Easter Sunday!

About two weeks back, I was helping out my youth pastor in creating this video for Easter Sunday. Basically, I was doing a voice-over narration of what we might normally include in our gospel-sharing or track and I found myself telling the story of Creation, of Adam and Eve, of Noah, and of course, of Christ.

As I was doing the narration, my pastor was right beside me doing the recording, and he constantly stopped the recording midway just to tell me what kind of emotion, what kind of tone he wanted in a particular line. “Oh, that line needs to be more majestic …” , “just imagine God BREATHING the breath of life into them …”, “Imagine Jesus saying John 3:16 …”

I don’t know about you, but at that moment, my pastor’s words really laid bare for me to see how I myself read the Word, how I interpreted it. More importantly, it set me thinking of who God really is to me. What He means to me when He chose to flood the Earth, and when He subsequently chose to promise never to do it again, when Jesus came down to Earth in a manger in Bethlehem, and of course, when Jesus died for each and everyone of us, and rose from the grave. And, the list goes on, the endless events in the Bible, the uncountable things He has done for me. :D That’s my King.

Even over the last few weeks, my view of God and what it means to me to simply know Him has been expanding, changing. Unbeknownst to most people, the last few weeks for me were like the aftermath of a spiritual train-wreck. I spent half my time being really frustrated at my parents for not being able to change my subject-combination, and the other half wondering what God wants to achieve through my situation. It may seem pretty silly, (and looking back, it really is), but I guess we all have those times where God challenges us on a very personal level, at a level where only we understand.

However, when I took a step back, I started to realize the situation I was in simply meant that I had to break my own mental barriers of who God is to me. Indeed, now I know that He is Jehovah Jireh, my provider, El Shaddai, God Almighty, Jehovah Shalom, my peace, Jehovah Nissi, the Lord my banner, and so much more. And just in that moment, in that moment where we seek God amidst our struggles and problems, and really be still before Him or when we simply read His Word, he floods our memories with the reminders of what He has done for us so far, what He has promised, and of course of the fact that He is beside us every step of the way. That’s My King.

Our God is indeed INDESCRIBABLE, UNCONTAINABLE, and simply TOO MARVELOUS for words and comprehension.

During my church’s Good Friday service, they played a video adapted from a recording of a famous sermon by Dr. S.M. Lockridge, entitled “That’s My King”. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzqTFNfeDnE&feature=related) And while, God is certainly beyond description, I was really inspired by this video, and simply reminded that, indeed, That’s My King.

Frederick M. Lehman once wrote this in a song entitled “The Love of God”.

“Could we with ink the ocean fill,

And were the skies of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quill,

And every man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above,

Would drain the ocean dry.

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Though stretched from sky to sky.”

Indeed, Easter Sunday has always been, and will always be about celebrating Jesus’ victory over death and sin, and of his immeasurable, infinite love for us.

Now, do me a favour. Let’s try to picture this. THAT God, OUR God, so LOVED the world, that he gave His ONE and ONLY SON, that WHOEVER believes in HIM shall not perish but have ETERNAL LIFE. And

THAT Jesus,

OUR Jesus, was

flogged,

struck,

spit on,

mocked and finally

crucified,

bearing OUR sin, OUR shame, OUR inequities upon that tree.
Now, say to yourself, That’s MY King.

To end off, Hebrews 12:2:

“ Let us fix our eyes of Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”


In the Truth of God’s Love,
Thaddeus

Blog update 12/4

Hey guys,
sorry about the state of the blog these past 2 weeks :P
I have been rather busy with many things.
ANYWAY, now the blog shall be updated regularly again, and this time I hope to get more people to post.
It doesn't matter if you're year 1,2,3,4,5 or 6, just drop me an e-mail or a sms when you feel like you have something which you REALLY want to share, it can be a message that really touched you, a personal experience, anything really!

Since today is EASTER SUNDAY...
There is a special post on Easter Sunday written by Thaddeus Lee :)


Tina

In Christ Alone: REW =)

A few weeks ago, a teacher asked my class, "What would you die for?"

Hearing it, I thought of the long circulated story of a young girl in Communist Russia who refused to spit on the Bible, and was subsequently shot, and more recently, the real-life story of Rachel Scott in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.

Then, praying in the balcony today, I was led to pray for next week's REW, in particular that it would not just be a one-week event, of getting a 'spiritual high' for a while, before then allowing school and IB life to set back in again, conforming to this world...

Afterwards, during CF, we had bible study on the church of Thyatira in Revelations 2, and ended with the message of standing up for Christ, and not conforming to this world.

What would you die for? Imagine, bullet-point, right now, "Do you believe in God?". A sister in Christ put forth the question, but wouldn't that be a life wasted? What if it was just a mentally unstable mad man, who just wanted to kill for the fun of it? Wouldn't it be logical then to say no, to then use the rest of our lives to glorify God here on Earth?

Furthermore, what kind of Father would put his children in that position and risk their lives? If God wants us to believe in Him, why does He put us in situations or allow us to be born into environments sometimes that makes it so hard to believe in Him? Can we then blame a victim of child abuse for denying God because he/she just can't see how God's love has been shown in his/her life?

I'm aware I'm rambling, but I guess when it comes down to it, it's really those fundamental questions of faith, and simple questions like "Why does God allow suffering?" that shake our faith and plant those seeds of doubt. 

But addressing back the question, would you die for Christ? One of my brothers in Christ raised the example of Peter, who denied Jesus three times, but in the end Jesus accepted Him, restored Him, and Peter went on to establish the church of Rome. There was no condemnation, only forgiveness, love and acceptance. There is no 'set' way to act in these circumstances, and the Word of God still remains clear; "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." (Luke 9:26) and in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

As for the logical nature of whether making such a choice defeats the purpose of glorifying God with our lives, I can only give the simple (and perhaps unsatisfactory to some) answer, that our lives are not our own, and our lives here on earth are only a temporary place, before the time comes where we can glorify God in heaven for all eternity.

But personally, when it comes to the crunch, of standing up for God and being prepared to die for what we believe in, I feel that it is not in those dramatic, sudden moments at gun-point, but rather in those everyday, fleeting moments of our lives. The devil isn't stupid. Yes, he may try to shake our faith in those outright moments of persecution, but most terrifyingly, he shakes our faith every minute, every second in those moments of temptation, when we unconsciously, unknowingly succumb. And these attacks aren't always harsh-looking and blatently evil, more often than not, they appear in sugar-coated, seemingly innocent, thoughtless facades. 

Like in those moments when we find it easy to avoid those in our class whom everyone refuses to befriend. Or complain that chapel or that lesson is 'useless', or join in criticizing the teaching style and actions of a teacher or a fellow classmate.. Or especially, as I've begun to notice and feel more and more around me, bow and bend to the pressure of IB work and school life, become dejected and pessimistic, stressed out, or even worse, indifferent. 

I'm not saying I'm innocent of all those deeds listed above. In fact, I'm probably as guilty as the next person, and lately, I too have been struggling to experience the joy of the Lord in my life. But really, when it comes down to it, the real battle of faith, to stand up for Christ and be prepared to die for Him, is not in those dramatic life-or-death situations, but in our everyday walk with God. 

And we are not alone in that struggle. As we strive, so too does the Holy Spirit in us strive. Too often faith has been lauded as an antithesis to reason, a rejection of logical thought, just blind belief, and this has led to a subsequent pursuit for something 'higher', more 'spiritual', and we begin to look for those 'holy experiences', place more importance on those life-or-death situations in the testing of faith. But that's not faith.

Faith isn't a passive response, to just let God 'take control', while we sit back doing nothing, either in the misconception that because He is sovereign we don't have to do anything, or for fear that doing anything else would undermine the work Christ has already on the cross. This will only result in frustration at wondering why our lives haven't seemed to be transformed in any way.

And neither should faith be all about striving on our own, constant introspection and pouncing on every sin to clease, repent and purify. This too will only result after a while in disillusionment and despair at the multitude of sins and weaknesses that almost seem impossible to overcome.

The christian walk is a battlefield, and just like soldiers, we are called to be faithful, to trust in our leader, no matter how tough the situation gets, how strong the enemy seems. We may not always know what the next command is or why it is so, but we can choose to simply have faith in God's purpose for us. The bible calls us to 'work out our salvation', and this active obedience does not undermine God's sovereignty, and neither does God's sovereignty render our human actions inadequate. In prayer, we pray believing that our human action of prayer is significant, and at the same time that God is sovereign and has the power to act into our world.

Why does God make us go through all this suffering then? To some, it might still be unsatisfactory to argue that God is in control, that we should avoid such philosophical debate, that we should not seek to reason out everything, because faith is not about reason (a claim in TOK -.o). 

For myself, this simple realization is enough: That as long as we are in this world, we cannot avoid suffering in a world that has rejected God. It may seem hard to reconcile God made the earth and yet there is suffering and evil, or that evil is the absence of God yet God is everywhere... But if we understood all these things, wouldn't God cease to be sovereign? We understand this world as through a camera lens, limited by our human senses. 

Yet, I wouldn't call this blind faith, something totally illogical and beyond reason. Yes, the wonder of Christianity is that it can be explained and understood even by a small child, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we too need not seek to reason our faith and the truth of God's word. True, the Holy Spirit living and working in us can convict us of the truth, but reason is equally important in being convicted of what we believe in, and that confidence and conviction will shine through to the non-believers around us. As one of my seniors once wrote, "A faith without questions is questionable." We need reason, that we might continue to reach out to others and convince them not only of the truth of God's word, but also of the flaws in their alternative beliefs. We must not shy away and become weak in our faith, or be intolerant and respond in stubborn rejection. "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..." (1 Peter 3:15)

Still, I've met many who wonder why, if the Holy Spirit is in them, they can't feel God in their lives, still waiting for that 'spiritual high/experience' to come. 

"The Lord said, "Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord. Look, the Lord is ready to pass by." A very powerful wind went before the Lord, digging into the mountain and causing landslides, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the windstorm there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the lord was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a soft whisper." (1 Kings 19: 11-12)

Let's stop searching for that 'higher', spiritual experience. Let's start realizing that the Holy Spirit is in us, working in mysterious and wonderful ways. Let's start living out our faith in action, truth and with conviction, struggling to stand up for Christ, not conform to the world around us and take up the cross, "so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe" (Philippians 2:15)

So in the next week of REW to come, let's not just sit there and hear the message that is said, but rather listen, and understand the message that is being said, whether we have heard it once, twice, or over who knows how many gazillion years already. "He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (Revelations) And after that chapel or worship session, let's not forget immediately what God has spoken into our hearts, and return back to a world of school life and IB, get caught up again in silly conflicts, pessimism or indifference, become so wrapped up in our own bottles of self-pity that we fail to see and care for the people around us, the lost who have yet to hear his word. I know, it's hard to let others know the joy of the Lord when we ourselves find it hard to experience it. 

But joy, true joy isn't that fleeting emotion or sense of optimism; that's happiness. Happiness is temporal, but joy is everlasting. And our joy comes not from our circumstances or how good things are going for us at the moment, but it is a joy derived from the comfort of knowing He cares for us and knows the deepest desires of our hearts, derived from the hope of an eternity spent with Him to come. "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation... I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13)

In Christ Alone, my hope is found, He is my light, my strength, my song... No guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me. From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny. No power of hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from his hand; Till He returns, or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I'll stand!

And let's also have the joy of knowing that we don't run this race alone, not only in the footsteps of Jesus who has already paved the way for us, but also hand in hand with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and the angels in our midst =)

- Pet