Revelation over reason

Why are revelations so important?

We cannot trust reason unaided.

We cannot be sure of the purity of our will.

Our senses unable to empirically explain all of reality.

The world has come into the word

It is not the word coming into the world but rather the world coming into the word.

For example, it is not the words that defines that your favourite rock song but the images associated with the words; the world of the images.

That's why television triumph over radio. It blasts you with images that you can associate with words. Be careful of false imageries portrayed by the media. Classic case would be the romanticizing of evil; Good is boring. it's cool and hip to be evil.

Luke 11:34

"The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when  your eye  is bad, your body also is full of darkness."

You can be sure that they'll attack us

They hit us with cosmological attack.

They hit us with design attack.

Finally, out of desperation, they picked on a major argument, the moral argument. If only they could make Jesus seemed immoral, make Him more like you and I, then they can knock off the rest of the arguments.

But the life of Jesus was spotless. Even the thief beside Him on the cross said He did no wrong. Pilate says he finds no fault in that Man. Never a life lived like His.

Absoluteness in relationships

I love my wife. Perhaps i know and understand her more than anybody else. However I'll only know the things that she reveals to me. Those that she doesn't, I've yet to know. In time, maybe she'll reveal of herself to me.

Few things to note here:

- You do not know a person absolutely in a relationship.

- You do not demand to know or ask the person the proof himself/herself.

- More dimensions about the person are being revealed over time.

- Humility is the key in wooing after revelations the person.

- Arrogance repels the other party.

Isn't that the same in our relationship with God?

The Good Librarian

http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the-good-librarian/

The article above talked about being a good librarian is essential in any field or career. I would think it essential to be a good follower of Christ too.

- Logging down your revelations
- Logging down past spiritual victories for personal encouragement
- Having a system of highlighting and finding interesting points in the Bible

The story of the farmer's will

A farmer died leaving all his fertile lands and houses at the mercy of his will that he made before he died.

A judge in charged of carrying out his will was perplexed after reading the will as it said "My will is to leave all my lands and possesions to Satan the devil.".

After months of deliberation the judge finally gave his verdict.

"Let all the lands of the farmer be overidden by weeds and his possesions to rot away with the passage of time. In my opinion the best way to give them to Satan the devil is to do nothing about them.".

Are desires really bad?

Consider the following:

- I desire to love my wife

- I desire to love and honor my parents

- I desire to protect my child

- I desire to treat my neighbours with respect

Are desires really bad?

Freedom operates in a controlled environment

Martin Luther King once said,

"A fish is free in waters and not on land."

And may I add that not just any waters but only the clean ones.

The desire conundrum in Buddism

In zen Buddism, the root of problems is desire itself. So in order to achieve nirvana, one has to desire getting rid of one's desires.

The ship out in the sea

C.S. Lewis gave this illustration that goes something like this.

A ship out in the sea must answer three basic questions:

1. Why is it out at sea in the first place?

2. How to keep it from sinking?

3. How to prevent bumping into other ships?

If the first question isn't answered then the rest aren't meaningful.

Do you know why you're out at sea in the first place?

Truth has been subverted by agnosticism

We pride ourselves that we don't know. Skepticism is the hallmark of university education today. You can go campus after campus and they deny the possibility of knowing. So you basically come out of an university education saying "You cannot believe anything. You cannot know anything.". Agnosticism is the badge of honor in today's education.

"To give truth to him who loves it not is to give him room for misintepretation."

Back closer to heart, in any interpersonal confrontation, the first question to ask is whether the other person is telling the truth. Intent is prior to content. How can then we have meaningful discussion if we don't know what's truth in the first place?

The desks of scientists and philisophers

Victor Frankl, jewish philosopher, survivor of the holocaust, gave the following statement.

"I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka and Maidanek were ultimately prepared, not in some ministry or the other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers."

The Book of Eli

In the movie The Book of Eli starring Denzel Washington, it tells of a post apocalyptic world where societies are reduced to scrapping for resources and humans are illiterate except for a few "older" folks who were there before The War. There remains only a single copy of the King James Bible which is in the custody of Denzel Washington's character Eli. The show ends with The Book in the hands of the bad who can't read it because its in braille. Eli managed to reach his destination in the west where humans managed to reproduce text and he was able recite the Bible from memory.

A great reminder that we should really read and know the Word of God. Commit verses to memory for it's your weapon. Cherish it for you will never know when it might be taken away from you and you can only rely on what's in your head. Also beware of over reliance on technology ie. Electronical Bibles, even the physical copy which sometimes serves more as a prop to some people than as a dimension to knowing Him better.

What does it mean to be a Christian?

First of all, a breakdown of the word "christian".

Christian -- followers of Christ

Christ -- the Anointed One

How do you know if you're as christian? Is Christ the LORD over your life? Are you anointed? Do you have the Holy Spirit in you?

Don't be a sucker

In things concerning life, you can either be a sucker or a contributor.

Don't be a sucker! Get commited and start contributing!

Miracles and breakthroughs cannot happen when you're feeding off others.

So the converse is true and who's to gain when you get committed and fulfill obligations? You! Can't stress that enough.

Are all religions the same?

First of all the law of non contradiction -- in order for logic to hold true it must not contradict itself. Eg. If kettle is white then it cannot be black at the same time.

Jesus says that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. It is an exclusive statement and in order for logic to hold it implies that others ARE NOT the way, the truth and the life.

Many say this statement "religions are fundamentally the same" when the converse is the truth. That is,

"Religions are superficially the same but fundamentally different."

Yes almost all religions teaches followers to do good; an expression of that faith. But if you look at the doctrines, you'll find stark contrast.

Jesus, if mentioned in other religions at all, is only reflected in the Bible as the divine being who came down to earth to put on the sins of the world as a sacrificial lamb and emerged victorious against death so we that may have everlasting life if we believe in it and accept Him as our Lord and Saviour.

Apologetics and the embodiment of love of Christ

Apologetics must affirm each of these distinctives without allowing any of them to be the monopoly;

We have a place for the rational.

We have a place for the empirical.

We have a place for the existential.

We have a place for the measure of humanity.

We do not take a single strand of epistomology and make it the fist of all reality; where the question is a rational one, we give a rational answer. Where its an existential one, we give an existential answer.

Jesus is the embodiment of all the prophets. As long as we reach out with the love of Christ, its hard to ignore that there's something special about the gospel.

The converse is true. If we say that we love our spouse but do not embody that love. If the church loves the world but doesn't show the love and care. Yes, the embodiment of the cross.

Only the Judeo-Christian worldview can take a beating

You wouldnt dare to oppose Islam in a muslim country

You wouldnt dare to oppose Hinduism in India

You wouldnt dare to oppose Buddhism in Thailand

You wouldnt dare to oppose Naturalism in academia

Only the Judeo-Christian worldview offers the freedom of raising points against it and still commands us to love those still.

What is culture?

Culture is an effort to find a coherent set of answers to the existential questions to confronts all of us through the passages of our lives. -- Ravi Zacharias

Questioning vs Doubting

When you question you take one step back.

When you doubt you take all the steps back and stop believing.

Why belong to a church?

Where we submit to Christ in faith, we submit to a congregation in the expression of this faith.

Why does the message of Jesus Christ brings such scorn?

Proposition:

The ultimate answer to problems isn't political, governmental, social philosophical or physiological efforts but rather the fact that our heart is rebelling against God and Jesus Christ is the one that can only transform us.

Why is it scorned?
Many will scorn because by definition and proposition it's exclusive. We have other name to offer except the name of Jesus Christ.


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