“Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Neh 8:10
Psalm 42:1-2
As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
is answered in Rev 22:17
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
( not a tribute to the TonyRich project)
In Taiwan there is no fellowship if you don't look for it.
I miss everyone a lot.
praise the Lord for His word. if I didn't have the Bible, boy, I dont know where'd I'd be and what I'd be thinking. Reading it is like taking a big swig of cold orange juice after a 4 mile run. Stunningly refreshing! Taiwan is a dark place with dark activities and is populated by a dark-hearted people. It makes the living word of God something very precious to my heart. It has served as a stablizing force in my heart these last few days even though I have been dwelling on only a few verses.
On a related note, walking around the streets here feels like living between two worlds. Within me there is one reality and outside of me there is another. But the one within is ultimate and the one without is not. Here's what I mean, peal back the outer layer and beneath all the economic development, all the big skyscrapers, the high fashion and the good food, everyone here is dying and the world they are trying so hard to push forward is falling apart. But nobody knows it but me.
once again, this is not a tribute to the TonyRich project.
July 19-June 1 : in China with parents
July 2 – July 18 : in Taiwan ministering to prisoners
please pray for me.
Here are some books I want to read:
And I would like to do some other studies in the Scriptures too.
keep me accountable. I believe it is possible. This is my last Summer vacation. I will never have this much time again.
1. The Spiritual disconnect / Part-time Christians
Whether it's drinking boba or going to dormal, once you apply your Christianity to it, immediately the response is "Relax buddy, you think too much." Well, the reason why these people are wrong to respond like this (most of the time, though not all.) is because they have partitioned their life into the spiritual and non spiritual issues, for example, videogames, that's non-spiritual, prayer and devotions, that's spiritual, movies, non-spiritual, biblestudy, spiritual, etc. You get the picture. Well, that's really too bad because they have basically sectioned off their life, or maybe more practically their day, into sections of time wherein they live as a Christian and other sections where they do not. Well I would like to say that Christianity is not a part of your life which you conveniently stow away once something unrelated to the Christian Faith comes to the forefront of your to do list. This generation of young men and women live disconnected lives where Christianity is like an electric outlet that can only be utilized by a few select appliances but for all the others which are from different regions, well, too bad not everything fits into one type of plug, right?
And that's just the thing, Christianity is not a genre, it is not a type, it's not a circle or group of circles in this gigantic venn diagram of life.
Recently in smallgroup I told my guys to develop a theology for the things they do, like playing with Adobe Photoshop, or being an avid observer of ESPN.com. Yes my friends, there is a Biblical theology of ESPN. There is a way in all things to give glory to God if those things are not sin. However if they are sin, we are not to do them. (Now the Bible speaks clearly to a limited array of topics, but there is no issue of life which is unrelated to the topics covered in Scripture.)
2. Anti-intellectualism
Think about this, if you talk about committing suicide many will say "O No! that's sinful, don't do that!" but if you talk about going to a club, they will say "meh, don't think too much." The reason why is because sometime in their life they developed a list of spiritual things, containing both postivie and negative things (negative being sinful) while everything else outside that list is free game. So then when they come across something that falls in their negative spiritual category in the list they have been systematized by their list to just say "No!" They don't think, they just react, or maybe go off plain o'l feelings (spiritual "motor" memory). No! But when something is outside their list, usually something that they find just too darn fun falls on their laps, they skip the entire process of thinking once again except this time instead of a systematized response, it's "hey, don't think so much." It's as if they rule out the possibility of it even being sin before they evaluate it.
Thinking has been outlawed. We don't want to think. We just want to do, enjoy, go, be, for all the things we have left to enjoy which Christianity has not clearly barred we want to explore and consume. (sidenote: Wait, barred? You say you are barred from Sin? That's the wrong attitude. You are not barred from sin, you are preserved from it. Sin is not this really good treat that God is keeping from you. It's the end of your life, it means your death.) We need to think soberly about what we do! Sin is not always clear to the spiritual eye. Most of the time it lurks in the shadows. So get real, and ask yourself, is this really good for me? is this really God honoring? think! spiritual motor memory is not good enough, and neither is the fear of being too uptight. Think!
3. Anti Intellectualism + Spiritual diconnectedness = Careless living.
As believers we walk in a world of darkness, our eyes should be open unless we want to trip ourselves. And yet so many of us are telling others to close their eyes, even if it means closing their eyes more than they keep them open. After all there's a whole lot more of the non spiritual issues than spiritual right? lame. Jesus calls us to be wise as snakes though we be as innocent as doves in this world. And being wise includes thinking soberly about what is going on around you.
Nobody wants to apply their minds to life today. But if we took Christianity to its logical end, imagine the sort of lives we could lead for the glory of God. Only then will people ask about this "hope that is in us." Otherwise you and I would lead lives that look just like Atheists.
Christianity is more than a genre within life, but the whole of it, and it is practically applied through the application of our minds to our actions. So think about as much as you can.
