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"And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, 'Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' He said to Him. ' What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?' So he answered and said, 'You shall love the Lord your god with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.' And He said to him, 'Ypu have answered rightly; do this and you will live.' But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, ' And who is my neighbour?' Then Jesus answered and said : " A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped himhalf dead.' " (Luke 10: 25-30)
In many years, humans are keep looking for answer about our existence in earth. many questions are asked. Philosophers have found answer and even developed a new branch of philosophy called Existentialism. They emphasis on the individual and potential
consequences of the existance or non-existance of God.
However, I don't agree with this statement. The world is simple. Peace can maintain by love. We love harmony with not split of blood. Love your friend, neighbour, the one you hate, prisoners, murders, thieves, sinners, etc. Forget what they have done in the past. Accept them with a new-born person when they asked for forgiveness. There will not not be war if nations can tolerate each other without considering their politic ideology and races.
We must also aware that peace can maintain by believing God. We must give the entirely of ourselves to God. What Jesus taught us ? Jesus taught us that love your neighbour as you love yourself . Who is our neighbour ? Our neighbour is the people around us. This means that all the citizen in this world is our neighbours including
your friend, neighbour, the one you hate, prisoners, murders, thieves, sinners, etc. I know not every can do this teacheangs. Difficult but can can be done. Remeber, for Chistian, God is love and love all of us. He also accept we (a humble sinner) with forgiveness and grace. We must do the same with our neighbour.
May God help us bring peace to the world with His grace and love. Amen
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
How to defeaty sins
"And He said, 'What comes out of a man, taht defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, fooliness. all these evil things come from within and defile man.' " ( Mark 7:20-23)
Men often commit sins whether we are awared or not. It is a fact. History has proved this statement. In many years of human history, there are many dictators, war promoters, false messiah, series killers, cheaters, rapists, etc. No matter how people hate sins, it will repeat itself.
Why????
This is because sins is born with us since we are baby. People cannot destyroy sins in their mind no matter how hard we try. We are inheritated from our ancestor, Adam and Eve. The only way to defeat it is to confess about what we did to God, the Almighty.
God is is forgiveful and love sinners. He do not what us to go to HELL when our flesh is dead. We are only in the correct pathway when accepted God.
" Only those who accept God's Word admit that they were sinners. They also know that they become righteous by faith. So, they know that ignoring and laying aside His Word without recognizing it is the most seriousd sin. Those who accept His Word are righteous, even though they were previously sinners. They were born again of His Word in His World in His grace and the most blessed."
Source: Sermon 1 we Must First Know about Our Sins to be Redeemed ( Have You Truly been Born Again of Water and The Spirit ) , written by Paul. C. Jong.
Men often commit sins whether we are awared or not. It is a fact. History has proved this statement. In many years of human history, there are many dictators, war promoters, false messiah, series killers, cheaters, rapists, etc. No matter how people hate sins, it will repeat itself.
Why????
This is because sins is born with us since we are baby. People cannot destyroy sins in their mind no matter how hard we try. We are inheritated from our ancestor, Adam and Eve. The only way to defeat it is to confess about what we did to God, the Almighty.
God is is forgiveful and love sinners. He do not what us to go to HELL when our flesh is dead. We are only in the correct pathway when accepted God.
" Only those who accept God's Word admit that they were sinners. They also know that they become righteous by faith. So, they know that ignoring and laying aside His Word without recognizing it is the most seriousd sin. Those who accept His Word are righteous, even though they were previously sinners. They were born again of His Word in His World in His grace and the most blessed."
Source: Sermon 1 we Must First Know about Our Sins to be Redeemed ( Have You Truly been Born Again of Water and The Spirit ) , written by Paul. C. Jong.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Is death a curse ??????
God, when He created the heavens and the earth in the beginning, also the eternal worlds, Heaven and Hell. He created mankind in His own image, but, since the first man, Adam, sinned before God, all people have to die once.
" And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this judgement." ( Hebrew 9:27)
Source : Preface - Have You Truly Been Born Again of Water and the Spirit , written by Paul C. Jong
Actually, what is the meaning of death? I'm sure that many people have ask about it. Philosophers also think about this question. A philosophical question that influences all the peolple in this world. Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, and etc are answering with own wisdom and philosophy experince since their pre-Scratic period. However, they cannot avoid death. Death is some how came to them. Is death a curse?
As a christian, I think that death is pathway to the eternal life rather than a curse. As we all know , men are sinned that we inherited from our ancestor, Adam and Eve. Since we are sinned , the penalty of sin is death. The meaning of death in the bible literature is we are seperate from God. We have no eternal life but will be thrown into ' the lake of fire and brimstone' (Revelation 20:10)
However, we should not be obsessed about this statement. We have a solution to overcome death. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." For me , the only solution to overcome death is believing in Jesus that was came by water, blood and the Spirit.
" And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this judgement." ( Hebrew 9:27)
Source : Preface - Have You Truly Been Born Again of Water and the Spirit , written by Paul C. Jong
Actually, what is the meaning of death? I'm sure that many people have ask about it. Philosophers also think about this question. A philosophical question that influences all the peolple in this world. Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, and etc are answering with own wisdom and philosophy experince since their pre-Scratic period. However, they cannot avoid death. Death is some how came to them. Is death a curse?
As a christian, I think that death is pathway to the eternal life rather than a curse. As we all know , men are sinned that we inherited from our ancestor, Adam and Eve. Since we are sinned , the penalty of sin is death. The meaning of death in the bible literature is we are seperate from God. We have no eternal life but will be thrown into ' the lake of fire and brimstone' (Revelation 20:10)
However, we should not be obsessed about this statement. We have a solution to overcome death. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." For me , the only solution to overcome death is believing in Jesus that was came by water, blood and the Spirit.
Friday, January 1, 2010
AUGUSTINE’S TESTIMONY CONCERNING
I. THE Retractations, II, 6 (A.D. 427)
1. My Confessions, in thirteen books, praise the righteous and good God as they speak either
of my evil or good, and they are meant to excite men’s minds and affections toward him. At least
as far as I am concerned, this is what they did for me when they were being written and they still
do this when read. What some people think of them is their own affair [ipse viderint]; but I do know
that they have given pleasure to many of my brethren and still do so. The first through the tenth
books were written about myself; the other three about Holy Scripture, from what is written there,
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,2even as far as the reference to the Sabbath
rest.3
2. In Book IV, when I confessed my soul’s misery over the death of a friend and said that our
soul had somehow been made one out of two souls, “But it may have been that I was afraid to die,
lest he should then die wholly whom I had so greatly loved” (Ch. VI, 11)--this now seems to be
more a trivial declamation than a serious confession, although this inept expression may be tempered
somewhat by the “may have been” [forte] Which I added. And in Book XIII what I said--“The
firmament was made between the higher waters (and superior) and the lower (and inferior)
waters”--was said without sufficient thought. In any case, the matter is very obscure.
This work begins thus: “Great art thou, O Lord.”
II. De Dono Perseverantiae, XX, 53 (A.D. 428)
Which of my shorter works has been more widely known or given greater pleasure than the
[thirteen] books of my Confessions?And, although I published them long before the Pelagian heresy
had even begun to be, it is plain that in them I said to my God, again and again, “Give what thou
commandest and command what thou wilt.” When these words of mine were repeated in Pelagius’
presence at Rome by a certain brother of mine (an episcopal colleague), he could not bear them
and contradicted him so excitedly that they nearly came to a quarrel. Now what, indeed, does God
command, first and foremost, except that we believe in him? This faith, therefore, he himself gives;
so that it is well said to him, “Give what thou commandest.” Moreover, in those same books,
concerning my account of my conversion when God turned me to that faith Ih I was laying waste
with a very wretched and wild verbal assault,4 do you not remember how the narration shows that
I was given as a gift to the faithful and daily tears of my mother, who had been promised that I
should not perish? I certainly declared there that God by his grace turns men’s wills to the true faith
when they are not only averse to it, but actually adverse. As for the other ways in Which I sought
God’s aid in my growth in perseverance, you either know or can review them as you wish
III. Letter to Darius (A.D. 429)
Thus, my son, take the books of my Confessions and use them as a good man should--not
superficially, but as a Christian in Christian charity. Here see me as I am and do not praise me for
more than I am. Here believe nothing else about me than my own testimony. Here observe what I
have been in myself and through myself. And if something in me pleases you, here praise Him with
me--him whom I desire to be praised on my account and not myself. “For it is he that hath made
us and not we ourselves.”5 Indeed, we were ourselves quite lost; but he who made us, remade us. As, then, you find me in these pages, pray for me that I shall not fail but that
I may go on to be perfected. Pray for me, my son, pray for me!
1. My Confessions, in thirteen books, praise the righteous and good God as they speak either
of my evil or good, and they are meant to excite men’s minds and affections toward him. At least
as far as I am concerned, this is what they did for me when they were being written and they still
do this when read. What some people think of them is their own affair [ipse viderint]; but I do know
that they have given pleasure to many of my brethren and still do so. The first through the tenth
books were written about myself; the other three about Holy Scripture, from what is written there,
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,2even as far as the reference to the Sabbath
rest.3
2. In Book IV, when I confessed my soul’s misery over the death of a friend and said that our
soul had somehow been made one out of two souls, “But it may have been that I was afraid to die,
lest he should then die wholly whom I had so greatly loved” (Ch. VI, 11)--this now seems to be
more a trivial declamation than a serious confession, although this inept expression may be tempered
somewhat by the “may have been” [forte] Which I added. And in Book XIII what I said--“The
firmament was made between the higher waters (and superior) and the lower (and inferior)
waters”--was said without sufficient thought. In any case, the matter is very obscure.
This work begins thus: “Great art thou, O Lord.”
II. De Dono Perseverantiae, XX, 53 (A.D. 428)
Which of my shorter works has been more widely known or given greater pleasure than the
[thirteen] books of my Confessions?And, although I published them long before the Pelagian heresy
had even begun to be, it is plain that in them I said to my God, again and again, “Give what thou
commandest and command what thou wilt.” When these words of mine were repeated in Pelagius’
presence at Rome by a certain brother of mine (an episcopal colleague), he could not bear them
and contradicted him so excitedly that they nearly came to a quarrel. Now what, indeed, does God
command, first and foremost, except that we believe in him? This faith, therefore, he himself gives;
so that it is well said to him, “Give what thou commandest.” Moreover, in those same books,
concerning my account of my conversion when God turned me to that faith Ih I was laying waste
with a very wretched and wild verbal assault,4 do you not remember how the narration shows that
I was given as a gift to the faithful and daily tears of my mother, who had been promised that I
should not perish? I certainly declared there that God by his grace turns men’s wills to the true faith
when they are not only averse to it, but actually adverse. As for the other ways in Which I sought
God’s aid in my growth in perseverance, you either know or can review them as you wish
III. Letter to Darius (A.D. 429)
Thus, my son, take the books of my Confessions and use them as a good man should--not
superficially, but as a Christian in Christian charity. Here see me as I am and do not praise me for
more than I am. Here believe nothing else about me than my own testimony. Here observe what I
have been in myself and through myself. And if something in me pleases you, here praise Him with
me--him whom I desire to be praised on my account and not myself. “For it is he that hath made
us and not we ourselves.”5 Indeed, we were ourselves quite lost; but he who made us, remade us. As, then, you find me in these pages, pray for me that I shall not fail but that
I may go on to be perfected. Pray for me, my son, pray for me!
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