Sin? But I didn’t do anything wrong!

"I didn’t do anything wrong (base on general public's scale), why I was punished this way?"

On the news…

A baby was being abused to death: if s/he could talk, s/he may say I didn’t do anything (not even able to do or say anything), why I was being treated this way to death? People may tell him because your father was being abused when he was a child… your mother was being neglected by her family since she was four years old… your step father couldn’t find a job no matter how hard he tried… your father’s parents…

A man killed all his family members and then committed suicide…

A lady committed suicide and leaving her baby alone at home crying, someone discovered and contacted the police…

A youth found no purpose in life except of getting high, and did permanent damage to one’s body due to overdose on drugs…

In summary, there are big holes in our hearts to fill (a lack of peace), but never able to top-up.

Two categories of sin: active sin and passive sin. Both are sin, and in absolute purity there isn’t any severity rating - no scale! The former one is hurting others, and the latter is destructing one-self. Active and passive sins are not exclusive to one another - passive sin can be acted out into active sin, or/and passive sin can be acted inwards leading to a total self-destruction.

We are living in an imperfect interactive society; there is no way anyone can immune from the pool of the sea of dirt and corruption.

“Sometimes” I can say I haven’t done anything wrong “yet”, but I have sin: my bondage/peace with God has cut off because of anger (feeling of unjust)/hatred/greed inside me eating me up, which may eventually harm myself or/and hurting others. So I need to oooom, oooom, oooom… this self-eating piece out through Christ, let Jesus carry my burden, and restore peace with my creator; instead of being succumb into victims mode, I choose to be in winner mode to have peace in my heart taking assignments from my creator and to reach my purpose of my life.

Yin-Yang of "Power of Love" and 'Love of Power'

Thanks to "KHL" emailing me a great quote today:

• "When the 'Power of Love' overcomes the 'Love of Power' the world will know peace."

- Jimi Hendrix, musician, singer, and songwriter (1942-1970)

Holy Bible - An instructional manual to constraint life, or a freedom to life?

One day a very dear spiritual friend of mine once commented: "A long time ago, I used to like the Old Testament, because it is better written. The New Testament is like a manual. I have extreme low interest in clicking with it."

I have been contemplating on the comment for a few weeks, at the back of my brain, and information about such subject was flying into me in all directions since then. Friday (21-APR-2006) morning I was on the skytrain reading my PDA Bible as usual, when the train arriving Main Station, Holy Spirit dawned on me about this subject. Much thanks to this dear spiritual friend “PY”, I have been enjoying the contemplating process very much.

In term of manual flavour, actually Old Testament was the real manual (laws and orders to follow for constraining sins), New Testament was the era to crucify and set free of such manual which was about setting free from sins. So far, I can see following items that Jesus had crucified while He died on the cross to mark the era of New Testament:

(1) 600 something old Jewish laws and orders (recorded in the Old Testament books of Exodus (part of), Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) of constraining people to be obsolete:

• "one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life (Hebrews 7:16)"
• "he former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. (Hebrews 7:18-19)"

(2) Abolish the slavery of sins and conquered eternal death

• "If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. " (Romans 6:5-10)

(3) Restore the relationship between man and God that man can directly relate to God through Christ without going through any earthly priests like in the Old Testament - in fact the curtain between the sanctuary and the inner sanctuary (the holiest place where only high priest can go in) was torn apart by Jesus' blood at the moment Jesus died on the cross (I don't think the event was of any coincidence and such incident clearly recorded in 4 books of the New Testament by different authors at different time), so that all Christ's people can directly relate to God without any fleshly priests anymore:

• "At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split." (Matthew 27:51)
• "The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." (Mark 15:38)
• " for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two." (Luke 23:45)
• "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek." (Hebrews 6:19-20)

In term of the manual flavoured stuffs in the New Testament I think mainly were selections from the New Testament books (1Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians) written by Paul to church bodies after Christ's resurrection. From the background of those books, they were written because of turmoil (being pulled away from Holy Spirit) within the church bodies, and targeted towards solutions which were forced to have an instructional manual flavour - as people failed to allow holy spiritual when dealing with life events then the level had to be stepped lower. When level was lower, then step-wise manual process crept in.

Personally, I don't think manual instruction was the essence of New Testament - the essence of New Testament was to live-by-holy-spirit-driven mode: personal transformation toward the will of God (repentance, bearing fruits of the holy spirit – “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” Galatians 5:16-23), and letting others (who are aware of own sins) know about the good news of salvation and accept Christ as personal saviour, therefore allow others to experience personal transformation and peace being set free from sins, which was the original intend of the New Testament.

Generally, adults in church usually had a tendency thinking that children or youths could not able to grasp the concept of freeing sins and transformation. Therefore, usually books written by Paul were greatly emphasized as they thought children and youths could only follow instructions, and that was what children and youths should be doing in order for adults to feel "comfortable". Indeed not all children and youths could handle holy-spirit-driven lives, some of them required instructions as guidance. When I think of it... I sometimes found some adults had problem dealing with live-by-holy-spirit-driven mode to face daily lives and had to fall backward to live-by-instructions/manual-driven mode. Now, it alarmed my thought further... I guess I should be more sensitive to each AWANA clubber in my handbook class to observe if their spiritual growth of any exception that he/she can start shifting into live-by-holy-spirit-driven mode, instead of only shoveling instructional scripture written by Paul into their throats. Now I need to contemplate how I could observe such as I only face them an hour a week.

“Eternal life” was being packaged as a token for exploitation?

The way we are spreading the Gospel nowadays may sometimes be a bit cultish - being exaggerated on purely verbal admitting trusting the Lord Jesus carrying our sins so audience can have eternal lives but being mellowed out the necessity huge-steps of personal transformation towards the will of God by actions to follow spontaneously. As we can refer to John 8:1-11 and Luke 19:1-10, a complete reconciliation with God has to follow by transformed actions as testimony. “Eternal life” was being packaged as a token for exploitation?!

Jesus never just bluntly asked any people regardless if they know where they will be heading after death, and why they were allowed to enter where they thought they were heading; instead he started with matters from heart, not from brain, of their earthly lives regarding sins and talked to those were aware - separation from God, and offer a way of reconciling this big gap through repentance by grace (not ourselves), in order to allow people to restore peace with our creator of purity. He was telling people their choices; to follow Him by their own will (John 14:6 ). Although eternity life was the subject of matter, he never despised the subject on repentance and personal transformation of the earthly life. Jesus just offered acceptance, forgiveness and grace, and His only request for our response was repentance, transformation, and spreading of the good news resembling Him by dealing with individual person rather then methods (please refer to a blog posted earlier: Jesus’ Dealing).

After the characters in the Bible choose to follow Jesus’ teaching by forgiving, Jesus didn't say anything to them right away dump a pile of items that they need to do - follow Sabbaths, attend Bible class, join fellowships... etc, but to ask the woman to leave the life of sin and the man (Zacchaeus) proclaimed his repentance by actions. I am not saying that attending Sunday service, Bible class or fellowship group is not necessary; in fact, they are helpful tools (being used appropriately with a correct attitude) for us to know more about God and spreading the good news, in order to live out more like Jesus.

However, the essence is personal repentance and transformation towards the will of God after accepting salvation, then letting others (who are aware of own sins) know about the good news of salvation of accepting Christ as personal saviour; therefore, allow others to experience personal transformation and peace being set free from sins, which I think that is the complete package of the gift (grace) of salvation.

Jesus' Dealing

Spreading the Gospel - Jesus did not deal with problem, but He dealt with individual transformation at the person's comfort/effective zone.

When I was watching an interview show of "It's a new day", Judy Reamer’s speech dawned onto a puzzle that I had since I was at a young age. Thanks to Judy!

Why the methods used by Jesus healing the blinds were different each time?

1. Took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village... spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him - Mark 8:22-25
2. "What do you want me to do for you?"... touched their eyes - Matthew 20:29-34
3. Jesus did not touch the blind man but just mentioned the man's faith: "Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you."- Mark 10:46-52

Why the ways of Jesus (God as flesh) towards reconciling Father-and-man relationship for people were different under similar situation?

1. Lead a woman out of sinful life in public - John 8:1-11
2. Lead a man out of sinful life in private - Luke 19:1-10

Why the ways of God reacting toward people are different under similar situation?

1. God’s response to Joseph when had question about the baby virgin Mary was bearing - Matthew 1:19-20
2. God’s response to when had question about the baby his wife Elizabeth was bearing - Luke 1:18-20

Judy said that: "God / Jesus (God became flesh) did not deal with problem, but He dealt with individual person.", especial with a substantial emphasis on dealing at people’s comfort zone with sensitivity. That's Jesus' wisdom.

My Buddhist friend: “Christians believes in the absolute. Buddhism believes in awareness.”

I like a Buddhist friend’s very precise and accurate description of Buddhism and Christianity: “Christians believes in the absolute. Buddhism believes in awareness.”.

Please allow me to elaborate a bit – Buddhism is about self-awareness in the universe to achieve various levels of saints, but Christianity begins with reconciling a relationship, via revelation from God, with the absolute (i.e. God Himself), and through accepting Christ as personal saviour is the only way to be saint.

For Christianity besides absolute faith to begin with, spiritual growth should follow - transformation of mind to explore and practice God's will, which is again referring back to the "absolute" God, to bear fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patient, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (More detail can be found in Galatians 5:22-23)

Unfortunately, many Christianity disciplines helping spiritual growth have been despised by the western culture (western culture here refers to contemporary western European and North American European immigrants' cultures, Jews considers as eastern culture). For example, inward disciplines such as fasting and meditation/contemplation often mentioned in the Bible were almost totally ignored/ abrogated by western-Christianity-culture-flaovoured practice.

Christianity meditation, different from Buddhism meditation, is that there's again an absolute target (i.e. God) on Christianity meditation – releasing to God, praise His creation, allow God to commune with our sprit and to love us.

Recently, I have read a book named "Celebration of Discipline" written by Richard J. Foster, which I found he had given a more objective (lessen western culture favouritism) overview of spiritual growth practices with Bible references.

In terms of prayers, "More-mature" Christianity prayers should be "diminishing-oneself-desire" but "increasing-of-God's-will and assignments". In fact, I can see the Lord's Prayer in the Bible (often being used as a guideline in terms of prayer content) that the only self-need would be the "daily bread" (by the way it implied not to pray for left over but trust that daily necessity be looked after by God), the rest of the prayer is all about our mind to be part of God's mind and protect us from evilness.

In terms of suffering, Christianity views the source of suffering is from the separation of man and God due to sin (sometimes may refer as selfish-desire). This is why the root of Christianity faith is base on salvation from Christ bearing people's sin to free mankind from being slaves to sin (sin leads to eternity death) but to rebuild the relationship of man and God leading to eternity life. With faith in Christ as one's personal saviour, then the normal response of a Christian would be spiritual growth through praise, prayers and studying scripture to learn and understand God's character and communicate with Him in order to live out our purpose of creation.

No difference between man and God?!

A friend commented “…really no difference between man and God, because one must live in the other to make it work...". I guess that is true and the way should be if we believe in Christ and set our minds on things above.

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."
(Colossians 3:1-4)

所 以 ， 你 們 若 真 與 基 督 一 同 復 活 ， 就 當 求 在 上 面 的 事 ； 那 裡 有 基 督 坐 在 神 的 右 邊 。
你 們 要 思 念 上 面 的 事 ， 不 要 思 念 地 上 的 事 。
因 為 你 們 已 經 死 了 ， 你 們 的 生 命 與 基 督 一 同 藏 在 神 裡 面 。
基 督 是 我 們 的 生 命 ， 他 顯 現 的 時 候 ， 你 們 也 要 與 他 一 同 顯 現 在 榮 耀 裡 。
(歌羅西書 3:1-4)

True God should include everyone, but not to exclude.

“If god cannot be inclusive of everyone (even they don't believe in god), then that god is not that great and in peace.”

True God should include everyone in His mind. In fact, in terms of inclusiveness, God's salvation plan included everyone "For 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. - John 3:16".

The original plan was worldly ("loved the world") inclusive to begin with, and it is an open invitation to ALL but people have to make their choice of accepting the invitation. This is to say any one-to-one relationship must require two parties to take pro-active engagement in order for a relationship to work out. Any normal beings won't really enjoy a one-way relationship, but very much value an interactive relationship. No mind-balance beings would like to "force" another being to synthesize a relationship with him/her. The same thing God had in mind was that he loved the world, and open up his invitation for people with freedom to reconcile with Him.

If one "thinks if god ... god should..."; then one is defining the properties and character of God. I guess any subject can be placed under human definition cannot be the ultimate creator as the subject allows its creatures to define its character and properties. A true living God should able to speak out for Himself: "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. - Revelation 1:8"; "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. - Revelation 22:13".

In term of man and Heavenly Father (God Himself), the relationship indeed can be to a purity that through Christ (God Himself as well on the resolution of sin) and the power of Holy Spirit (God Himself as well in terms of spiritual guidance) that the goal of no separation between man and God can be reached - God's mind is our mind and our mind is God's mind. (Note. One God - the Father, the Son (Christ) & the Holy Spirit as Trinity)

Biblical calendar base 7

Today is Good Friday, when I was contemplating on the subject of Good Friday and Easter this morning, beside thanks; the idea of Biblical calendar flew into my mind.

Most our memorial dates are marked by “a day within a month”. Good Friday and Easter are special in a way that they are marked by “a day within a week” of the month of April. Period cycle of the Bible viewpoint goes by weeks (unit of 7 days) - this 7 days cycle can be seen as the Biblical calendar. I think that begins with God used 7 days to create the universe.

Year and day marking is planetary reference base - the earth going around the sun once defines a year; and the earth self-rotated once defines a day. However, there is no planetary marking for a week. The base of a week is the reference to the creation of the universe. Following that, Bible loves to use this 7-days cycle to mark Biblical importance day (to do with man and God relationship) – Passover, good Friday & Easter.

Then I think of mathematics. People like to use base 10 for ease of arithmetic, I guess because most of us have 10 fingers by nature. Computers usually use base 2 (even base 16 is categorized into 2 bytes, and bytes disintegrate into bits) to perform its calculation because of its on-bit and off-bit nature. God uses base 7 to mark his relationship with man because of His character of life (7 days of creation) and relationship (Passover, Good Friday, Easter)?