John the Baptist and Jesus

In Matthew 11, it reads

When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" (Matthew 11:2-3)

 

It seems that John did not know who Jesus is.  However,

1. John's mother and Jesus' mother were relatives.

2. John was the one who baptized Jesus.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" (Matthew 3:13-14)

 

How should we interpret the seemingly contradicting passages?

Showers of Blessing

Browsing through SOBEM and found that videos below. Are we giving our best back to our Lord?

Favorite 聖經金句

I have one favourite 金句, which is John 3:16. This 金句 catch my eye when I was little. I still feel touching sometimes when I read it.

神愛世人
Four word, tell us one of the most important fact of this universe

甚至將祂的獨生子賜給他們
An example to show how much God loves us. Draw our emotion.

叫一切信入祂的
What we should do, as simple as that.

不至滅亡
The outcome

反得永遠的生命。
Better than we what we expect.

How about your favorite 聖經金句!?

Know, Understand, Feel, and Experience

After talking to Micah, I have learnt more about communication and relationship with God. And this morning, the following come across my mind:

Know: This is the first step. We have to know HIM. It is the job for Christian to spread the gospel.

Understand: We should spend time to study Bible, so we can understand God and HIS work. If we spend 20+ years full-time to study in school, we surely need to spend more time to learn about God.

Feel: To get closer with God, I think we need to feel HIM, like our family, our friends. For example, from history book, we learn many things about historical people, but we hardly feel closed to them. But Jesus is different, we learn about him from Bible. But we should still able to feel HIM because HE is still with us. In the last couple years, I start to gain this feeling.

Experience: To gain close relationship with God, I think the best way is to experience HIM. But actually I can't talk too much for this point, because I don't have any strong experience with God. From friend's sharing and Bible, I see people who have experienced God. Simply says, they are different. My favourite example is Paul. From a punk who messed up with Christian, to a fearless warrior who spread Jesus name. That was a huge turn-around.

One question as usual: How do we experience God!? From all the stories I heard, most time God come to them. It is not like they need to pray for it.

Taboo Question 1

Related to sex stuff, read at your own risk ....


In the movie "The Da Vinci Code", Tom Hanks asked this question:
I believe Jesus is God. But even Jesus has a child on earth, does it really conflict with his divine status?

First of all, I need to proclaim that I don't believe Jesus had an affair with Mary Magdalene or had a child. But I have a few questions.

1. I have an understanding that Jesus didn't have sexual desire. This is OK to me. Just a fact. But I also have an impression that Jesus didn't have sexual desire because it is bad. Does Bible really mention sex is bad?

2. I have learnt Jesus had bear many weakness of human body, such as pain and fear (he prays for God's mercy before getting caught). Then why can't he also bear sexual desire?

3. Jesus is our example to be a perfect man. He had a human body and show how to be good. But I guess he may cheat a little .... A lot of sins are related to sex. How Jesus show us to avoid those sins if he did not have this problem at all?

Rumors and News

News (especially bad ones) and rumors are spreading fast with the information boom. The same happens inside the church.  I dare not to say I never spread rumors.  Moreover, you can never assume the one next to you knows nothing about your secret.  Given the amount of news I have heard over the last 2 years, what would be the biblical way to resolve the pressure?  I have a urge to talk over the news with brothers but at the same time I feel extremely guilty of spreading rumors, especially when my news source does not authorize me to spread the news.

Da Vinci Code, The movie

I watched this movie last week, because of 2 reasons:
1. Want to watch Tom Hanks
2. I don't understand the ending of the book. What did Robert Langdor realize? Mona Lisa!? Maybe the movie can explain better.

Review of the movie, 2 things:
1. Tom Hanks lost weight
2. Still don't understand the ending of the movie. What did Robert Langdor realize? Anyone offer help?

God is listening

Case 1: Prayer Requests

In the retreat last week, I raised a question during panel discussion: If God know everything we need, why still pray for any specific request? It will not change God's mind anyway. In the same night, the people next to my room played so loud and so late till 2am. I can't sleep. Now I know what to pray specifically: Guys please go to bed soon! Well God gave me a good lesson.


Case 2: Bible Study

Recently, I'm looking for a Bible Study group within the company. I ask around and search for web but got nothing. Last week I passed by someone's office and saw a Bible on his desk. I didn't know this guy. But I want to check out if he knows any BS group here. Today I go to his office and start the conversation: I saw you have a Bible and I am a Christian ... Then he immediately told me they have a Bible Study lunch meeting every Wednesday, and invite me to join them!

God and Logic

I once read a book from 李天命. He mentions that Logic is the most strictly analysis process. Based on Logic, he derives many argument to question Bible and God. One classic paradox he likes to use: Can God make a rock so big, that even he can't lift it?

I spend some times to study the best explanation to counter this argument. There are a few good one but all seem to argue within the scope of Logic analysis.

Then my question: Is God beyond Logic!?

I think Yes. Human can only understand Logic within our brain limit. Plus, does Logic really can explain everything!? I don't think Logic can explain the creation of Universe. From nothing to something. Logic and any Science can't explain that. In another word, human can't explain anything beyond the point of creation, not even mention the Creator.

Genesis Trivia

- In Genesis 30, Jacob negotiated a new contract with Laban. They agreed that all non-white sheep were wages to Jacob. Being a deceiver, Laban sent away all non-white sheep on the same day. Jacob reacted by putting striped almond branches in front of the sheep and the sheep would give birth to striped sheep. (This is similar to parents-to-be put up cute baby posters in their room in hope for cute baby) Genetically, this would not work. However, it was God's blessing on Jacob to make it happen.

- Jacob had 12 sons. Levi's descendents did not receive any inheritance but Joseph's received twice as much (through his two sons). Historically, the eldest son received twice as much inheritance as the other sons.

Book introduction

I am reading a book called 游子吟. I like it very much. I feel the author has similar style of mine. Lots of questions and has strong interest on natural science. He is much more knowledgeable though. This book describes his thinking process from a non-believer to a Christian. Reading this book is like talking to a friend who answering many of my Q&A stuff. This is the table of content:

第一章 神存在的真实性
第二章 《圣经》是神默示的
第三章 谁是真神
第四章 耶稣基督复活的证据
第五章 现代科学与基督教信仰
第六章 创造论与进化论
第七章 进入永生

I first jump around on the chapters I am interested the most, which are 1, 3, 6. The author often introduces new yet interesting question. For example, Darwin's theory was introduced about 150 years ago. Back then the society in Europe was still heavily favor on Christianity. But why this theory could gain such popularity so quickly? The author then answers this own questions.

This book is claimed to be quite popular. Sold 600,000 copies with three edition. Anyway, paper back is just $8. And a web site has the full content:

http://www.afcinc.org/afcsite/big_5code/literature/mc_lit/Song/prod-ct.htm

Why I buy Chinese Stocks (3)

My brothers ordered many dishes. It included all kind of animal I had never heard of. I enjoyed the food though. At the end we had a lot of left over. I want to box up some. Then my mother told me people usually didn't take left over when they ate there. Too troublesome I guessed. Well, seriously I didn't want to waste food so I insisted. But, I would regret I did that.

So we continued driving back home. Once we entered Zhuhai downtown I saw a lot of beautiful lighting on the streets. It was pretty late already, yet there were still many people hanging out. It really was a city full of energy. I felt proud of my home country. When we reached the custom, we need to leave the car and walked over for custom check. This joyful trip was about to end. I was holding a bag of leftover and then I closed the car's door.

Suddenly, someone pull very hard on the bag of my food. My first thought: robbers! But when I turn back, I saw no one. Then I looked down. I saw a little girl, around 7~8 years old, was pulling my bag. Besided her there was a shy little boy, seemed to be her little brother. This girl spoke to me in Mandarin: Give me, give me. I didn't eat for two days already. To be exact, these was what she said:

叔叔, 給我, 給我, 我二天沒有吃東西.

This girl was a beggar I believed. Did she really eat nothing for two days!? I doubted. But watching a little kid begging for food, I felt bitter. My first reaction was to give her the food. But a defensive thinking came to my mind. If I gave her the food now, what would happen? Would other beggars rush to me for more? I couldn't handle that... So I hold on this bag for some moment, while she kept pulling for the food. At the same time I yelled to my mom if I could give this girl the food. My mother was surprise to see this situation but she immediately said yes. So I released the bag. The girl said thank you to my mother (not me) then started to run. I wanted to give the girl some money, but I hesitated for other consideration. Then she disappeared inside the crowd.

After I went back Macao, I were very unhappy for many days. I was upset although there were many modern development in mainland, some children still need to beg for food on street. I was more upset about myself. Why couldn't I just give her the food without so many second thought. Imaging a picture of a big guy fighting food with a little girl ... shame!

Now when I pray before dinning, I truly felt the mercy God had put upon me. I thanks HIM for providing me food, without the need of begging. In big dinner such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, sometimes I recall the face of that little girl.

It has been five years already. This girl should be a teenager now. I hoped her life had improved. I understand no country can eliminate all poverty. But I felt sad to see kids begging for food in the middle of a modern city downtown. I offer my prayer for a better life of ordinary people in China. I also buy some Chinese stocks hoping to help the economic and creates more jobs there.

Why I buy Chinese Stocks (2)

My brother had a mainland driving license, so he drove for this trip. Once we crossed the border of Zhuhai (珠海), most of the time we stayed on the highways. In the old days, it took 7 hours to get to Foshen. This time, it took less than 3 hours. One minor complain, we stopped eight times meeting some good looking young ladies ... they were cashiers collecting road fee.

We spend a nice afternoon in Foshen. Surely it had great developments. Tall buildings and nice shopping malls everywhere. We met relatives and enjoyed the local food. In the evening we headed back to Macao. Around 8pm, when we were nearby Zhuhai, we felt hungry. My brother decided to bring us to eat.

His drove his car off the highway, going into some bumping countryside roads. He kept driving for 10 minutes. Now it was getting very dark outside. I guess we were driving inside a farm. I started to feel uneasy and ask where we were heading to? He said we would eat something nice. I doubted. Did he get lost?

Finally I saw some light ahead of us. In the middle of nowhere, there was a big house with decorative lightnings. My brother said that was the restaurant for our dinner. What kind of restaurant would locate in such a remote area? Then my brother said we would eat wild life animals (野味)!!

[to be continued ... last section tomorrow]

Sharing: Why I buy Chinese Stocks

There is a personal story I want to share for sometimes. Sometimes mean around five years. Whenever in special days like Thanksgiving and Christmas, when there are a lot of nice food on the table, I recall this experience. However, this was a very unpleasant incident. I didn't know how to start this sharing in the Fellowship.

This July, I will go back to Macao/China for visit. That experience flash back to my memory again, because it happened in China. I guess, blog space is the easiest place for me to share this story.

In the summer of 2001, I went to Macao for vacation. My family kept telling me there had been a lot of positive change in mainland. They will show me around all the great development in the country. In fact, I am looking forward to. On Saturday, me. my elder brother, my mother, and my nephew, were ready to visit my home town, where is Foshen (佛山). This supposed to be a fun one-day trip. What I didn't expect, I were about to encounter something that made me very unhappy for the rest of my vacation.

[to be continued .. two days later, haven't finish all the writing]

Be Strong in the Lord

Be strong in the Lord and be of good courage, your mighty defender is always the same. Mount up with wings as the eagle ascending, victory is sure when you call on His name.

* Be strong, be strong, be strong in the Lord, and be of good courage for He is your guide. Be strong, be strong, be strong in the Lord, and rejoice, for the victory is yours.

So put on the armor the Lord has provided, and place your defense in His unfailing care. Trust Him for He will be with you in battle, lighting your path to avoid every snare.

* Repeat

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil." Ephesians 6:10-11

Long answers

When I google some answer on Christian question, I often see those loooong article that make me marry-go-around without straight answer. Seriously I feel pretty frustrating on this kind of writing. Why can't they just straight to the point. If I answer my boss's question like that, I am sure I have been long gone.

My explanation: there is no definite answers for many spiritual questions. It really depends on how we interpret the Bible. So people just point out every scenarios. Then we, as readers, make our own judgement.

Aging Problem

Yes.  We have aging problem in our society.  And yes, we also have aging problem in church, especially for Chinese congregation.  It is not merely that we all get older.  It is our mentality and our spirit.  The younger generations are not as energetic or creative as the older generations.  We just don't want to get involved.  This is not a good sign, but what can we do?

your first name, my last name

For Christian couples, I realize the wife, almost all, change to use her husband's last name. I wonder if this is something that Bible suggest to do. Or simply a tradition for Christian, or perhaps just Hong Kong people. I find most couples from main land China don't do that.

Mine survivor

The sole miner survivor released one last comment about the tragedy. I find this lines are pretty touching and inspiring:

"We were worried and afraid, but we began to accept our fate," he wrote. "Junior Toler led us all in the Sinners Prayer" — a prayer for salvation of one's soul.

McCloy wrote. "The last person I remember speaking to was Jackie Weaver, who reassured me that if it was our time to go, then God's will would be fulfilled."

All 12 trapped miner died except Randal McCloy, who had been in comma for about a month after the tragedy.

News Link

Why God wanted to become human

Someone asks me this old question: Why God need to turn himself into human (Jesus) to save us?

My interpretation of the question is: why God need to use such strange way to save human being? Any practical reason? My answer is to show HIS Love. And in the old time people need to kill animal to erase their sin. So Jesus do it all using his holy blood. But my answer isn't too convincing I guess ...

But now I have question too. In the old testimony, why need to kill animal to erase our sin? It is not their fault. And they have animal right too.