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I enjoyed the metaphor of seeing a loved one at the airport. That feeling is always evident when I met my wife at the airport after prolonged absence from home especially during my 2 year stint in Australia for my masters degree. I believe the same would happen if Jesus receives me at the Pearly Gates of Heaven. I also believe that Jesus would be even happier than me when we meet.
Recently, I went through something that got me thinking. I got attack of the Kidney stones. To some people, the pain from kidney stones is so painful it is only second to child birth. Since I am not a woman and thus do not have the capacity to give birth, then it is true that we guys would have experience extreme pain in the form of Kidney stone 'invasion'. Of course there is the other extreme pain of a slower and deadly kind: cancer. Both of which would cause one to call out for help to the Lord.
I guess Jeremiah went through something that cause him to react as such and I share his sentiments exactly some point in that process of pain.
Why do I keep on suffering? Why are my wounds incurable? Why won't they heal? Do you intend to disappoint me like a stream that goes dry in the summer?"
(Jeremiah 15:18)
So what am I trying to share here?
Well...in short: death, hope & joy. The pain to me was so extreme that the first thing that I did was to call on the Lord and remind myself through the Isaiah verse on healing
(ASV) But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
So what happened next? The pain was not relieved, I have to call an ambulance to get to the hospital. I kept praying, I kept rebuking the devil that he has no right to harm me in Jesus' name, I keep pleading with the Lord to relieve the pain.
But while in the ambulance, that 10 min ride feels like an eternity in hell with that unbearable pain. All of a sudden, a thought came into my mind. "God if it is your Will, bring me home now!" I may never know if that's a desperate cry of relieve or just that I believe that God will receive me into heaven where it is definitely a better place than the pain that I am in.
On reflection, it is a really a little of both. And on deeper reflection I asked myself why I am so ready to go to heaven. I would assume since I am so young, so many things to do, have kids, enjoy some life with family and friends. So normally people would fight, so why didn't I?
Then it occur to me that Jesus is so real in my life that whatever He says about heaven is real as well. I believe that a mansion is waiting for me. I believe that I will get a new body where no such 'nonsense' would happen again. I believe that communion with God will be an extreme joyous experience in heaven.
So there is Hope, the positive expectation of good things to occur, especially when God is so good to me despite my weaknesses. And it is this Hope that allows me to see death as the only obstacle towards the attainment of a better life. But now even death is conquered by Christ! The only way that we would not see death is the Lord comes for us who are alive now on earth and I believe it will be really soon.
By the very fact that I am in extreme pain, it causes me to see something that is so unique to the Hope that we have in Jesus. This Hope will happen despite what will happen to us even in death....because we have this Hope, that's why we have the unspeakable JOY in ALL circumstances. This Joy is not manufactured by us, it is given through the real knowledge of who God is. And this Hope will not disappoint...
This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to us.
(Romans 5:5)
Some people would say, "Hey God is testing you through pain. You will learn something out of it." Well, my perspective of God is my Abba in heaven is so good to me that He has sent His son to die for me. So why would such a father bring bad things upon me when He has sacrificed his son. It just does not make sense.
Either God has to be good or He has not decided how to act consistently. Since God is unchanging (Malachi 3:6) so He has to be consistently good all the time, everytime. If that is so, then it is not in God's nature to give pain or even allow pain to happen after Jesus redemptive work on the cross.
How would someone hang unto God through Hope if God is inconsistent in the dealings with His creation, especially the redeemed ones?
Yes I have learnt something about death, the hope to come and the joy that emerges. But I have learn something even more important: it is NOT God who gives me the pain. Why? A loving Father would not punish His children whose sins, in the past, in the present and in the future, are already forgiven. So what is left for us? If it is not punishment then the opposite is true: reward.
And to me that reward of faith will give us the ultimate reward one can have: eternal life (John 3:16). For this very reason, Christ the babe comes from heaven unto earth.
So what happened to Jeremiah after he complained about the pain?
Jeremiah 15:19-21
(19) To this the LORD replied, "If you return, I will take you back, and you will be my servant again. If instead of talking nonsense you proclaim a worthwhile message, you will be my prophet again. The people will come back to you, and you will not need to go to them.
(20) I will make you like a solid bronze wall as far as they are concerned. They will fight against you, but they will not defeat you. I will be with you to protect you and keep you safe.
(21) I will rescue you from the power of wicked and violent people. I, the LORD, have spoken."
So Jeremiah need to go back to God for His protection (v21). What's more now we are perpetually in Christ, so the protection is ever present, guaranteed by God
By the way, God has better plans for me (Jer 29:11) and I got healed very fast (hospitalised 4.30am, OK at 8am). Thank God those stones are not 1 carat diamonds!
It is very interesting that a brush with excruciating pain, gives birth to a fresh revelation of God. I hope that by my sharing, blessings will come forth especially when we again celebrate the birth of Christ and looking forward to the return of Christ.
Friday, December 08, 2006
Friday, November 24, 2006
Faith fulfills the Law through Christ
Berean sent another teaching today on Romans 2. You may want to check it out here:
http://theberean.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Home.showBerean/BereanID/3690/Romans-2-12-13
Generally this is what brother John W. Ritenbaugh is saying:
- It is God's will that we live moral lives through living by the law
- That law only applies to non-Christians and Christians alike
- We will be judged according to what we know (of the law)
Next I want to emphasize on this paragraph,
"The called must realize that, because of their calling, the requirements—and thus the judgments—are much stiffer since they know so much more. This is why Paul says in Romans 3:31, "Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law." Faith upholds law or makes it firm because the law points out what righteousness, love, and sin are, and guides us in how faith is to be used." The Berean Email Blash, John Ritenbaugh
Now why am I so hard on brother John on what he is trying to say here? Ok...is the law important? Yes it is....and why is it important? Because the law points to our weaknesses and thus our unholiness and to justify our need for a saviour. It is that simple.
Faith establishes the law? I think brother John got it really wrong here. The whole passage, if read carefully, point to Apostle Paul's arguments that by faith we fulfill the law. Or we can cover the law by faith. How do we know that?
Very simply, in chapter 4 verse 13 (using NLT) it says:
"It is clear, then, that God's promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendents was not based on obedience to God's law, but on the new relationship with God that comes by faith."
If we are to look into chapter 3 and 4 as a whole especially these two verses and particular chapter 3 verse 31, we can deduce easily that the argument that law is important so that faith is needed to establish it does not seem to merge with Chapter 4 verse 13. Very quickly, brother John argues that law is important whereas Apostle Paul who says that "it is clear" that the new relationship with God do not come by law but by faith!
If that's the case, chapter 4 verse 13 would match exactly to the whole epistle of what Apostle Paul is teaching...that we are dead to law and alive to God by faith through the Grace of God, through the work on the cross.
Brother John is trying to establish the rule of law in the Christian life which is not what Jesus wants to do. Jesus has establish our right to be sons of God not because of our obedience to the law, but because we believe in the work on the cross. Jesus has already fulfilled the law on our behalf when He was judged on the cross. So by the act of fulfilling the law, are we saying that Jesus sacrifice is not enough?
"Now this wonderful truth - that God declared him to be righteous - wasn't just for Abraham's benefit. It was for us, too, assuring us that God will also declare us to be righteous if we believe in God, who brought Jesus our Lord back from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised from the dead to make us right with God." Romans 4:23-25
Brother John is right. God wants us to be perfect, and to be perfect means to be moral and to be moral is basically be right with God: being righteous. That's the reason why morality have standards. But has brother John realised that by knowing those standards, what is God trying to tell us? That the law just tells us that we can never be moral. As Jesus has asked, "Who is good?"
But there's another use of the law, that is guide us in our daily living IN THE HOLY SPIRIT. Now the spirit of the message in Paul's letter to the Romans is fundamentally different from message that brother John is trying to espouse here. Brother John is saying that we ought to live by the law to be justified by God or we will be judged by God.
Apostle Paul's epistle is saying the opposite. By living in faith, we are already living by the law since faith gives righteousness thus righteousness fulfills the law automatically.
The beauty of all this is that by living in faith, the Holy Spirit can work in us and through us to enable us to live out the law in our flesh. This is different because we are already saved by believing and believing will allow us to work our way to the image that God's has originally planned.
Belief/faith can never happen if we fulfill all the law. Faith is needed before we do anything. If we fulfill the law first, then there is no need for faith. For example, I believe in God in giving me a good job but if out of my own strength I found a job, do I need faith to get it? No..because I already got the job.
But work through faith is different from work through law or works. One has belief in God to give whereas the other has belief in self to gain.
We ought to live in faith since by law, we can never attain righteousness.
http://theberean.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Home.showBerean/BereanID/3690/Romans-2-12-13
Generally this is what brother John W. Ritenbaugh is saying:
- It is God's will that we live moral lives through living by the law
- That law only applies to non-Christians and Christians alike
- We will be judged according to what we know (of the law)
Next I want to emphasize on this paragraph,
"The called must realize that, because of their calling, the requirements—and thus the judgments—are much stiffer since they know so much more. This is why Paul says in Romans 3:31, "Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law." Faith upholds law or makes it firm because the law points out what righteousness, love, and sin are, and guides us in how faith is to be used." The Berean Email Blash, John Ritenbaugh
Now why am I so hard on brother John on what he is trying to say here? Ok...is the law important? Yes it is....and why is it important? Because the law points to our weaknesses and thus our unholiness and to justify our need for a saviour. It is that simple.
Faith establishes the law? I think brother John got it really wrong here. The whole passage, if read carefully, point to Apostle Paul's arguments that by faith we fulfill the law. Or we can cover the law by faith. How do we know that?
Very simply, in chapter 4 verse 13 (using NLT) it says:
"It is clear, then, that God's promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendents was not based on obedience to God's law, but on the new relationship with God that comes by faith."
If we are to look into chapter 3 and 4 as a whole especially these two verses and particular chapter 3 verse 31, we can deduce easily that the argument that law is important so that faith is needed to establish it does not seem to merge with Chapter 4 verse 13. Very quickly, brother John argues that law is important whereas Apostle Paul who says that "it is clear" that the new relationship with God do not come by law but by faith!
If that's the case, chapter 4 verse 13 would match exactly to the whole epistle of what Apostle Paul is teaching...that we are dead to law and alive to God by faith through the Grace of God, through the work on the cross.
Brother John is trying to establish the rule of law in the Christian life which is not what Jesus wants to do. Jesus has establish our right to be sons of God not because of our obedience to the law, but because we believe in the work on the cross. Jesus has already fulfilled the law on our behalf when He was judged on the cross. So by the act of fulfilling the law, are we saying that Jesus sacrifice is not enough?
"Now this wonderful truth - that God declared him to be righteous - wasn't just for Abraham's benefit. It was for us, too, assuring us that God will also declare us to be righteous if we believe in God, who brought Jesus our Lord back from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised from the dead to make us right with God." Romans 4:23-25
Brother John is right. God wants us to be perfect, and to be perfect means to be moral and to be moral is basically be right with God: being righteous. That's the reason why morality have standards. But has brother John realised that by knowing those standards, what is God trying to tell us? That the law just tells us that we can never be moral. As Jesus has asked, "Who is good?"
But there's another use of the law, that is guide us in our daily living IN THE HOLY SPIRIT. Now the spirit of the message in Paul's letter to the Romans is fundamentally different from message that brother John is trying to espouse here. Brother John is saying that we ought to live by the law to be justified by God or we will be judged by God.
Apostle Paul's epistle is saying the opposite. By living in faith, we are already living by the law since faith gives righteousness thus righteousness fulfills the law automatically.
The beauty of all this is that by living in faith, the Holy Spirit can work in us and through us to enable us to live out the law in our flesh. This is different because we are already saved by believing and believing will allow us to work our way to the image that God's has originally planned.
Belief/faith can never happen if we fulfill all the law. Faith is needed before we do anything. If we fulfill the law first, then there is no need for faith. For example, I believe in God in giving me a good job but if out of my own strength I found a job, do I need faith to get it? No..because I already got the job.
But work through faith is different from work through law or works. One has belief in God to give whereas the other has belief in self to gain.
We ought to live in faith since by law, we can never attain righteousness.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Islam Radicals Obsession with War
Aish.com sent something over today which is quite interesting. It is promoting a movie that talks about radical Islam trying to take over the world. This is interesting especially the fact that I am living in the midst of fellow citizens who are Muslims and have friends who are Muslims.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,227393,00.html
http://www.ObsessionTheMovie.com
Now I read with interest about someone who can read Arabic in the fox news forum Q&A about the documentary. This is what he Says and the producer of the documentary replied:
So to get a proper understanding on the teachings of Islam via the Quran, they need the Hadith. Now I am not trying to ridicule Islam and its Holy Book but if claims to be perfect, then it has to be perfect to at least understand it without the need for external sources.
If one can read from the Old and New Testament, I think it is clear that the Bible is very clear for most parts except for some prophetic verses about the end times that need in depth studies. Even if there are prophetic dreams, the Bible included explanations to help the reader. Close to most cases, if a bible scholar is good enough and with the help of Holy Spirit, he or she is able to use the Bible to interpret the Bible verses and to come to a conclusion of what it is teaching.
Yes I am comparing these books. And I am really stepping on dangerous grounds here...however out of academic curiosity, wouldn't a perfect being able to do everything perfectly? So wouldn't a perfect book able to at least explain everything without the need for another external source?
Our finite minds can never know everything...however God will provide enough evidences about us like using nature to let us know that He is around. So in the same way, whatever the Bible teaches, it has allow us to 'compare notes' on what it claims are truths. We believe after certain things it said are true about human nature for example & the prophecy it has predicted that has come to pass. Most without the need for an external source to understand the bible.
I think that if God is of the opinion that we really need help, He would not use something we do not understand to pass the message that we need help. Christ comes amongst the Jews and spoke in the language of the day to pass His message, God then use Paul and the Apostles to preach in the language of the day to their audiences. As times went by, we now have, through God's providence, the bible in different languages. I would believe that if there isn't a way for God to reach the unsaved, He will make a way.
My belief in a all powerful God will do anything for the sake of human beings because of who He is; and that's is what Christ has done. If He needs us to do anything for Him in order for us to gain heaven, then God in a sense is not really powerful isn't it?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,227393,00.html
http://www.ObsessionTheMovie.com
Now I read with interest about someone who can read Arabic in the fox news forum Q&A about the documentary. This is what he Says and the producer of the documentary replied:
I read and speak Arabic. In the Arabic Koran, there are over 300 verses that declare "jihad" — killing and conquering all infidels. A Muslim told me that the Koran is perfect and it is to be believed and followed in its entireity. If Muslims follow the Koran, aren't they bound by the Koran to carry out its instructions; or do some Muslims not believe everything in the Koran? Wouldn't this make them infidels? This confuses me after reading the Arabic Koran and then watching your show on FOX News. What do you think? Thanks, Jim in Detroit
Raphael Shore: According to Islamic scholars, the Qur'an cannot be understood without secondary sources. One of these is the Sunnah (the example of Mohammed). One form of Sunnah is known as hadith (the sayings of Mohammed). According to Professor Shahul Hameed, "It is impossible to understand the Qur'an without reference to the Hadith; and it is impossible to explain a hadith without relating it to the Qur'an… Hadith, in practical terms, explains, clarifies, and paraphrases the Qur'an. If we reject the Hadith, we may misread the Qur'an; so Hadith is central to a proper understanding of the Qur'an." Within the context of these sources, there is room for interpretation. Take, for example, the word "jihad," which means "struggle." There are those who say that jihad means a struggle with others, to force them to submit to Islam by the sword, if necessary. Others say it refers to a struggle with oneself, to become a better person (this is discussed in "Obsession"). Another example of differing interpretations is homicide bombing. Many Radicals support this, and promote it as a quick route to paradise, while other clerics interpret the texts as strongly forbidding it under the prohibition against suicide. A great resource for more information is www.IslamOnline.net.
So to get a proper understanding on the teachings of Islam via the Quran, they need the Hadith. Now I am not trying to ridicule Islam and its Holy Book but if claims to be perfect, then it has to be perfect to at least understand it without the need for external sources.
If one can read from the Old and New Testament, I think it is clear that the Bible is very clear for most parts except for some prophetic verses about the end times that need in depth studies. Even if there are prophetic dreams, the Bible included explanations to help the reader. Close to most cases, if a bible scholar is good enough and with the help of Holy Spirit, he or she is able to use the Bible to interpret the Bible verses and to come to a conclusion of what it is teaching.
Yes I am comparing these books. And I am really stepping on dangerous grounds here...however out of academic curiosity, wouldn't a perfect being able to do everything perfectly? So wouldn't a perfect book able to at least explain everything without the need for another external source?
Our finite minds can never know everything...however God will provide enough evidences about us like using nature to let us know that He is around. So in the same way, whatever the Bible teaches, it has allow us to 'compare notes' on what it claims are truths. We believe after certain things it said are true about human nature for example & the prophecy it has predicted that has come to pass. Most without the need for an external source to understand the bible.
I think that if God is of the opinion that we really need help, He would not use something we do not understand to pass the message that we need help. Christ comes amongst the Jews and spoke in the language of the day to pass His message, God then use Paul and the Apostles to preach in the language of the day to their audiences. As times went by, we now have, through God's providence, the bible in different languages. I would believe that if there isn't a way for God to reach the unsaved, He will make a way.
My belief in a all powerful God will do anything for the sake of human beings because of who He is; and that's is what Christ has done. If He needs us to do anything for Him in order for us to gain heaven, then God in a sense is not really powerful isn't it?
Monday, November 06, 2006
Is The Theory of Grace an invention of Martin Luther?
I could not believe it that I saw something in Aish that is so blinded that I think the author, Rabbi Ken Spiro, should at least look at the claims that the 'theory' of Grace is not a theory at all...it is the Character of God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(The link: http://www.aish.com/literacy/jewishhistory/Crash_Course_in_Jewish_History__Part_50_-_The_Reformation_and_the_Jews.asp)
Here is my reply to the article:
Re: History Shows the Depravity of Men and the Need for God
To all,
I am a Christian and I understand the impact of history to how we live today. The sad part is that some people do not learn from history and thus history repeats itself, to the detriment of many.
Now I saw a comment that said Christians ought to be ashamed of themselves and stop believing in Christianity because of the atrocities that was committed. I think that is wrong and should not be imposed on people. Imagine me asking Jews to stop believing in Judaism just because someone who profess to be a practising Jew commits sins.
Fact is: we all are sinners. We are a given the status of righteousness by God purely by God's grace as what He has given to Abraham (Gen 15:6).
This is what I say. The church is by no means a perfect representation of God's goodness however due recognition should be given for the good that the church does in all times. To just showcase a person's failure and brand him as a bad person is not giving the person a chance to change for the better. If we keep hounding on a person's past, without the positive expectation of good in the form of improving, then we are condemning a person pre-maturely. That will be a sad day for all.
By the way, there's no such thing called 'theory' of Grace. On the contrary, Grace is the character of God that has shown to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and numerous Bible heros and also to me.
So did the church done evil in the name of religion? Yes I have to concede that fact. But does that mean that the church has not improve? I think the Rabbi has seen also that Christians are also supporters of Jews and the state of Israel. As with any relationship, forgiveness is the key to restore and build relationship. Let it be so while we learn about history too.
(The link: http://www.aish.com/literacy/jewishhistory/Crash_Course_in_Jewish_History__Part_50_-_The_Reformation_and_the_Jews.asp)
Here is my reply to the article:
Re: History Shows the Depravity of Men and the Need for God
To all,
I am a Christian and I understand the impact of history to how we live today. The sad part is that some people do not learn from history and thus history repeats itself, to the detriment of many.
Now I saw a comment that said Christians ought to be ashamed of themselves and stop believing in Christianity because of the atrocities that was committed. I think that is wrong and should not be imposed on people. Imagine me asking Jews to stop believing in Judaism just because someone who profess to be a practising Jew commits sins.
Fact is: we all are sinners. We are a given the status of righteousness by God purely by God's grace as what He has given to Abraham (Gen 15:6).
This is what I say. The church is by no means a perfect representation of God's goodness however due recognition should be given for the good that the church does in all times. To just showcase a person's failure and brand him as a bad person is not giving the person a chance to change for the better. If we keep hounding on a person's past, without the positive expectation of good in the form of improving, then we are condemning a person pre-maturely. That will be a sad day for all.
By the way, there's no such thing called 'theory' of Grace. On the contrary, Grace is the character of God that has shown to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and numerous Bible heros and also to me.
So did the church done evil in the name of religion? Yes I have to concede that fact. But does that mean that the church has not improve? I think the Rabbi has seen also that Christians are also supporters of Jews and the state of Israel. As with any relationship, forgiveness is the key to restore and build relationship. Let it be so while we learn about history too.
Friday, September 22, 2006
The Coffee Parable
The Coffee Parable:
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.
Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.
All the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.
Be assured that the cup itself, adds no quality to the coffee in most cases, just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.
What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups...and then began eyeing each other's cups.
Now consider this: Life is the coffee, and the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live.
Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us."
God brews the coffee, not the cups..........enjoy your coffee.
How true...but then again wouldn't it be nice to have a gold cup? hahahah...
Truth is, Jesus has given us the gold cup to put our coffee in, it is just that despite the gold cup that we already have, we still eye other cups which is inferior to what we have now. There lies the problem of the lack of contentment in our lives.
We have to be contented with the things that we have NOW. The friends that we have, the jobs that we do, the family we enjoy with, the house that we stay NOW.
The problem as I want to share personally is that despite being contented sometimes (yeah I am not completely contented...i am still dreaming about my car..at first was Mazda RX-8, then VW Golf GTI, Mitsubishi i and now Suzuki SX4...sooner or later I will downgraded myself to a motorcycle), there are also people around you that are not contented so much so there are a lot of pressures to perform to other's expectations.
And even if expectations are met, the problem lies in the other people's level of contentment. Sometimes things that are ok with you is not ok with people and vice versa.
It is true that we want the best of everything in life and it is ok to have good things in life. Actually our want to be at a better level in life does speaks of the need to have an environment that we will be happy in. It also speaks of our sinful nature as human beings because we are supposed to be in a better position as designed by God.
I do not know how to put this across well...deep down, I know that this world can be so much better than it is now but it has fallen short in so many areas. So even if we are in a better position, like staying in Singapore, we can lose sight of it all and complain like there is no tomorrow.
Jesus teaches that those who wants to keep their life will lose it and those who lose their life will keep it. It got me thinking a long time ago. I just started to realise.
It is by giving your life to Jesus, you are able to give up your expectations that you impose on yourself and on other people. You are able to be contented with what you have thereby gaining life so to say. If you keep your life, your expectations, you tenacity to get the good things in life, you lose the focus of what it is to have a good life, thereby losing your 'life' in that sense.
Thanks to the sister who shared this as I am sharing what I am reflecting on my working life these past few weeks. I realised that there's only so much one can do in a job, the rest of it is really depends on God's fantastic grace.
The issue that confronts me and most of us is that you do what you can, others in the company thinks that more can be done, even if doing it does not improve the situation unless it is God's plan. So either we choose to live in stress or to live in rest; i choose to live in the later and sometimes it requires some heart wrenching decision to do so. I think to lose sight of it all is a greater loss than to hang on and depend on your own strength.
But God is out to take care of us and each day will be better than the previous. We are to be contented what we have today because it is better than yesterday and definitely 10 years ago (student = no income), however we are also to look forward to a better day, with a better hope because we have God as our Father in heaven.
Therefore: Be Contented but also look forward to better things, that is the hope we have in God.
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.
Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.
All the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.
Be assured that the cup itself, adds no quality to the coffee in most cases, just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.
What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups...and then began eyeing each other's cups.
Now consider this: Life is the coffee, and the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live.
Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us."
God brews the coffee, not the cups..........enjoy your coffee.
How true...but then again wouldn't it be nice to have a gold cup? hahahah...
Truth is, Jesus has given us the gold cup to put our coffee in, it is just that despite the gold cup that we already have, we still eye other cups which is inferior to what we have now. There lies the problem of the lack of contentment in our lives.
We have to be contented with the things that we have NOW. The friends that we have, the jobs that we do, the family we enjoy with, the house that we stay NOW.
The problem as I want to share personally is that despite being contented sometimes (yeah I am not completely contented...i am still dreaming about my car..at first was Mazda RX-8, then VW Golf GTI, Mitsubishi i and now Suzuki SX4...sooner or later I will downgraded myself to a motorcycle), there are also people around you that are not contented so much so there are a lot of pressures to perform to other's expectations.
And even if expectations are met, the problem lies in the other people's level of contentment. Sometimes things that are ok with you is not ok with people and vice versa.
It is true that we want the best of everything in life and it is ok to have good things in life. Actually our want to be at a better level in life does speaks of the need to have an environment that we will be happy in. It also speaks of our sinful nature as human beings because we are supposed to be in a better position as designed by God.
I do not know how to put this across well...deep down, I know that this world can be so much better than it is now but it has fallen short in so many areas. So even if we are in a better position, like staying in Singapore, we can lose sight of it all and complain like there is no tomorrow.
Jesus teaches that those who wants to keep their life will lose it and those who lose their life will keep it. It got me thinking a long time ago. I just started to realise.
It is by giving your life to Jesus, you are able to give up your expectations that you impose on yourself and on other people. You are able to be contented with what you have thereby gaining life so to say. If you keep your life, your expectations, you tenacity to get the good things in life, you lose the focus of what it is to have a good life, thereby losing your 'life' in that sense.
Thanks to the sister who shared this as I am sharing what I am reflecting on my working life these past few weeks. I realised that there's only so much one can do in a job, the rest of it is really depends on God's fantastic grace.
The issue that confronts me and most of us is that you do what you can, others in the company thinks that more can be done, even if doing it does not improve the situation unless it is God's plan. So either we choose to live in stress or to live in rest; i choose to live in the later and sometimes it requires some heart wrenching decision to do so. I think to lose sight of it all is a greater loss than to hang on and depend on your own strength.
But God is out to take care of us and each day will be better than the previous. We are to be contented what we have today because it is better than yesterday and definitely 10 years ago (student = no income), however we are also to look forward to a better day, with a better hope because we have God as our Father in heaven.
Therefore: Be Contented but also look forward to better things, that is the hope we have in God.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
The Tithing Perspective of Grace
Goodness...was surfing on Choo Thomas and tithing when I suddenly chanced upon ANOTHER forum that speaks ill on the act of tithing.
http://65.108.220.179/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=8&start=0
And as normal, my reply
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Whatever is said, let's reconsider the act of tithing from the point of a biblical principle.
Definition of principle: Principal is an adjective meaning "foremost" or "major," a noun meaning "chief official," or, in finance, a noun meaning "capital sum." Principle is a noun only, meaning "rule" or "axiom." Her principal reasons for confessing were her principles of right and wrong.
Now the principle of tithing appears right from the beginning of the bible, even in the book of Gensis, in the garden of Eden.
Let me list some examples from the book of Genesis that speaks of tithing and the principle of firstfruits/firstborn.
a) The tithing of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen 2:16)
b) Abel tithing of the firstborn sheep (Gen 4:4)
c) Abram tithes to Melchizedek (Gen 14:20)
d) Abraham sacrifice of Isaac as firstborn burnt offering to God's promise to Abraham being the father of many nations (Gen 17:5).
Since it is a principle, that tithing is a norm and a Godly one as well, is it not also logical to include it in the law of behavior?
Let's question the rational of the above. If one says that murder is wrong, then is it logical to include in the law of God too since the law is to guide people towards good and not evil.
Let's look at Andrew's bible verse here:
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices - mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law - justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former." (Matt 23:23, NIV)."
True, I agree these are matter of the law that Justice, Mercy and faithfulness is inclusive in the law BECAUSE they are Godly principles. Does that mean that Justice, Mercy and faithfulness are needless when Christ redeemed us from the law? Oh God forbid!!
Jesus teaches that law demands justice, mercy and faithfulness because they are God's standard of conduct, so is the act of tithing. If Jesus lumps it together, then tithing, justice, mercy and faithfulness are given equal weightage since he already said, "You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former." In short, we all should practise tithing, mercy, justice and faithfulness.
If we are to go about shouting that since Christ redeemed us from the law of being good not to tithe, then by the same token we are freed not to have justice, mercy and faithfulness. I really do hope you read the verse carefully and see what the Lord is really saying and not by your own conclusion what you want it to say.
Contrary to what was proposed, this tithing verse is there for all to see and one mention of it doesn't mean that we could erase it off from memory. It is there for a reason, God protects His book through 2 millenia of persecution for a purpose and this verse has its purpose. If it mentioned once it does not mean that it is not the truth.
Like I said, contrary to what was said in the post, there is a verse in the NT that speaks of tithing.
[color=orange]Hebrews Chapter 7:8
(ASV) And here men that die receive tithes; but there one, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.
(BBE) Now at the present time, men over whom death has power take the tenth; but then it was taken by one of whom it is witnessed that he is living.
(CEV) Priests are given a tenth of what people earn. But all priests die, except Melchizedek, and the Scriptures teach that he is alive.
(KJV+) And2532 here5602, 3303 men444 that die599 receive2983 tithes;1181 but1161 there1563 he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed3140 that3754 he liveth.2198
(YLT) and here, indeed, men who die do receive tithes, and there he , who is testified to that he was living, [/color]
It clearly shows here that tithing is important because the act speaks of Jesus who received our tithes in heaven.
Now I have to continue saying somethings with regards of the splitting of the old and new testaments.
I just use this verse to demonstrate that the splitting of the two testaments is unjustified and surely is not what God intended.
Malachi Chapter 3:6 "I am the Lord and I do not change."
There we have it.
The summary of what has being said
a) God do not change
b) His laws and principles are everlasting to those who do not believe
c) His laws and principles are everlasting to believers but we are given life despite our inability to meet those laws.
d) We still practise mercy, justice and faithfulness and since Jesus places the act of tithing as important as mercy, justice and faithfulness, then we should practise the later since we hold dear to the same principles.
e) The act of tithing is a principle that is mentioned from the first book of the bible to the New Testament in Hebrews.
Now...am I giving all of you a guilt trip because you do not tithe?
Well no because if Jesus can tell the thief that he is with Him on paradise when both of them are on the cross, I won't expect a born again believer on the death bed to tithe before He is allowed access to heaven.
No! The promise of salvation is based on one thing only: Believe Jesus and the work on the cross.
So why do the act of tithing came to the fore?
For 2 reasons if you look at Malachi 3:10
Bring in all the tithe unto the treasure-house, And there is food in My house; When ye have tried Me, now, with this, Said Jehovah of Hosts, Do not I open to you the windows of heaven? Yea, I have emptied on you a blessing till there is no space.
(Malachi 3:10)
a) For Lord God to bless us further
Did Jesus die for us while we are righteous or sinners? God already bless us with things that we do not deserve, so much so even Job can complain why evil people still can run afoul of the law and get away with it! It is God's huge grace, OUR undeserved favour from HIM to feed us while we are still sinners.
So now we are saved, does that mean He would not provide if we do not tithe? Of course not! He will STILL bless us.
So why the need to tithe then? So that we can allow God to bless us more so that we can bless more to the people around us! It is not just 10% more, it is more than 100%! It is over the brim, heaven emptied blessings that over floweth with good things!!
Not just that, tithing allow God to protect our work and will cause the devourer to leave what is our's alone.
God provides since He commands us not to worry. The tithe shows FAITH in HIS provision, in HIS promise and in HIS blessings which is MORE than enough.
b) To feed his house.
The storehouse of Malachi's time and the church of the church age is different in form but the substance is the same. The house of the Lord which is the temple, is now the church and ourselves for the Lord lives in all of us.
Now if we can squarely tell our pastors to live in faith. Why don't we work for employers in faith as well instead of demanding salary?
The pastors are here for us to become our spiritual feeder. We come to church to get spiritual food, which is our storehouse.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now if tithing is such a bad thing after all and I agree it is misused by some ministers to 'extort' money, then it is just plain old blackmailing.
Jesus died on the cross to enable us to enjoy HIS divine exchange, His Health, His Riches, His Power, His Wisdom, His Love for our lack in every area of our lives.
Honestly, do God really need the 10% from us? No!! Of course NOT! He owns the universes, what more can we give Him? There has got to be another reason for wanting the tithe since He already said He does not change, so His accusation of believers stealing from Him through withholding the tithe is still valid.
So why we still need to give the tithe? The tithe is God's abounding grace to allow HIM to bless us even more! So is that a good thing? Of course it is!
I also agree with the brother that we should not just give 10% we should give HIM EVERYTHING. But can I ask, how can you give him EVERYTHING when we are squabbling over a measly 10%? How can a heart that holds dear to 10% of just the financial part of our lives, able to give everything readily from every spore of our lives? This is one question we all have to answer.
Show faith in the little things first (you may call it a giving instead of a tithe), and your faith will grow in your giving of your 100% of EVERYTHING not just in finance because you allow God to grow it for you! (Come to rememberance of the parable of the 10 talents: Matt 25)
Whatever I am going to say from hence is not about the act but about the heart.
Let's turn to Mathew 6:24
`None is able to serve two lords, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one, and despise the other; ye are not able to serve God and Mammon.
(Matthew 6:24)
And then to the Parable of the Rich Man Mathew 19:16-30
Please take note of this particular verse:
Jesus said to him, `If thou dost will to be perfect, go away, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.' And the young man, having heard the word, went away sorrowful, for he had many possessions;
(Matthew 19:21-22)
And lastly the Story about Taxes to Caesar (Matthew 22:15-22)
And take note of this verse
they say to him, `Caesar's;' then saith he to them, `Render therefore the things of Caesar to Caesar, and the things of God to God;'
(Matthew 22:21)
If the thing I preach about the principle of tithing, does Matt 22:21 that appears in 3 of the 4 Gospels mean anything? It dovetails nicely. Have we all wondered why are the story about tax to caesar is mentioned not once but three times? It speaks of importance.
Now we are to give back to God what is his and this is in New Testament! Does it dovetail with Malachi 3 as well; That whatever is God has to be given back and since it is not given back is it considered as stealing?
The reason why I asked readers to flipped through these verses is that I want to show that the whole New Testament puts the intention of the heart as paramount because it affects the level of faith. The heart that holds dear to something will put more faith in it. Isn't that true?
Next is the story about the 3 servants. If you can see, the first 2 servants are given accolades because they did what is right with the money given to them. Note the heart of the 3rd servant. He says the master is hard that's why he do not dare to do anything to it. The master speaks of God who give us talents (in money and in our talents) so as to be use for His glory. If we view our generous God with such a suspicion that He is NOT generous, what did the Master in the parable do? He pass more blessings to the one who is faithful.
The story of the rich man speaks of the heart as well. Here he told Jesus that he has done EVERYTHING that the Law requires (including the giving of the tithe) but when it comes to giving his ALL he cannot do it. Why? The Bible did not give the answer and it just says that he has a lot of possessions. He walked away disappointed because there's only one logical answer: He value his possessions more than eternal life.
Even Jesus preached that we cannot have 2 masters. We either serve one and despise the other. That's why there a need to tithe because it is a test not for God's benefit but for OUR benefit since God is already so rich so why he would want our measly 105?. It is for OUR benefit to allow us to serve the Lord instead of Mammon, to allow God to bless us even more!
So there will be other reasons for not owning up to the principle of tithing.
Consider these verses
and the sting of the death is the sin, and the power of the sin the law;
(1 Corinthians 15:56)
Christ did redeem us from the curse of the law, having become for us a curse, for it hath been written, `Cursed is every one who is hanging on a tree,'
(Galatians 3:13)
Since we are redeemed from the effects of sin that is the curse of the law (we are not redeemed from law...it is the law that shows sin and sin cursesd us with death and separation from God).
Now we have escaped the effects of sin which is the law. The law REQUIRES us to do something which does not show the true INTENTION of the heart. People can do something but do not do it sincerely. But the works of the redeemed heart will do something, that's the basis of James epistle.
and he who did look into the perfect law--that of liberty, and did continue there, this one--not a forgetful hearer becoming, but a doer of work--this one shall be happy in his doing.
(James 1:25)
So we all look to the perfect law of perfect freedom, and that perfect freedom allow us to do the important things of the Lord (justice, mercy, faithfulness and tithing), we shall be happy in the doing.
THIS brothers and sisters in Christ, is that tithing is a work of faith out of a heart of faith that shows that Christ is alive and well today!
If we are so readily to hide behind GRACE since we are not in the law, let me tell you a 'bad' news. Under grace we are required out of our hearts to give more than the law
Just consider this verses from Christ
"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But now I tell you: do not take revenge on someone who wrongs you. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, let him slap your left cheek too. And if someone takes you to court to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well. And if one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles. When someone asks you for something, give it to him; when someone wants to borrow something, lend it to him.
(Matthew 5:38-42)
Isn't the above the pure teaching on the law of Grace? That if one asked for 10 dollars we ought to give more than what is demanded?
It is so clear...if we are truly under grace, we ought to give more than what is demanded.
So may I ask, why are we fighting over that 10% and give reasons NOT TO GIVE or TO GIVE WHAT THE HEART IS IMPRESSED?
May I know a heart that is not convinced of God's providence, would he or she give more than the 10% under the law of grace? Search your heart!
If we are not faithful with the little, how can we be faithful with much?
God graciously provides Jesus as the sacrifice on the cross to give us a hope and a future, to bless us and not to harm us (Jer 29:11)
Let's give the tithe with THANKGIVING of the heart. If we worry about how the church is using the fund, we are not faithful that Jesus has the power to govern His own church. If we feel that the church is blackmailing the congregation, then leave the church and search for one that preaches the true intention of the act of tithing.
God is a generous God who cares more for your heart than your money!
http://65.108.220.179/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=8&start=0
And as normal, my reply
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Whatever is said, let's reconsider the act of tithing from the point of a biblical principle.
Definition of principle: Principal is an adjective meaning "foremost" or "major," a noun meaning "chief official," or, in finance, a noun meaning "capital sum." Principle is a noun only, meaning "rule" or "axiom." Her principal reasons for confessing were her principles of right and wrong.
Now the principle of tithing appears right from the beginning of the bible, even in the book of Gensis, in the garden of Eden.
Let me list some examples from the book of Genesis that speaks of tithing and the principle of firstfruits/firstborn.
a) The tithing of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen 2:16)
b) Abel tithing of the firstborn sheep (Gen 4:4)
c) Abram tithes to Melchizedek (Gen 14:20)
d) Abraham sacrifice of Isaac as firstborn burnt offering to God's promise to Abraham being the father of many nations (Gen 17:5).
Since it is a principle, that tithing is a norm and a Godly one as well, is it not also logical to include it in the law of behavior?
Let's question the rational of the above. If one says that murder is wrong, then is it logical to include in the law of God too since the law is to guide people towards good and not evil.
Let's look at Andrew's bible verse here:
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices - mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law - justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former." (Matt 23:23, NIV)."
True, I agree these are matter of the law that Justice, Mercy and faithfulness is inclusive in the law BECAUSE they are Godly principles. Does that mean that Justice, Mercy and faithfulness are needless when Christ redeemed us from the law? Oh God forbid!!
Jesus teaches that law demands justice, mercy and faithfulness because they are God's standard of conduct, so is the act of tithing. If Jesus lumps it together, then tithing, justice, mercy and faithfulness are given equal weightage since he already said, "You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former." In short, we all should practise tithing, mercy, justice and faithfulness.
If we are to go about shouting that since Christ redeemed us from the law of being good not to tithe, then by the same token we are freed not to have justice, mercy and faithfulness. I really do hope you read the verse carefully and see what the Lord is really saying and not by your own conclusion what you want it to say.
Contrary to what was proposed, this tithing verse is there for all to see and one mention of it doesn't mean that we could erase it off from memory. It is there for a reason, God protects His book through 2 millenia of persecution for a purpose and this verse has its purpose. If it mentioned once it does not mean that it is not the truth.
Like I said, contrary to what was said in the post, there is a verse in the NT that speaks of tithing.
[color=orange]Hebrews Chapter 7:8
(ASV) And here men that die receive tithes; but there one, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.
(BBE) Now at the present time, men over whom death has power take the tenth; but then it was taken by one of whom it is witnessed that he is living.
(CEV) Priests are given a tenth of what people earn. But all priests die, except Melchizedek, and the Scriptures teach that he is alive.
(KJV+) And2532 here5602, 3303 men444 that die599 receive2983 tithes;1181 but1161 there1563 he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed3140 that3754 he liveth.2198
(YLT) and here, indeed, men who die do receive tithes, and there he , who is testified to that he was living, [/color]
It clearly shows here that tithing is important because the act speaks of Jesus who received our tithes in heaven.
Now I have to continue saying somethings with regards of the splitting of the old and new testaments.
I just use this verse to demonstrate that the splitting of the two testaments is unjustified and surely is not what God intended.
Malachi Chapter 3:6 "I am the Lord and I do not change."
There we have it.
The summary of what has being said
a) God do not change
b) His laws and principles are everlasting to those who do not believe
c) His laws and principles are everlasting to believers but we are given life despite our inability to meet those laws.
d) We still practise mercy, justice and faithfulness and since Jesus places the act of tithing as important as mercy, justice and faithfulness, then we should practise the later since we hold dear to the same principles.
e) The act of tithing is a principle that is mentioned from the first book of the bible to the New Testament in Hebrews.
Now...am I giving all of you a guilt trip because you do not tithe?
Well no because if Jesus can tell the thief that he is with Him on paradise when both of them are on the cross, I won't expect a born again believer on the death bed to tithe before He is allowed access to heaven.
No! The promise of salvation is based on one thing only: Believe Jesus and the work on the cross.
So why do the act of tithing came to the fore?
For 2 reasons if you look at Malachi 3:10
Bring in all the tithe unto the treasure-house, And there is food in My house; When ye have tried Me, now, with this, Said Jehovah of Hosts, Do not I open to you the windows of heaven? Yea, I have emptied on you a blessing till there is no space.
(Malachi 3:10)
a) For Lord God to bless us further
Did Jesus die for us while we are righteous or sinners? God already bless us with things that we do not deserve, so much so even Job can complain why evil people still can run afoul of the law and get away with it! It is God's huge grace, OUR undeserved favour from HIM to feed us while we are still sinners.
So now we are saved, does that mean He would not provide if we do not tithe? Of course not! He will STILL bless us.
So why the need to tithe then? So that we can allow God to bless us more so that we can bless more to the people around us! It is not just 10% more, it is more than 100%! It is over the brim, heaven emptied blessings that over floweth with good things!!
Not just that, tithing allow God to protect our work and will cause the devourer to leave what is our's alone.
God provides since He commands us not to worry. The tithe shows FAITH in HIS provision, in HIS promise and in HIS blessings which is MORE than enough.
b) To feed his house.
The storehouse of Malachi's time and the church of the church age is different in form but the substance is the same. The house of the Lord which is the temple, is now the church and ourselves for the Lord lives in all of us.
Now if we can squarely tell our pastors to live in faith. Why don't we work for employers in faith as well instead of demanding salary?
The pastors are here for us to become our spiritual feeder. We come to church to get spiritual food, which is our storehouse.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now if tithing is such a bad thing after all and I agree it is misused by some ministers to 'extort' money, then it is just plain old blackmailing.
Jesus died on the cross to enable us to enjoy HIS divine exchange, His Health, His Riches, His Power, His Wisdom, His Love for our lack in every area of our lives.
Honestly, do God really need the 10% from us? No!! Of course NOT! He owns the universes, what more can we give Him? There has got to be another reason for wanting the tithe since He already said He does not change, so His accusation of believers stealing from Him through withholding the tithe is still valid.
So why we still need to give the tithe? The tithe is God's abounding grace to allow HIM to bless us even more! So is that a good thing? Of course it is!
I also agree with the brother that we should not just give 10% we should give HIM EVERYTHING. But can I ask, how can you give him EVERYTHING when we are squabbling over a measly 10%? How can a heart that holds dear to 10% of just the financial part of our lives, able to give everything readily from every spore of our lives? This is one question we all have to answer.
Show faith in the little things first (you may call it a giving instead of a tithe), and your faith will grow in your giving of your 100% of EVERYTHING not just in finance because you allow God to grow it for you! (Come to rememberance of the parable of the 10 talents: Matt 25)
Whatever I am going to say from hence is not about the act but about the heart.
Let's turn to Mathew 6:24
`None is able to serve two lords, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one, and despise the other; ye are not able to serve God and Mammon.
(Matthew 6:24)
And then to the Parable of the Rich Man Mathew 19:16-30
Please take note of this particular verse:
Jesus said to him, `If thou dost will to be perfect, go away, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.' And the young man, having heard the word, went away sorrowful, for he had many possessions;
(Matthew 19:21-22)
And lastly the Story about Taxes to Caesar (Matthew 22:15-22)
And take note of this verse
they say to him, `Caesar's;' then saith he to them, `Render therefore the things of Caesar to Caesar, and the things of God to God;'
(Matthew 22:21)
If the thing I preach about the principle of tithing, does Matt 22:21 that appears in 3 of the 4 Gospels mean anything? It dovetails nicely. Have we all wondered why are the story about tax to caesar is mentioned not once but three times? It speaks of importance.
Now we are to give back to God what is his and this is in New Testament! Does it dovetail with Malachi 3 as well; That whatever is God has to be given back and since it is not given back is it considered as stealing?
The reason why I asked readers to flipped through these verses is that I want to show that the whole New Testament puts the intention of the heart as paramount because it affects the level of faith. The heart that holds dear to something will put more faith in it. Isn't that true?
Next is the story about the 3 servants. If you can see, the first 2 servants are given accolades because they did what is right with the money given to them. Note the heart of the 3rd servant. He says the master is hard that's why he do not dare to do anything to it. The master speaks of God who give us talents (in money and in our talents) so as to be use for His glory. If we view our generous God with such a suspicion that He is NOT generous, what did the Master in the parable do? He pass more blessings to the one who is faithful.
The story of the rich man speaks of the heart as well. Here he told Jesus that he has done EVERYTHING that the Law requires (including the giving of the tithe) but when it comes to giving his ALL he cannot do it. Why? The Bible did not give the answer and it just says that he has a lot of possessions. He walked away disappointed because there's only one logical answer: He value his possessions more than eternal life.
Even Jesus preached that we cannot have 2 masters. We either serve one and despise the other. That's why there a need to tithe because it is a test not for God's benefit but for OUR benefit since God is already so rich so why he would want our measly 105?. It is for OUR benefit to allow us to serve the Lord instead of Mammon, to allow God to bless us even more!
So there will be other reasons for not owning up to the principle of tithing.
Consider these verses
and the sting of the death is the sin, and the power of the sin the law;
(1 Corinthians 15:56)
Christ did redeem us from the curse of the law, having become for us a curse, for it hath been written, `Cursed is every one who is hanging on a tree,'
(Galatians 3:13)
Since we are redeemed from the effects of sin that is the curse of the law (we are not redeemed from law...it is the law that shows sin and sin cursesd us with death and separation from God).
Now we have escaped the effects of sin which is the law. The law REQUIRES us to do something which does not show the true INTENTION of the heart. People can do something but do not do it sincerely. But the works of the redeemed heart will do something, that's the basis of James epistle.
and he who did look into the perfect law--that of liberty, and did continue there, this one--not a forgetful hearer becoming, but a doer of work--this one shall be happy in his doing.
(James 1:25)
So we all look to the perfect law of perfect freedom, and that perfect freedom allow us to do the important things of the Lord (justice, mercy, faithfulness and tithing), we shall be happy in the doing.
THIS brothers and sisters in Christ, is that tithing is a work of faith out of a heart of faith that shows that Christ is alive and well today!
If we are so readily to hide behind GRACE since we are not in the law, let me tell you a 'bad' news. Under grace we are required out of our hearts to give more than the law
Just consider this verses from Christ
"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But now I tell you: do not take revenge on someone who wrongs you. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, let him slap your left cheek too. And if someone takes you to court to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well. And if one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles. When someone asks you for something, give it to him; when someone wants to borrow something, lend it to him.
(Matthew 5:38-42)
Isn't the above the pure teaching on the law of Grace? That if one asked for 10 dollars we ought to give more than what is demanded?
It is so clear...if we are truly under grace, we ought to give more than what is demanded.
So may I ask, why are we fighting over that 10% and give reasons NOT TO GIVE or TO GIVE WHAT THE HEART IS IMPRESSED?
May I know a heart that is not convinced of God's providence, would he or she give more than the 10% under the law of grace? Search your heart!
If we are not faithful with the little, how can we be faithful with much?
God graciously provides Jesus as the sacrifice on the cross to give us a hope and a future, to bless us and not to harm us (Jer 29:11)
Let's give the tithe with THANKGIVING of the heart. If we worry about how the church is using the fund, we are not faithful that Jesus has the power to govern His own church. If we feel that the church is blackmailing the congregation, then leave the church and search for one that preaches the true intention of the act of tithing.
God is a generous God who cares more for your heart than your money!
Monday, August 14, 2006
Prosperity Gospel: Part 3
Remember that it is God that give me the power to get wealth.Deuteronomy 8:18
18“And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”
Hmmm... I just realised that my previous posts highlighted the attitude towards a God that provides alot of things including wealth: the attitude of thanksgiving.
So why God wants to give us wealth? So that God can establish His covenant with us. No wonder Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are given wealth despite their lack of faith during their life time (read: their stories of protecting their own skins because of Kings wanting their respective wives, therefore not showing the power of God's protection). Put it another way, God uses wealth (and also health) to prove (establish) His promises (covenant) to His people.
I believe there are other ways for God to show His covenant to His people including the church. And granting wealth is one of them. What Moses is teaching here is that we should have a spirit of contentment and thanksgiving by remember the hand that feeds us.
Prosperity Gospel got its root because the Bible did teach that wealth is given to believers by God. What is scary is not the Gospel of receiving the blessings (prosperity), what we ought to be weary of is the attitude behind the prosperity gospel.
This is exactly what Deut 8:18 is trying to teach: Wealth is given by God so Do not forget God. Do not take Him for Granted. Do not treat Him like Your Genie.
Lina Joy: Contemplating the Truthfulness of Religion
Being following the saga involving a malay ethnic woman named Lina Joy because of her choice to leave Islam for Christianity. Was reading one of those articles when it came to this part on why Lina Joy's case in the Malaysian Courts cannot win.
"If Islam were to grant permission for Muslims to change religion at will,
it would imply it has no dignity, no self-esteem," said Wan Azhar Wan Ahmad,
senior fellow at Malaysia's Institute of Islamic Understanding.
"If Islam were to grant permission for Muslims to change religion at will,
it would imply it has no dignity, no self-esteem," said Wan Azhar Wan Ahmad,
senior fellow at Malaysia's Institute of Islamic Understanding.
"And people may then question its completeness, truthfulness and
perfection." (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060813/wl_nm/religion_malaysia_dc)
Let me ask a question: By the fact that a person who could not think for him or herself right after birth is being given a responsibility of being a muslim, is that fair in the first place? I think this point would have been put forth by a lot of people opposing to the idea that a person is believing in something without the capacity to .
Dignity: the quality of being worthy of esteem or respect
No one comes to this world without the basic dignity or respect to be a human being. Even animals are given their space to bear their off spring. So this point is a universal right for all living things on this planet.
On the other hand, religion or the knowledge of God or the unseen power has to be revealed by the powers above or by the minds of 'enlightened' persons be it real or not and it is not given automatically at birth since we need mental capacity to weigh in on the right or wrong of what is proposed.
However we do have something when we are born that of the state of conscience and justice which the young do possess. How come? Because if the Bible is to be believed, the eating of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
So the question remains that all religion has to earn respect by being able to prove that it is real with our conscience and God-given intelligence to test the teachings. If a belief system is forced upon since birth, then it only goes to show one thing: the proponents who used the law to protect a religion thus exposing the fact that they are not confident in the belief system to proof itself to unbelievers. In other words, they trust more in their efforts to promote God than to allow God to promote Himself; or to say that God is impotent at worse or ineffective at best.
Faith of course is important for a belief system to work. People need to be taught and known of something before a faith the size of a small seed can even be planted. Faith and thus belief needed some sort of convincing first by the subject before it is given.
Imagine that we are born with the belief that McDonalds is the best food in the world. So I ate Big Mac since the day I was born being force by parents to eat it since I do not have the opportunity to try other food nor have the money to buy (since parents put the food on the table). Wouldn't that be sad since there are other good food around? (Malaysians and Singaporeans should know this: Hawker food to me is better than fast food anytime unless the hawker is really crappy).
Things out there can have multiple favourites amongst people. However with regards to law and justice, and definitely in the realm of spirituality, TRUTH has to be the yardstick. But TRUTH has to be proven, has to be tested and then believed by the tester and the truth that survives on its own is worthy to be believed.
If the social climate does not even allow the space to even test and then make the decision to a belief system, then what kind of dignity does the social climate possess? If people enjoy the freedom to make the choice of the food they want to eat, then the more important stuff such as spiritual belief must be given the opportunity to be chosen.
By hiding behind the law to force people to believe in something is just showing, contrary to popular belief, a lack of faith in the belief system that can convince people otherwise. It is precisely because a belief system that cannot survive questions on its completeness, truthfulness and perfection that needed human beings and human initiated laws to protect the belief system.
If one is so convinced of a belief, then that belief should be able to stand up to scrutiny. And the belief that can stand up to scrutiny, earn the right to be believed, and whoever believes will have stronger faith since the belief system can stand on its own 2 feet.
In short, a belief system that needed the law to justify its existence do not speak much of the god it is proposing since that god is powerless to convince human beings supernaturally.
That's the reason why I believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That's the reason why I believe in Jesus being the true Son of God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Why? Because Jesus is able to proof Himself again and again without the help of the law. Evidence? Lina Joy can believe in Christ despite the law of the land: that speaks the power of the true God.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Prosperity Gospel Part Deux
Josh have some replies and feels that it is not really answering his questions. So I tried again...
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Hi Josh,
I believe we are on the same page, it just that it was not presented in a way to show some common grounds. I think I will answer through your reply. Perhaps that would help more.
"However, I believe when I mention "health & wealth" and the "prosperity gospel" i'm speaking specifically about particular people who have the Jesus-Genie mentality that if they pray hard enough, or demand God (in Jesus' Name) to bless them with a new house, new car, fill in the blank... that they will receive what they ask because they are 1) strong believers 2) lean on Jesus' promise to give them what they desire. If they don't receive it, they didn't have enough faith."
If we really study the Gospels, the level of faith is only accorded by God. Like the woman in Matthew 9:18. She just think that if she can touch Jesus cloak, she will be healed. She did not say, "my faith is very high, so that I will be healed if I touched His cloak". No, Jesus accorded the level of faith to her as He did to Abraham (Romans 4:9), as He did to the Gentile woman (Matt 15) and as He did to the Centurion (Luke 7). What am I trying to say is that we can never judge our level of faith correctly, only a just judge, God, who can do that the best. So to base our blessings accordance to our level of faith through our own judgement is both fruitless and unnecessary.
Why am I saying the above? Our Abba in Heaven treats us even better than how our own earthly fathers treats us despite the level of faith that we have. We just need faith the size of a small seed is enough for God to move mountains for us. In short we do not need much so why compare level of faith to the level of blessings? Just know God blesses because He is a good God (even the word 'good', hebrew 'tob' have meanings of prosperity within it).
The issue now is the how we treat of the gospel of good news (which include prosperity and peace which I have explained in my last post).
The best way for me to illustrate is using the relationship between our children and parents (I do not have children but I can understand because I see how my mother treats me). If my kid ask me to get a toy because I said I will bless her with something, me being a parent would assess the situation by looking at the toy and see if it is ok (maybe I get lego blocks instead of a toy gun for example). If the toy is not ok, I will not give but does not mean I will not bless.
Now if my kid thinks that I am a selfish dad because I did not give the toy he asked, does that mean I am not generous? Now apply the same question to us asking God for favours, do you think He will give?
Our Father definitely will give what we ask. But how He gives will be up to Him to dictate. I asked for a car at the present moment, but He feels that it is not the time because somehow I am not comfortable or my situation do not merit it. Does that mean God is mean?
Now the issue, as you have put very well, is our attitude towards a generous God. Before I continue, I must comment that in this argument against prosperity Gospel it is very easy to malign the character of God so much so that the opponents of such a 'gospel' would say that blessings is not for Christians (it is extreme but it came across as such). I must emphasize that God is out to bless us abundantly and without limits just because He sees us righteous through the acceptance of Christ as our saviour. If we believe that we are righteous because God says so, then we have the faith to accept the blessings.
Now is a time for self reflection by asking some questions:
a) Are we thankful for the blessings from God?
b) Are we asking God for things just because we are greedy?
c) Do we get angry and frustrated when things are not going the way we want?
I must confess that I am guilty of the above before. But God still blesses me not because I deserve it but because He saw it fit to bless despite my weaknesses.
The opposite of course is also true: God still bless the wicked despite their deeds. How did God do that? He still cause the sun to shine on them, the rain to pour on them, air for them to breathe and a roof for them to sleep under.
If God do the same for the people of Nineveh when Jonah was sent to proclaim judgement, God will do the same for His children who is not appreciative of His Blessings.
So the main issue is our attitude towards blessings. Are we spoil brats who are not contented with what God gives us? Remember Jesus gives us Salom peace, which includes contentment. Without contentment we can never feel we have enough and then we strive to get more so as to fulfill our needs and wants. So with contentment, we need not strive but give thanks for blessings of God.
So the problem is not the gospel that blesses through prosperity and health. The problem is the teaching that we keep demanding things despite being blessed enough to enjoy contentment. If that's the case, then we do not have salom peace that Jesus will give us.
Remember the Gospel, in its true meaning is Good News. And the good news is that we are heir to the world in accordance to the promise of God given to Abraham since we are the sons of faith. And being the heir of the world means that what the world has, we have too. And in that essence, it means prosperity. So the fact remains that the Gospel is truly a Gospel about being rich and being in health because of a gracious God given to us through Jesus sacrifice.
We are in danger of misrepresenting the gospel by calling the teachings focusing on being rich as 'prosperity gospel'. I would call it 'selfish desires teaching' instead (for lack of a better title) or self centered teachings or brat mentality teaching.
I believe we are on the same page, it just that it was not presented in a way to show some common grounds. I think I will answer through your reply. Perhaps that would help more.
"However, I believe when I mention "health & wealth" and the "prosperity gospel" i'm speaking specifically about particular people who have the Jesus-Genie mentality that if they pray hard enough, or demand God (in Jesus' Name) to bless them with a new house, new car, fill in the blank... that they will receive what they ask because they are 1) strong believers 2) lean on Jesus' promise to give them what they desire. If they don't receive it, they didn't have enough faith."
If we really study the Gospels, the level of faith is only accorded by God. Like the woman in Matthew 9:18. She just think that if she can touch Jesus cloak, she will be healed. She did not say, "my faith is very high, so that I will be healed if I touched His cloak". No, Jesus accorded the level of faith to her as He did to Abraham (Romans 4:9), as He did to the Gentile woman (Matt 15) and as He did to the Centurion (Luke 7). What am I trying to say is that we can never judge our level of faith correctly, only a just judge, God, who can do that the best. So to base our blessings accordance to our level of faith through our own judgement is both fruitless and unnecessary.
Why am I saying the above? Our Abba in Heaven treats us even better than how our own earthly fathers treats us despite the level of faith that we have. We just need faith the size of a small seed is enough for God to move mountains for us. In short we do not need much so why compare level of faith to the level of blessings? Just know God blesses because He is a good God (even the word 'good', hebrew 'tob' have meanings of prosperity within it).
The issue now is the how we treat of the gospel of good news (which include prosperity and peace which I have explained in my last post).
The best way for me to illustrate is using the relationship between our children and parents (I do not have children but I can understand because I see how my mother treats me). If my kid ask me to get a toy because I said I will bless her with something, me being a parent would assess the situation by looking at the toy and see if it is ok (maybe I get lego blocks instead of a toy gun for example). If the toy is not ok, I will not give but does not mean I will not bless.
Now if my kid thinks that I am a selfish dad because I did not give the toy he asked, does that mean I am not generous? Now apply the same question to us asking God for favours, do you think He will give?
Our Father definitely will give what we ask. But how He gives will be up to Him to dictate. I asked for a car at the present moment, but He feels that it is not the time because somehow I am not comfortable or my situation do not merit it. Does that mean God is mean?
Now the issue, as you have put very well, is our attitude towards a generous God. Before I continue, I must comment that in this argument against prosperity Gospel it is very easy to malign the character of God so much so that the opponents of such a 'gospel' would say that blessings is not for Christians (it is extreme but it came across as such). I must emphasize that God is out to bless us abundantly and without limits just because He sees us righteous through the acceptance of Christ as our saviour. If we believe that we are righteous because God says so, then we have the faith to accept the blessings.
Now is a time for self reflection by asking some questions:
a) Are we thankful for the blessings from God?
b) Are we asking God for things just because we are greedy?
c) Do we get angry and frustrated when things are not going the way we want?
I must confess that I am guilty of the above before. But God still blesses me not because I deserve it but because He saw it fit to bless despite my weaknesses.
The opposite of course is also true: God still bless the wicked despite their deeds. How did God do that? He still cause the sun to shine on them, the rain to pour on them, air for them to breathe and a roof for them to sleep under.
If God do the same for the people of Nineveh when Jonah was sent to proclaim judgement, God will do the same for His children who is not appreciative of His Blessings.
So the main issue is our attitude towards blessings. Are we spoil brats who are not contented with what God gives us? Remember Jesus gives us Salom peace, which includes contentment. Without contentment we can never feel we have enough and then we strive to get more so as to fulfill our needs and wants. So with contentment, we need not strive but give thanks for blessings of God.
So the problem is not the gospel that blesses through prosperity and health. The problem is the teaching that we keep demanding things despite being blessed enough to enjoy contentment. If that's the case, then we do not have salom peace that Jesus will give us.
Remember the Gospel, in its true meaning is Good News. And the good news is that we are heir to the world in accordance to the promise of God given to Abraham since we are the sons of faith. And being the heir of the world means that what the world has, we have too. And in that essence, it means prosperity. So the fact remains that the Gospel is truly a Gospel about being rich and being in health because of a gracious God given to us through Jesus sacrifice.
We are in danger of misrepresenting the gospel by calling the teachings focusing on being rich as 'prosperity gospel'. I would call it 'selfish desires teaching' instead (for lack of a better title) or self centered teachings or brat mentality teaching.
On to Proverbs 13:21 Pro 13:21 (ASV) Evil pursueth sinners; But the righteous shall be recompensed with good. (BBE) Evil will overtake sinners, but the upright will be rewarded with good. (GNB) Trouble follows sinners everywhere, but righteous people will be rewarded with good things. (KJV+) Evil7451 pursueth7291 sinners:2400 but to the righteous6662 good2896 shall be repaid.7999 (YLT) Evil pursueth sinners, And good recompenseth the righteous. What I usually do is to take a verse and to see if I can find parrallel translation of the same verse (even in chinese if i can illustrate better). So as we can see, 'good' was being translated as 'prosperity' in the original verse. I seriously do not see anything wrong. We who are believers in Jesus are being promised well-being or good things. Do we experience upheaval? That would be a yes...but does that mean we are being given a bashing like Job? We may 'feel' like it but in actual fact we don't. Good in that sense is that God could have allowed calamity as He has given Job but He did not. In all things give thanks to the Lord for He has protected us from worse things. It will always be a case of 'half-full or half-empty' perspective, but Christians who are full of thanksgiving, will be of the half-full mentality. Now the next part: "I know some very godly people both in my life and also as popular, well-known men of God who have experienced tremendous pain and simply put, a hard life that looking at it from the outside in, does not seem blessed with health, wealth, prosperity, etc." "Why do you call me good?" Jesus asked him. "No one is good except God alone. (Mark 10:18) How do we know if a well-known person is godly or deserved what he gets? Only God can judge it so and He has said the same thing to Job. But did the seemingly lack of health, wealth, prosperity alone determine the spirituality of a person? We of limited knowledge can never know. For this I know, God is good and His plan, according to Jeremiah 29:11, is to bless us and not for disaster, plans to give us hope and a future. We can never judge correctly because we do not know everything to judge right. If we allow God to be God, then He will know what is good for the people who are godly. Some judgements may, to us, look bad but to God will give tremendous blessings to the person in question. If we look to Job again, the result of his ordeal is a fresh and correct appreciation of God. Why do I say that? Read Job 1:5. What did Job say and did? He made burnt offering for his children because Job is scared that God would punish his children because his children may have cursed God. What is the picture of God in Job's eyes? What is the value Job put in the burnt offerings? Now if we turn to Job at the end of his ordeal, he cannot answer God because Job cannot know everything why things happened (we know because God trust Job's faith in Him to show Satan a thing or two about real faith!). Job accepts God for who He is and also the wisdom that God have in dealings with things on earth. God judged that Job's ordeal will improve Job and so He did...and oh one more thing, God gives twice the prosperity than before. So God will Bless us with prosperity and health but for some, through His wisdom, are to be trained through His watchful eyes and to many others, like the friends of job, would think that God is punishing them when in actual fact He is not. "My question to anyone reading this post... how do we understand the tension posed in my question in relation to this verse and all that the Bible has to say" So in fact there is really no tension at all because God's plans for us is always for good and in the good plans that includes prosperity and health. Even if we did not see with our own eyes now on earth through ourselves or through friends, surely He will do so in heaven for us who are in Christ. Lastly... "The idea that your health, wealth and satisfaction in life is a direct representation of your relationship with God is completely unbiblical and quite honestly, scary. However, I cannot deny the fact that often God blesses those He loves and those who obey Him." If you would forgive me, if you posed the same question to Jesus what would He say? The pharisees asked Jesus the same question to and how would Jesus feel? Scary? Why because Jesus is God's son? So if Jesus is really God's son so whatever belongs to God is Jesus right? So is that scary? You bet! Especially when Jesus has all the power that God has, even control over the heavens and the seas, over the demons and the unseen. So if God says we are sons of God accordance to the promise made to Abraham it is the same as claiming that I am a son of God through Christ, as Jesus did in front of the Pharisees. It would also mean that I have the same power of Christ who is in me. Is that scary? Of course it is! Because the power in me is the power that Satan is scared of. Why scared of something that is good in the first place? Unless you deemed the goodness of God of being 'scary'? So my relationship with God demands that good things in life is a given, is that biblical? It would be a 'yes' as I have shown through numerous bible verses unless you could find the verses that debunked God being an evil God that blesses us with sickness and with poverty. But my answer would be conditional. Why? Because the good things in life in our definition may not be the good things in life in God's eyes for each and everyone of us who believes in Him. The issue is who are the real sons of God? That can be seen through the fruits of the Holy Spirit. And if the real sons of God prayed for goodness and that includes health and wealth, it is the right of sons and daughters. if the prince of wales demands things to be done because his mother is the queen of England, would it get done? Of course. But to God it is different. He will answer according to His own goodness and wisdom. We as sons and daughters of God can ask according to our right standing with God and with the understanding that we are the reflection of the true, good, God (as all human beings are images of God). Our prayers will be answered in God's time and wisdom and ways. Some prayers will be selfish, some prayers will be for the common good, some prayers will be for the good of the family but let us allow God to filter the prayers and answer to His liking. One thing is for sure: the outcome will be for our good, done through God's methods! As Job has recognised the soverign God and not as his genie, I too have recognised my God as soverign as well and not my genie, but I will still pray for good things in life because it is my right since Jesus Christ the righteous, has become my advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1) . Our real attitude therefore will be seen through the reaction to the results of our prayers. My attitude is that God is God so the result is in accordance to His wisdom and plan for my life and I will accept them. If the attitude is that God should do what I say because of my right as sons of God, then it is wrong, plain and simple since such attitude runs contradictory to a soverign God..and worse of all, such attitudes shall never see nor experience the REAL good things of God. Do reflect on what you have put forward. If God do bless His people, that is biblical, yes? And yet in the earlier sentence you say that being in health and wealth and have satisfaction in life is because of relationship with God, in other words "we are God's people", it is now unbiblical? So what is your stand? Do consider because Right Believing results in the Right perspective of God and thus gives us Right Living with God. |
Friday, August 11, 2006
The Prosperity Gospel: Good News or Bad News?
Was visiting GodFocus Community when the Administrator of the website, Josh, posed this very interesting question about "The Prosperity Gospel". Being a recipient of God's goodness and providence in a lot of things (in other words, I prospered under God's provisions), I think a response is needed. Here goes:
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Hi Josh,
I understand where you are coming from though I would want you to ponder the opposite effect if Jesus has given us Poverty instead of prosperity, sickness instead of health, foolishness instead of wisdom etc etc.
So did Jesus come to give sickness or to heal the sick? Did Jesus give bad things or good things to us who believes in Him, then and now?
Jesus taught us a lot of parables that told us of a God that goes out to bless. Let us consider these parables and accounts in the Gospels
- The Parable of the Talents
- The Parable of the Lost son
- The Rich Ruler (Matthew 19:16-30)
This is my stand: Wealth has its place in the live of a believer because it is part of a manifestation of the Lord's blessings upon us so as to give us a sense of well-being (or else how can we NOT worry?).
Any extreme teachings, that wealth is a Christian right and being poor is a blessing are both in error.
Consider this verse:
(GNB) For the love of money is a source of all kinds of evil. Some have been so eager to have it that they have wandered away from the faith and have broken their hearts with many sorrows. 1 Titus 6:10
And also consider these verses:
And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
(Rom 10:15)
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
(Joh 14:27)
And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.
(Eze 34:25)
For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.
(Isa 54:10)
Now the word 'peace' here according to Strong's concordance is the word "eirene" in Greek (used in Romans 10:15 and John 14:27) and "salom" (Eze 34:25 and Isaiah 54:10)
I would say most people would understand the promises made in Isaiah 54 is the promises of things to come from Christ after the sacrifice on the cross as described in Isaiah 53.
Therefore it is important to note the meaning of eirene and salom in their context:
eirene: peace, harmony,tranquility; safety, welfare, health; often with an emphasis on lack of strife or reconciliation in a relation (to God, in our case).
salom: peace, safety, prosperity, well-being; intactness, wholeness; peace can have a focus of security, safety which can bring feelings of satisfaction, well-being and contentment.
For those that need to define the word "welfare" and "Well-being",
From Princeton University's Wordnet:
wellbeing: a contented state of being happy and healthy and prosperous
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
I think it is pretty clear here. Jesus meant the word Peace to include welfare and wholeness...that is health and wealth. We can be very sure that Jesus has healed the people in need then and has done so now at this very present moment. But if promise of salom is taken in its full context, wealth is also the promise being given by God.
With the above in view, then the letter to Titus by Paul said it very very well on how we should treat money: It is the LOVE of money that cause one to wandered away from the faith. Money itself, being inanimate, cannot cause us to do anything evil. It is how we react to money that bring about good or evil actions.
And also, going by the definition of the word salom is the word "contentment"!
Again the definition of the word contentment: happiness with one's situation in life.
Therefore with the above verses as with numerous verses that espouses salom or eirene peace in both old and new testament, I can conclude that health and wealth and thus wholeness is the domain of a believing Christian given by the Grace ((Christian theology) the free and unmerited favor or beneficence of God) of God. And the wealth given should be received in the attitude of contentment and thus we can never fall foul into the love for money: GREED.
So back to the main topic. Is prosperity a curse or a bad thing? I can replace the word 'prosperity' with 'money' since the intention is to say that having money is the basis of the prosperity gospel.
I would reply that money is NOT a curse or a bad thing. It is how we treat money that will bring about a rise in our faith in Jesus or to turn away from Jesus. I think I have to make this very very clear. Greed, and not wealth, is the culprit here for espousing the Prosperity Gospel.
It is important for us to know the difference because we, who are of and in God and God in us, is given Salom and Eirene PEACE through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross given by the Grace of God. To reject Salom in its fullness is the same as rejecting the gift of God in its fullness. If one wants health, then the promise of God will cover it, along with health is also wealth and wholeness and well-being.
For the recognition of the goodness of God, is the basis for our worship of God.
May the Lord...
Jehovah bless you and keep you; Jehovah cause His face to shine on you, and be gracious to you; Jehovah lift up His face to you, and give you peace (salom: strong number 7965).
(Num 6:24-26)
Wilson Wong
http://wilzworkz.blogspot.com
ps. I firmly believe that the principle of tithing (not law but principle) is the solution to be freed of our slavery to the love of money.
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Hi Josh,
I understand where you are coming from though I would want you to ponder the opposite effect if Jesus has given us Poverty instead of prosperity, sickness instead of health, foolishness instead of wisdom etc etc.
So did Jesus come to give sickness or to heal the sick? Did Jesus give bad things or good things to us who believes in Him, then and now?
Jesus taught us a lot of parables that told us of a God that goes out to bless. Let us consider these parables and accounts in the Gospels
- The Parable of the Talents
- The Parable of the Lost son
- The Rich Ruler (Matthew 19:16-30)
This is my stand: Wealth has its place in the live of a believer because it is part of a manifestation of the Lord's blessings upon us so as to give us a sense of well-being (or else how can we NOT worry?).
Any extreme teachings, that wealth is a Christian right and being poor is a blessing are both in error.
Consider this verse:
(GNB) For the love of money is a source of all kinds of evil. Some have been so eager to have it that they have wandered away from the faith and have broken their hearts with many sorrows. 1 Titus 6:10
And also consider these verses:
And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
(Rom 10:15)
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
(Joh 14:27)
And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.
(Eze 34:25)
For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.
(Isa 54:10)
Now the word 'peace' here according to Strong's concordance is the word "eirene" in Greek (used in Romans 10:15 and John 14:27) and "salom" (Eze 34:25 and Isaiah 54:10)
I would say most people would understand the promises made in Isaiah 54 is the promises of things to come from Christ after the sacrifice on the cross as described in Isaiah 53.
Therefore it is important to note the meaning of eirene and salom in their context:
eirene: peace, harmony,tranquility; safety, welfare, health; often with an emphasis on lack of strife or reconciliation in a relation (to God, in our case).
salom: peace, safety, prosperity, well-being; intactness, wholeness; peace can have a focus of security, safety which can bring feelings of satisfaction, well-being and contentment.
For those that need to define the word "welfare" and "Well-being",
From Princeton University's Wordnet:
wellbeing: a contented state of being happy and healthy and prosperous
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
I think it is pretty clear here. Jesus meant the word Peace to include welfare and wholeness...that is health and wealth. We can be very sure that Jesus has healed the people in need then and has done so now at this very present moment. But if promise of salom is taken in its full context, wealth is also the promise being given by God.
With the above in view, then the letter to Titus by Paul said it very very well on how we should treat money: It is the LOVE of money that cause one to wandered away from the faith. Money itself, being inanimate, cannot cause us to do anything evil. It is how we react to money that bring about good or evil actions.
And also, going by the definition of the word salom is the word "contentment"!
Again the definition of the word contentment: happiness with one's situation in life.
Therefore with the above verses as with numerous verses that espouses salom or eirene peace in both old and new testament, I can conclude that health and wealth and thus wholeness is the domain of a believing Christian given by the Grace ((Christian theology) the free and unmerited favor or beneficence of God) of God. And the wealth given should be received in the attitude of contentment and thus we can never fall foul into the love for money: GREED.
So back to the main topic. Is prosperity a curse or a bad thing? I can replace the word 'prosperity' with 'money' since the intention is to say that having money is the basis of the prosperity gospel.
I would reply that money is NOT a curse or a bad thing. It is how we treat money that will bring about a rise in our faith in Jesus or to turn away from Jesus. I think I have to make this very very clear. Greed, and not wealth, is the culprit here for espousing the Prosperity Gospel.
It is important for us to know the difference because we, who are of and in God and God in us, is given Salom and Eirene PEACE through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross given by the Grace of God. To reject Salom in its fullness is the same as rejecting the gift of God in its fullness. If one wants health, then the promise of God will cover it, along with health is also wealth and wholeness and well-being.
For the recognition of the goodness of God, is the basis for our worship of God.
May the Lord...
Jehovah bless you and keep you; Jehovah cause His face to shine on you, and be gracious to you; Jehovah lift up His face to you, and give you peace (salom: strong number 7965).
(Num 6:24-26)
Wilson Wong
http://wilzworkz.blogspot.com
ps. I firmly believe that the principle of tithing (not law but principle) is the solution to be freed of our slavery to the love of money.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Retrospective: A Gift of God
Today just did something that I did not do for a long time: Google my nick 'wilswong'. This nick is unique because Wils is my first nick and my online ID for a very long time. Although it changes from Wils to Wilz, it still stays the same.
Back to the main content: The google came back to a post did out of desperation a long time back and was solicitating some Christian views about my going or staying in Australia and that was way back in 2004.
http://www.godfocus.com/forums/showthread.php?p=151#post151
My gosh, after reading through that forum and also the replies that I got from brothers and sisters in Christ, I just realised that I did what they are suggesting to do. I can only say that God did speak through them as I have being led by the spirit without looking back at the forum.
Time flies and when I look back, I can see that God is indeed good from that time till now. That my relationship with wifey actually grew stronger because of the wretching decision making process back then.
Thank God for being a great Father.
Back to the main content: The google came back to a post did out of desperation a long time back and was solicitating some Christian views about my going or staying in Australia and that was way back in 2004.
http://www.godfocus.com/forums/showthread.php?p=151#post151
My gosh, after reading through that forum and also the replies that I got from brothers and sisters in Christ, I just realised that I did what they are suggesting to do. I can only say that God did speak through them as I have being led by the spirit without looking back at the forum.
Time flies and when I look back, I can see that God is indeed good from that time till now. That my relationship with wifey actually grew stronger because of the wretching decision making process back then.
Thank God for being a great Father.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
The Tithing Issue, Another Perspective Part 2
After the last post, I found that there are still some brothers and sisters out there who are still doubtful about the teaching behind the tithing issue
Let me quote a long section of a book by Robert Morris "The Blessed Life"
"It is amazing to me how many people try to overlook this Scripture (Mal 3:8-9) or explain it away. Some say, "Well, that's in the Old Testament." But in the very same chapter of Malachi, God says, "For I am the LORD, I do not change" (v. 6).
We have already seen that the Lord clearly says that the firstborn belongs to Him (see Exodus 13:2) and the firstfruits are His (see Exodus 23:19). We also just heard Him say that the tithe belongs to Him (see Malachi 3:8-9).
Here is my question to those who contend that the principle of the tithe is no longer active: If God declares, "I do not change" (Malachi 3:6), then when did those things supposedly change? When did God change?
The tithe, the firstborn and the firstfruits all belong to the Lord. This isn't a law! It's an unchanging principle established by an unchanging God.
Many people say, "Well, tithing was under the Law, so I don't have to do it. We're under grace now." They need to know that there are many things that were under the Law that continue to be principles with God.
Would you believe anyone who asserted that because adultery was forbidden under the Law, it is now acceptable under grace? Would you accept the argument that stated that because stealing was forbidden under the Old Testament law, it is now acceptable under the New Covenant grace? Of course not.
There are eternal principles throughout the Word of God, and tithing is clearly one of them. It is a principle that runs from Genesis to Revelation.
The tithe belongs to God. The firstborn belongs to God. And firstfruits belong to God."
Taken from The Blessed Life, Robert Morris, Chapter 2: God Must Be First, Page 37-38
Here are some examples from the book of Genesis that speaks of tithing and the principle of firstfruits/firstborn
a) The tithing of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen 2:16)
b) Abel tithing of the firstborn sheep (Gen 4:4)
c) Abram tithes to Melchizedek (Gen 14:20)
d) Abraham sacrifice of Isaac as firstborn burnt offering to God's promise to Abraham being the father of many nations (Gen 17:5).
Even in the new Testament other than the book of Hebrews there is a mention of giving that reflects the tithe (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).
(NIV) Now about the collection for God's people; Do what I told the Galatian Churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. (NIV)
(NLT) Now about the money being collected for the Christians in Jerusalem: You should follow the same procedures I gave to the churches in Galatia. On every first day of the week, each of you should put aside some amount of money in relation to what you have earned and save it for this offering. Don't wait until I get there and then try to collect it all at once (NLT)
(NKJV) Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: On the first day of the week let each on of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come. (NKJV)
(ASV) Upon the first day of the week let each one of you lay by him in store, as he may prosper, that no collections be made when I come.
(BBE) On the first day of the week, let every one of you put by him in store, in measure as he has done well in business, so that it may not be necessary to get money together when I come.
(CEV) That is, each Sunday each of you must put aside part of what you have earned. If you do this, you won't have to take up a collection when I come.
(CUV-S) 每逢七日的第一日，各人要照自己的进项抽出来留著，免得我来的时候现凑。
(ESV) On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.
(GNB) Every Sunday each of you must put aside some money, in proportion to what you have earned, and save it up, so that there will be no need to collect money when I come.
(ISV) On the first day of the week, each of you should set aside and save some of your money in proportion to what you have, so that no collections will have to be made when I come.
(KJV+) Upon the first2596, 3391 day of the week4521 let every one1538 of you5216 lay5087 by3844 him1438 in store,2343 as3748, 302 God hath prospered2137 him, that2443 there be1096 no3361 gatherings3048 when(3752) I come.2064
(KJVR) Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.
(LITV) On one of the sabbaths, let each of you put by himself, storing up whatever he is prospered, that there not be collections then when I come.
(MKJV) On the first of the sabbaths let each of you put by himself, storing up what ever he is prospered, so that there may be no collections when I come.
(RV) Upon the first day of the week let each one of you lay by him in store, as he may prosper, that no collections be made when I come.
(Webster) Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no collections when I come.
(YLT) on every first day of the week, let each one of you lay by him, treasuring up whatever he may have prospered, that when I may come then collections may not be made;
Generally speaking, the other more direct way of saying the above is that we ought to put aside more money as our income grow due to God's grace. So as the income grows, so does the giving. The key word here is 'as'.
So does this reflect the tithe? The tithe means as more is given, the 10% also grows in terms of size. If I earn 100 dollars, then the 10% is 10 dollars; if I earn 10000 dollars, the 10% is represented by 1000 dollars. If we take away the proportion in the scriptures, then it is not in the same nature as a tithe and thus can be construed as an offering since offerings has no "fixed formula" unlike the tithe (which incidentally meant a tenth or 10%). These verses show that as God prosper us, the more is set aside for the giving, thus the spirit of the tithe is presented here.
We must also see that in 1 Corinthians 16 v 1, Paul has already instructed the church of Galatia or the Galatians to do the same as he has instructed the Corinthians. Are the Corinthians and Galatians primarily Jewish believers? Paul has already said that God is also the God of gentiles (Romans 3:29) as He is also the God of the Jews, therefore the teaching about giving even of tithes is applicable since God is unchanging.
So the tithe is not about ethnicity or race or even gender. The issue here is not us humans, the created, but the focus is on the creator. If the creator demands tithes of firstfruits and firstborns, then we who are the created, are to adhere to His principle since He is the one that teaches it in the first place.Let me quote a long section of a book by Robert Morris "The Blessed Life"
"It is amazing to me how many people try to overlook this Scripture (Mal 3:8-9) or explain it away. Some say, "Well, that's in the Old Testament." But in the very same chapter of Malachi, God says, "For I am the LORD, I do not change" (v. 6).
We have already seen that the Lord clearly says that the firstborn belongs to Him (see Exodus 13:2) and the firstfruits are His (see Exodus 23:19). We also just heard Him say that the tithe belongs to Him (see Malachi 3:8-9).
Here is my question to those who contend that the principle of the tithe is no longer active: If God declares, "I do not change" (Malachi 3:6), then when did those things supposedly change? When did God change?
The tithe, the firstborn and the firstfruits all belong to the Lord. This isn't a law! It's an unchanging principle established by an unchanging God.
Many people say, "Well, tithing was under the Law, so I don't have to do it. We're under grace now." They need to know that there are many things that were under the Law that continue to be principles with God.
Would you believe anyone who asserted that because adultery was forbidden under the Law, it is now acceptable under grace? Would you accept the argument that stated that because stealing was forbidden under the Old Testament law, it is now acceptable under the New Covenant grace? Of course not.
There are eternal principles throughout the Word of God, and tithing is clearly one of them. It is a principle that runs from Genesis to Revelation.
The tithe belongs to God. The firstborn belongs to God. And firstfruits belong to God."
Taken from The Blessed Life, Robert Morris, Chapter 2: God Must Be First, Page 37-38
Here are some examples from the book of Genesis that speaks of tithing and the principle of firstfruits/firstborn
a) The tithing of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen 2:16)
b) Abel tithing of the firstborn sheep (Gen 4:4)
c) Abram tithes to Melchizedek (Gen 14:20)
d) Abraham sacrifice of Isaac as firstborn burnt offering to God's promise to Abraham being the father of many nations (Gen 17:5).
Even in the new Testament other than the book of Hebrews there is a mention of giving that reflects the tithe (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).
(NIV) Now about the collection for God's people; Do what I told the Galatian Churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. (NIV)
(NLT) Now about the money being collected for the Christians in Jerusalem: You should follow the same procedures I gave to the churches in Galatia. On every first day of the week, each of you should put aside some amount of money in relation to what you have earned and save it for this offering. Don't wait until I get there and then try to collect it all at once (NLT)
(NKJV) Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: On the first day of the week let each on of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come. (NKJV)
(ASV) Upon the first day of the week let each one of you lay by him in store, as he may prosper, that no collections be made when I come.
(BBE) On the first day of the week, let every one of you put by him in store, in measure as he has done well in business, so that it may not be necessary to get money together when I come.
(CEV) That is, each Sunday each of you must put aside part of what you have earned. If you do this, you won't have to take up a collection when I come.
(CUV-S) 每逢七日的第一日，各人要照自己的进项抽出来留著，免得我来的时候现凑。
(ESV) On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.
(GNB) Every Sunday each of you must put aside some money, in proportion to what you have earned, and save it up, so that there will be no need to collect money when I come.
(ISV) On the first day of the week, each of you should set aside and save some of your money in proportion to what you have, so that no collections will have to be made when I come.
(KJV+) Upon the first2596, 3391 day of the week4521 let every one1538 of you5216 lay5087 by3844 him1438 in store,2343 as3748, 302 God hath prospered2137 him, that2443 there be1096 no3361 gatherings3048 when(3752) I come.2064
(KJVR) Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.
(LITV) On one of the sabbaths, let each of you put by himself, storing up whatever he is prospered, that there not be collections then when I come.
(MKJV) On the first of the sabbaths let each of you put by himself, storing up what ever he is prospered, so that there may be no collections when I come.
(RV) Upon the first day of the week let each one of you lay by him in store, as he may prosper, that no collections be made when I come.
(Webster) Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no collections when I come.
(YLT) on every first day of the week, let each one of you lay by him, treasuring up whatever he may have prospered, that when I may come then collections may not be made;
Generally speaking, the other more direct way of saying the above is that we ought to put aside more money as our income grow due to God's grace. So as the income grows, so does the giving. The key word here is 'as'.
So does this reflect the tithe? The tithe means as more is given, the 10% also grows in terms of size. If I earn 100 dollars, then the 10% is 10 dollars; if I earn 10000 dollars, the 10% is represented by 1000 dollars. If we take away the proportion in the scriptures, then it is not in the same nature as a tithe and thus can be construed as an offering since offerings has no "fixed formula" unlike the tithe (which incidentally meant a tenth or 10%). These verses show that as God prosper us, the more is set aside for the giving, thus the spirit of the tithe is presented here.
We must also see that in 1 Corinthians 16 v 1, Paul has already instructed the church of Galatia or the Galatians to do the same as he has instructed the Corinthians. Are the Corinthians and Galatians primarily Jewish believers? Paul has already said that God is also the God of gentiles (Romans 3:29) as He is also the God of the Jews, therefore the teaching about giving even of tithes is applicable since God is unchanging.
With this as the backdrop, it is no wonder that Paul told the Corinthians this
You are so rich in all you have: in faith, speech, and knowledge, in your eagerness to help and in your love for us. And so we want you to be generous also in this service of love.
(2Co 8:7)
But just as you excel in everything - in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us - see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
(2Co 8:7, NIV)
So what is this service of love? The clue comes in verse 2 where Paul commended the sacrifices made by the Corinthians that even though they are poor, they are still generous! That's why Paul gave the famous verse (which I think is often misused) in verse 9 to encourage the poor that Jesus through the work on the cross will make them rich (in terms of money)!
*Note: Before anyone says that this 'richness' is spiritual richness, one ought to refer to the strong's concordance with regards to the word 'rich' as presented in verse 9. I have included it here for easy reference:
G4148; to be (or become) wealthy (literally or figuratively): - be increased with goods, (be made, wax) rich.
As the readers can see, the meaning here is literally meant that one would increased with goods! So this is rich in the material sense, not spiritual. Let those who have eyes see!
I think of the same as Paul when the issue of tithing surfaced (2 Cor 8:8), that the matter of tithing is a test of sincerity towards the Lord. It is not for the Lord to test but for our own benefit, to question our own hearts.
I do not speak according to command, but through the earnestness of others and testing the trueness of your love.
(2Co 8:8)
The giving of tithe is not a command but it is also a test of the trueness of your love! How do Paul test the Corinthians? By the giving of money! As one read through the whole of chapter 8, one would have realised that the giving that is presented is about money.
The issue now: Do we need to pass this test to go to heaven? No. Like I mentioned in my earlier posts, we are the redeemed of God through Jesus. We are bound for heaven no matter what since we have received the Lord and being made a new creation therefore there is no more tests involve.
However, how well we live on this earth depends on how obedient we are to the Lord. The principle of tithing is something that the Lord demands that we ought to obey. The reward is that God will bless us more, protect us from the evil of this earth that is controlled by the devil.
The second reward is that the act of tithing frees us from the clutches of the love of mammon.
The third reward is that we are free from worrying about mammon.
Lastly, we are conditioning our hearts to become true to the Lord and the act of giving/tithing is a test to be used for us to strive to become perfect just as our Father in heaven is perfect.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
The Tithing Issue, Another Perspective
Being re-reading some notes on tithing and also to reflect the past arguments for and against the act of tithing. Then impressed by God to hunt verses in the New Testament that speaks of tithing.
The first instance is when Jesus reproach the Pharisees. This is what the Lord says
Mat 23:23
(ASV) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone.
(BBE) A curse is on you, scribes and Pharisees, false ones! for you make men give a tenth of all sorts of sweet-smelling plants, but you give no thought to the more important things of the law, righteousness, and mercy, and faith; but it is right for you to do these, and not to let the others be undone.
(CEV) You Pharisees and teachers are show-offs, and you're in for trouble! You give God a tenth of the spices from your garden, such as mint, dill, and cumin. Yet you neglect the more important matters of the Law, such as justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These are the important things you should have done, though you should not have left the others undone either.
(CUV-S) 「你们这假冒为善的文士和法利赛人有祸了！因为你们将薄荷、茴香、芹菜，献上十分之一，那律法上更重的事，就是公义、怜悯、信实，反倒不行了。这更重的是你们当行的；那也是不可不行的。
(KJV+) Woe3759 unto you,5213 scribes1122 and2532 Pharisees,5330 hypocrites!5273 for1063 ye pay tithe586 of mint2238 and2532 anise432 and2532 cummin,2951 and2532 have omitted863 the3588 weightier926 matters of the3588 law,3551 judgment,2920, (2532) mercy,1656 and2532 faith:4102 these5023 ought1163 ye to have done,4160 and not3361 to leave863 the other2548 undone.863
(YLT) `Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye give tithe of the mint, and the dill, and the cumin, and did neglect the weightier things of the Law--the judgment, and the kindness, and the faith; these it behoved you to do, and those not to neglect.
What all this means is that the Lord did not discount the importance of tithing but would like us to also put Justice, Mercy and Faithfulness unto the same level as with tithing.
And here's Paul's teaching on tithing:
Heb 7:8
(ASV) And here men that die receive tithes; but there one, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.
(BBE) Now at the present time, men over whom death has power take the tenth; but then it was taken by one of whom it is witnessed that he is living.
(CEV) Priests are given a tenth of what people earn. But all priests die, except Melchizedek, and the Scriptures teach that he is alive.
(CUV-S) 在这里收十分之一的都是必死的人；但在那里收十分之一的，有为他作见证的说，他是活的；
(KJV+) And2532 here5602, 3303 men444 that die599 receive2983 tithes;1181 but1161 there1563 he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed3140 that3754 he liveth.2198
(YLT) and here, indeed, men who die do receive tithes, and there he , who is testified to that he was living,
So the act of tithing is a work of faith that testify to the Lord is alive, well and kicking in heaven. If we tithe, although we tithe to our churches here on earth, Jesus received the tithe for us since He is the Priest for us in front of Abba God. And before Abraham, Jesus is the I am, therefore He is the Melchizedek that Abraham gave the tithe to.
The argument that the tithe is no more because it is law can be argues in myrid of ways. However even the act of arguing against the act of tithing show the true intention of one's heart, that one is not convinced that Jesus is alive in heaven receiving our tithes and tithing is not as important as justice, mercy and faithfulness.
Now this has to be taught correctly now. Jesus did not come down here to abolish the act of tithing because the very act of tithing is to show respect for God's property and assets that was given to us as stewards by His Grace. He gave us undeserved favour to let us manage His assets, His property, His money, then out of our own gratefulness we should at least gave the tithe to Him as an act of appreciation.
Now here comes the verse that see the act of tithing from another perspective, that by giving, we acknowledge that there is someone who is receiving the tithe! Now that is very important. If there is no one on earth to receive the money, why would we give in the first place? Of course we have the church to take the money but most importantly, through a mystery of sorts, the money given to the church is received by Christ in heaven. And if Christ received it, then it shows that He is alive.
We give tithe because He is alive and thus able to bless the tithe and the work of our hands and to allow Him to work supernaturally to protect our finances, our well being and our families.
Now that's the reason why in Cho Nam's book "Heaven is so real" on page 21 she wrote
"Those who don't tithe are disobedient children."
Why are those who do not tithe are disobedient? If the Lord puts tithing as important as justice, mercy and faith; then by not tithing, it is equivalent of not doing justice, have no mercy and did not exercise faith.
At first when I read Cho Nam's book page 21 on tithing, I was a bit sceptical why she would wrote that at worse or why the Lord would say that at best. Now with some studies and numerous 'arguments' over tithing, I saw it very plainly...that the giving of the tithe or not giving of the tithe shows the heart truly of things financial.
In short, are we serving mammon or the Lord who created mammon?
Note: There are still some parts of Cho Nam's book that I am not really agreeable. The path to heaven is Jesus for He is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to Abba God but through Him alone.
So in the same breath, going to Abba Father in heaven is equivalent of going to Heaven in the first place. It is not what we do that gets us to heaven, it is what Jesus has done on the cross and our reaction to that fact that allow us to touch heaven.
Put it another way. If I have a son, he will always be my son no matter what happened. If I teach him to do something but he is disobedient, by the very fact that he is disobedient, he will suffer needlessly. However, it will not change his status of being my son. He still can come back home.
So the same way...God has teach me about tithing and what tithing can do to me and for me if I tithe (Malachi 3:10-12). If I do not tithe, I will suffer needlessly: The devil can destroy my work's results, the blessings would not come forth, people will see that I am not blessed at all for my land would not be fruitful. Would I suffer by not tithing? Yes!! Because this is what the Lord has taught!
Since I suffered because I did not tithe does that mean I am disqualified being a son of God. NO!! Of course not! For the blood that was shed for the remission of our sin is everlasting therefore nothing that we do can take us away from the love of God.
The first instance is when Jesus reproach the Pharisees. This is what the Lord says
Mat 23:23
(ASV) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone.
(BBE) A curse is on you, scribes and Pharisees, false ones! for you make men give a tenth of all sorts of sweet-smelling plants, but you give no thought to the more important things of the law, righteousness, and mercy, and faith; but it is right for you to do these, and not to let the others be undone.
(CEV) You Pharisees and teachers are show-offs, and you're in for trouble! You give God a tenth of the spices from your garden, such as mint, dill, and cumin. Yet you neglect the more important matters of the Law, such as justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These are the important things you should have done, though you should not have left the others undone either.
(CUV-S) 「你们这假冒为善的文士和法利赛人有祸了！因为你们将薄荷、茴香、芹菜，献上十分之一，那律法上更重的事，就是公义、怜悯、信实，反倒不行了。这更重的是你们当行的；那也是不可不行的。
(KJV+) Woe3759 unto you,5213 scribes1122 and2532 Pharisees,5330 hypocrites!5273 for1063 ye pay tithe586 of mint2238 and2532 anise432 and2532 cummin,2951 and2532 have omitted863 the3588 weightier926 matters of the3588 law,3551 judgment,2920, (2532) mercy,1656 and2532 faith:4102 these5023 ought1163 ye to have done,4160 and not3361 to leave863 the other2548 undone.863
(YLT) `Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye give tithe of the mint, and the dill, and the cumin, and did neglect the weightier things of the Law--the judgment, and the kindness, and the faith; these it behoved you to do, and those not to neglect.
What all this means is that the Lord did not discount the importance of tithing but would like us to also put Justice, Mercy and Faithfulness unto the same level as with tithing.
And here's Paul's teaching on tithing:
Heb 7:8
(ASV) And here men that die receive tithes; but there one, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.
(BBE) Now at the present time, men over whom death has power take the tenth; but then it was taken by one of whom it is witnessed that he is living.
(CEV) Priests are given a tenth of what people earn. But all priests die, except Melchizedek, and the Scriptures teach that he is alive.
(CUV-S) 在这里收十分之一的都是必死的人；但在那里收十分之一的，有为他作见证的说，他是活的；
(KJV+) And2532 here5602, 3303 men444 that die599 receive2983 tithes;1181 but1161 there1563 he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed3140 that3754 he liveth.2198
(YLT) and here, indeed, men who die do receive tithes, and there he , who is testified to that he was living,
So the act of tithing is a work of faith that testify to the Lord is alive, well and kicking in heaven. If we tithe, although we tithe to our churches here on earth, Jesus received the tithe for us since He is the Priest for us in front of Abba God. And before Abraham, Jesus is the I am, therefore He is the Melchizedek that Abraham gave the tithe to.
The argument that the tithe is no more because it is law can be argues in myrid of ways. However even the act of arguing against the act of tithing show the true intention of one's heart, that one is not convinced that Jesus is alive in heaven receiving our tithes and tithing is not as important as justice, mercy and faithfulness.
Now this has to be taught correctly now. Jesus did not come down here to abolish the act of tithing because the very act of tithing is to show respect for God's property and assets that was given to us as stewards by His Grace. He gave us undeserved favour to let us manage His assets, His property, His money, then out of our own gratefulness we should at least gave the tithe to Him as an act of appreciation.
Now here comes the verse that see the act of tithing from another perspective, that by giving, we acknowledge that there is someone who is receiving the tithe! Now that is very important. If there is no one on earth to receive the money, why would we give in the first place? Of course we have the church to take the money but most importantly, through a mystery of sorts, the money given to the church is received by Christ in heaven. And if Christ received it, then it shows that He is alive.
We give tithe because He is alive and thus able to bless the tithe and the work of our hands and to allow Him to work supernaturally to protect our finances, our well being and our families.
Now that's the reason why in Cho Nam's book "Heaven is so real" on page 21 she wrote
"Those who don't tithe are disobedient children."
Why are those who do not tithe are disobedient? If the Lord puts tithing as important as justice, mercy and faith; then by not tithing, it is equivalent of not doing justice, have no mercy and did not exercise faith.
At first when I read Cho Nam's book page 21 on tithing, I was a bit sceptical why she would wrote that at worse or why the Lord would say that at best. Now with some studies and numerous 'arguments' over tithing, I saw it very plainly...that the giving of the tithe or not giving of the tithe shows the heart truly of things financial.
In short, are we serving mammon or the Lord who created mammon?
Note: There are still some parts of Cho Nam's book that I am not really agreeable. The path to heaven is Jesus for He is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to Abba God but through Him alone.
So in the same breath, going to Abba Father in heaven is equivalent of going to Heaven in the first place. It is not what we do that gets us to heaven, it is what Jesus has done on the cross and our reaction to that fact that allow us to touch heaven.
Put it another way. If I have a son, he will always be my son no matter what happened. If I teach him to do something but he is disobedient, by the very fact that he is disobedient, he will suffer needlessly. However, it will not change his status of being my son. He still can come back home.
So the same way...God has teach me about tithing and what tithing can do to me and for me if I tithe (Malachi 3:10-12). If I do not tithe, I will suffer needlessly: The devil can destroy my work's results, the blessings would not come forth, people will see that I am not blessed at all for my land would not be fruitful. Would I suffer by not tithing? Yes!! Because this is what the Lord has taught!
Since I suffered because I did not tithe does that mean I am disqualified being a son of God. NO!! Of course not! For the blood that was shed for the remission of our sin is everlasting therefore nothing that we do can take us away from the love of God.
Monday, July 17, 2006
How to Get to Heaven...Just Do Good?
Today was passing by the car park like any other days and something caught my eye. Normally I would see a Christian car sticker that shouts Lord's promises but today it is a Buddha image with the words "Heaven? Just Do Good" I wish I can take a picture of it because it really shows the main differences between the teachings of Buddha and Christianity.
As you know, the Book tells us that human nature is already been tainted by sin or similar to bad kharma in some ways and we need Christ to actually meet God's level of holiness before be able to accept Christ to enter heaven. Sounds easy enough yes?
So Buddha teaches that human are by nature, good (anti-thesis of what Christians believe) and thus be able to reach nirvana (their heaven in some ways) by doing more good than bad.
This post reminds me of a book titled "The Lotus and The Cross" by Ravi Zacharias. The book described an imagined conversation between Buddha and Christ. Very interesting read indeed.
Anyway why I am persuaded to be a Christian is strengthened by a study on the claims of Buddhist teachings. The primary reason is the question where how one would know if one has attained enlightenment.
Put it this way: If you go for a test, how would you determined if you pass or fail?
In the same way, life is a test and like it or not, we are told that there is a pass and fail in life...you pass, go to heaven, you fail...go to hell...literally.
So the generally teaching about Buddhism is that there is a system that can determine if one pass and thus reach nirvana, the question is who is the examiner? Who sets the standards? Why I ask this question is that even the Buddha refuses to acknowledge that he is a god but yet he can attain enlightenment (so in another words, a student knows he has passed because he sets the standards himself and yet refuses to acknowledge that he set the standards in the first place).
One thing about Buddha's teachings is that he shows the ability to know right and wrong or in another words we called it conscience. But conscience invoked either joy or guilt when a particular action is done and it requires a yardstick. So where does that yardstick comes from?
I think the answer comes from the Bible...and the 10 commandments is another way to re-interpret the conscience into a form that all can see and read. Ultimately, the 10 commandments shows us something that our conscience already shown but not easily dismissed. We can ignore our feelings and thus conscience...however we can never dismiss a yardstick made known.
Let's just entertain the thought if both Buddha and the 10 commandments are right.
When we are kids, we knowingly cry for food, get into fights or snatch things out of selfishness and self-preservation... karma thus get affected
When we got older, we got angry, seek revenge or just plain nasty...karma affected again and so we feel guilty and then try to do good things to patch up all the bad things.
What if we think we can patch everything up but got angry with someone uncontrollably? Or what if we forgot about something bad that was not patched up at all?
So when will it end? When can we reach nirvana? When can we actually know that we patched up everything and do good beyond our bad things?
Until we die...you say? Isn't that as good as not telling me my exam syllabus and ask me to study only to fail when my results are out? Ain't that a bit too late?
Or what if there's no circle of life (yes yes..from the lion king...a very subtle teaching of buddhism in a cartoon) but that we only have this one and only life? Of if the circle of life is true, then ain't believers ought to do so much good that they will get out of the circle as soon as possible?
Now the bombshell is this. For Buddha to know what is good or bad, and enable him to know how to measure good actions versus bad actions he need someone who knows what is good or bad. In Genesis, man ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (it rings doesn't it)...and that cause us to have a conscience, and conscience demands perfect obedience to the unwritten law in order to get right with God.
Since so many avoid conscience so easily, then the law has to come to shove it in our face to let us know what we do can be right or wrong... so that we know where our passing grades are.
Once we know the perfect adherence to the law is so impossible, then we are doomed to either be in the circle of life (would one go through life on earth again?!?!?!...not me definitely) or face death (I think death is a better choice than to go through the circle of life since the former has an end. Can you imagine going on a road trip with no destination?)
That's where the teaching of the Bible that man has no great future apart from Jesus because of our failure as God's image is so real. To say that we are able to cover all our sins and sin no more so as to earn more credit/karma for the future life just speaks of arrogance in one's flesh. Jesus has taught that the mere thought of sin is sin in itself already.
Just Do Good so I can get to heaven? I think we need something more than our actions...we need a totally new spirit, a new body and a new outlook towards the life that is to come when Jesus comes back.
As you know, the Book tells us that human nature is already been tainted by sin or similar to bad kharma in some ways and we need Christ to actually meet God's level of holiness before be able to accept Christ to enter heaven. Sounds easy enough yes?
So Buddha teaches that human are by nature, good (anti-thesis of what Christians believe) and thus be able to reach nirvana (their heaven in some ways) by doing more good than bad.
This post reminds me of a book titled "The Lotus and The Cross" by Ravi Zacharias. The book described an imagined conversation between Buddha and Christ. Very interesting read indeed.
Anyway why I am persuaded to be a Christian is strengthened by a study on the claims of Buddhist teachings. The primary reason is the question where how one would know if one has attained enlightenment.
Put it this way: If you go for a test, how would you determined if you pass or fail?
In the same way, life is a test and like it or not, we are told that there is a pass and fail in life...you pass, go to heaven, you fail...go to hell...literally.
So the generally teaching about Buddhism is that there is a system that can determine if one pass and thus reach nirvana, the question is who is the examiner? Who sets the standards? Why I ask this question is that even the Buddha refuses to acknowledge that he is a god but yet he can attain enlightenment (so in another words, a student knows he has passed because he sets the standards himself and yet refuses to acknowledge that he set the standards in the first place).
One thing about Buddha's teachings is that he shows the ability to know right and wrong or in another words we called it conscience. But conscience invoked either joy or guilt when a particular action is done and it requires a yardstick. So where does that yardstick comes from?
I think the answer comes from the Bible...and the 10 commandments is another way to re-interpret the conscience into a form that all can see and read. Ultimately, the 10 commandments shows us something that our conscience already shown but not easily dismissed. We can ignore our feelings and thus conscience...however we can never dismiss a yardstick made known.
Let's just entertain the thought if both Buddha and the 10 commandments are right.
When we are kids, we knowingly cry for food, get into fights or snatch things out of selfishness and self-preservation... karma thus get affected
When we got older, we got angry, seek revenge or just plain nasty...karma affected again and so we feel guilty and then try to do good things to patch up all the bad things.
What if we think we can patch everything up but got angry with someone uncontrollably? Or what if we forgot about something bad that was not patched up at all?
So when will it end? When can we reach nirvana? When can we actually know that we patched up everything and do good beyond our bad things?
Until we die...you say? Isn't that as good as not telling me my exam syllabus and ask me to study only to fail when my results are out? Ain't that a bit too late?
Or what if there's no circle of life (yes yes..from the lion king...a very subtle teaching of buddhism in a cartoon) but that we only have this one and only life? Of if the circle of life is true, then ain't believers ought to do so much good that they will get out of the circle as soon as possible?
Now the bombshell is this. For Buddha to know what is good or bad, and enable him to know how to measure good actions versus bad actions he need someone who knows what is good or bad. In Genesis, man ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (it rings doesn't it)...and that cause us to have a conscience, and conscience demands perfect obedience to the unwritten law in order to get right with God.
Since so many avoid conscience so easily, then the law has to come to shove it in our face to let us know what we do can be right or wrong... so that we know where our passing grades are.
Once we know the perfect adherence to the law is so impossible, then we are doomed to either be in the circle of life (would one go through life on earth again?!?!?!...not me definitely) or face death (I think death is a better choice than to go through the circle of life since the former has an end. Can you imagine going on a road trip with no destination?)
That's where the teaching of the Bible that man has no great future apart from Jesus because of our failure as God's image is so real. To say that we are able to cover all our sins and sin no more so as to earn more credit/karma for the future life just speaks of arrogance in one's flesh. Jesus has taught that the mere thought of sin is sin in itself already.
Just Do Good so I can get to heaven? I think we need something more than our actions...we need a totally new spirit, a new body and a new outlook towards the life that is to come when Jesus comes back.
Monday, June 05, 2006
And When You think the Issue of Tithing has simmered...
It all started with a reply from Pastor Leslie about the previous Arguments:
Hello,
What's the problem with this issue of tithing? Cal it OT principle or NT principle. Fact is if you love God enough, then make sure your givings (in principle) amount to at least 10% of your income. That's the least you can do. And that's not asking too much. And for those who believe tithing is an "OT practice not applicable today", then make sure you understand that ALL that you have belongs to God. I mean not 10% but 100%. Careful now how you spend God's money!
Personally, tithing is a beautiful principle and I appreciate fully the reason for the tithe. Abraham practiced it before the Jews. Jesus affirmed it in the NT teachings. It's not a Jewish cultural thing or practice. In a manner of principle, it's an acknowledgement of stewardship. For those who have problem with the tithe ... mmm ... you don't really understand the principle of tithing. God engineered it and trust me ... it's a beautiful concept. For one thing, you learn how not to "play God" with your money.
So ... what do you say? 10% is not too much to ask of you in your givings if you love God? To some the giving even of 5% may be a legitimate problem. But hey ... have the faith of God. Watch and see what God can do with your little. But of course we give not because we want something back in return. We give because we simply love God. I have never fret over my needs or feel the need to pray over my needs. I keep my mind on God's affair. As for my needs? Hey ... the Man upstairs took cared of it! I just keep my mind on my Master's affairs and life is not about me ... it's about Jesus and the harvest field.
God bless
Pastor Leslie Low
And then I replied...
I agree with what brother Leslie is sharing albeit taken aback because I thought this email has "simmered" down. And honestly, this email came at a very very right time because I am lead to believe that God wants to have the last word on this issue. Remember that He is the Alpha (A) and the Omega (Z). If He will have the first word (Genesis), He will definitely have the last word (Revelation).
Well put by Brother Pastor Leslie. It is a principle. It is a teaching of first fruits. It is about putting God first because God first love us. It is an opportunity for God to bless more. It is an opportunity to train hearts to let go and let God.
I shall share with you what I have shared with a sister this morning.
Simply put, My mother has blessed me with "X" dollars. No I am not trivialising this nor I want to. You do not know the turmoil when suddenly faced with a blessing so great that any reaction is hard to put in words.
The turmoil goes as such: "God, this is a lot...I think this is not really my money and thus very difficult to tithe." Then came the comment from God "So now you think that the money you worked for is your's?". Silence, then embarrassment, and in the end, this has becomed a persuaded heart. I believe that my persuaded heart has led God to bless more. I do not know the reason but God has bless my mother and my mother has blessed me, so God has blessed me as He deemed fit because we are His children.
I would also lead to let you know that the past month, I have blessed my wife, friends and of course the church so much so that my credit card bill got me a shock. Not saying that I could not pay (thank God for helping me to keep reserves), just that I kinda forgot the size of it until the bill comes. I am tempted so many times to worry about it. I finally decided with faith that there is nothing to worry about and I thank God for confirming my choice not to worry.
So the next step is to ask God how to become a good steward of the money. Of course the first step is always to tithe, so that under the principle of the first fruits, the rest of the 10K can be made Holy unto God (once made Holy, the devil has no hold on it). Then the second step is to allow God to bless it to increase since He has promised to do so in Malachi 3 and through the blessings, bless the church through tithes and offerings and blessing other people.
I am very very interested to know why brother Douglas has send the reply this late and after this particular weekend...God's timing is really impeccable!
Just another great reason why God is God and why I believed in Him and His provisions.
Hello,
What's the problem with this issue of tithing? Cal it OT principle or NT principle. Fact is if you love God enough, then make sure your givings (in principle) amount to at least 10% of your income. That's the least you can do. And that's not asking too much. And for those who believe tithing is an "OT practice not applicable today", then make sure you understand that ALL that you have belongs to God. I mean not 10% but 100%. Careful now how you spend God's money!
Personally, tithing is a beautiful principle and I appreciate fully the reason for the tithe. Abraham practiced it before the Jews. Jesus affirmed it in the NT teachings. It's not a Jewish cultural thing or practice. In a manner of principle, it's an acknowledgement of stewardship. For those who have problem with the tithe ... mmm ... you don't really understand the principle of tithing. God engineered it and trust me ... it's a beautiful concept. For one thing, you learn how not to "play God" with your money.
So ... what do you say? 10% is not too much to ask of you in your givings if you love God? To some the giving even of 5% may be a legitimate problem. But hey ... have the faith of God. Watch and see what God can do with your little. But of course we give not because we want something back in return. We give because we simply love God. I have never fret over my needs or feel the need to pray over my needs. I keep my mind on God's affair. As for my needs? Hey ... the Man upstairs took cared of it! I just keep my mind on my Master's affairs and life is not about me ... it's about Jesus and the harvest field.
God bless
Pastor Leslie Low
And then I replied...
I agree with what brother Leslie is sharing albeit taken aback because I thought this email has "simmered" down. And honestly, this email came at a very very right time because I am lead to believe that God wants to have the last word on this issue. Remember that He is the Alpha (A) and the Omega (Z). If He will have the first word (Genesis), He will definitely have the last word (Revelation).
Well put by Brother Pastor Leslie. It is a principle. It is a teaching of first fruits. It is about putting God first because God first love us. It is an opportunity for God to bless more. It is an opportunity to train hearts to let go and let God.
I shall share with you what I have shared with a sister this morning.
Simply put, My mother has blessed me with "X" dollars. No I am not trivialising this nor I want to. You do not know the turmoil when suddenly faced with a blessing so great that any reaction is hard to put in words.
The turmoil goes as such: "God, this is a lot...I think this is not really my money and thus very difficult to tithe." Then came the comment from God "So now you think that the money you worked for is your's?". Silence, then embarrassment, and in the end, this has becomed a persuaded heart. I believe that my persuaded heart has led God to bless more. I do not know the reason but God has bless my mother and my mother has blessed me, so God has blessed me as He deemed fit because we are His children.
I would also lead to let you know that the past month, I have blessed my wife, friends and of course the church so much so that my credit card bill got me a shock. Not saying that I could not pay (thank God for helping me to keep reserves), just that I kinda forgot the size of it until the bill comes. I am tempted so many times to worry about it. I finally decided with faith that there is nothing to worry about and I thank God for confirming my choice not to worry.
So the next step is to ask God how to become a good steward of the money. Of course the first step is always to tithe, so that under the principle of the first fruits, the rest of the 10K can be made Holy unto God (once made Holy, the devil has no hold on it). Then the second step is to allow God to bless it to increase since He has promised to do so in Malachi 3 and through the blessings, bless the church through tithes and offerings and blessing other people.
I am very very interested to know why brother Douglas has send the reply this late and after this particular weekend...God's timing is really impeccable!
Just another great reason why God is God and why I believed in Him and His provisions.
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