Posts filed under 'Articles'
In the August 30 Straits Times, Mother Teresa’s crisis of faith was featured. A full write up is in Times magazine. What she went through most of her life questiong God while serving the poor was shocking to some people.
She wrote: In my soul I feel just that terrible pain of loss of God not wanting me- of God not being God - of God not existing.
Some atheists considered her a crypto atheist, a hidden atheist. They find it hard to believe that doubt is a necessary part of one’s journey of faith. They seem to think believers are constant, without ups and downs.
Faithful men have also been through what Teresa experienced. I am sure many full time workers know what she went through. Maybe this may be where the commonality ends?
A well known bible figure who went through much anguish was Job. The book of Job is a very raw book. There is no cover up about Job’s struggle, anguish, questions and bewilderment as to why he had to go through his ordeal.
In Job’s case, he suffered not because of his own sins. He suffered because of Satan’s actions. Teresa and many full time workers may suffer because of their own choices and beliefs. They suffer because they chose to be involved in other people’s lives. Teresa could have gone back to her family. I think I read somewhere she from well-to-do one. She could easily donated money instead she gave herself in service.
They all share one thing in common too with Job. Read Job 3. He was so miserable to the extent of cursing the day he was born. Like Job, Teresa and others might be in anguish wanting God to answer them in a certain way. We learn from Job’s case God did not answer to his question as to why he had to suffer. The only answer Job needed to know is: God IS the ultimate answer. Trust and obey there is no other way.
God is a Spirit. We too have a spirit. He made us in His image. In darkness where there is no answers in terms of our physical understanding, we must learn to see the unseen Light - Jesus Himself.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
It is easier said.
The anguish if you have been through it as well, is quite unbearable. The more you question “Why?”, the worse it becomes.
Cognitively we have to come to terms with the following:
1. We have to distinguish between Existence and our preferred form of Response.
God exists whether He answers or not in the way we like. The sun exists even at night even though physically we do not feel or see it. Its existence has nothing to do with our preference. God exists even if you do not like Him or His way. He exists so you have to reckon with Him regardless….
2. He is the only answer
3. All that we need to know about life and godliness has been revealed.
How? Through a knowledge of Him.
He has given how to live and what we need to be like Him , godly and “to partake in His divine nature”
2 Peter 1:3-5 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Doubt is part of faith building. Doubt is like when you walk in the dark.
You slide your foot forward. Tapping with your foot, shifting your weight to see whether it is firm before you have the assurance and hope, to totally place your weight on to the next step forward to the unknown. The only assurance you have is the invisible One holding your hand while you test your footing.
The more you step forward in faith even when things do not go as you wished, with a transformed mind, you will prove to yourself what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (You may hear God say, “See I told you so! Just trust Me”)
Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
People who serve others go through periods of dark nights. In such times you feel unappreciated. You feel lost and even unwanted. Everyone expects you to do something yet encouragement and comfort do not seem to be reciprocated by those you serve. You just wish someone will cares. Unfortunately, like demanding children, they demand more and more from you. In such times, you wonder: where is my help? where is my comfort. If God cares where is He?
In my own experience I told God I can’t see Him. I need more than a Book to tell me He loves me. I need a real person to care for me, to love just as I am.
SILENCE.
Coming to terms:
Maybe we can’t see Him in these dark times because we are not pure in our inner being. We are tainted by our deep desires to serve Him OUR WAY and we expect Him to respond on OUR TERMS.
Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
September 7th, 2007
1 Corinthians 1:12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
Are you of Ira Rice? Are you of Harding? Are you of School of Memphis? What camp are you from?
Are you of PP? Are you of Moulmein? Klang? Jurong? What camp are you with?
As mentioned in Part 1 and 2, churches of Christ are in a mess. Our dirty linen is catalogued in Wikipedia.
How do we proceed from here? Here is my suggestion for you to fast and pray for. Maybe God will enlighten you to be one of the many sparks to labour towards unity in the brotherhood. It is a long journey. It may take a decade or more before we are truly united as Jesus prayed for before His return.
My suggestions:
1. Fast and pray for yourself to be pure in heart and a peacemaker. Matt.5:8-9
We have in our own way, have deliberately, unwittingly, passively, actively contributed to the division in the brotherhood. Pray for yourself that God may use you to be the light in your own congregation to make peace in His Name.
2. How did Paul deal with the division and sins of the Corinthian church?
He went back to what Jesus did. He reminded them that they were a church of God, sanctified, called to be saints.
1 Corinthians 1:2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
We did not sanctify ourselves. However messy the church in Corinth was, they were still a church of God. This is the benchmark they had to remember and repent towards in order to be united. Paul still addressed them as a church of God even when he knew their sins which he dealt with later.
In his introduction, Paul mentioned something that was important - baptism.
1 Corinthians 1:13 Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?
If it was not important, why would he even mention it? Would it make sense if he said, “Did you carry the kavadi for Cephas? In whose name did you carry the kavadi? It is significant that baptism is part ofthe message of how they became a church of God in the first place.
Baptism is part of the gospel. Without which one’s sins are not washed away yet. Acts 22:16.
If not washed away, are you saved?
3. We worship in spirit and truth. We tend to emphasise a lot on the Truth portion of this AND statement from John 4:23.
We need to be pure in our Spirit as well. I often wonder why Jesus mentioned Spirit first instead of Truth.
Brethren who are divisive as a result of their zeal to “contend for their faith” tend to reason from the Truth portion of the equation in John 4:23.
Yes we must….
1. “Contend for the faith” Jude 3
2. We must show “fruit of repentance” Lk. 3:8
3. We must deal with false teachings and evil behaviours which poison the flock Rev.2-3
Yes we certainly must do so within our own local congregation! BUT….did Jesus scold the churches in Revelaton to sort out other congregations as well?
Let us know consider the Spirit portion as well, after all the equation is an AND statement.
Does our spirit show we are living epistles in our response to these questions below:
1. Is each congregation autonomous?
2. Do we have a headquarters?
3. Is there a separate priesthood?
4. Do elders oversee multiple congregation? Are you an elder?
5. Is the Holy Spirit God?
6. Does the Holy Spirit work through the Word, Logos? Does He convict us through the Word?
7. Is the Holy Spirit able to do immeasurably beyond what you can think or imagine?
8. The Holy Spirit will certainly not contradict the Father and Son. But do you know everything about the HOW and WHEN the Holy Spirit works in a person? Does He need to update you and I?
9. Luke 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance.
To whom must you bring forth fruit of repentance? Who decides the timing when a person will repent? Who is the judge who decide whether you have truly done so? Is this person from another congregation?
10. Are you an apostle? Are you endowed miraclulously with infallibility?
What do you do if you suspect there are false teachings elsewhere which may spread to your congregation?
Apart from knowing and teaching the Truth to your flock, know also your place. Have we in our earnest contended for the faith and have made ourselves God’s Grand Inquisitor, His spirtual gestapo of other congregtions?
If we claim we believe the Holy Spiit works through the Word, then teach the Word without name calling; without calling a specific person elsewhere a false teacher. If what you teach is from the Word, the Word will convict the people of that congregation whom you wish to ‘rescue’ from. In this manner if your allegation is false then what you teach is either educational, intellectually entertaining or a load of hot air! If you start name calling by drawing in others in the allegation, you have committed a serious sin of slander if proven to be false. Not forgetting a presumptuous sin of assuming you are a headquarters for others to submit to. If what you teach is true, the Holy Spirit in His time and manner will convict the local congregation to purge themselves. If not they will suffer the same fate as the churches of Asia in Revelation. (Interesting, we are also in Asia)
The Holy Spirit does not need to report to us His timing.
John 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
If God does not remove the tares, aren’t we a bit audacious to want to rid of false teachers in other churches by name calling?
How many christians in the churches of Christ have fallen because they were caught in this “axing the root” Mat 3:10 by some self proclaimed Messiah from US and his representative locally?
Matthew 13:29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
Teach the Word in all seasons, every where without witch hunting.
How true what Isaiah wrote:
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
February 16th, 2007
1 Corinthians 1:12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
Are you of Ira Rice? Are you of Harding? Are you of Memphis School? Are you of Lucado? Are you of Sunset School? what camp are you?
Divisions abound among the sisters churches of Christ.
How did we get ourselves in such a mess?It is true that people have different personalities, views, approaches.. This is true regardless of what business we are in, secular or our Father’s business.
My prejudiced view is the underlying cause of division points to us not being true to what we claim. One such area is autonomy.
Autonomy of each congregation is mentioned often as a biblical characteristic of a true church, yet in my 29 years as a Christian, I do not recall having been taught what it takes to be autonomous. Associated with autonomy is that we do not have a headquarters and we are all priests thus there is no separate priesthood. Even elders oversee the congregation that installed them. They are not elders of multiple congregations. Are we true to what we claim?
The churches in Malaysia and Singapore have been around for more than 30 years. Yet we show behaviors of dependency on US brethren. This I believe is the crux of the problem of division among the churches. Learning from US is not the same as dependent on US. We can learn from any one including pagans, nature, newspaper, including other people’s mistakes etc. This does not mean we are dependent on or require approval from them before we dare to act within our own autonomous congregation in another country.
The fault does not lie with the US brethren. The fault lies with our dependence on US. We do have a headquarters! The emotional and psychological headquarters is USA. We do have a separate priesthood. It is the priesthood of "scholars and the educated" from US. Without their blessings and confirmation you may be in danger of disfellowship. Without inviting them, we are unable to hold a gospel meeting. We are tied to the apron string which really is a purse string thus the local minister sponsored by US must toe the line and he has to prove to them their money’s worth. We look for "brotherhood " teaching materials. Is there a headquarters that vet through the materials with a stamp of approval? Is the bible not self sufficient until and unless this "brotherhood" body approves? Why do we still need a US missionary in Malaysia and Singapore? When are we going to grow up after more than 30 years in this region? If we are not ready now do we want to make an effort to cut the apron string from Mama USA so that in a couple of years we are truly autonomous?
Every seed produces its own kind. Its own divisive kind has been reproduced locally and has reared its ugly head for many years in the matter of disfellowship. Ponder on these questions:
1. How is it a brother from a small town Malaysian congregation, dictate sister churches to disfellowship a brother from another congregation? Who appointed him to lord over others?
2. How is such a brother given free rein with the audacity to dictate what congregations in Singapore ought to do when it is different country? Since when is he the authority to oversee his perceived diocese of Malaysia and Singapore?
3. Such a brother depends on the latest news from US when he can easily travel to any congregation in Malaysia and Singapore to check his facts. How did he get away with slandering a brother who lives close to him based on assertions from some US Pharisees living several thousand kilometres away? Are they his headquarters? Are they his separate priesthood who approve his action?
What do you do with such a brother? Should such a one who lives by the sword die by the same sword of disfellowship by sister congregations? 
We must worship God in sprit and truth. John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Notice it says spirit AND truth. We harp a lot on the truth portion but we emphasise little on the spirit part. We also forget that it is an AND statement meaning both are necessary. If someone who is perceived to be teaching something not truth but with the right spirit, he is in danger of being disfellowship…..so…. someone who is doctrinally correct yet divisive in spirit should be disfellowship as well. Right?
What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Since denomination means division, thus such a brother who is divisive is denominaionalist too, a son of Satan the Accuser?
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Matthew 23:3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
Such a brother is denominationalist based on his spirit of division which manifest itself as such
1. Having US as his emotional and psychological headquarters
2. Depending on US as his source of information to disfellowship local brethren without speaking with the accused from another congregtion within and outside his own country as well.
3. Lording over other congregations as if it is his diocese and he is a local representative of the US headquarters.
I repeat, the issue is not learning from any one including US brethren, but the dependence on US as manifests in our behaviour.
So what do you think? As I said in my Part 1 on this topic, I am not seeking your agreement to my views. If I have provoked you to work towards unity even if you disagree with me on approach, I think we are starting the journey of rebuilding after so many years of tearing each other down.
How then do we move forward?
Watch out in Part 3 for some suggestions for us to fast and pray.
January 30th, 2007
I have been wanting to write my plea for a long time but hesitate as to whether it was worth it. I was provoked when I saw what was written about the churches of Christ in Wikipedia. If you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Christ, you will find our dirty linen publicly displayed. How could a group of people who aspire “to speak where the bible speak and be silent when the bible is silent” split itself into so many fragments? It is true that Wikipedia may not have good quality control of its content but for those who have been in the church long enough, the issues listed resonate with bad feelings.
I am writing from my personal perspective. I have my prejudice as well. I write not to seek your agreement on what the solution is but pleading to all to fast and pray for clean hearts starting with your own. Maybe with pure hearts, we can start the journey of building one-ness among ourselves for the next generation. We have in our own ways, by our actions or negligence contributed to the current state of disunity among the sister churches in particular in Malaysia and Singapore.
My journey started when I was a student in Muar, Johor. I came from a Catholic school and was blessed with a primary school teacher who told Bible stories during “Story Time” class. When I grew older I often wondered why there were so many denominations. In my High School, a sister who was my senior invited my classmate to the church of Christ. I went instead of him because I was curious about their claim “speak where the bible speak, be silent when the bible is silent”. I was baptised in 1978, in a muddy pond in Tanjung Muar, near the river mouth. The brother who baptised me is now in JB. Another brother who gave me my first bible became a Muslim after a split over “the One Cup” doctrine! This was the first of many splits I have heard of.
After my HSC, I came to Singapore to further my studies in the University. Prior to my coming I was warned not to go to a ‘liberal’ church, Queenstown church of Christ. I went to Moulmein instead for a first visit. On my way home after church my bus passed by YWCA where I noticed a church of Christ banner. I visited that church and realised it was the Queenstown church in Havelock Road. What was so liberal about this church? I checked and studied and found nothing amiss. I stayed for close to 25 years. The folks who told me that this church was liberal had themselves not visited and confirmed their slander. This very spirit is still around perpetuating its venom.
We do have a noble aim of wanting to be true to the purity of the scripture. We are taught that denominationlism is sinful because it is divisive. We want to restore what was broken. In the process, is our righteous attempt equally “filter rags” ( Isa. 64:6)?
Let me share my thoughts of the sad state from my prejudiced point of view in subsequent entries. In the meantime, I plead with the sister churches to have the same mind in the Lord
James
October 28th, 2006
http://members.aol.com/d4web4sm/muqaddas/bttrbods.htm
Alcohol:Does the Bible really condone alcoholic drink ?
Allan and Gretchen Ashusrt
In the Authorized Version of the Bible the word wine is translated
from several Hebrew words in the Old Testament and two Greek words
in the New Testament.
“WINE” IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
The words most frequently translated wine are Yayin and Tirosh.
Yayin is a generic term which can refer to either non-alcoholic or
alcoholic grape juice. It is one of the words used where God’s
disapproval. is expressed.
Tirosh refers to fresh non-alcoholic grape juice. It is never used
when expressing disapproval except in Hosea 4:11. Even there it is
not referring to drunkenness [”whoredom and wine and new wine take
away the heart (understanding)” The phrase “take away the
understanding” cannot mean “makes drunk” because whoredom does not
inebriate].
It is evident that God disapproves the drinking of alcoholic wine in
the Old Testament. The variant meanings of the several Hebrew words
translated wine are lost in English translations.
“WINE” IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Greek word gleukos - meaning fresh sweet grape juice - is used
once - sarcastically - in Acts 2:13.
The only other Greek word translated wine - oinos - is a generic
term like tirosh, So it is wrong to assume that “wine” means
alcoholic wine unless the context requires it.
THE CUP AT THE LORD’S SUPPER
The content of the cup is consistently refered to as “fruit of the
vine” and never called “wine”. It is wicked to offer alcohol to
someone who has problems with alcoholism.
For more detail discussion , go to Fred Miller’s site
http://www.ao.net/~fmoeller/winebk.htm
July 11th, 2005
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