Thoughts for the week

Love was, is, and always will be the answer. (See multiply part 3)

Life is in the relationships. Not work. Not accomplishments. Though they may put food on table. That is why Christianity is real. It’s the only religion of love. Only religion that is a relationship.

Intellectuals also need the Gospel. They also need Jesus. 

Remember, a faith based on feelings is a very singular faith based on a very singular Gospel. If the Gospel you believe in is not universal for all men, then it isn't the Gospel at all. Faith is believing the Gospel is real, not that we feel it is real. Feeling and knowing are two different things. We don't say "I know Jesus is real because I got a feeling He is," we say we know Jesus because there is testimony and evidence and transformation that points to Him being real. We don't go up to our friends and say they are real to us because we feel them, we say that because we built a relationship with them, and this is the same with Jesus. Feelings then come into play in delighting in the fact we know Jesus and He knows us.

The point of love is that it does NOT come naturally. We are naturally self-seeking prideful individuals. Love asks us to sacrifice, to put another above ourselves, to search deep for a strength that doesn't belong to us. There is nothing humanly natural for someone to be patient, to be kind, to be humble, to never get angry, to always trust, hope, and persevere. Nothing at all. That is why love is profound, and most of the world does not get it. They may understand the self-denial part, but will miss the other part that there is inherently no love AT ALL in us. Love is action. Love is hard work. Love is utilizing energy from a source not of ourselves (or other people).

There are underlying laws governing the behavior of man. One is that we function best when confined in a box, and yet there is an underlying passion in the hearts of men to defy all established laws and break out of that box. The irony is that it is a law in itself that we desire to break laws. It’s our nature to be proud.

What are the two greatest commandments in the Bible? Love God and love people. So if you believe and trust in God's sovereignty and control for His kingdom, do you believe that ministries that involve brothers and sisters being called to serve in intellectual areas (doctors, lawyers, businessmen, professors), serving the poor, or becoming fathers and mothers, and serving the local church, if these ministries are done with a motivation of self-sacrificial love and in a selfless manner following God's calling, don't  these ministries have equal if not greater importance than a ministry of missions in foreign countries? Are these ministries not preaching the Gospel in a more glorifying and Spirit-directed manner if they are truly under God's will? Remember what the Gospel is before preaching it to others.

All ministry/missions can be turned into idols. That is the message of "God is first love" in Revelations 2.

The more Christian you are, the more broken you are, because the more your sins are revealed.

Mother Teresa did not feel God for the decades she was in India. Yet she persevered.

Christian life is like wack-a-mole. When you beat down one sin, several more will pop up.

If you are not anchored yourself, you will not be able to save those who are drowning – A. Tsai

One of the things non-believers most commonly point out is that we are weak. We run to God to avoid our problems, instead of face them head on. We also tend to lack resolve. One of my classmates who served in the Singapore army once told me that during training, there was an exercise where the military performed a test where they pressured/tortured the initiates to see how long they last before breaking. It turns out, the people who broke first were those whose resolve were based on faith, and those who lasted longer where soldiers who held onto thoughts like family or pride. Why is that? Why are Christians the first to fall when suffering occurred, and should it be this way? Food for thought

In Mark 10, Jesus promises us family, brothers and sisters, if we go to Jesus. So as the body of Christ, we need to man up. Brotherhood and sister is something serious. Sacred. Eternal. Another take on setting our minds on things above right? More important than marriage, for even marriage is temporary.