:(

Someone apparently arrived at my blog by searching: “how to break a guys heart biblically.”

sad.

Future Grace coincides with Present Truth

I never thought about it that way but now it seems so obvious. John Piper writes that the purifying power of faith Future Grace is based upon a delight in God, a deep seated Joy in Jesus. But I have realized that our purification does not need always depend on the future or promises not yet fulfilled. (btw, I’m sure he also believes this. I just missed it when I was reading)

You see, since the core of Future Grace theology is increasing Joy in God over joy in sin, we do not need to limit ourselves to joy found in promises. We can extend our minds to present truths such as Theology proper too. There’s no promise in Theology Proper really, but what there is, is the sheer excellence of God in His own character as revealed by the Scriptures. And it is enough to lift your mind above the pitiful pleasures of the world into the heights of God. You can fight sin by simply delighting in who God is right now. See? you can increase your joy in God by just reading “God.”

To put it simply, if Joy is our motivation, and God simply is our joy, than anything that has to do with Him so long as it is true, is fuel for the fight.

To tell you the truth, I argued with Vicky about this my freshman year and I couldn’t get myself to see that the greatness and magnificence and beauty of God was enough to break the chain of sin if it did not contain with it some sort of promise for future pleasure. I was so stuck on the Future Grace paradigm that I couldn’t see that there was (and is) a big chunk of present joy in present Truth.

Here is some Present Truth to fill your mind with glory:

“ God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.”
(Heb 1:1-4 NAS95S)

Hope will purify your soul says the apostle John. But Amazement will too.

A dream about a girl.

This entry might be a little weird and even awkward (go figure) but try to take it with a grain of salt.

I was riding back on a bus from a GOC outing at some retreat in the mountains (everyone was there, mattlau, beland, harrison, steve was somwhere but I didn’t see him, mitchell, jeff, peter…by the way there was an onsen for the guys later that night where I discussed a lot of my thoughts concerning this entry…).  On the bus I developed a friendship with a girl (who was the spitting image of Natalie Portman) that somehow right then and there became more than a friendship.  I don’t know how, but we ended up holding hands and she asked me about the possibility of dating.  At that point every normal guy would have dived at the opportunity and said “Yes! let’s do it!” But something felt strangely and deeply amiss in me.   I knew that she did not delight herself in the knowledge of God.  Subsequently I could not enjoy any of our conversations and our relationship felt shallow, dark, and tragic. I couldn’t look her in the eyes and tell her that I was willing to go the distance with her.

My final answer was no.  In the dream a flood of thoughts rushed into my mind.  I just couldn’t delight in a girl who did not delight herself in the knowledge of God and His Word..How could I spend the rest of my life talking to a girl who didn’t care for Him? who didn’t feel the joy of salvation or the expectation of Christ’s return?  How could I sit at a coffee shop and just go off about ministry and small groupees or new things I’ve learned about our Lord?  No matter how pretty the girl was, how could I be deeply attracted to someone who didn’t love Romans?  The answer came hard and fast: I couldn’t, I can’t.  Then I woke up and praised God.

That was my dream about a girl.  So for those of you who are Christians considering dating a non-believer (or a nominal believer).  Please rethink.  You have nothing in common with them except for the fact that you are human.  And that’s not even enough commonality to bring democrats and republicans together.

Please be praying.

For those of you who don’t know her, a good friend of mine named Bethany will be undergoing radiation therapy for her cancer starting tommorow (monday the 17th.) be praying hard for her.  It’s not flowers and butterflies to swallow a radioactive pill.

Pray for energy, overcoming nausea and weakness, not getting any side effects, getting rid of the cancer completely, and increased trust and steadfastness of joy in the Lord.

thanks.

“For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.”
(1Th 5:9-10 NAS95S)

Church #3, turns out I’ve been there.

Turns out, when I went on my last missions trip to taiwan with Beland, we shared our testimonies at this church.  In fact, Beland preached a sermon here.  It’s an interesting place.  They have guest speakers every week and a lots of college kids my age.  It’s also close to my apartment.  The down side is that they have guest speakers every week and no real permanent pastor, hence, as expected, their doctrine is a bit slippery and hard to pin down.  Furthermore, they have women preach from the word in the church, which to someone more liberal is cool but for someone from a conservative reformed background, it’s a bit weird, and scripturally sketch.  Well anyways, I won a Bible verse competition and got a free book today. so yay.

I’m leaning away from Eastbay baptist now and leaning towards 松山教會. That’s the one with the cool seminoid who’s teaching hermeneutics and 1 Timothy.  Man…so much pressure.  I feel bad cuz theyre all so nice.

Chinese is daunting.

Elementary school kids graduate with a knowledge of 2,500-3,000 words.  That’s level 3-4.

Junior High kids are level 5-6 (majority of modern novels, newspaper)

High School kids are level 7-8 (literature)

College kids are level 9 and up. (historic/classical literature)
I am level 1 -_- with less than a thousand words under my belt. Talk about humbling. Laugh if you like, I deserve the shame.

Churches

I just got invited to another church, that makes three different churches in the past two weeks.  sheesh.  You would think that after saying, “I’m already visiting two” they’d give up, but nope.  So this Saturday is church number three.  I asked for the dude to email me a doctrinal statement, but realized that it’s probably going to be in Chinese. Praise God for digital dictionaries.

I finished His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

It was reeeeallly good.  Makes you think and wonder.  I have a lot of thoughts, the next entry will be on why Love is so deep and powerful and why God is the reason why it possesses those qualities.  I must admit there are times when we place Love over God, but it’s wrong.  At the end of the movie or the end of the novel you throw yourself on your bed and think, boy love is the end all, but then something else is kicking in the background keeping you from settling on that conclusion.

Philip Pullman is a self-proclaimed atheist which is really strange to me.  Because he describes so many things which make no logical sense to the atheist, values and convictions so deep and rich and beautiful that random chance simply doesn’t do it justice.  Well, that’s it for now, more to come later.  And I still have to write on Galatians.

Responding to the most painful news

There are two emotions which happen. First, a dropping inside, a sudden moment of falling and haze. A dull and heavy lump of pain emerges in the deepest part of me. And then it slowly comes out, like a long sigh which takes all your breath away.

But then, something beautiful happens. It’s hard to put into words, but here is a excerpt from a journal entry, it doesn’t really make sense, but it’s something real and honest:

” the news, it hits me, sinking, a sudden drop, falling for a moment…

But then, I can feel the clear and light breeze of Jesus, His open meadows and sapphire skies, coming awake to the the buzz of new life. Fresh and exciting, a deep, clean, cool breath, lungs full, soul happy and safe. Running over mountains, plains and crystal waves. The sound or song of something so alive, so sure, so full of freedom and joy. Blast my world open into a thousand blazing suns under the victorious shout of angels, or is it Jesus? My heart. No matter, I cannot think of it. The glory of Christ overwhelms my shadows, sliding away and pulsing into patches of new light. Hear all creation bursting into pure and unhindered joy. Joy! Jesus hold my eyes captive with your ever growing, ever more radiant face. Is this love? Full and happy. O magnify Yourself over again in me my King. My One love and hope and relentless dream. come true! echo no more but deliver to me the source, the true sound, massive, strong chorus… here I am racing along your beauty, my sail is open and pushed by a great wind towards the center of this glory hurricane. My deliverer, deliver me into the meadows of sun and light and grace.”

Lord I am so glad that I know You, and that despite the fact that I cannot touch the world or the state I am to enter, You let me feel it and it is enough.

2 Pet 1 and another reason why I read my bible.

How is it that we partake of the divine nature of God and escape the corruption that is in the world by lust? Peter spills the beans:

a.“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;

b. seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

c. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” (2Pet 1:2-4 NAS95S)

But all this hinges on the “for by these things”…

So then there are three possibilities to the reference “these things.” Possibility number one would be a reference to “everything pertaining to life and godliness”. Possiblity number two would be “the true knowledge”. The last possibility is “glory and excellence.”

Well, it doesn’t really matter which possibility the “these” refers to because all three possibilities spring from the Holy Scriptures. It is through the Holy Scriptures that we find true knowledge, all things pertaining to life and godliness, and both the glory and excellence of God by which we were originally called through the Gospel.

Out of these things we are granted the magnificent promises of God which hold out greater and more fulfilling pleasure than sin’s deceitful promises.

Just another reason why I read my Bible.