissed the idea that prayer shows God how much we love him! It’s not a work, but a grace! But often we think that prayer is something we do to obligate God to bless us. This is the subtlest of errors, for it resembles the biblical teaching. Indeed, it is a caricature of the biblical picture of prayer. Grace-empowered, grace-motivated prayer does bring blessing, but prayer isn’t a work we do that obligates God to give blessing. It’s a subtle difference, but an important one. Prayer is a means of grace, not a work to merit grace.

Theologians have classically called prayer and Scripture (along with the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper) means of grace—highways along which the Holy Spirit tends to travel. The means of grace are the normal instruments God uses to accomplish his saving work in and through us. Does prayer change things? Yes, because God changes things, and prayer is an expression of our reliance upon him to accomplish his purposes.

I remember about six months ago calling upon God in prayer about my finances. Starting a not-for-profit teaching ministry is hard work, and church missions committees would often rather support a missionary doing evangelism than one who is training believers. One evening I called out to God with great urgency. After a year of support raising and teaching, I could still only afford to teach half-time while working another job, and even the funds that had enabled that year of half-teaching were almost all gone. “Father, this is your ministry, not mine. If you have raised me up for this, then something must change. I cannot go without food. I cannot fail to pay my rent. If you wish me to teach, you must grant the resources to do this. If you do not enable me to teach, I will not teach. Apart from you I can do nothing.”

Was I manipulating God by threatening to stop teaching? No. And being a sovereign God, he wouldn’t have been impressed. Rather, I was confessing to God my utter and total dependence on him to fund my work.

The next day, after eight months without any new support, a new friend took me out for coffee and told me he felt compelled to support me at $100/month. That same day, I received a note from an old friend in another part of the country pledging monthly financial support. When I checked my email, I had received a message from a member of my church who had since moved away, telling me a $1200 check was in the mail.

Did my prayer force God’s hand? No. All of this was already in the works long before I prayed. But when I confessed my neediness to God, he was pleased to provide for me. Prayer was the means of grace, not a work I offered for reward. And God was glorified in my weakness. God is faithful to hear our prayers, and he delights in answering them. Prayer is one of the basic freedoms Christians have, and freedoms aren’t given to leave us in bondage. There is a cure for Quiet Time Guilt. That cure is the gospel of Christ, in whom we have redemption. Gospel—our need and God’s provision—is the heart of biblical prayer. God will care for us. We belong to him.


Hope this series has renewed our perspective of QT. (:


Emmett

Freedom from Quiet Time Guilt - Part 5 of 6

5. The Surprise: The Quiet Time is Optional

Imagine for a moment you’re meeting a Christian friend. “How’s your relationship with God going?” they ask you. “Well, I’m struggling with my attitude about my job—but God is teaching me to be content and to not gossip when people rub me the wrong way.” A silent stare greets the words, your inquisitor’s eyes staring you up and down. After a moment of awkward silence, the question comes again, “But how is your relationship with God?” Hmm. What wrong with this picture?

Perhaps this has never happened to you. But I’ve found contemporary Christians are often more concerned about my ‘relationship with God’ than with my relationship with God. Whose idea was it to define the sum total of my relationship with God as my devotional consistency? Your quiet time is not your relationship with God. Your relationship with God—or, as I prefer to say, God’s relationship with you—is your whole life: your job, your family, your sleep, your play, your relationships, your driving, your everything. The real irony here is that we’ve become accustomed to pigeonholing our entire relationship with God into a brief devotional exercise that is not even commanded in the Bible.

Yes. That’s what I said. The daily quiet time—that half hour every morning of Scriptural study and prayer, is not actually commanded in the Bible. And as a theologian, I can remind us that to bind the conscience where Scripture leaves freedom is a very, very serious crime. It’s legalism rearing its ugly little head again. We’ve become legalistic about a legalistic command. This is serious.

But no misunderstand what I’m saying. My goal isn’t that we pray and read the Bible less, but that we do so more—and with a free and needy heart.

Does the Bible instruct Christians to call out to God in prayer? Absolutely. “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Th 5:16-18). But this isn’t a command to set apart a special half-hour of prayer; it’s instruction to continually call upon God. Elsewhere the Apostle calls us to pray: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:6-7). But notice that the focus here is not on the performance of a devotional duty, but on approaching God for grace—for our heats and minds to be guarded by him. Paul’s burden is that we would rely upon God in every circumstance and therefore have peace, rather than relying on ourselves and finding ourselves captive to the anxiety that accompanies self-reliance.

Does the Bible command us to read our Bibles every day? No. Not really.

What Scripture actually instructs is that we meditate on God’s word all the time. Consider the godly man in Psalm 1. “His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Ps 1:2). This is not exactly the same thing as reading the Bible every day. Personal Bible reading is one—and only one—way we to meditate upon God’s word. At this point it’s helpful to consider the difference between a good idea and a biblical mandate. A biblical mandate is something that God explicitly or implicitly commands in Scripture. Loving your neighbor is a biblical mandate (Mt 5:43). Moving to Philadelphia to work in a homeless shelter, by contrast, is not a biblical mandate. Rather, it’s a good idea, a wonderful possible application of the biblical mandate to love your neighbor. But moving to Philly isn’t the only way you can love your neighbor. Similarly, meditating on God’s word is a biblical mandate. The daily quiet time, by contrast, is a good idea, a wonderful possible application of the mandate of biblical meditation.

It may surprise you to know that the concept of the quiet time as a command is a modern invention. It’s only in recent centuries that Christians have been able to actually own Bibles—the printing press and cheap paper have given us more options so far as biblical meditation is concerned. But remember that most Christians throughout history have not owned Bibles. They heard the Bible preached during corporate worship. They were taught the Bible in the churches. They memorized the Bible profusely—a first century rabbinic saying stated, “If your rabbi teaches and you have no paper, write it on your sleeve.” But for most Christians through history, biblical meditation took place when they discussed the Bible with family and friends, when they memorized it, when they listened very carefully to God’s word preached. The concept of sitting still before sunrise with a Bible open would have been very foreign to them.

We have so many options today, why do we get hung up on the quiet time? Listen to Christian teaching tapes. Invest your time in a small group Bible study. Have friends over for coffee and Bible discussion. Sing and listen to Scripture songs. Read good theology. Tape memory verses to the dashboard of your car. And pray throughout your day. I always reserve the drive to church on Sundays as a time of uninterrupted prayer for my pastors and elders, for those leading worship, and for the peace and purity of the church. Certain landmarks around town remind me to pray for certain churches, Christians I know, or causes God says are important. I suspect I spend more time praying in my car than on my knees. (Though I love praying on my knees as a concrete display of my dependence on God, I can’t do this in my car without causing an accident.)

If you have a regular quiet time, don’t stop. You’ve found a wonderful way to meditate on Scripture. You’ve set aside a specific time to call upon God in prayer. But if the quiet time doesn’t work for you, that’s okay. You should not feel guilty since you have not broken a commandment. The quiet time is an option, a good idea—not a biblical mandate. If the quiet time isn’t working for you, there are other options as well. All of them are good ones. The key is to rely on God to accomplish his plans, a reliance expressed in prayer and fed in Scripture. You have all kinds of opportunities to call upon God in prayer and to meditate upon his word. He loves you and delights in your expressions of weakness and dependence. He is glorified in your weakness.


Upcoming: Part 6 - The Theology of Prayer: Means of Grace


Emmett

Freedom from Quiet Time Guilt - Part 4 of 6

First and foremost, here's wishing everyone a blessed Chinese New Year! Hope the holidays, 'tho short, have been a good time to catch up with relatives and friends!

A reminder to all who have been baptised and are members of the church, there is business meeting at 8pm this friday (30th Jan). Although the meeting may be dry, or you may feel that it is of no relevance to you, I feel that as a part of this community, it is really our duty and responsibility to concern ourselves with the happenings in the church. Think about the question the day you were baptised, when the reverend/pastor asked, "你愿不愿意加入教会，并且履行会友的责任吗？" Not trying to be legalistic, but if your time permits, do try to make church matters on the whole your concern too. =)

4. The Shocker: Grace for the Christian

This grace is for you right now, now and tonight and tomorrow and next week and forever. The deadly assumption made too often among those who claim to heed the Scriptures is that grace is only for non-Christians. Grace is what God offers to people who don’t know Christ. Grace is what makes us Christians; but once we’re Christians, we live by our own resources. This is why advocates of Strength Christianity so often sound like evangelical Christians. They really do believe that God offers grace to unbelievers who will turn to God through Jesus Christ. And they’re right on that. What they wrongly assume, though, is that the Christian life begins by grace, but continues by human works.

I’ve seen this confusion many times. I found it ironic that the very same prayer program that so hurt the church I love included within it an absolutely wonderful children’s program. This at first puzzled me. The children who attended were pointed to Jesus, reassured of God’s love for them, and encouraged to rest in God’s mercy and total acceptance in Christ. In the adult activities, by contrast, people were told to try harder, to persevere, to do better, to be more consistent and to pray more, so that God could bless them. The children heard, “God did it,” while the adults were told, “Just do it.”

Why the difference? The difference was simple. These teachers were assuming that the children of the church were not yet Christians (…an assumption I would question). God offers non-Christians grace. The adults, however, were committed Christians. The Christian’s relationship with God rests not upon God’s grace, but upon his or her performance, particularly the performance of the ultimate devotional duty, the daily quiet time. This assumption that "grace isn’t for Christians" is spiritual venom, which is keeping millions of Christians in bondage to self-reliance, guilt, shame, and despair. Quiet Time Guilt is the great epidemic among Bible-believing Christians today.

If you think the purpose behind this little tract is to absolve you from the call to pray or the need for Scripture, think again. My purpose is to free you to desire prayer—to desire God. I want you to long for the pure message of the gospel, spelled out on page after page of the Bible, and to find the joyous freedom found in Christ. Prayer is a grace, not a work. It is a confession of our neediness to God, not a proof that our “relationship with God” is going well. If you think that God will not bless you today because you missed your quiet time, this has been for you. If subtle legalism has left you in bondage so that you no longer hunger for God’s word or freely call out to him in prayer, then hear this: God has already chosen you, pronounced you righteous, adopted you into his family, and promised to finish his work in you. Perhaps you have been lied to in the past. Now it is time for the truth to set you free. Free to be needy. Free to fail. Free to approach God without dread. Free to delight in him rather than in your performance.

But I have a few more theological reflections to share before you leave. Keep reading.


Upcoming: Part 5 - The Shocker: The Quiet Time is Optional


Emmett

Love

I came across this speech excerpt on a friend's blog, and although it's not an entirely Christian perspective, what it proposes and advocates do have some merit. It is seemingly directed at love in a boy-girl relationship, but from a broader perspective, it actually does apply in all our relationships, which include, of course, friendships, and to some extent, "enemy-ship".

What you're going to read below may not be anything new, it may have been something you've heard before (maybe even countless times), they may be ideas which you've already been exposed to. But as we read it, may we continue to reflect on our perspective on love, how we love, and going back to God's word, how Jesus taught us to love and realigning ourselves once more to God's teachings and instructions on love.

"The other side of the coin is this: fall in love.

I didn't say 'be loved'. That requires too much compromise. If one changes one's looks, personality and values, one can be loved by anyone.

Rather, I exhort you to love another human being. It may seem odd for me to tell you this. You may expect it to happen naturally, without deliberation. That is false. Modern society is anti-love. We've taken a microscope to everyone to bring out their flaws and shortcomings. It far easier to find a reason not to love someone, than otherwise. Rejection requires only one reason. Love requires complete acceptance. It is hard work the only kind of work that I find palatable.

Loving someone has great benefits. There is admiration, learning, attraction and something which, for the want of a better word, we call happiness. In loving someone, we become inspired to better ourselves in every way. We learn the truth, the worthlessness of material things. We celebrate being human. Loving is good for the soul.

Loving someone is therefore very important, and it is also important to choose the right person. Despite popular culture, love doesn't happen by chance, at first sight, across a crowded dance floor. It grows slowly, sinking roots first before branching and blossoming. It is not a silly weed, but a mighty tree that weathers every storm.

You will find, that when you have someone to love, that the face is less important than the brain, and the body is less important than the heart.You will also find that it is no great tragedy if your love is not reciprocated. You are not doing it to be loved back. Its value is to inspire you.

Finally, you will find that there is no half-measure when it comes to loving someone. You either don't, or you do with every cell in your body, completely and utterly, without reservation or apology. It consumes you, and you are reborn, all the better for it.

- Quoted from Mr. Adrian Tan's speech at the NTU Convocation 2008 "Life and How to Survive It"

Mr. Adrian Tan a litigation lawyer at one of Singapore's leading law firms. Outside the courtroom, he is known for a variety of funny things, including The Teenage Textbook, which he wrote in the late 1980s.


Emmett

Freedom from Quiet Time Guilt - Part 3 of 6

3. The Remedy: Weakness Christianity

There are two religions calling themselves evangelical Christianity today: Strength Christianity and Weakness Christianity. Strength Christianity is that religion which places both feet squarely on the Bible and proclaims, “I am strong. I sought the Lord. I’m a believer. I’ve turned away from sin. I read my Bible and pray every single day. I’m for God!” Weakness Christianity, by contrast, places both knees squarely on the Bible and says, “I am weak, but the Lord has sought me. I believe, but help now my unbelief. I fail and am broken by my continued sinfulness. Have mercy on me, Lord, and grant me favor, for apart from you I can do nothing.”

Those who pursue Strength Christianity will never find joy in God, for they will never find God. Our Father refuses to be approached in that manner. They will find only increasing religious pride and secret hardness of heart. On the outside, they will project a picture of righteousness. They’ll have it all together. They’ll be spiritual. But only on the outside.

For those who stumble across the rare jewel of Weakness Christianity, however, there is provision beyond what we can possibly imagine. Our suffering, our failures, our weaknesses and disappointments all gain an incredible spiritual significance. God never says he’ll be glorified in our religious accomplishments. But he does promise that his power will be made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor 12:9).

Neediness is the heart of biblical religion. When we honestly lay our brokenness before God, we’re surprised to see a radically different message in the Bible. While we had perhaps expected a to-do list from Holy Writ, a program to make us righteous, or a divinely sanctioned self-help book, we instead see a shocking message that centers on our God and his grace to his broken people, not about us and our performance and expected rewards. And when we approach God in brokenness—Weakness Christianity—we find a radically difference vision for prayer. Prayer is not something we do—a performance designed to get something from God. Instead, it’s merely a free and honest confession of our neediness to God and our spoken reliance upon him for each and every blessing. When you stumble upon Weakness Christianity, you realize that true religion is all about God’s grace, not about our devotional consistency.

Upcoming: Part 4 - The Shocker: Grace for the Christian


Emmett

Freedom from Quiet Time Guilt - Part 2 of 6

2. The Culprit: Legalism

The root of Quiet Time Guilt is legalism. Often when we think of legalism, we think of the petty man-made rules that have so often strangled the churches—rules against dancing or drinking or makeup or ‘secular’ music. But these legalistic rules are merely an outward sign of a deeper legalism of the heart. When prayer and Bible study are thought of primarily as duties (‘disciplines’) rather than as grace, both prayer and the study of Scripture become unfruitful in our lives. We put ourselves on a performance treadmill and cease relying on God’s grace to sustain us. We trust in ourselves and our consistency, becoming proud if devotionally successful—or despairing because of our inconsistency. Either way, our spiritual self-reliance short-circuits the inexpressible joy of life in Christ. The quiet time becomes a human work whereby we think we gain—or lose—God’s daily favor. When we’ve started our day with Scripture, we presume that God’s blessing will rest upon us because of it. When we fail in our quest for devotional consistency, we feel we’ve short-circuited God’s grace in our lives. Quiet-Time Guilt.

If this describes you or anyone you know, the situation is far worse than you think. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for this very attitude about Bible study. “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me” (Jn 5:39). Yes, that’s what Jesus said. Bible study can be a sin. The Pharisees assumed the Bible a book of rules or principles for living, but failed the grasp it as a story about God’s love for his people. The quiet time can drive you far from God if you fail to understand that the Scriptures are a story about grace. The Scriptures are a story about Jesus Christ, the man of grace. His works—not our works—are the center of the biblical story. And this Jesus gives grace daily to those who fail him. How you approach the Bible—as needy sinner or as self-reliant Pharisee, says a lot about the state of your soul.

Just like Bible study, prayer too can be sinful. Remember what Jesus said about the Pharisee and the tax collector. The one saw prayer as a work, the other as an expression of need. The one who merely expressed his neediness to God—the expression of our neediness being the heart of true prayer—that one went home right with God.

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk 18:9-14).

Often we assume that if we really had it together and could approach God without sin, without failing, with only pure spiritual successes to offer, then God would somehow delight in our prayer more. The opposite is true. If you approach God in that manner, you approach him as his enemy. We are all fallen. If we presume to approach him as something more than needy, dependent sons and daughters, God rightly takes offence. There’s nothing more dangerous than the pride of devotional consistency.


Upcoming: Part 3 - The Remedy: Weakness Christianity


Emmett

Invited

"You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am." [John 13:13]

Jesus gives us a choice to believe in Him. If He said, "You have to believe - you HAVE to treat me like I'm the Son of God," then it would completely change our relationship with Him. But He gave us a choice. - Osward Chambers' Classic

Imagine you were given a chance to be a part of Josh Groban's or Jay Chou's concert, or Goh Chok Tong is inviting you for a dinner tonight. Will you be extremely excited and do tones of preparations with zillion passion in doing the job well? I guess yes, at least I will. 

Now we're being invited by the almighty King, into His ministry, into His blessings and His heaven, I'm sure most of you who are reading this post had already accepted this invitation, but are we having the same type of attitude? At some point of time we might tell God that "Hey! I'M serving You, I'm so tired, give me your blessings!" But will we carry the same type of attitude when we're plainly helping out in the concert of a big star? Or will be feel so honored to be able to be in a part of this big star? 

Are we feeling honored and pleased in being the son and daughter of the almighty King?

We are a part of a BIGGER star. Say thank You. =)

Thank You  ✝

Vivian

Sermon Notes 《一齐成长》

经文：弗4：11-16

人是健忘的，让我们莫忘上帝所赐给我们看不见的恩典。

1。建立基督的身体（弗4：11-12）

我们都是基督里的肢体，若肢体不成为身体，教会便无法成长。
我们要明白我们在主里的职分，并且这职分所带来的责任。
一个真正的信徒是不可能只有领受上帝所赐的福分，却不参与事奉，回应神的爱。Let us all do our part!

2。在真道上合而为一（弗4：13）

“对神的儿子都有一致的信仰和认识” - 我们需要在真理上和谐，彼此接纳，分享经历，一起体会更高的信仰层次。

我们的文化背景会否搅乱我们对信仰的认识？
Can we be sure that our faith will bring us back to God?

3。在爱中建立教会（弗4：16）

全民皆兵：彼此牧养。每个信徒都能参与牧养的工作，每个肢体的长处都可以带来生命的祝福。
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On a side note, in addition to the reflection on the subject of service yesterday:

"The greatest competitor of true devotion to Jesus is the service we do for Him. The goal of the call of God is His satisfaction, not simply that we should do something for Him. Are we more devoted to service than we are to Jesus Christ Himself?"
- "It is the Lord!", My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers

Let us remind ourselves once again, never to take our eyes off Jesus, even as we serve Him.


Emmett

Service

"The call of God is not a call to serve Him in any particular way... Service is the overflow which pours from a life filled with love and devotion. But strictly speaking, there is no call to that. Service is what I bring to the relationship and is the reflection of my identification with the nature of God.Service becomes a natural part of my life. God brings me into the proper relationship with Himself so that I can understand His call, and I serve Him on my own out of a motivation of absolute love. Service to God is the deliberate love-gift of a nature that has heard the call of God. Service is an expression of my nature, and God's call is an expression of His nature."
~ "The Call of the Natural Life", My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers

This is a timely reminder for all of us who serve in ministries, whether in school or church, that service means nothing if we don't personally have an intimate relationship with God first. We cannot serve God or His church and people if we do not first love God or His people.

Let us not forget our Lord, the Subject of our service amidst our business, and to constantly build a close relationship with Him; lest we ourselves become the object of our worship.


Emmett

Freedom from Quiet Time Guilt - Part 1 of 6

I came across this article on the net, which challenged some of my notions on QT. As it is quite a long and wordy article, I will post this article in 6 parts according to the headings in the article over the next 2 weeks. Perhaps we can share our comments and views at the end of the series.

Should anyone want to finish the entire article at one shot, it can be found at this website:
http://gregscouch.homestead.com/files/quiet_time_guilt.htm

1. The Diagnosis: Quiet Time Guilt

I recently watched as a congregation I love was spiritually raped. A Christian ministry came into the church for a three-day program whose purpose was to encourage believers to pray more. During one of the breakout sessions, a man expressed his frustration with unanswered prayer. He had faithfully prayed with and for his daughter for years, and still she was not walking with God. He was broken, depressed, perhaps more than a little ashamed. How does God in his grace speak to this man? A bruised reed was crying out for help.

“You need to try harder. You need to pray more.” That was the message he was given. I was enraged. Having known this church for many years, I was horrified. What I was hearing was what one seminary professor calls sola bootstrapa. Self-reliance. We pull ourselves up by our own spiritual bootstraps. The teachers who said such things surely meant well. The problem was not a lack of sincerity on their part. The diagnosis is far more severe. The problem was heresy. Any heresy wounds the soul.

When I look upon the evangelical world today, I see millions of sincere believers who are loaded down with false guilt by teachers who fail to grasp the basics of biblical prayer. To sharpen the point slightly, Christ’s sheep have been lied to. They have been told that prayer is a work that we must perform in order to get God to bless us. As heresies go, this one is often subtle. Prayer has become a work rather than a grace. The result has been a loss of joy in prayer.

And prayer is not the only grace we’ve turned into a work. Personal Bible study has become a source of bondage as well. A whole generation of Christians has been told that God will bless them if they read their Bibles every day, as if the act of reading the Scriptures were some kind of magic talisman by which we gain power over God and secure his favor. This is not the religion of the Bible. This pervasive belief that God gives us grace as a reward for our devotional consistency is antithetical to the religion of Jesus Christ. Prayer and Bible study—what evangelicals for the past century have called the “quiet time” have become dreaded precisely because they have been radically misunderstood.

It’s ironic, but the Quiet Time has become the number one cause of defeat among Bible-believing Christians today. At one time or another, nearly every sincere believer feels a deep sense of failure and the accompanying feelings of guilt and shame because he or she has failed to set aside a separate time for Bible study and prayer. This condition is called Quiet Time Guilt. And it’s a condition with many repercussions. The shame of Quiet Time Guilt manifests itself in even deeper inability to fruitfully and joyfully study Scripture. Prayer becomes a dread; Bible study a burden. The Christian suffering from Quiet Time Guilt then despairs of seeing God work in his or her life, until finally he or she simply gives up. He may continue outward and public Christian commitments like church attendance, but secretly he feels a hypocrite. What is the root of Quiet Time Guilt?


Emmett

Busboy

.. just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.                    Matthew 20.28

today's qt talked about serving, i remember somewhere someone mentioned that we should be like waitors to a restaurant, but this is more interesting.

Some christians will display their Christianity like a smock waiter  in a restaurant. "look at me, i'm serving." "Yes sir, coming right up" but what God wants is us to be the busboy-the person who cleans up after everyone.

While the waiter is busy with other customers, the busboy slides in quietly and cleans off the table. Most of the time we dont even know he's there. he's different. he's not there for the tip, he's there because of the job.

it really shows us how we should be the silent servant, who is un-noticed but enjoys his/her job.

 

"although no one sees, God sees"

it's funny cos it's exactly the opposite from society. in a working world, it's a competition of capability. everyone tries their best to gain credit to what they do and no one cleans up the mess when things goes wrong.

it really serves as a good reminder when we serve. to be that silent servant who cleans up and expects NO commendation in return. meaning to be humble and not expecting self-credit. afterall, we shouldnt be doing it for ourselves, or for people. but for God.

"Go un-thanked. God knows" oswald chambers

Jason

Waiting

"When God brings a time of waiting, and appears to be unresponsive, don't fill it with busyness, just wait. The time of waiting may come to teach you the meaning of sanctification - to be set apart from sin and made holy - or it may come after the process of sanctification has begun to teach you what service means. Never run before God gives you His direction. If you have the slighest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt - wait.

At first you may see clearly what God's will is, but never act on the impulse of that feeling. If you do, you will cause difficult situations to arise which will take years to untangle. Wait for God's timing and He will do it without any heartache or disappointment. When it is a question of the providential will of God, wait for God to move."

- "Why can I not follow you now?", My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers

Emmett

Are we worrying too much?

First of all, here's wishing everyone a blessed New Year!

As we enter a new year full of uncertainties and unknowns, may we continue to embrace the challenges that we may face with faith and the known certainty that the Lord is our Provider and that His grace is truly sufficient. (2 Cor 12:9)

"Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do - He reveals to you who He is... think of how unnecessary and disrespectful worry is!" - Will you go out without knowing?, My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers

Very often, we always put our focus on what God has done, what God may be doing at the moment, and more frequently, what God will do in the future. But we tend to take our eyes off the more important issue: who God really is, and even more importantly, who God is to each of us. As we embark on this new year, may we throughout the course of this year, seek to know God for who He truly is.

7 reasons not to worry (Matthew 6: 25-34)
The same God who created life in you can be trusted with the details of your life. (6:25)
Worrying about the future hampers your efforts for today (6:26)
Worrying is more harmful than helpful (6:27)
God does not ignore those who depend on Him (6:28-30)
Worrying shows a lack of faith in and understanding of God (6:31,32)
Worrying keeps us from real challenges God wants us to pursue (6:33)
Living one day at a time keeps us from being consumed with worry (6:34)

Planning for tomorrow is time well spent; worrying about tomorrow is time wasted. Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference. Careful planning is thinking ahead about goals, steps, and schedules, and trusting in God's guidance. When done well, planning can alleviate worry. Worriers, by contrast, are consumed by fear and find it difficult to trust God. They let their plans interfere with their relationship with God. Don't let worries about tomorrow affect your relationship with God today.
- From Life application study bible

Emmett