The Sword Of The Spirit

A Cry to God

2006-07-13T02:46:00.000+08:00

Two weeks ago during worship after the church service, we were singing "Take All of Me" and part of the lyrics had "I give You my all for all of You". The words of this song had never struck me harder than on that day worshiping Him. The Bible says that we can give our yoke to Him, and He'll exchange it with His, which is easy, the perfect rest, where my yoke had been so much. Basically, I couldn't take all that had been happening in my life. Sure, I may be so relaxed and all, not to mention everyone who knows me knows I pretty much have a normal everyday life. They wonder how I never deal with any hardships. Yet I cried during that worship session, poured out tears that haven't flowed in countless months because I was so tired of life! My life has completely two totally different sides. I shouted out in tongues to God of my main pain...the lack of appreciation. I've never purposely garnered appreciation, never asked for it, always passed the appreciation to someone else because appreciation made me feel awkward. Yet here I was, crying to God because I was severely misunderstood by everyone. No one who knows me really knows me well, and I can prove that very well, just go ask anyone who knows me. They will tell you about how I am to others and what I do but who I truly am, no one knows, and no one appreciates what I do behind the scenes. I don't want the appreciation but at that time of worshipping I just asked why I did not get that appreciation, why I suffered so much in life, why that vow I made in depression came so true.

What is that vow you ask? Well, I shall tell you. Many years ago I had a bout of depression, so bad that I made a vow to whatever entity (I was not a Christian back then) was listening to me that I would promise for my entire life, to take the sadness and pain of everyone around me. Allow me to suffer I had said, and to take my happiness away and give it to everyone. I was just so tired of life that I was so sincere in making that vow. And it seems I am fulfilling my vow all the time.

Who has saved at least four people from committing suicide? Yet I don't get a thanks from anyone? Not even them?
Who is keeping my entire family together? When my parents and sister don't communicate at all but I am the only link between them?
Who is constantly under fire from my family, yet I still hold the family together in the midst of all I do?
Who is keeping so many friendships together, who hears all the backstabbings between them?
Who has saved and brought back countless friendships and yet get no thanks?
Who would lay down his life for so many friends, yet wonders whether others feel the same?
Who gets scolded for coming to service late because I want my overworked parents to rest a bit? To not make it so inconvenient for them to drive me whenever I need to?
Who gets scolded for disturbing my parents when cellgroup timings change, discipleship meetings suddenly are in schedule or I'm asked to help out at 1am?
Who gets scolded for coming to service late even though I rush because I'm in another country?
Who gets scolded for coming back late because I fellowship with my cellgroup mates and new friends because I know that that the unity is so important?
Who always passes the thanks and appreciation to someone else whenever I get the chance?
Who gets shouted at for helping strangers and as a result coming home late?
Who gets a harsh sarcastic remark for forgetting something? While someone else who forgets also merely gets a comment of "Don't forget next time"
Who serves so much yet I'm told that I rarely serve?
Who is told to rise up yet all opportunities for me to rise up aren't given? And when they do, no one sees?
Who really takes time to know people and I'm told that I don't care about souls?
Who purposely gives the better things to others and take something worse for myself?
Who spends so much time with my crush, yet for our friendships sake I keep my feelings to myself?
Who talks to the girl I like yet she ignores me on so many occasions?
Our time together means a lot
But it means nothing
I see you often and we spend time together
I see you rarely and we spend time together
You really enjoy being with me
But you don't
Appreciated
Ignored
But I feel for both.

Never mind if you don't get the last part, it's only meant to be understood by the people whom I've told. But above is a very brief list of how I feel so unappreciated even though I never asked to be appreciated. I kept crying out so many other complaints to God, "beating on His chest" in a way. Asking why why why?

Then God, the Almighty, the most omnipotent Person, eternally huge, didn't reply me in a thundersome way, not in some mighty miracle or sign, but in a small whisper. He said "I love you." And suddenly all the blessings He's given me came into memory. Though my suffering far outweighs my blessings, knowing that God appreciates me all the time for what I've done is good enough. The answering to suffering isn't through some long theological debate, but God Himself... hearing Him as good as answers my questions.

Matthew 6:1-4 tells it to me in full. Verses 5-8 also contain the same basic message but in other subjects. But one thing that is always repeated is "Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Again and again it is repeated. And if Scripture says I'll be rewarded, added with the fact that God spoke me in a humble whisper, then that is a good enough answer to me.

Simply put, God is the answer.

2007-08-08T11:54:00.001+08:00

Isaiah 38:17

2007-08-08T11:41:00.000+08:00

The mind weighs and measures but it is the spirit that reaches the heart of life and embraces the mystery of God.

2007-07-30T13:16:00.000+08:00

I frequently debate with people about my faith. This debate transpired months ago but I thought I'd paste it here so people can see why I choose to believe, and the evidence I have to support my faith.

This is a debate on www.bondevia.com regarding religion. So read on if you have an open mind, to see the points we all make to support our perspective. Should you be close minded or conservative, I recommend you don't read this post. It is completely unedited, and I hope it will help you gain a better perspective of our respective beliefs.

Kudos to the Bondevia crew for an engaging post and enjoyable website.

February 28th, 2007 by Nicholas

Hello there, Kid here. I know, I know, the name Kid is pretty childish, and I am indeed childish, but that doesnt mean what I wish to bring across is nonsense.

Before I continue however, I would like to mention that for those people who are sensitive to religious topics, please click the little X button on the top right hand side of your screen, or click on another link in Bondevia.com.

——————————————————————————————————
I would like to address a more serious side of life, religion. I am personally an atheist, which means, I dont believe in theism, which is the belief in a higher power. I believe that everything is, and can be proven scientifically, given enough time.

I notice there are a great many Singaporeans who are fanatics, for example, in Ah Xiang’s friendster account, there is a ,”I love ____*insert various deities/higherpowers here*!” and he devotes a considerable amount of time, effort and cash into his religion. Ah Xiang also spends a large amount of energy bringing his friends to his places of worship, trying to let them experience the wonders of their religion.

Ah Xiang, here is what Kid has to say. =)

Firstly, do you believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution? For the uninitiated, it is basically the theory that life evolves, through natural selection. We evolve to cope with the changing situations and environments. In that essence, we, humans, used to be Ape-men. If you believe that we evolved from Ape-men, slowly becoming what we are today, then you do NOT believe in religion. If you believe we are made like that, from thin air, or earth, or reincarnated, then you believe in religion. By the way, an interesting sidenote would be that chimpanzees have a DNA likeness of 99% against us. They have learnt to use tools, and are aware of emotions and feelings. In that sense, if they had speech, and had a slightly more intelligent brain, they could easily double up as one of the many human races that walk this planet today.

Secondly, if Religion was true, there would be no dinosaurs. T-rex, Brontosauraus, Raptors. Everything that you see on national geographic about dinosaurs is a BIG FAT LIE. There was no prehistoric age, earth existed only when Man was born. Yeap. These giant monster fossils are fake, all a fake. Science can prove these bone ages, and they date back a few million years. But then again, it would be false right? Hmmm.

Thirdly, there are no aliens out there. Hmm. When you consider the size of the earth, in this video -

Earth is really, really small. There are billions, trillions of other planets out there. And we, Earth, is the one special planet in the billions, that can support life. Go figure.

On to the forth point. Ah Xiang, sex is a holy thing right? It is a special thing that a Higher Being granted to us, for us to sow the seeds of a new generation! Then again, how come, every bloody single creature out there in this world, reproduce by the exact same bloody way? Sperm Meets Egg. Junior Ah Xiang is born! Whoo! Holy-crap.

Fifth! Bear with me now, my last point! Ah Xiang, IF you believe that the galaxy was made within 7 days, and not slowly created through the ages of time. you believe in Religion. =D

On that note, I leave my final comment. There are many many other reasons why Aethism seems possible, and believeable. These are merely my views, and my expression of distaste to people who claim they love their religion, are prepared to die by it, but do not understand it.

With a famous quote, “What is a crusade and jihad? It is basically a battle, to see whose imaginary friend is stronger.”, I rest my case.

Posted in Religion, Kid | |

29 Responses to ' About religion and my thoughts. '
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kid said,

on February 28th, 2007 at 5:55 pm

Diplodicus, a member of the sauropod family, had no chewing teeth to eat grass with. Saurapods had long necks, so that they might eat leaves from trees, way up, where other herbivores could not reach. So, according to Job, Behemoth is said to eat grass like an ox. Sauropods do not eat grass, they do not even have the teeth to eat grass.

The phrase “He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.” does NOT mean that his tail is like a cedar! It meant that his tail MOVES like a cedar.

Anyhoo, a professional translator Stephen Mitchell published his own translation, and it read “Look: the power in his thighs, the pulsing sinews of his belly. His penis stiffens like a pine; his testicles bulge with vigor.” not exactly the same as it once was huh. =)

kid said,

on February 28th, 2007 at 5:59 pm

I do admit however, that religion IS inherently good! There is no fault in that, living a good, religious life. Donating to charity, doing good deeds, not sinning. Commendable, and if everyone is like that, the world would be a better place to live in. There is nothing wrong. I’m just stating my Aethism views and hope people understand what they preach and declare.

Ys said,

on March 13th, 2007 at 8:58 pm

Hey Bond

Just some comments. I admire your guts in posting a rather sensitive topic here. But I do find some views rather flawed. just to state a few.
1) There are many religions. Under the main religions, there are many different sub types, the orthodox ones and the unorthodox ones. So to say believing in evolution means one does not believe in religion is not correct. People do believe God acts through evolution.
2) Chimpanzees are 99% like us I agree. But if evolution is really true, why dont we see Chimpanzees turning into human beings now? Hmm..seenms like evolution stops after the first successful evolution from chimpanzees to man.
3) Nope. There could still be dinosaurs in religion.
4) Aliens are creatures which can be seen but we do not see them. A higher being is someone whom we cannot possibly see but we know they are present.
5) I dont really see the sex part though. You mentioned that there are other reasons why Atheism seems possible. But there are also other reasons why religion is plausible. So the argument/viewpoint doesnt stand.
It may be abit presumptous for someone your age to conclude at this point in time. Anything is possible, like what you say, given time. But on a lighter note, I think you are a really cool person. Hope you dont get offended by what I wrote=)

Kid said,

on March 14th, 2007 at 12:46 am

Aye, that is me, not Bondevia. Kid.

To counter your points,

1)I stand corrected, there MIGHT be some religions that supports evolution, but to that I do not know of any. So you might be correct in this point, if your “God” that you refer to is not the ones I have in mind.

2) Why don’t we see Chimpanzees evolving into humans now? Because, evolution is an extremely, long process, and changes are seen only after many generations. You do not expect to see new species of intelligent beings after only having lived on earth for so short a time do you? Compared to the Dinosaurs, human existence on Earth is but a trifle of the time they spent. How would we see evolution then, with this only being year 2007? If you do not believe in evolution, then every creature on earth can be classified, because technically, they would be the SAME animals that existed when humankind was given the power of speech and writing. How is it possible then, that there are hundreds of new living creatures being discovered?

3) And nope, there could be no dinosaurs in religion. But there is no proof my friend. Anyone can say this, or that, but proof is needed. Faith, is not an answer. Do not quote, *but the bible says it is so,* because frankly, I don’t believe in the Bible. =)

4) In my point, Aliens are beings that come from another planet, they CAN be seen should we encounter any. I am saying that IF there are aliens, wouldn’t it prove religion to be moot? I am stating that for Earth to be the ONLY planet in the universe, or, if you DO believe in the universe, it is statically impossible for us to be the only living creatures.

5) For the sex part, I was referring to the “love must be centered around a holy purpose thingy, and that it is a sin to have sex with someone who is not your wife, because marriage is a holy union of two souls, binding them as one and so on.* So what’s so special about sex that we have and that animals don’t? We know for a fact that dolphins have fun having sex, so why can’t we? Is it that holy?

Following this quote from you,

“You mentioned that there are other reasons why Atheism seems possible. But there are also other reasons why religion is plausible. So the argument/viewpoint doesn’t stand.”

In every debate, there is a for, and against side. If there were NO reasons at all to make religion plausible, it wouldn’t be an argument/viewpoint anymore, would it. It would be a statement, to tell you that religion is false.

Kid said,

on March 14th, 2007 at 12:59 am

I’m sorry if I came down to harsh, its just that I cannot resist a good ol’ fashioned debate. I’m cool with you! =)

bondevia said,

on March 14th, 2007 at 3:37 am

Chill chill… Haha, YS u got the wrong guys. It was Kid who typed that entry:) Not me.

But nonetheless I reallly appreciate your response. It stimulates discussion and I like that.

Hope to hear from you more often:)

Kid said,

on March 14th, 2007 at 3:06 pm

i love discussions, especially against bondevia. Muahahhaah.

Nickeo said,

on March 16th, 2007 at 2:16 am

This post rocks. Although I disagree with Darwin’s theory of evolution coz I believe in my religion, I support without a doubt, that the “religion fanatic” featured in the post above is clearly a pain in the neck.
And I’m cutting straight to the point, most of the time, they’re christians.

Quoted from a msn nickname of one of my contacts:
“Be a man, do the right thing, Be a Christian, do it for Christ”

“You’re not whole, when you do not embrace Christ”

Are they trying to imply that by not being a christian, I’m wrong and not a man? Who gave them the right, whatsoever, to criticize and be skeptical towards the integrity of others?

We know you adore and praise your religion, but please, if you want others to respect yours, respect others first.

Kid said,

on March 18th, 2007 at 6:23 pm

Thanks for the input Nickeo, that was the main point I was trying to convey. =)

Ys said,

on March 18th, 2007 at 6:50 pm

Apologies to Bond. SO its kid who’s making his points. Cool man.

1) Glad you agree with me on that point.
2) SO sorry to disppoint you again about the point on evolution. Coz I happen to do abit of study on it. To date, there is NO EVIDENCE on fossils of creatures evolving into another form being found. You may want to do a bit of research on this. Hundreds of new living creatures are being explored. Why not? We still do not know every single organism yet..even though these creatures had already been formed long long ago. An intelligent perspective may be to talk about mutation though. Mutation does happen..but it doesnt change an organism of an species into another species, only a deviation of its form.
3. Nope, I am not going to quote faith as an answer to that why dinosaurs still can exist in religion. But then again, if you do not believe the bible and do not know the bible well, how do you know why dinosaurs are not mentioned in there? Not mentioned = non existent?
4. Do you consider microorganisms living things? If you do, there is indeed living things on other planets. Earth is not the only planet. Why would that prove religion moot?
5. Still dont really get the sex part. Haha..who says we cannot have sex in a fun way? You mean sex is fun so it cannot be a holy thing? Link? Fun cannot equal holy?? Or you mean why animals can have sex with so many other of their kinds while we cannot? Well, thats what sets us apart from animals, certainly chimpanzees as well, because we have morals and animals dont?
6) Ya lor, every argument has a for and against. Did i say there isnt? The reason why I mentioned that is because you seem to be an theist just because you think that there are many reasons why atheism is possible. This is regrettably not very wise. There are many reasons why I want to go swimming today, but if the swimming pool is closed down, I would have made a wasted trip!

And to Nickeo, the cool dude, the implication you mentioned, I am afraid is wrong. Who says non chirstians are not man?? Hey hey, i respect other religions alot. Mayb you get the wrong idea. Not all christians are perfect. But thats the main reason why we are Christians. Not that we can be perfect right away, but it is something which we believe and keeps us going.

Yup, that should be it. I am Not a religion fanatic because i dont see christianity as a religion but that’s besides the point.

Thank you Bond for giving us space to debate on your blog. It is cool having people like us right!!

Cheerios!

† P§¥KØ †™ said,

on March 19th, 2007 at 5:02 am

alrite kid… i’m here to take a shot at debating too, dun mind my typing style, kinda lazy to type properly

and i am a Christian, so i’ll be taking my standpoint from there

1stly, there is no definitive proof of evolution… is there direct evidence of evolution? none at all. no fossil evidence is provided where it shows immediate linking of different species. darwinist optimists proposed that these fossils to prove evolution would be found within a short amount of time. till now none have been found. plenty of fossils are found all the time, yet none show ne proof of evolution at all. considering that evolution says that every single organism came from non-living things, fossils of evolution would have been found everywhere from all stages of life from countless points in time. but there are none. this is strong evidence (or lack thereof) against evolution. on a side note, chimps have 94% similar DNA to us, 99% was a widely quoted percentage, but in actual fact its 94%. not that is changes our similarities however. while the similarity in DNA is remarkable, it doesnt conclude that we came from a related ancestor, or else there would be fossil evidence of it aplenty. after all, there are so many ancient fossils of humans which continually push back the timeline of when homo sapiens 1st appeared. yet none show signs of evolution. the human fossils and other primate fossils are different species.

by saying that dinosaurs dun exist if we believe in religion, i assume ur talking about the 6 days of creation in Christianity. other than that, there’s not much in other religions which explicitly states that dinosaurs did not exist. not even Christianity says that dinosaurs din exist. while some ppl disagree, i believe that the 6 days is figurative, as in 1 day in the genesis account is actually a very broad period of time. and so 6 days of creation equals to 6 times that very large period referred to as a “day”. alot of things in the bible are portrayed figuratively… that no harm will come from consuming bad things, that mountains can be moved. the book of revelation is chock full of symbolism and figurative meanings. it doesnt mean everything in the bible is literal, and so the “days” in the genesis account can be long periods of time, and so dinosaurs can exist within religion.

in religion, there can be aliens, in Christianity no. raelism and scientology are examples of religions which support the theory of aliens, unless u consider them cults, but thats another case. nehoo, NASA has technology which has allowed them to see many areas in the universe, and none have showed signs of life. even life in earth is balanced on a razors edge. ppl used to think life would be to create, considering the advent of newer sciences all the time. yet to create life itself is sth of a colossal roll of a dice. u need amino acids to create life, then u need them to link in the correct way, and only left handed acids will work, rite handed ones will merely kill the process. and thats jus building proteins, having amino acids doesnt mean u’ve created life. the building blocks of life arent alive, and they still need time to evolve into simple cells, which in turn evolve into more complex life forms.. now considering that earth is only a few billion yrs old, evolution couldnt have grown this diverse in such a short amount of time. the same goes for other planets. they may be older, sure.. but life is on a razors edge on a planet that supports life. wat about other planets? most atmospheres would kill life. this is strong evidence of an Intelligent Designer.

on the issue of sex being a holy thing, yea no doubt, as a believer, i believe that its a God-given thing. u see, while every creature reproduces, for humans it is a holy thing. humans have a moral point of reference in God, and so issues of wat is moral abound. sex is immoral if done with someone other than ur spouse cuz God says so. other creatures dun have a moral point of reference becuz they dun “think” in a sense, its jus instinct. thats y we’re above the animals in the bible. creatures do it simply for existence, but God makes it known in the bible that for humans, its supposed to be sth sacred for a couple, for pleasure and reproduction, sth physical for a couple to do and become closer. u can see that in healthy relationships, sex is a healthy part of their lives as well.

on the various comments…

kid, its an urban legend that dolphins have sex for pleasure… they are more sexual than most animals for sure, but pleasure? u cant really gauge that in animals. and again, they dun have a moral framework, while humans do, which leads to my point again.

nickeo, no one insulted ur religion… lets take it in non-religious terms, Jesus Christ was (if not the most) moral living person in the world and changed lives thru the way He lived, now spirituality aside, by following His teachings, its a good thing and in a very general sense, is the rite thing to do. and now from a more religion based standpoint.. the bible says we’re fallen, and we’re lost. it doesnt say we’re morally bad and insulting u, no where in the bible does it say that. and when Christians say that ur lost without God, it means u arent saved and spiritually dead. Christ says Himself that if we believe, we are in a relationship with God again. when ur not saved, its not the fact that ur a bad person, jus lost.. dun assume. i have tons of unbelieving frens, and they know wats wrong and wats rite, but usually, they dun care if they do sth thats wrong, its not that u know wats wrong or rite, thats a given, but the will to submit to Christ and the will to do rite even if it hurts. ok, thats a little preachy already… my point is to debate, so lets get back to that…and no one’s insulting ur integrity… the bible says we’re lost, Jesus said we’re lost, many skeptics know that ppl arent born good, but require discipline to become good.. leave a young kid alone or spoil him and u’ll see a bad outcome. u ask us to respect ur religion, and likewise u should respect ours.. my religion says outrite that we’re lost and that we can be redempted, so its not us that is insulting ur integrity. my religion says itself as a statement (not an insult as u put it) that we’re lost, and my religion is aiming to save ppl again. so plz respect our religion becuz it sys that about everyone, even the Christians, we were once lost but now are saved. by accusing us of insulting u, ur basically insulting my religion, and not respecting it. we never disrespected ur religion, but proclaiming wat it says. thats not disprespect by merely an emancipation of wat we believe. so, respect our religion plz.. i respect all other religions.

indeed there’s different sources of evidence that are for and against diff issues to various extents. i believe there’s plenty of evidence to prove the Christian God. sure, plenty of other evidences also point towards other religions truths and even atheism. other evidences for Christianity.. such as i was an eye witness of someone being healed of blindness, pupils formed out of nowhere, ppl healed and my own spiritual stuff.. bt thats besides the point.

nehoo, those are my views. yea, sorry if i made ne biting comments or sounded offensive, my main aim was to jus point out my views and counter ur views… a simple debate was all i aimed for.

bondevia said,

on March 19th, 2007 at 6:08 pm

Okok, just to add a point for all of you ok. Wahaha.

I was watching Discovery Science the other day and they were showing a documentary on Homosepiens and Homoerectus.

So before I begin anything, who says there are no fossils to prove evolution my friends? We are homosepiens. And in the show they found evidence of a hybrid, a mixed homosepien and homoerectus. That could actually imply that humans might actually be a hybrid of both species. Resulting in what we are today. Highly intelligent, sociable living things.

Darwin’s Theory of evolution did mentioned something about natural selection. Isn’t it talking about us?

It is proven that we are related to homosepiens by science. It’s not just a theory anymore. So does that mean that Adam and Eve are monkeys? No pun intended here but if what the bible says is true, Adam and Eve being the first human beings. Then according to science, they should be monkeys.

Up till today I have never seen anything that has divine intervention. I have never seen a real person possessed, I have never seen demons, I have never seen god and his wonders. There is no prove to say that god actually exist. Other than the bible itself. But how credible can the information be in the bible? Afterall there are so many flaws. Can the red sea really be split apart?

The human mind is so complex that science cannot entirely decipher what’s in there. And because of this complexities, some people tend to experience stuff that are out of this world. Some of them are even psychological. Eg. Voices in the head, hallucinations etc. And because there isn’t explainations to such ‘phenomenon’ people tend to look at the divine source.

I believe in time to come, with the advancement of science, more things can be proven and explained.

Religion will only become a discipline. As we all know humans are very ill-disciplined creatures and religion is only there to ensure that we have a set of rules to follow.

Just another point, Dolphins making love for pleasure. That’s not an urban legend. How can that be an urban legend? Urban legends are stories, folklore that are thought to be true by circulating them. Like how “white” crocodile swimming in kallang river etc. Dolphins making love for pleasure that’s a theory, and a pretty accurate one. IF that you call that theory and urban legend, then I apologise to say that the bible itself is the biggest urban legend. Ok, not really urban, but no denying it could be legend.

Everyone is entitled to express themselves. So thank you for all your contributions so far.

Ys said,

on March 19th, 2007 at 7:10 pm

Woohoo

It is getting hot in here. I hope no one is hurt. It is fun debating with you guys!!

To +psycho+, you brought up so many many points. Haha..Some of them theological. maybe a bit too preachy about the reply to nickeo..haa

Evolution vs creation has been debated for centuries! Well, this is a big big field. I dont think many of us are real experts in this field. So shall we skip that? (very tiring to go into the sciency parts…though I am a science student..but I have better things to do ar..evolution doesnt interest me lei..haha)

We are classified under the taxon Homo Sapiens because of human taxonomy done by scientists who dont really believe in religion. Adam and Eve cant be monkeys..LOL!

Like what i said before, never see/haven seen yet doesnt mean non-existent. I haven seen snow..but they do exist. My point is, experience is more important than actually seeing. Though I agree, we are very visual creatures indeed. Credibility of the Bible is another whole new field of discussion. I dont mind exploring with you guys but time is not on my side as I have exams…

Humans are very ill-disciplined creatures. Why so? You thought about it before? WHy are we not inherently good?

Cheers All

bondevia said,

on March 19th, 2007 at 7:42 pm

Haha, don’t get me wrong. I like the idea of you saying “I haven seen snow..but they do exist.” I’ve heard this a couple of times already, and true enough, all of them are from christians.

Snow does exist, it can even be created by man now. It is proven by science. Doesn’t mean you haven’t seen snow means it doesn’t exist at all. Have you seen anyone split the red sea? Can anyone prove it? The answer is simple no. And we can’t just believe that story just because it is in the bible my friend. Haha. What about turning the river nile into blood? I’ve heard of red algea, but I’ve never heard of water turning into blood.

Yea, we may be too inexperience to prove our points well, but that doesn’t mean we have to deprive ourselves from discussing about it, thats how we gain experience by the way Not that I am putting words in your mouth or anything, I’m just making a harmless statement.

Anyhow, to reinforce my point that fossils of evolution do exist, you can take a look at Archaeopteryx. It is acutally half bird and half reptile. Such hybrids prove that evolution actually did take place. What about whales. They are mammals, but they look very much like fishes. There are fossils that shows how whales evolved from land living creatures to sea mammals.

Doesn’t mean the scientist that proved that we are homosepiens didn’t believe in religion means the theory of evolution is faux. They based their theory on fossil evidence and facts. You don’t expect them to look into the bible for explanatiosn right?? Right??

Yea, there are alot of things to discuss.Haha, and I would definitely love to hear more.

† P§¥KØ †™ said,

on March 20th, 2007 at 4:49 am

yikes.. 3 comments in a day! wow.. fast.. alrite, to ans bondevia’s 1st comment…

they found a hybrid hm? but if that was the case, many more fossils would have been found of such a hybrid… considering how many ancient human fossils have been found which arent human hybrids but are homo sapiens. so maybe one species of each genus messed around and had a hybrid kid, but the liger is an example of sth which doesnt support evolution, its a tiger and lion who made a hybrid baby. same goes for those 2 humans, they coulda jus ended up having sex and reproduced a hybrid, but that doesnt support evolution

for homo sepiens, we may be related, but relations doesnt necessarily mean u share similar looks. humans and chimps have 94% similar dna.. excluding the hands, i dun think 6% accounts for all the big differences u can see between the 2 species. adam and eve being the 1st humans related to homo sepiens doesnt mean they looked like monkeys. jus as a very general example, adam and eve looked like us and homosepiens looked like chimps, with a 6% diff in dna and with such different looks excluding the hands, it can apply to adam and eve and homosepiens as well.

jus as ys said, wat u havent seen doesnt mean its not true. u havent seen a demon possessed person? i had 3 of them cast outta me last yr. God is invisible, so we cant see Him, and u may have never seen God and His wonders, but i saw a woman born blind, with no pupils.. she was prayed for, and during the prayer for healing, her pupils developed.. black pupils started to form out of nowhere. she’d been blind since birth, but could see at the old old age of 70. my fren’s ex gf had cancer.. we prayed for her and she was healed of her cancer. u may not see them, but i’m an eyewitness of these things.

ppl alwys say there are contradictions in the bible.. i was once agreeing to that too, till i actually read thru it when i was saved. there are explanations for all these contradictions. like one part of the bible says that judas hung himself, another says his bowels gushed out, there’s an explanation for that. another says that saul’s head was put in the temple of ashtaroth, another says the temple of dagon, there’s an explanation for that also. also backing up the bible are all the prophecies, proven to be written many yrs prior the events. the fall of jerusalem was prophesied, and it fell, the fall of babylon and assyria were mentioned b4 they fell. the birth of Jesus, where He’d be born, and even how He’d die was recorded in the old testament books, centuries b4 crucifixion existed. even Jesus made a prophecy in the new testament and it came true less than a century. as for revelation, it speaks of things yet to come, so i cant testify on that.

religion isnt jus a set of rules to follow… in Christianity, its a relationship with God. dun mind if i get a little preachy here, but it says that we’re fallen and bound to worldly pleasures, but having this relationship with God and if we follow these “rules” as u’ve put them, we’ll be free. sexual sin, alcoholism, drugs and all are dealt with many ppl everywhere, they’ve become addicted to watever they’re doing, and are only free once they abstain from it. same goes to these “rules”, where when we follow them, we’ll be free of sin. i’m not saying we’ll be perfect, but we’re free from the hold, even tho we may have thots about it and sometimes even do bad stuff, we’re imperfect after all.

alrite, my bad for using the word urban legend on the dolphins making love for pleasure. its a theory and itsnt proven, but its widely said that its so, even tho its not proven. thats the sense i called it an urban legend. fine… a theory, i’ll use that word, but well, dun mind at least i tell u the point of view in which i used the title of urban legend, that dolphins having sex for pleasure is sth widely circulated as fact even tho it isnt.

ys… nice points.. but the bible itself says we’re inherently not good.. sorry if i’m assuming ur a Christian if ur not =/, we’ve been tainted by sin and thus arent inherently good.. we’re capable of good and evil, becuz of wat we were b4 and cuz of wat sin has done by corrupting us.

on bondevia’s 2nd comment, lol..

sure no one can prove that the red sea was split nor the river turned into blood. but many fanciful things in the bible have been proven in archaeology (did i spell that rite?). king david was thot to be a myth till excavations of the enemies of israel revealed him to be a real person. the bible mentions an underground route to jerusalem.. that too was thot to be fake, so preposterous in the ancient times.. but excavations proved it to be true. and i mentioned earlier about the prophecies. these back up the credibility of the bible.

having a hybrid of reptile and bird doesnt mean that evolution took place. maybe i dun see things from ur perspective in this sense, dun mind to clear them up in ur next comment? but from my view, how did it become a hybrid? if many species of a certain reptile and avian animal mated and produced that, it doesnt mean evolution is true, its jus like the liger. but if ur referring that from this species it split into reptiles and avian animals then thats another thing. again, i’ll needa see wat ur perspective is, or maybe i’m jus not thinking properly, i’m tired and its past 4am. ah well
speaking about birds, they’re strong evidence against evolution. how did birds develop flight? thru natural selection, this would imply that the archaeopteryx or another ancestor of modern birds regularly attempted flight. in that case this would mean that this ancestor and subsequent offspring regularly tried to flap with scales and slowly these grew into feathers which assisted in flight? in evolution, everything came from a priomordial soup, which everything came from, and so flight wouldnt have developed until some species jus continually tried for millions of yrs to fly and eventually did. no offence, but that sounds preposterous, aside from the fact it’d kill off most of the species, even animals wouldnt continually do things that they cant do. like t rex flapping its claws or humans for that matter flapping their hands and trying to fly for a few million yrs. birds are strong evidence of a Creator.

on the case of whales there’s no direct missing link (or links) showing the transition of the walking land animal to sea dwelling mammal, they’ve found fossils of both, but not the missing link in between. mudskippers have land and aquatic abilites, and so do frogs… according to evolution, and with an assumption on whales.. are those 2 species gonna evolve into purely land walking animals in a few million yrs time? ok stupid question, we wun know…but i think u get wat i mean. there is no proof of that those land walking animals became whales. related heavily sure, but then again, relation doesnt mean evolution. hippos and whales are related.

aye, jus counter commenting.. awaiting ur replies… nitez all

Nickeo said,

on March 20th, 2007 at 4:33 pm

As a reply to pyscho:

I have never, in the first place doubted the fact, that Jesus Christ was a man(can you still call him a man?)of great virtue, nor was I skeptical toward his teachings. On the contrary, yes, I do believe what the bible says. The bible says you’re fallen, well I believe human being are a fallen species; the bible says the galaxy was created in 7 days, fair enough, cuz nobody knows for sure if there was a big bang that created the Universe.

Everything that the bible says has it’s sources,(be it historical or mythological), and yes, it is true that it teaches us to be good, and filial, and to love, to be loved.

BUT, one must understand, that the bible isn’t only the religious statement that the world has to offer. One must admit and accept the fact there are other ‘high and devine’ powers present in the spheres of the world, and you musn’t deny the existence of others.

You might wonder why the hell am I saying all this, well it’s simply because although I am true towards my own religion, I accept the fact that there are other religions and highpowers that we shouldn’t doubt or question their existence. For most Chirtians I’ve met, be it my friends, relatives or even my own teachers, they strongly believe that there is only ONE ALMIGHTY, and by not submitting to HIM you soul won’t be saved, and your sins won’t be washed away. The way they preach isn’t ” believe in Christ cuz it’s good and it teaches us to be good”, but it’s rather like “there’s no way you can be free from the clutches of moral decandence and be saved if you do not sumbit to HIM”

now this might not be the way you preach, maybe you’re different, but I dare say that the majority of Chirstians preach this way. It might sound perfectly normal, even mundane to you, but to the ears of other religious believers this is offending. Most of them who preach, in a way or other, be it directly or indirectly put other religions down. They simply would not succumb to the fact that there are other highdevinebeingswemightnotevenknowofintheworld, constantly stressing that the bible is the one and only source of unraveling mankind’s deepest secrets. Now I’m not asking anybody to betray one’s religious believes, but simply underlining the importance of admitting the existence of others.

What ever happened to Zeus of Greece, to Isis of Egypt, to Odin of Denmark, to the thousands of Pagan Gods in history?
They might not be worshipped now, in year 2007 nor remembered.
But do you dare say they’ve never existed at all?

You might not know this, but there is a ancient “nordic bible” originated from Denmark called the Prose Edda which also narrates the the creation of the world and the coming of man and woman and the course of nature. Do we believe what it says? We might not. But do we dare doubt its existence? If you do think twice.

There was never anything wrong with religions ( and that includes Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Taoism and so forth), it’s the believers who are in the wrong. They fight to prove the existence of their Gods, denying others, disrespecting others. It’s the way they preach/teach that offend others, for all religions teach us to be true.I dare not say that there aren’t others who praise their Gods, but seriously,is there space for others in the world of Christianity?

† P§¥KØ †™ said,

on March 24th, 2007 at 1:08 am

ah… i see ur thinking along the lines of “who gives the Christians the rite to say they’re the only correct religion rite?”

i dun blame u, i empathize actually..cuz sometimes i do feel that the way the Christian msg is preached wrong. but lets ans ur questions 1st…

yes we can call Jesus a man, He’s man but also God, there’s no offence in that. and jus to make it clear.. the universe and everything was created in 6 days, not the galaxy… 7 days is usually referred but on the 7th day it was given as a day as rest, no creation was done cuz it was completed already. and i believe its a figurative 6 days.

yes the bible has its source.. u mention historical and mythological… but where’s spiritual? the bible makes it known that God was the main author who used ppl to write the bible, He was the divine inspiration for the books written. the gospel of luke makes it known that its a mixture of both, that he used eye witnesses to help write his gospel, but the fact that it is divine should be readily known.

from the way ur typing, ur talking as tho u believe every religion is true. now i dun deny at all every religion has at least “some” aspects of truth but not the whole truth. only Christianity provides that, now do i sound like someone u’ve met b4? i dun blame u, i understand that it sounds offensive, but if u consider every religion to be true (jus like baha’ism) ur contradicting urself. my religion says that there’s only one God! 1 God in 3 Persons, the form of the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, all different manifestation of Him. its not that ppl preach that He’s the only Almighty diety, but my religion (the bible specifically) says so. u mentione dearlier u believed in the bible, well, if thats the case then u should only believe in the Christian God like that then. the bible says that there’s only one God, and gives many examples of y other gods are all false. jus cuz we preach it doesnt mean u should hold it against us, my religion explicitly states that, by saying ur offended by wat we preach, ur saying ur offended of my religion.

u see, other religions (most, i’m jus generalizing, dun take offence) require u to do good works to enter their “heaven”, take buddhism, 18 lvls of hell u must go thru and if u lead a good life, then u’ll enter nirvana, which is basically a nothingness, a place where ur free from all desires, now if i read correctly when i was a buddhist last time, his disciples never prayed to him, but believed that they should spread his msg.. so of buddhism is more of nontheistic. no god at all, after all, nirvana is nthness, so that means buddha was free from eveyrthing, and entered into nth, so who’s the high and mighty power who brings ppl into either nirvana or reincarnates. no offence to buddhists. but who controls karma? i mean karma says that if u do bad, it’ll be returned to u, but if u do good, then good things will happen to u. if thats the case, y do bad things happen to good ppl? the bible says that bad things happen to good ppl.. in fact, in 2 books in the bible, nearly the entire books talk about good ppl suffering and related content.
if u are saying that there’s more than one god in existenec, then basically ur calling my God a liar. and my religion also states that my God NEVER lies, but u saying that other gods exist, then ur also saying my God lies all the time, since He created the world, and even till now.

and yes i can daresay zues, isis, venus and all greek gods never existed b4. if they were still existing, i think they’d make themselves quite well known. the scriptures that mention them are heavily contradicted, and unlike te bible, there’s no explanation for these contradictions. the texts that mention them state that they came down to earth very often and showed themselves all the time. zues is well known for flirting with human gals and even making babies with them -.-, thats how hercules was born. well, i’d expect some more hercules related ppl, not to mention an appearance from the greek gods like that. but my God says (not directly) that they’ve never existed outrite. i deny the existence of these gods becuz my God says so, and so does my religion, and every believer of my religion for that matter.

sure, there are many “sacred” texts out there.. the buddhist sutras, which i derived to explain his followers spreading of his teachings. then there’s also my bible, then theres also the Qu’ran or Qur’an, sorry i dunno where the apostrophe goes =/, i dun doubt their existence, but as a believer in Christianity, i only believe that my bible states the truth, that while nething else written may have some agreeable topics, like loving and treating others good, but when sth outrite says sth contrary to my religion, like the existence of other gods, or that Jesus was a prophet and worshipped Allah (again, no offence to muslims, jus an example) then as a true believer of my religion, i’m against it, cuz my God says so, and my God makes it known many times that there’s no other gods and that He never lies. how then, can i be a hypocrite and believe other religions or that there’s other gods?

my bible gives many examples of ppl preaching, and other Christians follow that example. yea i understand some Christians preach offensively, and i understand that, its hard to preach that ur the only rite one without sounding offensive, but hey, thats y my religion talks so much about love, and love is one way we can show others Jesus in us. the bible states so also, Jesus saved ppl thru love, and i folow that example, so does my church. others may not, and i’m sorry for that, but i cant help it. the crusades were an example of how bad Christians can be when they arent focusing on the way Jesus taught us to be.

yes in this world there’s room for Christianity. in fact, this world owes a lot of good to Jesus of Nazareth, and that should be well known. cuz of the true believers of Christianity, not including the hypocrites who spoil the Christian image, there’s so many charities who are funded by Christians, many of the top universities were originally gospel-centred. i’m not saying other religions dun contribute, but while they state that we should work hard and do good, few examples are given. but Jesus showed ALOT of examples, in the bible of His acts of servanthood and good works. He showed an example to the world, which ppl follow till this day. so yes, there’s space for Christianity today, in fact, in the past, present and future there will stil be a need for it. and if Christianity died off, according to my religion, nth would exist, ppl wouldnt be healed miraculously, ppl wouldnt have demons cast outta them, and this world would degrade morally. am i sounding too proud? this is jus wat my religion says.

rmb, my God never lies, He always tells the truth, and the truth is that there’s no other gods, and that Christianity is very relevant, for all ages. thats wat my religion believes.. so if u take all religions to be true.. and Christianity is a religion.. that means u should be accepting this as fact as well.

kid said,

on March 24th, 2007 at 6:05 am

Okay, I’am back into the fray after a long, long break. Let’s roll.

Fine, lets talk about evolution, since it’s so hot.

Firstly, lets look at it from another way. Instead of aethists like me trying to prove evolution to you, why not you try to disprove it instead?

We state that EVERY living creature must have a parent, or rather, come from another of it’s species. From a normal person’s standpoint, it is perfectly reasonable to believe so. That is how life is created now. So, by telling us that life, suddenly appeared out of nowhere, is a pretty dubious idea that we’d have to reject unless there is someway to prove it.

When you dig into earth, you will find fossil remains. As everyone knows, the older the fossil is, the deeper underground it is found. But for the uninitiated, the explanation is as follows. Let’s say an animal dies, and lays on the floor. The elements will batter against it, wind, rain, mud, sand, and will eventually bury the said corpse. Hence, as time goes by, the corpse gets buried deeper and deeper. Now explain this. Why is it, that in the deepest of the earth archaeologists have dug, we only find fossil remains of plants, followed by dinosaurs, followed by old mammals such as saber tooth tigers and woolly mammoths, followed by present day animals, AND HUMANS? It simply goes to prove that humans have only existed for awhile, there is no archaeological evidence, and since we HAVE to come from somewhere, one would look at the closest thing to us, the monkeys. That is of course, if you are type A who believes that life is created out of nothingness. Psycho, you yourself said that excavations CAN be trusted because you quoted, “many fanciful things in the bible have been proven in archeology”. So taking that stand point, explain why this phenomenon is true.

If we want to argue about the bible(yes I’m going specific here) in the scientific way, lets do this properly. Let’s just read Genesis shall we?

YS, as I understand, you are a science student? Then let me ask a simple question, how do plants feed? Something we all learnt in primary school, photosynthesis! A process in which plants produce food, by mixing water, carbon dioxide and sunlight. Dare I be mistaken…? (Checks books) Yes I am right! Hmm, then why, why can’t I understand the reason why God created plants and all on the THIRD day, and only created the two greater lights, the sun and the moon on the FOURTH? Following your statement, “while some ppl disagree, i believe that the 6 days is figurative, as in 1 day in the genesis account is actually a very broad period of time. and so 6 days of creation equals to 6 times that very large period referred to as a “day”. alot of things in the bible are portrayed figuratively…” Hmm. Maybe the plants invented a way to feed without sunlight for a few thousand years.

Secondly, the moon is a lesser light? Meaning it produces light? Oh right, my primary school textbooks are wrong! >.< The moon doesnt reflect light like I thought it would. Yeap, and thus the moon is always round. I stand corrected!

Thirdly, STILL in Genesis, “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” Psycho, making statements like you did can get people KILLED! “rmb, my God never lies, He always tells the truth, and the truth is that there’s no other gods, and that Christianity is very relevant..” Ok, say you teach that to a kid, an innocent 10 year old, who believes what you told him, and read s the bible. So one fine day, Tom *i like the name tom* walks into the forest and says “HEY! God said all fruits are meat! And since he NEVER lies….” then proceeds to eat the entire poisonous fruit (Comeon now, DON’T tell me there are NO poisonous fruits, and don’t give me evolution theory, you dont believe in it remember?) and promptly dies. TADUH.

Psycho, don’t make strong statements like that, you can hurt other people. “if u are saying that there’s more than one god in existence, then basically ur calling my God a liar.” as quoted by you. Think of it from a Muslim’s point of view. By stating that, YOU are declaring that their god is liar too. We don’t want a a 2nd Crusade again now, do we. Then again….”Looks at U.S.A and President Bush.”

My friends that was the first Chapter of Genesis. God knows what I find in the next.

Psycho, your phrase “and yes i can daresay zues, isis, venus and all greek gods never existed b4. if they were still existing, i think they’d make themselves quite well known. the scriptures that mention them are heavily contradicted,” is harsh indeed. History has written that the greeks worshipped these gods. Think of it this way, had Jesus not been born, had the Greek Nations not be defeated and reduced from its might at it’s peak, would YOU be a Christian now? For all you know, we may have to worship the Hellenic gods. History proves that these gods, were worshiped by people before. Who are you to say that these are just fairy tales that can be safely discarded? History was changed by these “Gods”, not unlike what Christianity has done. And even though we don’t see them, we don’t see God either. It makes your point moot.

“and if Christianity died off, according to my religion, nth would exist, ppl wouldnt be healed miraculously, ppl wouldnt have demons cast outta them, and this world would degrade morally. am i sounding too proud?” Yes, that sounds pretty proud. let’s see, what has Christianity done for the world as a whole…hmm. Maybe you could tell me more. On the other hand, WHAT has science done for the world? EVERYTHING. Pretty please, could I rephrase that for you? “and if Science died off, according to my theory, nth would exist, ppl wouldnt be healed by advances in the medical field, ppl wouldnt have demons cast outta them by trained psychologist*Read Woodbridge* , and this world would degrade morally due to the lack of general intelligence. am i sounding too proud? this is jus wat i think for science lor.”

“jus as ys said, wat u havent seen doesnt mean its not true. u havent seen a demon possessed person? i had 3 of them cast outta me last yr. God is invisible, so we cant see Him, and u may have never seen God and His wonders, but i saw a woman born blind, with no pupils.. she was prayed for, and during the prayer for healing, her pupils developed.. black pupils started to form out of nowhere. she’d been blind since birth, but could see at the old old age of 70. my fren’s ex gf had cancer.. we prayed for her and she was healed of her cancer. u may not see them, but i’m an eyewitness of these things.” Wow! That is impressive! Now then, tell God to destroy cancer, tell god to destroy HIV, tell god to rid the world of disabilities. Why? OMGOSH, thats right. We don’t believe in God, why should HE heal us? I agree with you there….but then again. IF he could remove it, WHY did he rob the old lady of her sight in the FIRST PLACE? Ohhh, that girl has cancer? God can remove it? Then why did he put it in her in the first place? It just doesnt make sense, and about your old lady GROWING pupils out of nothing, is nothing short of a world wonder, have you contacted Guinness World Records for the “Fastest Eye Grown” record? Unless you show me scientific proof that this really happened, please, do not just shoot off from your mouth. I could also say, “hey you know, this guy, his arms grew back up again after being chopped off!” Evolution of mutant genes at it’s best now, is that so hard to believe after what you’ve told me?

- Kid

Kid said,

on March 24th, 2007 at 6:14 am

I’m not trying to be unfriendly here, it’s simply because the atmosphere has been warmed up, and I’m ready to debate for real now. En Garde!

bondevia said,

on March 24th, 2007 at 6:21 am

Psycho, your statements are very bold and cannot be justified. You are basing your statements on what you have been told. Not everything you say can be proven.

And I agree with Kid, the eyeballs growing thing. No pun intended here. That doesn’t sound real to me. And the 3 demons, I’ve said before the human mind is pretty complex. UNLESS you have obtain supernatural powers and you have evidence to prove it, I will believe you. Otherwise, it’s just another unjustifiable statement made.

Just like a sci-fi story.

† P§¥KØ †™ said,

on March 24th, 2007 at 2:57 pm

alrite kid, ur back.. long time no see =/

i cant disprove evolution to u, and neither can u prove it, we’d need time as a witness, and none of us have millions of yrs to wait around.. and i did try to disprove evolution to a certain extent, i’ve made my point known in the comments above. can i outrite say that evolution doesnt exist? no, but with the various sources of evidence for and against evolution and creationism, and wat i believe, obviously i make my stand on it, u cant prove evolution, and i’ve given my reasons mentioned above of y i dun take evolution as fact, its still a theory, altho widely accepted among the many ppl as fact.. i may not disprove it, but neither can u prove it, and i’ll admit, neither can i prove creationism outrite, but u cant disprove it outrite either. wat we dunno doesnt mean it hasnt happened. so i’m not gonna do sth i cant do-disprove evolution, but neither can u prove it outrite

as for the fossils, the age of homosapiens is constantly being pushed back all the time, and yea they havent found the human remains from all the way back, but slowly its going back further and further. i’m not gonna assume that it’ll be pushed back all the way till the start of time, but ppl have been saying that humans existed recently, and the bible mentions that we were the final created things on earth.. there’s agreement in that, who’s to say that us coming late in excavations equates us coming last in the genesis account? but i can see ur agreeing with the fact that excavations are trusted, so then, the age where humans came is earlier than neone expected, who’s to say that we wun find older ones and older ones?

and God provides life for everything, He breathed life into adam, and who said He couldnt sustain the plants b4 he let them grow and mature themselves? its made clear that God is the sustainer of every living thing, and being God, that means u can do nething, and if u can do nething, that means u can bend the laws of nature u created. i cant prove it, but hey i am a believer of my religion, so i’ll believe that too, for a God who can do nething, He can sustain things supernaturally.

being a lesser light it doesnt mean that it produces light, the bible doesnt say it produces light. it jus says its a lesser light, how’s that equate to producing light? it reflects light and so is a lesser light. u cant say outrite that its a producer of light, and neither does the bible.

in the fall of man when adam and eve ate the forbidden fruit, their sin caused ALL of creation to be affected. plants and animals alike. a few parts of the bible mention how things were like b4 in the garden of eden. lions not eating other animals, babies playing around snakes with no harm and so and so. plants were affected too, and tho i wun say outrite that they caused some fruits to be poisonous cuz i cant prove it, bt the fall of man caused animals to eat other animals.. so who says fruits cant become poisonous cuz of man’s fall? God told them about giving them all fruits and stuff b4 adam fell.

yea, thats y ppl take offence at that. i’m not saying that their god is a liar, my religion itself is saying that. and i’ve got reasons for believing my religion, so i’d take that as fact also. every religion contradicts heavily with each other, but i’ve got plenty of evidence to show that its true, so i’ll believe it, and wat it says too. so yea, cuz i believe in my religion, i’ll be believing that (no offence to muslims) their god is a liar, but only becuz my religion says so, not cuz i’m offending their religion in particular.

God mentions several times that He’s in control of history, no matter wat may happen. He let israel be wiped off the map and even exiled, but that in turn, showed how much they had gone from their original purpose in God. thru sth bad, God ultimately led it to good. so in the case of the greeks falling, He intended it for it to happen, so that we could worship Jesus. and He sent Jesus to redeem us, and He knew how he was to do it also. Jesus was born cuz God sent Him. the greeks fell and thus the worship of their gods fell, cuz God intended it. God has always made a way to let Himself be known, thru various methods, and so far, its always brought believers. but i dun see that in the greco-roman religions. and these “fairy tales” if true, wouldnt be contradicting each other, cuz that shows that their gods arent in control, and cuz my God says that they dun exist, yea, i believe that too. the greek gods always showed themselves, tho they resided in mount olympus, bt they came down to earth all the time. but no one has seen them netime now. God doesnt show Himself since the beginning till now.

i jus gave examples of wat Christianity has done for the world in my previous post, i suppose u need more examples? morality, democracy, the basic laws of most free countries today (the 10 comandments) and servanthood and love in many ways not taught in other religions. spriitually and morally, the world owes Christianity alot.

and according to ur theory, if science died off that wouldnt mean ppl wouldnt exist, according to wat u believe (evolution i assume) then wat would the de-advent of science stop the evolution of humans? and b4 general intelligence, the 1st Christians and ppl of God were already moral ppl. there was barely ne science that time yet ppl lived morally. so without science, ppl would exist nonetheless from God or evolution in ur stance, and ppl would live morally also. that proves ur point moot.

i mentioned b4 how God uses bad situtations to turn out a good outcome. many verses in the bible also state that belief. one part in the bible talks about a man born blind so that a miracle would be done with him and have ppl believing in Jesus. who says this example cant be used for all the sicknesses in the world and HIV? if u control time and know wats gonna happen, and u let some ppl suffer for a greater good, who r u to say that God isnt doing that with the ppl all over the world? and if ppl sin and have these diseases, its their own fault, they caused it and God has no obligations to heal them is He doesnt see fit. even every single prayer isnt answered all the time, cuz God has His reasons, and when u know everything that will happen and wat will turn out, then those are darn good reasons.

obviously i cant prove it to u, and jus typing, even more so… but here i am trying to at least show my reasons for believing my religion. if i were to lie to other ppl yet protray a Christian image, i would be a hypocrite, and the bible mentions a lot of stuff about being a hypocrite. i’m here defending my religion honestly, y should i go to pure lying to prove more of wat i believe? i’d be a hypocrite like that. and being a believer, then that means i’m well aware i’ll be punished yet dun care but bring in ppl to believe sth false. u dunno me, but i know (and God for that matter) that i dun sink so low, not to mention if i wasnt totally believing in my religion, y would i defend it?

i can show no proof of the lady being healed. i gave an example in the bible of a man made blind so that a miracle could be done, and that applies to the old lady who got her eyesight as well. and i’m not jus shooting off my mouth, i was an eyewitness of those 2 events, and many more. u can jus say that that guy’s arms got chopped of and grew back, but u were obviously not a witness. i was… its not natural, its not mutant genes, so its supernatural, especially when she was being prayed for.

and bondevia, its bold, yes, but hey, as a true proclaimer of my religion, its wat i believe and am told to preach. i am not basing every single statement on wat i’ve been told. there’s documented facts in archaeology, there’s documented facts on every single thing i’ve mentioned. and those theological, preachy stuff yes, are based on wat i’ve been told, but are from the bible to begin with, and me reading my bible compared to wat i’ve been told are in totally diff leagues. i can attest that wat i’ve been taught can be referred to in the bible, so we all take it from the source, with common sense and general knowledge, i see no problems with wat i’ve been “told” as u put it.

and i admit that not everything i say can be proven, but neither can u. i cannot prove the miracles… thats y they’re miracles to begin with. i’m an eyewitness, how can i explain it but thru Christ? we pray to the Christian God for healing, we’re all Christians and pupils develop in front of my own eyes, is it logical? well if u believe in religion, yes it is. u dunno me, so i’d have problems showing u, and not everything is answered when u want it, cuz God has His reasons, and i’ll respect that. u can take it as an unjustifiable statement, cuz u cant attest that i’m honest and jus preaching as my religion says so, but i’ve got a clear conscience, and i know that i’ not lying, being an eyewitness especially, and being a true proclaimer and true believer wat my religion.

† P§¥KØ †™ said,

on March 24th, 2007 at 3:00 pm

*teaches… yea, thats the last word i forgot to type.

Kid said,

on March 24th, 2007 at 7:51 pm

“and i admit that not everything i say can be proven, but neither can u.”

Point taken, you cannot convince me to take up the belief of Christianity, and I cannot convince you that your views of your religion is flawed. As a personal rant, I’d add this. You can never out debate a Christian. Why so? For all answers, God works in his mysterious ways, Amen. From my point of view, my facts have to proven, justified and made real.

Following that, *who am I to judge you?*. I was simply showing what happens when someone gives you a prejudiced attitude because you aren’t a Christian. You want proof? How about a forceful breakup of me and my ex girlfriend of 3 years, simply because I wasn’t “SPIRITUAL” enough, and that our “relationship” wasn’t based around a holy purpose. When a Christian friend looks at me “sinning”, listening to heavy metal music, cussing and swearing, watching pornography(now now, don’t tell me you don’t.), ogling at pretty girls, indulging in alcohol and telling me, “Nick, repent, go to church and be saved…or else you’d end up in hell.” Dude, I’am an aethist. I’ll see you after death, laughing as I spent my life enjoyably, conforming only to rules that make my life happy.

“Do not do to others what you do not want others to do unto you.”

You don’t judge me by my religion, and don’t look down on me just because I ain’t a religious person. Hell, you could worship a rock for all you want, as long as you don’t throw it at me. All that “I am holier then thou attitude” is what makes people like me dislike religion. It’s not even a matter of choice in some places. Let’s say, this young kid is brought to church by his parents. He will grow up in God’s grace, and of course, be a Christian. Did he have a choice? What is so different about politics and religion? Doesn’t everyone have freedom to choose what they want to do?

“the world owes Christianity alot.”

That’s the mindset that Christians have that makes this world have less space for this religion. It’s all high and mighty for you guys, and everything else -people included- are merely mortals who are going to burn in the fiery pits of hell. When God asked Saul to destroy the Amalekites, he rejected Saul later because the latter failed to DESTROY EVERY SINGLE LIVING SOUL and instead spared the cows and sheep to be sacrificed in the name of the lord. Are you guys that much better then slaughterers? So if God commanded now that every Christian should wage a holy war and destroy EVERYONE who isn’t a Christian, would you turn on your parents, your friends, your relatives for their refusal to join your religion? That makes a scary world, won’t it? I tremble at the thought of such a massacre.

Nickeo said,

on March 25th, 2007 at 5:25 am

I’ll just skip the evolution part. I’m not really that good in Bio ever since I took enginnering. Like Pyscho has said, yes, I may believe in many things, even the existence of many divine beings. Thus, I can even believe that evolution is where all life began, though it contradicted with my believes that there is a highpower who governs man.

But there doesn’t mean I’m not a stout believer of my own religion, it’s just that in my religion (okay put it this way, I’m Taoist), I was taught to believe, respect, love and accept what is taught to me, but not indulge in it.
Why do I say this, because according to the debate above, none of you are willing to give in to one another. Since none of you can prove completely your own viewpoints, why can’t there be benifit of doubt? You can stand firm on your points, but that doesn’t mean that the other party is completely wrong or being nonsensical.

to Kid:

Just a thought.If evolution was the real engine that started life, did the chicken or the egg come first? This might sound like a cliche, but let’s say the egg came first, who laid the egg? If you said it came from evolution, which I gather would have probably evolved from a huge ostrich egg, where did the ostrich evolve from? Okay you might say it came from dinosaurs, since birds are highly akin to dinosaurs, especially pterodactyls, then where did dinosaurs evolve from? All right if we go furthur backwards, we have to go into the ocean, coz according to the theory, all life form started from water, am I right? If i’m right then it means that the first land dinosaurs crawled out from the ocean, and so dinosaurs started evolution in the ocean, from where?

If we go real far back in time, we’ll get really microscopic, coz the earlist forms, are just microorganisms, such as planktons and zooplanktons. Okay since dinosaur wasn’t a “plant”, we assume it came from an “animal” microorganism, and so we have the ameoba as an example.

Now here’s what I mean, if eggs came from evolution, and not the hand of God( and I mean everybody’s god, not specifically the Christian God), where the heck did it evolve from. For all I know, an ameoba, which is an animal cell, DOESN’T lay eggs to reproduce. It goes through splitting. Hence, if we evolved from animals which in turn evolved from egg-laying prehistoric animals which, like I said, came from a tiny microorganism in the ocean, which DOESN’T lay eggs, where the heck did we come from if not from some unknown power?

Kindly explain?

to Phyco:

Now what you said wasn’t just harsh, it was VERY harsh. How can you call the Islamic God a Liar?
If you are to put it this way, that your god decrees that every other god is liar and that everything he say is true, then can I in turn say that My god came first, and he tells me that YOUR god is a Liar?

Who says your God is the only true God? How can you that the bible is the ONLY truth while others are fake just because the bible said they are? Can I in turn say that my sutras comment that what you belive is just a myth, and that includes the bible? (of course, this is just an examplary statement, the sutras DOESN’T say that).When I said I belive in what the bible says I mean that I do not doubt the existence of other possible belives in the world, and I accept them, wholeheartedly, but that doesn’t mean I have to worship them. Perhaps it’s what my religion taught me: belive, accept, but not indulge.

Now perhaps if you had understood more bout ‘nirvana’ and ‘karma’ when you were a buddhist, you would have known that nirvana isn’t attained in just one lifetime. According to buddhism karva revloves in a cycle of lifetime. It means that what you do in this lifetime may be brought forth into your next life, and even the life after your next life. It doesn’t just end in one life cycle. So karma is a just a collective term for what had accumulated in many lifetimes. If something bad happens to you it doesn’t mean that you have done bad, it simply means that in your karma the “bad stuff” is more than the “good essence”, and now you’re going through the bad ones in this cycle of your life, which was probably brought down from your previous life. You said your GOD has HIS reasons for everything, well, I firmly belive that the Buddha also has his reason for creating karma. Don’t doubt that.

Now there’s something I’m wondering too. We know that cristianity only belives in one GOD, whether he’s any of the three forms it doesn’t matter. Okay that means that Christians deny all forms of witchcraft/wizardry/pagan/hocos-pocus/super powers/relics of power and so forth. Am I right? (for god’s sake some christians dun even let their kids read harry potter, no offence, but I think it’s ridiculous to do that)

Okay If I’m right, explain to me bout this Christian Hero, Charlemagne.
In case you don’t know whose Charlemagne, he was the man who craeted the Holy Roman Empire from the ruins of the ancient Roman empire, Rome and Byzantium.
Charlemagne was acknowleged as the “Defender of the Christian Faith”. In fact, it was he who destroyed the believers of Greek, Egytians, and Nordic Gods. He was the one that brutally suppressed all non-Christian worship. he destroyed and pulled down heathen temples and burned sacred groves of the pagan religion. All who worshiped Odin or Zeus were converted or put to sword. Similarly to the south of Spain, he stopped the advance of Sarecens. He turned back the tide of Islam and put the worshippers of the prophet Mohammed to the sword.

Now, he’s a stout believer of Christ, isn’t he? And now you know where did all the Greek followers have gone. Dead, under his sword. YOu can check the history, I’m not kidding you.

Now here’s what bothering me, If Charlemagne was such a Christian hero, shouldn’t he be loved by God? But why was it, that at the end of his victory over half the world, was he seduced and entralled by the power of a Pagan ring? Okay after his victory, Charlemagne got married. On the say of his wedding he received a gift, a ring in fact. The ring was said to be cursed with such a power that whoever’s wearing it would get Charlemagne’s undying love. Now i’m just gonna skip all the mythical part, but if the Christians have such strong faith in their god, why could such a thing have happened to them? Shouldnt a Christian only believe in God in his heart and not on some ring, which is said to be very pagan? How is it that they could be easily seduced by other belives? If YOUR God is always there, why didn’t HE stop this and save his believer, especially if he’s such a strong defender of Christ?

Lol, I hope what I said didn’t bore you guys, it’s quite long actually. But these are just some of my viewpoints, and doubts, and I hope that everybody’s cool with it, no hard feelings eh?

Nick said,

on March 26th, 2007 at 12:36 pm

Was he eating a sandwich while he narrated that video? Those lip smacking noises were really obnoxious

bondevia said,

on March 26th, 2007 at 6:26 pm

haha, I agree. that guy speaks funny. I think he is nervous, and probably salivating. hahaha

† P§¥KØ †™ said,

on March 27th, 2007 at 10:43 pm

alrite.. i’m back, sorry for the late comment, my internet was cut… nehoo, a reply 1st to kid

agreed, that we cannot convince each other of our own beliefs. but God has His ways for everything. but it isnt jus based cuz of wat i’ve been taught, but for me the experiences i’ve gone thru, the miracles i’ve seen and much historical evidence to back up the credibility of wat i believe in all add up to justify y i believe my religion. i can respect ur views, i was a buddhist b4, and later an atheist, and later agnostic… so at least i can appreciate ur views more than those close-minded Christians u and nickeo have met b4, and face it, i’ve met plenty too. i dun believe in my religion blindly, but there’s overwhelming proof that helps me to ground my beliefs. of course there’s some evidence against Christianity, but in my point of view its not enuff to disprove my religion. obviously i’m biased, but even as an atheist i was a little concerned about how much proof Christianity had to back itself up.. which led to me being agnostic, instead of outrite rejecting religions.

u mentioned about giving a prejudiced attitude cuz u arent a Christian. well unless i’m totally mistaken, or ur not referring to me but other Christians, i did not talk about ur morality. i merely gave reasons for wat i believed in but never questioned ur morality, whether ur moral, immoral or amoral doesnt change the fact that u are an atheist. the fact that ur ex had stayed with u for 3 yrs, i think she was at least trying to lead u into some spirituality, cuz the bible says that we shouldnt be yoked with unbelievers… y? well, taking both of u as an example, considering how different ur belief systems are, it would lead to numerous conflicts, and that she’s trying to stop sinning while u dun care (i’m jus assuming, no hard feelings on this yea?) about sinning and stuff when wat she believes is to stop sinning, it will also lead to conflicts, which ultimately end up on the basis of ur religion. i’m jus assuming that she “gave up” trying to spiritualize u and so broke up cuz she was doing sth against wat the bible mentioned to begin with. on a side note.. listening to heavy metal isnt sinning.. i’m a major fan of black metal and death metal, but as long as i dun embrace those values or enjoy those that actually curse my God (and plenty do) its alrite, everyone’s got their own tastes.. sinning is about actions and thots, and i dun embrace those thots that go against my religion, i’m jus enjoying music, and the beats and those usually messed up lyrics (as long as they dun insult my God), and yes i dun watch pornography, b4 i was a Christian i did watch, but as i’m living a life out for Christ, if i’m watching it wouldnt that lead me to being a hypocrite? i’m a stout believer of my faith, and the fact i’m debating with u already shows i uphold my religion truly. and my religion rejects sexual perversions of all kind, and so i reject porn as well, i can outrite say that i dun watch porn at all, and i havent seen it in yrs… is it that hard to believe that a professing person of his faith would undermine some aspects of his religion but uphold other parts? jus cuz almost every guy who’s got net access has watched porn doesnt mean they continue to do so when their beliefs are changeed. ogling at pretty gals is ok, as long as there’s no lust involved, its jus eye candy, and face it, pretty gals will almost guarantee a double look, but thats cuz their pretty. like a really beautiful artwork which makes u look again, the same can be said for pretty gals. but if there’s lust or ur trying to take a peek at sth, then thats when its sinning. indulging in alcohol, the bible doesnt say outrite its a sin, but gives plenty of reminders its not fitting for us and is sth we clearly shouldnt do as it clouds our judgement. now while u go around sinning and yea no offence, but simply, yes u r on ur way to hell. cuz in heaven there’ll be values that all of us share, but in hell, its for ppl who dun care or reject those values, and from wat u’ve said, it seems like u dun care also. lets jus imagine that God shows Himself to u, thru some miracles or watever. sth supernatural and u know its God Himself. so now that u know God is real, will u make an effort to change ur lifestyle? from wat i read, it seems as u dun care, and that u’ll live ur way the way u want to. so then u’ll go to hell, which is the only place left since u’ll not want to embrace those values we’ll have in heaven. God gives us a choice, and wat i’ve assumed above is that ur choice will be to ignore those values in heaven.

and whoa whoa.. relax, i never looked down on u.. i mentioned above that i never questioned ur morality to begin with. i never look down on neone, jus cuz my religion says unbelievers are spiritually dead does NOT mean i look down on u. and i never mentioned nething in my previous comments to presume that. and when u’ve got the truth and try to spread it, i’ll admit, if its not girded with love (which the bible clearly tells us to have when reaching out) it can sound as tho ur superior, living holy lives while looking down on those who dun believe. have i met these ppl? yes, and even when we share the same religion it still turns me off cuz of how they live. i’ve got my own convictions for believing and i try not to bother with those kinda ppl. and everyone has a choice when it comes to believing.. when u grow up u’ll encounter a lot of ppl who dun share ur views, and that will make u think about whether u truly still hold ur religion as truth, take me and u as an example. cuz i’m a frequent debater i’ve heard urs and bondevia’s views much more times than u’d think. so its nth new to me, but when i 1st encountered these views, it obviously challenged my beliefs and so i sought to find out more about my own religion and found out thru extra-biblical facts plus my own experiences in life that i have good reason to believe in my religion. everyone’s got a choice, and if u really wanna have a better reason for believing in ur own religion than jus cuz u grew up in a family that believed, u’ll naturally want to find out more to back up ur beliefs, and thru these “searches” u’ll encounter more of other ppls beliefs too, either those that support urs or are against urs… these will leave an impression and in the end, we all have the choice to accept wat we believe or reject it. so dun go around saying we dun have choice, cuz in the long run, and as we grow up, we all do. plenty of my frens have left the Christian faith.. many more have joined the Christian faith.. they all had a choice.

and he fact is that the world owes Christianity alot. its a plain fact.. it may seem arrogant, but u cant deny how much good this religion has done. does it sound proud? it does, and i can understand y, but its a fact. i’m not denying that other religions and many atheists have done a lot in which the world owes them too. who’s saying that they’re being proud? everyone’s saying that proclaiming this is proud for Christians but not believers of other religions. and like i mentioned above, i never questioned ur or neone elses morality for that matter. quit assuming that jus cuz i’ve saved i’m oh-so-higher than u. i’m saved, and my faith tells me to profess it to save others to, to love them, to fellowship with them. it doesnt say that we’re high and mighty above every person who’s not saved. u may be smarter than me, u may have an easier life than me, u may have more money than me, u may live in a higher standard place than me. but becuz of wat i believe does that make me higher above u? and lets assume that u r higher in those aspects i mentioned above.. does that mean ur higher above me? i dun think so… so dun assume that we’re high and mighty above u, we’re told to be humble and to love. merely proclaiming facts doesnt mean that we’re saying we’re above u.

and if u’ve read more on wat saul did, u can see he failed on many accounts. God asked saul to destroy every living soul of the amalekites cuz they were despicable to God. does He still love them? yes, but if God allowed the amalekites to live, they’d go on trying to wipe off the israelites from existence, which would then never lead to the birth of Jesus. the culture of the amalekites was evil in God’s eyes, and the amalekites are related to the israelites.. they’re committing genocide and they were well known to attack israel from behind, killing off children, elderly and most probably woman as well. quite cowardly, and they continued to try to kill the israelites over many generations. God decided to deal with them once and for all, and used saul to do it, saul failed. he left the cows and sheep to be sacrificed, i’m thinking that ur assuming y din God appreciate the fact the saul left the animals behind to be sacrificed to Him rite? well, God said the amalekites were an abomination and their cattle and livestock, raised in an abominable culture would have to be destroyed as well. and for the issue of sacrificing them, God alrady told saul to destroy every single thing of the amalekites, He said that the amalekites were an abomination. saul kept the livestock to sacrifice to God, thats as good as steaing and giving it to God. many parts of the bible mention that God desires sacrifice, and even david mentioned that he would never sacrifice to God if it cost him nth. God wanted no part of the amalekites and saul had the cheek to try that. he din sacrifice at all, but merely looted the amalekites to give to God. in our modern context, thats as bad as stealing from a guy and giving it to charity. i think u’d agree that its very low of a person to do that. well considering saul did that not to charity but to God Himself, its quite an offence, esp when u purposely disobey His commands. and yes we are much better than slaughterers, thats in the old testament, we’re in the new testament. in the old testament times living like the way we are now would have completely led ur nation being killed off, and so God played by the rules of humans yet in a very humane way. God told the israelites that whenever they were to invade a place, a peace offering must be given 1st, and if that offering was accepted, then no need for an invasion. thats merciful, esp in those times. plus God gave the amalekites a lot of time to repent. from the exodus of israel all the way to david’s time, the amalekites still were attempting genocide, and if God let them live it would have cost the nation of israel their lives and the world’s Savior. so its justified. and if God for some reason told us that we’d have to wage a holy war and kill off everyone we knew and loved becuz they dun wanna acknowledge God then we would. i mean who r we to disobey God? but of course that will never happen, God tells us to spread His gospel thru love and grace and gives countless verses against violence. God would never tell us to wage a “holy war” for no reason. and the fact that God will never say that makes ur point moot. if there was no world war II s’pore and most of asia would be under japan and europe would be under germany’s rule. the allied powers waged war cuz it was for a good and justified purpose, and same goes with the case of a holy war if God should ever tell us that. but we are told to stop violence and spread the gospel thru love and peace. so if we are true followers of our religion, then it would never lead to a holy war to begin with.

and replying to nickeo…

i never claimed bondevia or kid were nonsensical. in fact they did give true and good points, but thru wat i know and experienced, i dun take the same views as them. in debate above we did give points of y we believed in our respective belief. there’s bits and pieces of truth in wat we’ve all said. of course, becuz of my beliefs, i assume wat i’ve said is the truth, but i dun deny the points they gave for not believing had no truth at all, there is evidence to a certain extent, but there is evidence for wat i believe in too. u see, if i were to “give in” then that’d would mean that my religion is false and so have been proclaiming sth that fake. but i’ve experienced supernatural stuff, miracles and have various sources of evidence to back up wat i believe in, so for me i know it to be true, and if sth is saying otherwise, obviously i must have a reason to believe otherwise, and so thats the basis for our debate. u also mention that wat u believe in contradicts ur religion. now when sth contradicts sth, it means the core beliefs of one thing is wrong..so in this case that would mean either evolution is wrong or taoism is wrong, u must have reasons for believing taoism and evolution, but becuz u said it contradicts ur religion, then the core aspects of one side must be wrong. if ur a stout believer of taoism, and u said that it contradicts evolution, then if u r to believe in taoism completely then evolution must be rejected. but u also mention to not indulge in ur religion… fine, but if u believe in some parts of ur religion but not other parts, that means u dun totally believe ur religion. i’m not saying that ur a hypocrite and i apologize if my tone makes it sound like it, but how can u say ur a stout believer of taoism if u dun completely believe in all aspects of it?

and in ur reply to kid about evolution, u’ve added good points of y i dun believe it.. well, moving on…

1st of all, i did not say that the islamic god is a liar. i said becuz of wat i believe and know is true (tho its noticeable u, bondevia and kid dun share my views) and assuming that the islamic god said he never lies, then becuz of my beliefs the islamic god would be a liar. ok, lemme rephrase that then.. becuz of wat i believe, there is only one God, which is the Christian God, and no other gods are liars cuz they do not exist in the 1st place. and my God never “came 1st” to tell me that other gods were liars. the name Jehovah means “I AM who I AM”.. and Yahweh means “He who is” and from wat we read in the bible, it means that my God has always existed, and that He never “came 1st” but was always there. and becuz of my beliefs, no other gods came after Him becuz there were none in the 1st place. and my God never said ne god was a liar, but that none of them exist., lets get that stright alrite?

who says my God is the only true God? Himself… and like i’ve mentioned in the previous comments, i have good reasons for believing my religion, and u’ve got ur own reasons for believing wat u believe in. sure u can say that IF the sutras mentioned that the bible was a myth then u’d have reason to believe it. but do u have proof of wat the sutras say? for me its supernatural healings and miracles and prophecies and so and so that give me this proof. and i’ve given points of y i believe them above. if u had supernatural proof (forgive me, but i doubt it) that the sutras are true then the sutras would be truth, but from wat i experienced and have had happened to me, the bible is truth.

i do know wat karma is about… and i know its attained thru the cycle of reincarnation. but if thats the case, in buddhism, who created the universe? who created karma? buddha himself was alive and died.. and u said that he created karma.. unless i was a much-mistaken buddhist the sutras dun say the buddha created karma.. if he lived as a man then who created nirvana? who controls karma? and if every life is to slowly “burn off” this bad karma u had in previous lives… let me ask, wat were u “burning” off in ur 1st life? if u had no bad karma b4, then wouldnt that mean it would lead u to nirvana straight away? i said my God has His reasons for everything and becuz i believe in that, i must reject that buddha was divine and that karma exists. if not i’m not a true believer of my religion, merely believing in some aspects but not others.

and no ur wrong -.-…Christianity does not deny all forms of magic and witchcraft. in fact if ur a Christian, u must acknowledge these things.. in the bible there’s many places where ppl did magic and stuff.. but makes it clear that its not from God but from demons and satan. so we acknoledge these things as real, but not of God. and the fact that some Christian parents dun let their kids read harry potter is really ridiculous.. its jus paranoia. i’ve got every title of the harry potter books and i’m not an outrite fan, but i do enjoy the series. i’ve got many books of ghost stories, magic, vampires, werewolves, aliens.. and man, many of them are really good books. i can enjoy the series and wat i read, but as long as i do not profess it if its contrary to wat i believe in or attempt the things which the bible says we arent supposed to then its perfectly alrite.

well, its not only charlemagne who’s loved by God jus becuz he’s a Christian. God loves everyone, no matter how bad they turn or how far they stray from Him. now He may despise how bad the ppl have turned and even annihilate them if He sees fit, but He still loves them nonetheless (note, referring to the amalekites), and becuz He loves them and respects them He lets them pick their own path. cuz He respects our decision this is y He still allows satan to cause problems, and lets say kid for example, kid said he wants to live his life the way he wants it, then God will let him, but let him pay the consequences as well.

on the part if him being seduced… now y dun u ask the israelites how they faltered in their faith? God had given them fire, clouds, manna and delivered every city that belonged to israel to them. yet they also faltered in their faith and left God. even solomon, the wisest king fell to the pagan religions and left God. my very good fren, who was once a strong Christian, has witnessed as much as i have, the miracles, the deliverance of spirits and demons and the such and u know, she’s left the Christian faith too… becuz her bf wasnt a Christian and she jus let her faith die off. when ur in power, u can easily lose focus, and charlemagne maybe had it happen to him. my God was always there, but if u want to, u can ignore God, and i assume thats wat charlemagne did.. He was there to constantly remind solomon who helped him to the throne and who gave him wisdom, but solomon never listened. the israelites ignored God and in the end were taken away as slaves of assyria and babylon. becuz charlemagne ignored God, then God let him. God says He’ll always be there and use different ways to connect with ppl… if the wisest king was so unwise to ignore God and forget Him, then it can happen to charlemagne as well. u ever heard of a guy called charles templeton? he was the closest fren of billy graham, a world famous preacher and healer. both studied together and helped in missionary work and both experienced many miracles together. yet charles templeton left the Christian faith, while billy graham went on in faith. ppl have their reasons for leaving the Christian faith, no matter how much they’ve seen and know true it is… and altho God may be there to remind u, to “prod” u to rmb Him, if u continually choose to ignore Him, He’ll respect ur decision. cuz heaven is where we’ll be with God all the time, and if u dun wanna be with Him, then hell’s the only place left to go, where u can ignore Him for all eternity. we will never know the true reason for charlemagne leaving the Christian faith, but i can be sure God was there to remind Him but charlemagne chose to ignore it. sometimes i feel like leaving the Christian faith too, but God always has helped me find my way back. another testament of y i still choose the Christian faith.. whenever i’m down or about to leave the Christian faith, sth supernatural (God) will always help me find my way back. and yea, i’ll admit, i’ll never be able to prove that to u, but hey its real and i know it to be true. so i can assume God did His part for charlemagne, jus as He did for solomon, jus as He did for my fren, and jus as He continually does so for me.

UnveilYourEyes said,

on March 29th, 2007 at 5:57 am

Hi Kid,

Greetings. First and foremost I would like to comment on your intelligence. What I am about to say might not necessarily be in line in what you guys are discussing or debating. But I thought it might be a good one to stimulate your thoughts.

I am confidence to say that all of humanity in one way or another, worships something. That is the very elemental, yet also an incomprehensable fact. I am convinced that all human beings worship, be it education, career, idols, wealth, fame, materialistic stuffs, musical bands, talents, self, friends, politicians, philosophy and the list goes on. It is then, not too much if I ask you to acquiesce with me that the very fundamental of the human nature longs to worship. The etymology of the word worship basically means:- to bow down, revere, fall down, stoop, crouch, adore, honor, assuming a physical position or an inward attitude or expression. The word worship is applied generally in worshipping God. Hence, if it is so, it would not be foreign or even outrageous to say that we (humanity) are created by God, is it? Maybe you believe in “The Big Bang” and Evolution theory, however if this is so, from ape to human, who then birth to longing in humans to worship?
Similarly, I wouldn’t deny the fact that the word worship can also be accustomed to something or someone, you too may agree with me that deep within our spirit we feel voidness, emptiness that we cannot do anything about, and anything beside worshipping God, doesn’t bring wholeness. I am well aware that you are sick and annoyed with Christians who declares that GOD ALMIGHTY is the only one but I am speaking from the truth (my truth for now at least). I hope at this point in time I still have your peace and I am not too harsh, pardon me if I am. Anyhow, I hope I did bring you closer in the understanding of the Divine Being.

Ciao Tudos,
UnveilYourEyes

Unveil said,

on March 29th, 2007 at 6:34 pm

Hi Kid,
Greetings. First and foremost i would like to comment on your intelligence, i might not be that intellectual but bear with me ya? What i am about to say might not necessarily be in line in what you guys are discussing or debating. It might be a good point to stimulate your thoughts thought. At any rate that’s what i think.

i am confidence to say that all of humanity in one way or another, worships something. That is undeniable, yet incomprehensable fact. So i am convinced to say that all human being worship, it might not certainly be God, it could be education, career, idols, wealth, fame, power, materialistic stuffs, musical bands, talents, self, friends, politicians, philosophy and the list goes on. It is then, not over the top if i ask you to acquiesce with me that the very fundamental of the human nature, longs to worship.
The etymology of the word worship basically means:- to bow down, revere, fall down, stoop, crouch, adore, honor, assuming a physical position or an inward attitude or expression. The word worship is applied generally in worshipping God. Hence, if it is so, it would not be foreign or even outrageous to say that we (humanity) are created to worship is it? Created by God to worship Him would then make sense here wouldn’t it? Then you might tell me about the Evolution theory, however if this is so, from ape to human, who then birth the longing to worship in human? Did we evolve to cope with the changing situations and environments and somehow worship is *poof* birth in us? Worship whom then?
Similarly, i wouldn’t deny the fact that the word worship can also be accustomed to something or someone, you too may agree with me that deep within our spirit we feel voidness, emptiness that we cannot do anything about, and anything beside worshipping God, doesn’t bring wholeness. i am aware that you are sick and annoyed with christians who declares that their GOD ALMIGHTY is the only DIVINE ONE, but i am just speaking the Truth. Being mindful that many differs from my point of view, and to avoid any misunderstanding that i am forcing the Bible and God down your throat. i should make myself clear and declare that i am speaking from the Truth, i believe in. Acknoweledge this, that there are indeed innumerable things which are inexplicable and will continue to remain alienated for as long as all humanity lives.
Also i would like to reinforce the point that, being a christian, DOESN’T AT ANY POINT, AT ANY TIME AND AT ALL makes me higher, holier, better or greater than anyone or everybody, infact i’m the lowest. When christian claim that they are stout believers, it doesn’t mean they are proud that they are saved, because salvation is by God’s grace and not by deeds, thus they have ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHT to be proud. You claim that unless we can prove something supernatural to you, you wouldn’t buy it. Sorry to say, we can’t prove it to you, we can tell you of all the testimonies, we can show you where you can experience the supernatural. However, proving will deem impossible because each supernatural encounters differs from the other. Take note, that supernatural will not take place, if you have harden your heart and choose not to believe in it. How can God work something or show you something, if you choose not to want it. God is a gentleman He will not come to where He is not welcome, He will not force into where He is not wanted. Same for freewill, whatever you choose, though it might not be His will, He loves you enough to let you go with what you choose. i hope i haven’t been harsh and quick in bringing my point across, pardon me if i did. Anyhow, i hope it did bring you closer in understanding of the divine being, God.
Ciaos and good day.

Regards,
UnveilYourEyes

2007-07-06T10:34:00.001+08:00

The cellgroup meeting yesterday was powerful. There was barely a dry eye.

So powerful, so strong, His presence, and I just sat there, dwelling in it.

There is nothing like this anywhere else without Him.

And yet... I wonder why I'm feeling awkward in the cellgroup...

2007-07-04T14:47:00.001+08:00

I was worshipping last night, and I've been a little confused about my path I want to take in life in church. I'm not sure what I want to do. I was told I'd be going for a helpers meeting a few months ago but there's no news till now. So I was just dwelling in His presence when suddenly a ministry flooded my mind, and I felt an extreme warmth fill me as I thought about this ministry. Then I thought about helpership and the warmth was still there. Hmmm.

2007-06-06T09:38:00.001+08:00

In the last three weeks, I've been nearly robbed twice. You can check my main blog to see the details and the events that transpired. Link is "Howe" for those who don't know.

In the Bible it says that we should not test the Lord our God. He only lets Himself be tested in one area only, which is in the area of our finances. God says that we can test Him in this area of giving to Him and expecting our blessings to come. However He explicitly mentions in other parts of the Bible He is not to be tested in other areas. No doubt about it.

Satan was most probably an angel before he fell. Tradition records him as being second only to God Himself which would imply he was a seraph angel. Did he have powers when he was good? sure. Does he have powers now, being the father of evil? You bet. And through his power, he continually creates evil and sin in this world. Although the Bible says we shouldn't test God, it doesn't say anything of that about Satan. I was reading a friend' blog, where he mentioned he had a demonic attack. It seems he is a frequent "victim" for a lack of a better word for demonic attacks. Although I experience revelations and sometimes see strange visions that God places in me, those are supernatural experiences in the realm of good. I've only seen spirits once before, have had three cast out of me last year and that's about it in the supernatural world of darkness. So I was bored one day walking back home through a dark short cut and suddenly had the urge to call out Satan. I don't know why I suddenly felt inclined to do that, but I didn't call out for him outright. Instead, I said something which I think I should regret. "Satan, you think you're so strong? Try me." Now let me say, the devil is smart. Second to God and I think I'm better than him? Hmmm... I must be stretching my ego too far, because the fact Satan controls this world and 2/3 of the world's population are continually corrupted by him shows he is far from weak. Strong and powerful but a coward before God. I do have God on my side, but when I make an open statement like that, i am inviting him to take his shot. And although I was challenging him with spirits and demons in mind, he sent robbers instead.

Your word is your bond. Make no mistake. But the power of God cant break these bonds when you pray in His name. He can destroy all wicked covenants, all promises you've failed to uphold and then you shall be free. I prayed about it and realized my foolishness. And now, I'm quite sure I'm free.

But praise God nothing serious happened to me, that I was not injured nor robbed. Praise Him for that.

2007-05-21T12:04:00.001+08:00

I just watched The Exorcism of Emily Rose on my laptop. It's the true story about a girl who was possessed by six demons and had a failed exorcism, which was revealed to be a testimony that demons were real, and ultimately God is real too. As she put it: People say that God is dead. But how can they think that if I show them the devil? God allows suffering to happen because with our lives as evidence and plenty of evidence from history, hardships to mold us, strengthen us and change us to become better people. Strengthening our faith when we overcome these obstacles is something God does. Over time, I have went through so much and I thought how I could be "forsaken" in a sense. Yet He proves me wrong over and over again of my presumptions, and shows how He works miracles in my life. He shows so much of what He promised and said He is like in the Bible. God uses Satan to His own advantage many times, but Satan does win sometimes. The war between good and evil is over, but Satan is still battling on, to drag as many people as he can away from the faith.

He can do it in different ways. My friend Gary seems to have frequent encounters with spirits and demons. Whether its spirits in him or demonic attacks, it seems to be Satan's preference from what I see. Satan doesn't use those with me though. I had three spirits within me last time, cast out. Plus, I had one demonic attack where I was choked and couldn't breathe. Yet when I jerked awake and prayed, I slept better and just knew in my heart I was safe. Two attempts at spiritual forces? That's it? I went to sleep one night, saying out loud, "Satan, try me." And nothing happened. Seems like Satan doesn't want to try demonic attacks against me. I have to be honest, I did want to experience something, because I know I would not lose with God. Yet nothing happened. Satan is extremely smart, so I suppose by not attacking me with demons when I openly challenged him, he knows my weaknesses lie somewhere else, not in the realm of demonic attacks or spiritual encounters with evil spirits.

But here's a revelation for you. A spirit of fear is a fearful demon, and when it attacks or latches on, it gives you fear, because it itself is fearful. A spirit of infirmity is a very sick spirit, an infirmed spirit. When it dwells within someone, they are sick, because the demon is sick. Thus, it shows that these demons are weaker than they appear to be. They are their very weakness. Even Lucifer, the devil himself, will be thrown into hell, and you know what the believers in heaven will say when they see him? Isaiah records it: "Is this the one who caused the earth to tremble?" Do you see the kind of expression we have? Look at the smug words we say. Look at how sarcastic the words are. Satan may be smart, be he was cast out of heaven and lost the glory with which God created him. When we see him the words we say are "Is this the one who caused the earth to tremble?" It's like "That's him? Thats it?" Indeed, that's it.

Hope this frees you from what thoughts you might have about demons and spirits.

2007-04-30T12:03:00.000+08:00

Family life is getting tough. School is getting tough. Church is getting more eventful and packed. So many people are fighting persecutions. Only when something great is about to happen does the devil cause so much problems. He's afraid. Afraid of us moving to glory to glory, of becoming stronger in the faith, of shining the light even stronger than ever into this world of darkness. These tell-tale signs are telling us something is coming to pass which will glorify God even more. I don't know what is it, but I know that if its enough to make the devil work overtime to cause so much problems for all the believers, its something big. Satan may be a coward, but he's smart, but dumb enough to go against God. All those in faith don't need to worry, but some do, forgetting who they've placed their faith in. We fail, but in faith, when we realize who we've come to depend on, nothing should be feared except for God Himself.

I don't need to worry because God knows what He's doing and He's proved it time and time again to me that He's in control, and whatever happens to me, its for the better. The only thing I should worry about is my own life. How to live it for God, how to live it in His purpose, the way He wants it. Then I'll be blessed and be living in righteousness, which will slowly make me a better person than I ever thought possible.

2007-04-23T10:57:00.000+08:00

I thought it'd be a little interesting to mention how I got in touch with religions, and later, Christianity in particular. I had a debate a while ago with some atheists on their entertainment blog, which led to me thinking quite thoroughly on my beliefs, and ultimately, the beginning of my faith.

When I was a young kid, I had barely any idea on what religion was. My parents were Buddhists and thus taught me about the basic beliefs and all. However my best friend was a Muslim, and taught me about the ten big angels they had to know besides Allah. The prayers in Islam, the direction you had to face, the posture and some other tid bits were all fed to me as truth from him. I also had good friends, who were Christians and I learned that Jesus was the Son of God. So I readily accepted all of this as fact. In other words, I believed that Jesus was the Son of Allah, that I had to remember ten angels names, make prayers facing Mecca and that we'd all go to Nirvana when we died, which I thought was heaven. Messed up, I know.

As I slowly grew up I gradually began to ignore religious beliefs as it wasn't really a major issue when you're a child. So I became an atheist because of my science lessons, which ignored, and at times, contradicted religious beliefs. Due to science being proven and such, I thought that all religions were just beliefs and nothing more, just discipline to keep people from doing whatever they want. So I respected beliefs on the outide while I mocked them in my head.

However, when I grew up, I found out that I always liked things on the darker side. The black side. The evil side. Anything to do with black, darkness and the such was always my pick, no matter what. And where's the biggest source of stories and information abut evil? Religion. Although I was an atheist, I won't deny that the different religions got my attention, and the stories about Satan, demons, evil spirits and such mostly caught my eye. So came the time when I read up on the different religions, how the Greek gods bickered with each other and dealt with evil. How the Egyptian gods fought against one another, murdered and cut up each other. How Satan battled against God in heaven, lost and was cast out. It's interesting when its told in story form, but when I read the sources directly, it was extremely boring, and because religions mostly deal with good, it was usually the good stuff that was dull, and the evil stuff perked my attention.

I'm an avid reader, and I had tons of books to show it. I bought plenty of scary books, ghost stories and the likes, and even more so when I moved to Malaysia. Around this time I started dwelling into religions more deeply, and found out that most people had good reasons for believing their own religion. But it was mostly Christianity that shattered my grounded beliefs that it was contradicted inside out. I read through famous apologists works and found that the Bible had much credibility to back itself up and that Christians had much better reasons for believing in Jesus. Although I appreciated the views and such, I didn't choose to believe, because I wasn't part of a church, and my life experiences had pointed me toward a more non-religious, non-personal guy. I was sadistic, depressed, despondent... well, the list goes on. I didn't outright profess it, but my thoughts and beliefs were agnostic.

When I was brought to church, I didn't think I'd come back. Although City Harvest Church impressed me, I still didn't find a really good reason to actually be a Christian. I'll admit, the first few months I came to church was because I had nothing better to do and they invited me to come back every week. It was a good time to meet new friends, and see how Christians lived and worshiped. Only when I broke up with my girlfriend did I really see the love the cellgroup had, and how God truly was real. Sher Ling, my cellgroup leader, really went out of her way to help me and support me and used this time to teach me more about God. I really felt the love from her, and from the Person who made her this way, Jesus.

When I got out of my depression, I was a young Christian, but unlike most of my newly saved friends now, I didn't really focus as much on all the faith, love and stuff as I should have. Instead I focused more on the evil, demons and Satan again. Well, it was the topic that perked my interest in religions to begin with, and being a Christian, because what I believe is truth, I thought I'd find out more on the truth of the darkness. My first Bible verse I ever read was Ephesians 6:12, where it spoke of the principalities and powers of darkness. My first book I read wasn't Genesis, nor the gospels. It was Revelation, and I read quickly till I came upon the parts talking about Satan and hell and the four horsemen, till the end of the world, and that's when I slowly digested what I was reading. Everything I took notice of had darkness or evil in it. And the trend didn't stop as I matured in Christ.

Even now I still have a liking for darkness. Black is my favourite colour. Just take a look at all my blog skins; they always had an element of darkness or death in it. People say I look morbid, like an evil guy. I look sadistic and give a bad impression until they get to know me, and for some people, even the real me is dark to them. I know that darkness is evil, that there will be none in heaven, and I know that I am not going to join darkness by falling away from God. I know my limits and what is right and wrong. But what has never faltered is my fascination with the dark arts and evil. I still learn about them, study them, but never embrace or perform them.

I know I'm more inclined to darkness than most people would deem acceptable. But deep down, I still love God, and I keep His commandments. What people see from my exterior is just what I show from my darker personality. But who I am inside, is someone who was changed by God to be a better person than I ever thought I could have been.

Persecution

2007-02-16T04:28:00.000+08:00

Satan is seriously working overtime. I was grounded a month ago because of some reasons but I was mainly innocent. Through prayer, fasting and a really yearning heart my dad slowly let off and I was allowed to go to church. I was about to post about this when I was grounded yet again, this time based entirely on my sister's actions when I was completely innocent this time. It's extremely annoying, as I can't go to church or even play basketball.

People suffer, even good people, that's a given, and I'm asked how a loving God can co-exist with the reality of suffering. Well take me as a living example. Everytime I went through some turbulent with much suffering or pain, I came out of it a stronger person, with greater knowledge of what to do next, of how God used this situation to help strengthen my faith and how Satan knew more about me than I surmised. Satan has failed everytime God allows him to throw problems at me, while God has the overall win. I still have many weaknesses but as Paul mentioned, God's strength is made perfect in my weakness. So let me boast! 2 Corinthians 11:30 says it well, "If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness." God is always there for me, and during every trial I've been through, although I may not have felt it every single time, God's presence was always there, behind the scenes but always personal in my life. I love God, and although I'm grounded yet again after such a short break from it, I'm sure He has His reasons... perhaps strengthen me again? I'd be hard pressed to doubt Someone who's all knowing and always has a purpose for people through different methods; trials and tribulations included.

God allowed Satan to give me some more crap to deal with. Satan, lets get something straight alright? God will never forsake me and He's been there guiding me every step I take, no matter what you put in my life. We'll get the victory no problem, how long it takes, thats another thing... Although I'm not worried about it as God knows best for me to get through this. God, I need you more than ever now, guide me in your ways and hide me in your wings whenever I need help. Hallowed be Your name, You who never change. Strengthen me in all ways to live through these times of persecutions from my dad. My weakness shows Your perfect strength, so God, let your strength be perfect in this episode of my life to showcase the glory of Your name. Amen

Comparing

2007-02-11T01:03:00.000+08:00

Alright, I'm slacking again on blogging even though I mentioned in my previous post that I would continue to blog regularly. Forgive me alright? I read my previous posts and although many questions were dealt with and that I brought up some issues, I never really went to delve into my spiritual life or make it more personal. So I start to add some more personal devotions while keeping the formal style of typing for some posts, depending.

Anyway, a little food for though to keep this blog alive. Lately I've been thinking of the people that compare their attitudes to others and try to come out on top. I mean take myself for example, I think I'm quite a good guy. I've got my salvation and love God, I pray regularly, I fast regularly, I never murdered, I never took drugs, I give to God. Cocky enough? Well, that's pretty mild already. Imagine I killed someone and got off free later on. I could say I'm a pretty decent guy too, I mean I wasn't Hitler, I never killed millions of Jews, I wasn't racist. I wasn't Jeffrey Dahmer, I never ate my victims. So considering this, am I a better person than those people? To the rest of the world yes, but to God, I don't think so. God never holds favourites, although He may choose people for specific and grand tasks, and may give special abilities, it never amounts to favouritism. God chooses people through His grace. The Jews were chosen through His grace, we are saved by faith through His grace. It is His grace always.

So, God loves me as much as He loves Hitler. Although I may not see the fairness in it, God surely has His reasons. I mean I wouldnt doubt someone who's perfect and all knowing. Hitler was also created in His image, God knew that Hitler would eventually become, but He had a reason for allowing that. Perhaps it was the fact that it would help countries later to form even stronger ties and really go forth in the quest for world peace. Maybe it was another reason. But the fact still remains, I am equally loved by God as much as those people who are really working like crazy for the kingdom of God. Pastor Kong Hee? Benny Hinn? Ulf Ekman? Sure they work harder and are more anointed. They know more about God than me, they enter His presence more than me and garner more revelations from Him. Aside from the fact that I can achieve this through time and efforts with God's help, the amount of love never changes. Ever.

Christmas

2006-12-25T22:47:00.000+08:00

Dear loved ones,

As you well know, we are getting closer to my birthday. Every year there is a celebration in my honor and I think that this year the celebration will be repeated. During this time there are many people shopping for gifts, there are many radio announcements, TV commercials, and in every part of the world everyone is talking that my birthday is getting closer and closer.

It is really very nice to know, that at least once a year, some people think of me. As you know, the celebration of my birthday began many years ago. At first people seemed to understand and be thankful of all that I did for them, but in these times, no one seems to know the reason for the celebration. Family and friends get together and have a lot of fun, but they don't know the meaning of the celebration.

I remember that last year there was a great feast in my honor. The dinner table was full of delicious foods, pastries, fruits, assorted nuts and chocolates. The decorations were exquisite and there were many, many beautifully wrapped gifts. But, do you want to know something? I wasn't invited. I was the guest of honor and they didn't remember to send me an invitation. The party was for me, but when that great day came, I was left outside, they closed the door in my face...and I wanted to be with them and share their table.

In truth, that didn't surprise me because in the last few years all close their doors to me. Since I wasn't invited, I decided to enter the party without making any noise. I went in and stood in a corner. They were all drinking; there were some who were drunk and telling jokes and laughing at everything. They were having a grand time. To top it all, this big fat man all dressed in red wearing a long white beard entered the room yelling "Ho-Ho-Ho!" He seemed drunk. He sat on the sofa and all the children ran to him, saying: "Santa Claus, Santa Claus" as if the party were in his honor! At 12 Midnight all the people began to hug each other; I extended my arms waiting for someone to hug me and do you know ... no one hugged me. Suddenly they all began to share gifts. They opened them one by one with great expectation. When all had been opened, I looked to see if, maybe, there was one for me.

What would you feel if on your birthday everybody shared gifts and you did not get one? I then understood that I was unwanted at that party and quietly left.

Every year it gets worse. People only remember to eat and drink, the gifts, the parties and nobody remembers me. I would like this Christmas that you allow me to enter into your life. I would like that you recognize the fact that almost two thousand years ago I came to this world to give my life for you, on the cross, to save you. Today, I only want that you believe this with all your heart.

I want to share something with you. As many didn't invite me to their party, I will have my own celebration, a grandiose party that no one has ever imagined, a spectacular party. I'm still making the final arrangements. Today I am sending out many invitations and there is an invitation for you. I want to know if you wish to attend and I will make a reservation for you and write your name with golden letters in my great guest book. Only those on the guest list will be invited to the party. Those who don't answer the invite, will be left outside. Be prepared because when all is ready you will be part of my great party.

See you soon.

I Love you!

Jesus

Indeed many people forget that Christmas is Jesus' reason for the season. Jesus wasn't born on the 25th of December but it was decided that His birthday would be celebrated on this day. In the beginning, it was celebrated just like the Passover of the Jews, with a huge celebration with the meaning behind the celebration being well known. Throughout the passing of time, Christmas has lost meaning for many people, so bad that although it is well known for its jolly season and happy tidings, it has been reported that countless numbers of people don't feel that satisfaction or jpy in the holidays season. Is it any surprise that without Jesus in the picture that this would be inevitable?

I'll pass on the remarks, as this is a time to be celebrated with happiness, joy and above all, appreciation towards God, as it is on this day that we celebrate the birth of Jesus 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, somewhere in a manger. But above all, this signifies the greatest love of all, from Yours Truly just as one of the most well known, if not the most well known Bible verse says in John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."

He loved so much that He gave His only Son, to let us have eternal life with Him. This should give us happiness beyond any doubt for Christians. For unbelievers, enjoy the festivities, but remember, God was born and is the cause for the happiness, won't you join in?

Arise and Build

2007-02-12T23:43:00.000+08:00

Now is the time
When heaven blends
With earthly saints

The world resounds
As angels sing
Our God reigns

I give my all to You
I give my all to You

From heaven's throne
Your river flows
To this land

And on this rock
Foundations lay
Here we stand

I give my all to You
I give my all to You

Pouring out this treasure You gave
In Your promises our hearts turn brave
I will arise and lay down this sacrifice
As we're building Your house on high

Your kingdom come
Your will be done
On earth as in heaven

Those are the lyrics of the main theme song for our Arise and Build campaign, we sang our hearts out on that day in service. Some people had tears in their eyes after making their pledges and worshipping God.

My church began the Arise and Build 2 campaign three months ago. My church originally proposed to raise 17 million dollars but in the pledges we gave, the total exceeded 22 million. My church is a generous church indeed and every cent is accounted for, and we've got the ISO certificate to prove it.

I pledged a certain amount I felt that would test me but was still attainable to give. These thoughts died out as the first month (November) we were to give arrived. I wasn't in trouble financially, but giving would mean starving myself for most of the coming weeks. I fast and sometimes skip some meals to give more to God, but starving myself for weeks? Well, I wasn't too sure I could deal with that. But God is great all the time, my mom blessed me with just enough that I could spend to eat and still give for my first month.

This phase repeated itself for the next few months I was giving. I'd panic because I didn't have enough to give for the pledge, then out of nowhere, I'd get blessings from somewhere (assuredly the main source is God) and it would be enough to fulfill my pledge for that month. He did it in the previous Arise and Build, and He's done it again merely a few hours ago. This is no mere coincidence, I mean everytime I'm in need He's there. Everytime I pray He answers, and although He may not be early, He's never late.

There's only one "problem". God overdid Himself many times. I mean in all four of the gospels they recorded the feeding of the 5000. With five loaves of bread and two fish, He fed 5000 men, not including the women and children, that leads to around 15 000 people overall. Plus with twelve basketfulls left. Then when Jesus commanded Peter and his fishermen to catch the fish, nets broke and their ships nearly sank. For the countless people who've given testimony's, they give amounts extraordinary to them but get back huge returns, thousands of dollars and even millions. For me I get (sometimes) material things which are above what I can afford and in the cases of the Arise and Build, amounts which originally panic me. God is too good.

Destiny And Free Will

2006-10-02T01:38:00.000+08:00

Quite a few months back I had been trying out for the basketball team for my school. My friends who had tried out for another division had told me that the coach would be choosing people based on their chemistry with the teammates. I didn't think much of it, as I went for the trials every week. Problem was, I only knew one person in the entire division and was never teamed up with him, so my chemistry with my teammates never went well on the basketball court. It went well for them, since all of them knew each other, so when they announced the people who had made it to the team, common sense would tell you I did not make it. However the final trial session earlier had pumped me with adrenaline, and my thinking wasn't very good. It was so bad that I said my in my head "God, this is what you call answering prayers huh?" Indeed, I sounded very petty. But back there being quite pissed off and not thinking properly, I thought that, and in my mind said that I would not be doing good works for the next few days, as some form of payback for not making it to the basketball team. I do not blame you if you feel like slapping me, I feel like doing that now that I think about it. Well let me tell you that no one makes "deals" with the Lord, and even if you put it in your own terms, it won't succeed. A hint of this was apparent to me when I felt that Someone was telling me I would be doing much more instead.

The next few days I started helping out my friends more, did my school work with greater effort and read the Bible every day. During a cellgroup meeting later on the week I even helped explain some prayer issues to the spiritually younger members, talked about their spiritual lives, gave some pointers to help out a bit and told them even more about God and His good grace. Now hold a second. I said that I would not do good works and I meant it, petty as it was. Yet God had said He would use me to teach more and do even more good works. I'm known especially well to be a slacker in school and only put in good effort when I put my mind to it because of some reason. Back then I wasn't known to be helping out a lot and even less for teaching and guiding younger members, yet I did all this because the Lord had said it. In spite of what I tried to do with my thoughts, His rhema word came to pass instead of my pettiness. Now the Lord never forces anyone anywhere, or to do anything, but His grace does enable us to do things we wouldn't have done otherwise. Yet whilst I still had my free will to not do good works, He knew I would be doing more than I usually did.

Amazing how free will fits with destiny. God, all-knowing, knew Adam would sin, but He died for our sins as payment for what Adam did. God, all-knowing, knew I would not make it into the basketball team, but He knew I would do otherwise from what I had thought to myself. How exactly does God use sinful people who I'm sure have worse thoughts than mine? How does free will make sense with a planned future? Even I don't know... But I thank God that He uses me for His purposes instead of me snubbing good works. And so He can use everyone too, no matter what the circumstances. A young shepherd boy kill a gigantic warrior bigger than Yao Ming? A prophet who did not want to preach but did? A good friend who says he'll never leave you and will die with you, but moments later he denies every knowing you, not once, not twice but three times! God called on David, as a young boy to fight a nation's war. As an adult, he was called a man after God's own heart, even though he committed adultery and displeased the Lord on several occasions. Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet, for all the death he saw when God gave judgement to Israel. Simon, which meant a wavering reed, was called Peter, which meant rock, by Jesus. He called him something he wasn't but would later become. When God calls us for something, He will call us something we never thought we could do, but because He is always there, we can. He certainly knows. Amen?

Driving and Laws

2006-09-04T00:18:00.000+08:00

Over the last few weeks I have been taking practice lessons for my driving license. Many rules to the road to be learnt, driving techniques that must be used properly, and for the case of manual cars, which all students take, using the clutch properly. So it reminded me of an event a motivational speaker once mentioned: He was in the car about to take his driving test, and the instructor was beside him. The instructor told him that because he was the instructor, any order he asked would have to be obeyed. Nothing special the speaker thought, after all, that was the case for everything, you listen to your teacher. So he followed the main driving route, making detours and special turns when the intructor told him to. He then stopped at the red light at a junction and waited for it to turn green. The instructor then looked both ways and saw that no cars were crossing and told the speaker to drive across. The speaker was taken aback and said no, because cars were nearing the junction. The instructor told him to drive after the cars passed as there were no cars at all after the passing cars. He told the speaker that this was real world ethics and that he should learn it now, after all, he said, everybody did it. He continued to press the speaker to drive the car and eventually released the break and pressed the acceleration. The instructor quickly pressed the break in his car (training cars have breaks for the instructor to use... in case) and used his clipboard and hit the speaker's head hard saying that although he was the instructor and that the speaker should listen to him, the law states that you're not supposed to drive past a red light. And the law is above a person who does something or tells you to do something that is against the law. so law first, authorities (who follow the law anyway, or should) second.

This got me thinking about our life in Christ. How you do things you shouldn't be doing, following orders that are against the teachings of Christ and against the Law... the Ten Commandments in other words. The Devil tempts us, and although we know the Law, sometimes we still disobey. The Law was made for us to follow, to show us what kind of God we serve. One that does not like abominations and murder, one that wants us to love and worship Him all our lives, to give our lives as a living sacrifice and to listen to Him, as all He says is always good and pure, we have no worries. But thats where the Law comes in again. If someone says they feel God is telling them to do something contrary to Scripture, then obviously it's not from God. He would never contradict Himself and tell you to do something that is obviously bad. So we should think for ourselves and find out whether what we thought God said was really from Him.

We should follow the Law always, no matter what people say... because through the Law we have freedom. Now some people disagree and say that the Law tells you not to do this and that. But of course, if we continue to do the stuff the Law forbids, we'll be trapped in bondage, degrading ourselves... only when we stop and free ourselves from that are we truly free. The Law did not come to condemn men, to restrict us, but to lead to Jesus, to give us freedom. And that freedom, is gained when we are truly free of bondages.

Deliverance

2006-08-09T01:39:00.000+08:00

Deliverance. Others call it exorcism. Basically it is the driving out of demons from a person to free them from the demons. And I was delivered two weeks ago. Here is my experience.

After a church service, Pastor Mike Connell, a person extremely gifted in deliverance had a special ministry session in which he'd call forth people to come down and he'd have a team of people to help him deliver people. When he called down a group of people that involved me I went down, not expecting much... after all, I did not think anything was wrong with me as my main purpose was to bring down some younger members to be delivered on similar issues.

However once I came down to the altar, I started feeling very heavy, and was shivering a bit. I rarely shiver as my tolerance for cold is far better than most people. Plus I was wearing a jacket. Inexplicable shivering but I thought maybe it was due to the loud speaker system from the worshippers. After helping some people find a helper to pray for them and deliver them, I watched a spectacle around me as I saw people screaming, falling, shouting and writhing among other actions. A little frightening if you are not used to it. And I don't blame them.

After a while a helper prayed for me, and immediately i began weeping. I kept crying crying while being prayed for... I have never cried so hard in my life. It was shocking, I was trying to stop my tears but they kept flowing and eventually I fell down to the floor, still crying. There was a person to hold me and he slowly let go of me as I lay weeping on the floor. The helper (named Alvin) continued to pray for me and continued to speak against the demon(s) inside me. I was still crying and did not feel anything different, so I thought maybe it was just one demon, but suddenly Alvin started commanding other spirits out of me in Jesus' name. "Spirit of torment, of darkness, of suffering, I cast you all out in Jesus' name!" and I began to cough, so extreme that I would have thrown up if not the the fact that I had not eaten the entire day. I was writhing and shaking on the floor, trying to squirm out but other helpers came in and held me down. He continued to pray against the aforementioned spirits and I convulsed and nearly threw up again. It was agony, and all that time tears were still pouring down my face!

Eventually three or four helpers came to pray for me and after a small choke I breathed in and breathed in more air than I had for a long time. It was as though something had been lifted from me (mainly due to the fact that something had been lifted) and my tears were thinning extremely compared to the bucketfuls I poured out earlier... my jacket sleeve was very wet. At once Alvin spoke to me and encouraged me, then began to pray for inner healing and protection. After that I stood up and noticed I was one of the last to leave and I felt very weak, tired, but such a burden lifted from me. Thank You God, for delivering me from those spirits.

Theologically, many Christians do not believe that believers can be demonized. They believe that with the Holy Spirit in you, other demons cannot take the place of the Holy Spirit. Good arguments, but I believe otherwise, apart from the fact that I'm a living testimony myself. When a person does somehow open a door for a spirit to come in, who says it needs to dwell in the belly, where the Holy Spirit is said to dwell? I believe that with "permission" from the believer, the spirit can stay as long as it wants. We are sinful beings yet a Holy Spirit dwells in us, so why can't an evil spirit dwell in us as well? Great is the Holy Spirit in power but God respects all decisions and if a person keeps an evil spirit with the Holy Spirit in him, God respects that, as much as He dislikes it.

Need some Bible arguments? In Matthew 12:22-32, it was about Jesus casting out demons and the Pharisees accusing Him of doing that through Beelzebub's power instead of God's. Jesus Himself acknowledged the fact that Pharisees drove out demons too in verse 27. Perhaps the hypocrites did not but Jesus acknowledges that Pharisees have driven out demons before. Both come from the power of God. As the Pharisees were extremely proud people and would not associate with sinners at all, it is hard to believe that the Pharisees would then pray and cast out demons from them, which leads us to the fact that Pharisees drove out demons from people who were not considered sinners. People who believed in God. Thus believers were demonized.

Other arguments state that because the Holy Spirit dwells in us now, other spirits cannot come in. I have previously mentioned that and I believe my argument stands firm. Even if to some scholars or theologians it seems weak, I do not care. I have experienced myself and know it to be true, and so do many friends of mine. Truth is to be experienced, not written.

Devotion

2006-07-24T02:20:00.000+08:00

Often many people have doubted religions-Christianity in particular-due to several reasons. Although doubters nothing new, same goes to the believers. Doubters and skeptics continually try to find holes and contradictions in Christianity, most notably, the Bible. But believers have also shed light on why they believe in the one true God, explaining away all so-called contradictions in the Bible, and giving testimony's, countless which have made lasting impressions for generations. So recently I also began to wonder... what makes Christians believe? Sure, miracles such as healing, deliverance and prophesying and other odds which cannot be fathomed are strong arguments for God. But honestly, even though we believe in God, who can do all this, what is the strongest reason for you to believe in Him? Is it the personal healing God has done for you? Did He heal someone you knew personally? Or is it the strong evidence of archaeology in attesting to the physical points mentioned in the Bible? Or how about the psychological parables in the Bible which are symbolized so powerfully that it talks about every human being? Maybe the cold hard evidence though science and mathematics, which has pointed more strongly than ever before that God the Intelligent Designer created the universe? Or did God open up your heart, to let you know personally that He was real, and that you a sinner, could have a relationship with Him? No doubt God has His ways to show us He is true, and indeed, alive.

Time and over again, God proves He is real. Does evidence point away from God? Of course they do. Several spiritual seekers shy from Christianity because they do not believe a loving God would allow suffering. I have found an answer, and it has satisfied me, Job, and I believe countless others. Do feel free to ask me, and I will make a case for God, whatever you believe. However, God shows Himself in so many different ways, and people believe in God strongly for several reasons. and all make a powerful case for God. We represent Jesus on earth and no doubt, show a case for Him. No matter how different our main strengths for the Christian faith, we are all part of the Body of Christ and we are all temples which show the true God.

You see, although there is so much evidence pointing towards God, it is all secondary to Him. Peter Grant, a pastor in Atlanta, USA gave this illustration of what I mean. You get out of your car and you see your boss' parked car. Then when you walk in the office and ask the secretary whether he is in, she mentions she talked to him a few minutes ago. Then you see the lights are on in his office, and hear his voice on the telephone. Now although you have not seen your boss yet, all that would be good evidence that he was in. But all that is secondary when you open the door and see him. Same goes for God, it does not matter what evidence He shows, it is just confirmatory to His existence. God speaks to our hearts and because of that, all other things are secondary, since we know that God is real and personal in our lives. You cannot ignore how the Holy Spirit tells you things, shows you revelations and changes lives. God will speak to people that seek Him and all it takes is a little effort. God is concealing Himself to let us seek Him, but He is still close enough that once we seek Him with all our heart, He will show Himself to us. Reality has shown God more than we will ever be able to explain through philosophy and evidence. And because of what I know is real, I know He is real.

The Da Vinci Code

2006-07-16T18:42:00.000+08:00

As a Christian, the book "The Da Vinci Code" will surely come into mention when friends discuss the book or religion itself. So I though I'd just post my thoughts here and clear up this issue for those who have not really researched into the matter. I do hope it will give more insight to those who have read the book and question if the Church has really pulled the wool over the eyes of the world for millennia.

As the book claims, it has been compiled through careful research of facts and that the book is accurate historically. Although Dan Brown admitted it was false a while ago, I doubt everyone has heard him, so they may assume the book is true. Not even close. If you notice the bibliography and references, many sources are of the Gnostic gospels. The word was derived from the Greek word "gnosis" which meant knowledge, as the Gnostics believed their doctrines were true knowledge. The Gnostic gospels were books written by heretical people, trying to change Christianity to fit their own point of view. A few examples include: you can sin as much as you want because your spirit will live and go to heaven while your sinful body dies, going to a "holy war" earned your salvation, that Jesus had married Mary Magdalene and that she was the chosen apostle to be a goddess (main story for the Da Vinci Code), that Judas was the chosen disciple and that he had never killed himself among countless others. Now there is no doubt he researched thoroughly, but he had taken false information that had been heretical and untrue for millennia; it wouldn't prove true after thousands of years.

The list reveals Brown's lack of scholarly research since it does not contain competent research material from proper sources. Unfortunately, there is little fact in the book and far too much conjecture. To the untrained, the presentation of Brown's theory can be compelling and misguiding.

There have been many articles exposing the errors of the Da Vinci Code book so we will not going to too many details but we will provide several quotes from characters in the book followed by commentary demonstrating their inaccuracy.

1. Quote: "The Bible is a product of man, my dear. Not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book ... more than 80 gospels were considered for the New Testament, and yet only a relative few are chosen for inclusion--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John among them ... the Bible, as we know it today, was collected by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great." p. 231
A. Response: This is a very gross error. The Bible is not the product of "countless translation, additions, and revisions." The Bible is translated from copies of original documents, and has been static since before the council of Nicea.
B. Response: The Bible was not produced at the Council of Nicea by Constantine. The Old Testament documents were collected and known as an inspired work long before the Christian church was ever on the scene. The New Testament documents were written by the eyewitnesses of Jesus' Ministry or under the direction of those who were. The Christian Church knew which documents were authentic and which were not with only a few books in dispute. At the initial formation of the Christian Church, the Christians were under Roman rule and did not have the freedom (due to initial persecution) to produce an "official" Bible. But that did not prevent them from knowing which documents were penned by the apostles themselves and which were spurious forgeries, of which many were in existence and are undoubtedly included in the "80 gospels" that Brown mentions. Not to mention Constantine was not a pagan emperor but an extremely faithful Christian, mainly due to a sign from God which enabled him to win against a force ten times larger than his and get the throne. Can't be coincidence, miracle sums it up better.
2. Quote: "With the help of Jesus' trusted uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, Mary Magdalene secretly traveled to France, then known as Gaul. There she found safe refuge in the Jewish community. It was here in France that she gave birth to a daughter. Her name was Sarah." p. 255
Response: There is no evidence for this whatsoever. This was taken from a play written by a French play writer who liked the idea of a reformed prostitute so much that he decided to make her French. In actuality the Bible gives no indication she was ever a sensuous woman in the first place. Over the ages, it seems that people have loved to make Mary Magdalene something she wasn't. First a prostitute, and now Jesus' wife; they fail to see her for what she is: a faithful follower of Jesus.
3. Quote: "... the Piscean ideal believes that man must be told what to do by higher powers because man is incapable of thinking for himself. Hence it has been a time of fervent religion. Now, however, we are entering the age of Aquarius-the water bearer-whose ideals claim that man will learn the truth and be able to think for himself." p. 268
Response: It is interesting that Brown inserts pagan ideas and pagan concepts into the dialogue among his characters in an attempt to support the storyline. His comment is interesting in that it leaves a person with the impression that religion, in particular Christianity, does not want people to learn the truth or think for themselves. This cannot be further from fact. The Scriptures teach us to learn the facts and to be very responsible in our decisions and to think critically. Brown misrepresents, at the very least, the Christian faith.
Response: Following are scriptures telling us to think, to use our minds.
i. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." (Romans 14:5).
4. Quote: "Admittedly, the concept of sex as a pathway to God was mind-boggling at first. Langdon's Jewish students always looked flabbergasted when he first told them that the early Jewish tradition involved ritualistic sex. In the temple, no less. Early Jews believed that the Holy of Holies in Solomon's Temple housed not only God but also his powerful female equal, Shekinah. Men seeking spiritual wholeness came to the temple to visit priestesses-or hierodules-with whom they made love and experienced the divine through physical union. The Jewish tetragrammaton YHWH-the sacred name of God-in fact derived from Jehovah, an androgynous physical union between the masculine Jah and the pre-Hebraic name for Eve, Havah." p. 309
A. Response: We know of absolutely no documentation whatsoever supporting the idea that the early Jews considered the holy of holies a place where a female deity would dwell. Such an idea is in direct contradiction to the historic/biblical account for the purpose of the Holy of Holies. Plus Shekinah has to do with God's glory, not a female deity. No proof at all for a female deity.
B. Response: Brown makes a very fundamental error in his research regarding the Tetragrammaton YHWH. It is not derived from a masculine and feminine set of words. Instead, YHWH is the English four letters that most closely represent the four Hebrew characters that designate the name of God which is derived from the verb "to be." Essentially, when God gives his own name he says, "I AM that I AM". The "I AM" is from the verb "to be" which is where we get YHWH. Brown is completely off on this.
5. Quote: "the next time you find yourself with a woman, look in your heart and see if you cannot approach sex as a mystical, spiritual act. Challenge yourself to find that spark of divinity that man can only achieve through union with the sacred feminine." p. 310
Response: This is a very subjective statement. Of course, it is just a fictional character giving a fictional opinion. But, the problem is that with the overall context of undermining biblical truth and historical fact, this comment takes on a more distracting meaning as it moves a person to think emotionally instead of using the mind ... the very thing Brown, via his characters, accuses the church of not wanting. See point 3 above.
6. Quote: "... every faith in the world is based on fabrication. As the definition of faith-acceptance of that which we imagined to be true, that which we can prove." p. 341

Response: No, this is not true. Christianity is based on fact: the reality of the nation of Israel, archaeological verification, eyewitness accounts recorded in written form regarding the birth of Christ, his ministry, his miracles, his teaching, his death, his burial, and his resurrection. Brown could not be further from the truth.
7. Quote: "those who truly understand their faiths understand the stories [i.e., Virgin birth of Jesus] are metaphorical." p. 342
Response: This is not true. Christianity is not based on metaphorical stories with hidden meanings. It is based on historical facts, i.e., the actual life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The witnesses recorded what they actually saw and wrote down actual events. Brown's character's assertion is (admittedly fictional) and completely erroneous.
Following is a brief and partial list of some of the many errors found in the Da Vinci Code.
A partial list of errors in the Da Vinci Code
A. The Bible is the product of "countless translations, additions, and revisions." The biblical documents are static, unchanging, and we have multitudinous copies of them from the first, second, and third centuries.
B. The Bible was assembled by Emperor Constantine. The Bible was assembled before Constantine.
C. There were 80 additional gospels. Though there were a few gospels circulating which claimed to be authentic but the early Christians knew were not, there is no where close to 80.
D. Opus Dei members have monks. They do not.
E. The deity of Christ was invented by the Council of Nicea. The deity of Christ is found in the scriptures Matt. 2:2,11; 14:33; 28:9; John 9:35-38; and Heb. 1:6.
F. Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene who is to be worshipped as a goddess. There is absolutely no historical evidence for this.
G. Early "Christians" practiced goddess worship. There is absolutely no historical evidence for this.
H. YHWH is derived from two Hebrew words, one masculine and the other feminine. No, it is derived from the single Hebrew word "to be."
I. The Dead Sea Scrolls contained the earliest Christian writings. This cannot be true since the DSS's were written before Christianity existed.
J. Christianity borrowed its ideas from pagan sources. Similarities between Christianity and other religions does not mean Christianity borrowed from them or they borrowed from Christianity. Similarities exist in all religions. The assertion is a common one that has no basis.

So what will I reply if someone tries to question my faith with The Da Vinci Code? Big deal, I know the truth, which has been proven over and over again not just by Christians, but skeptics alike. Which is why I can't believe how scared the Vatican is because of this book. Whatever the Vatican Church is against, they will boycott and condemn. It really seems pathetic to me that an organization upholding faith and truth would condemn it and boycott it. For me? I read the book, it's great, since I know it is fiction. Great storyline and suspense, added with the fact that through this book, people will be more curious on Christianity and it's a good starting point to teach them about true doctrines of Christianity, saving them in the end. I've watched the movie and have taught countless about the truth of the issue. I'm not scared and try to get the whole world to boycott it. Goes to show how disappointed I am in an organization with huge influence, being scared because of a book. Plus it makes people suspicious that they would try and get rid of the book instead of teaching others about the true facts behind it. Though I doubt that Vatican will read this, just take note I'm not condemning them, nor picking them in particular since many other churches have followed in their footsteps. Just trust in God won't you?

Devotion

2006-07-13T05:08:00.000+08:00

Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you will also live. John 14:19 (NIV)

God told Adam and Eve that they would die if they ate of the fuit in the garden, and they did, spiritually. But Jesus says here that because He lives, we will also live. Through His death and resurrection, He is alive again and He offers that life to all who seek Him. We are alive in Christ, and as we preach the gospel, others who hear it and respond shall "taste and know that the LORD is good!". The life He gives us cannot be compared to any others, and God commissions us to preach this news so that others will live. Amen

Is The Bible Truly Divine?

2006-07-13T00:58:00.000+08:00

Apologies for the lack of updates for such a long time. I had been writing a sermon through my computer; however my computer crashed and I had lost a mood for blogging my sermons and Christian stories I had said I would put. So here is a new start, to continue my aim in creating this blog in the first place, mainly to show the love of Christ, add in stories and Christian doctrines, to show why this is indeed, simply, Truth.

Some time ago I had a debate with a Chinese Muslim, once a Christian in a renowned church in Malaysia. He had converted to Islam because he wanted to marry a Malay woman. After a small chat, he had begun questioning my faith after we had some talk that delved into the topic of religion, and so began a talk that quickly became an intense yet calm debate.

Now he commented that if a God indeed exists, He is surely a sadist. How else would there be so much suffering in the world yet nothing divine is done to help the poor and needy? Look at all the death and how the poor suffer, the evils in the world so great it is impossible to fathom. He took this idea through the general principle that a loving God would not allow so much suffering to exist; surely He would do something about it. My answer was He does. That surprised him, as he explained that if that were so, our world would not have so much pain and suffering. I responded by saying that God does not approve of it, and far be from it that He is the cause, as humans are the cause of the sin in this world. It would be like telling the Land Transport Authority that they are the fault of the accidents that happen on the roads everyday. Same goes for God, you don't blame God for human sin, man brought it upon himself. He continued to extrapolate on that matter by continuing to insist that God is a sadistic God. After all, he said, since He knows the future and everything, why does he put people through suffering? It would be extremely unloving of a so called loving God to make people suffer. Why can't I be Bill Gates' son instead? Why must I have a normal job and not great wealth? I responded in an almost joking way, I couldn't help but laugh at the Bill Gates comment. Because, I said, God can use suffering in a way to strengthen our faith. Faith with no foundations will be taken for granted, it'd be pointless if we all lived happily and simply give up when things come crashing down on us. Not to mention it would make people appreciate the insurmountable good that God gives in the midst of suffering. The Israelites took God for granted and look how it left them? To be overtaken by Babylon. Thus God can make a use for this for the better good, as He has done countless times. Plus lets say if God made you Bill Gates' son, you wouldn't have married your wife, add to the fact that you just might become a spoiled brat with all those riches. What you have know makes you happy right? Even though you aren't rich, you're still a decent person and all. Riches may have changed you for the worse. Although this friend is a very open minded person, he seemed indignant when I gave my response, though I knew I struck a cord when I mentioned his family. We took a break, drank a bit, and then continued.

At this he tried a new approach: if God really can change people, as you claim He did for you (I had told him a brief background of how I was before) and so many others, why not just take away the part of people that sin? You can't. He questioned why not. Because, we have free will, and we do whatever we want with that free will, and God, all powerful could take that free will away from us, but He won't, because He loves us and as bad as the decisions we make, He still respects them. Besides, it would be immoral. That really surprised him. Immoral you say? I'm sure you are wondering why it would be immoral for God to make us sinless by taking away the part of us that sin. Well then it'd mean God would have to take away our entire bodies as every part can sin, and our free will would be taken away as well. Then it would be completely pointless to have created humans then. Humans, angels and even Lucifer himself was created and had free will, and although the usual notion is that angels are pure spirit beings who are messengers, soldiers and musicians among other professions, Lucifer and the angels who fell with him clearly sinned, they were not perfect, they were susceptible to sinning. Thus except for God Himself, everyone is able to sin should they choose to; free will has a possibility for sinning and for humans, "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" as stated in the book of Romans. He still did not get my point, which annoyed me because he's at least thirty years older than me yet doesn't get a concept that I completely understand. He insisted again, God can take away the part of the humans that sin, so why put humans through the suffering? I briefly repeated what I said as it completely answers his question and added a bit more. You can't, because free will always will have the possibility of sin in it, when God created man, God did not create sin but had created the possibility of sin, a risk He took because He did love us and we failed Him. So as God always has done, he fixed a way for us to be saved, He cleaned up after our mistakes, He took up our yokes. That is truly love. He seemed to get my point this time and took a sip of beer, and went on.

After explaining that to him, he still did not give in and instead tried another way to disprove my claims by asking me whether I believed the Bible was the inspired Word of God due to my referral to the book of Romans. As a Christian, obviously my beliefs come with the assured belief that the Word of God is true. After giving him my obvious answer he gave me a question that several Christians I know cannot answer properly, lest they do not know the answer. He stated a well known fact of ancient literacy that he said would also apply to the Bible. That although the Bible claims to be divine, it was written by human hands and thus it is prone to be contaminated, and the Da Vinci Code clearly says it has been revised many times and is not the Word of God but a book made by men to strengthen political power. Okay, I replied, first and foremost, the Bible was not written to strengthen political power. With the Old Testament in it, there was no hope of the book to give political power back in the old days, it would have given them laws to govern properly, most unlike the societies that Israel had fought with. There would be no political power through that, it would have made people more pure instead, not enhance greed for power. And in the New Testament it fits perfectly with the Old Testament, not contradicting with it but fulfilling it perfectly. I gave a brief rundown to him of why I believe the Bible is divine: Sixty six books in perfect unity, written over thousands of years by at least forty authors and they all unfold one continuous storyline of a fall, and a master plan of hope and redemption, one central message in a book with more diversity than any other book. Add to the fact that the Bible has continually been proven right historically, mainly through archaeology. King David, the Hittites, Sodom and Gomorrah are all mentioned in the Old Testament. Now except for the Bible, no other sources in the world had mentioned them. So critics had charged the Bible by saying that since there was no proof of them, the Bible must be false and exaggerated, evidence that human hands have lied through these pages. Yet only recently, a piece of pottery from an enemy of ancient Israel had mentioned King David of Israel in it, speaking of a victory over his descendants. Relatively recently discovered records of the Hittites were found along with the Hittite library. Five cities are mentioned in the Old Testament and their positions were proven in recent digs. Even more intriguing is that two cities excavated were found to been have completely destroyed, fragments the only evidence of the cities of before. In the Bible Sodom and Gomorrah had been destroyed because of their sin. Mere coincidence? Again and again the Bible has been proved right archaeologically. Though granted some prophecies are vague, most prophecies of the future range from detailed to unbearably detailed, and all (except those speaking of the future yet to come) have been fulfilled, all details in accordance with Scripture. Don't even get me started on how two hundred predictions of the Messiah were fulfilled by only one man, Jesus Christ. Fair enough he said, but I didn't answer his main question. I did not, so I tried: every single manuscript of the books of the Bible that have been found are all 99.5% similar. Now people may wonder, if that's the case and since the Bible is said to be without error, how can that be? Well, that 0.5% of differences is extremely minute. For example, in the modern Bible and many manuscripts, Galatians ends with the word amen. However some manuscripts did not contain that amen. In the Gospels, and epistles (letters written from the apostles) many manuscripts, when referring to Jesus, simply had his name there. In the other manuscripts, some verses had "Lord" added in before Jesus' name. They had just added more detail, nothing which supported the argument of an error, no matter how small. Only in a two sections of the Bible in John and Mark are there stories not mentioned in the earliest manuscripts. Still, these are not contradictory, but complementary. It does not disprove Scripture and still does not have any error. Other than this, all the manuscripts for the books of the Bible were in striking concordance with each other. Written by human hands over centuries but still uncontaminated... only a Divine Mind could have done that.

He had accepted my arguments but did not believe, as the Qur'an (or Koran, the Muslim holy book) states that the book was given to the Prophet Muhammad to be the pure and untouched book from God, given as Scripture from Moses and Jesus time had been contaminated. Even though I had just as well as proven that the Christian Bible was pure and unchanged through several sources of evidence through brief explanations, how much more if I had gone into details with more sources? Many people claim they don't believe because the Bible is full of contradictions and errors. I doubt they have even read it. There is nothing like it on earth.

How to Overcome an Enemy

2006-01-23T18:21:00.000+08:00

How to Overcome an Enemy

Pastor Yonggi Cho

Matthew 5:38-41

Introduction: Nelson Mandela in South Africa was persecuted by the white government and imprisoned for 27 years. Since he spent most of his youth in prison, he must have had a painful mind and heart. However, when he got out of prison and was elected president of South Africa, the whole world paid attention to him. Common sense told them that he would take revenge on the white people. However, when he became president, he declared forgiveness and reconciliation, and as the head of his country, he was in a position to make it a place where whites and blacks could live together. He was a great man who overcame resentment successfully. It is not easy to confront an enemy and overcome a grudge.

Our Lord's command regarding our attitude toward an enemy

1. Do not take revenge (Romans 12:17-21).

1) God takes revenge (Deuteronomy 32:35).

2) Take care of an enemy (Proverbs 25:21-22).

3) Overcome evil with good - the way to stop evil (Proverbs 17:13, 24:17)

4) Love an enemy (Matthew 5:44-48, Luke 6:27-28)

2. When you are attacked by an enemy (Psalms 91:1-3).

1) When God was with Joseph, his dry cistern did not turn into a grave for him (Genesis 50:20).

2) When King Nebuchadnezzar had the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual because of his anger and murderous intent, it did not burn Shadrach, Meshach,and Abednego (Daniel 3:28)

3) When God was with Daniel, hungry lions in the den did not hurt him (Psalms 91:4-8, Daniel 6:22-23)

3. If an enemy comes, blessings will also come (Psalms 23:5)

1) God prepares a table - a table of manna in the desert in the sight of King Pharaoh (Psalms 78:52-53, 105:39-41).

2) The head was anointed with oil.

(1) It brought power - Samson and anointing (Judges 14:6).

(2) It brought joy (Isaiah 61:3, Psalms 30:11).

(3) It made a cup overflow - an abundant, satisfying life (Psalms 91:16, 103:5, 37:28).

Conclusion: (Matthew 5:38-41). This scripture was unpleasant to me for a long time because it sounded powerless and defeated. However, I realize that this is the right way to overcome an enemy and live a victorious life.

I Never Saw It Coming

2006-01-23T17:37:00.000+08:00

"I Never Saw It Coming!" by Luann Prater

Proverbs 31 Speaker Team Member and Author

Key verse: Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future. Ecclesiastes 7:14 (NIV)

Devotional: One night while driving to church, I asked my then 16-year-old daughter, "What is your favorite thing about living, right now?" "That's a great question!" she replied. She pondered a moment and then began to reveal what made her life tick.

"This is an incredible time for me...and I never saw it coming." she said. "This year is less about proving myself and more about being myself. It's a beautiful spot. I laugh every day."

My heart smiled as I clung to those thoughts. She had so much more to share, but these words stuck in my mind like flypaper. For a junior in high school to sort out what's real from what's fake, what's true from what's false, what's important from what is worthless, is exciting stuff for a mom.

She made very deliberate decisions when she entered high school two years earlier. The most important one was asking God to lead her through decisions about dating, classes, choosing friends and choosing work. Her rationale: why allow your life to be jerked around by emotions that you are neither prepared nor ready to handle. Turn it over to God and anxiously anticipate the outcome.

And in her junior year, those tough choices began to pay off. Her peers respected her for who she was and what she stood for. She saw life as a beautiful spot, one to be enjoyed and savored. And the remarkable part is she never saw it coming.

God expects us to wait in eager anticipation of the plans he has laid out for us. When we become adults, we often crowd God out of the plan. We take jobs, we choose mates and we raise children without checking first with the plan-maker, God. He has given us a brain, so surely we can figure this out on our own - right? Why risk the emotional upheaval wrong decisions can make when we have a heavenly Father with the perfect plan?

Pray today that every decision is made through the filter of His perfect plan. Then one day you can say, "Wow! I never saw it coming!"

My prayer for today:

Jesus, we are such control freaks. We think we have the answers, but Lord, we know nothing of the future. Only you can take us to the place of unexpected anticipation. Give us strength this day to hold on and believe that your ways are not our ways. Father, lead me.

Application steps:

On an index card, write these words:

"I surrender my future plans and dreams to God and I pledge to seek his direction each morning before my day begins." Then sign and date it. Place it where you will see it each morning.

Reflection Points:

What am I doing to manipulate my future? Where is God trying to lead me? How can I be prepared to follow God's lead?

Power verses: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways declares the Lord. Isaiah 55:8 (NIV)

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you flow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 (NIV) For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11 There is surely a future hope for you and your hope will not be cut off.

Proverbs 23:18 Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you. Psalm 9:10 (NIV)

The Road to Success

2006-01-23T17:33:00.000+08:00

The Road to Success
Anonymous

The road to success is not straight
There is a curve called failure
A loop called confusion
Speed bumps called friends
Red lights called enemies
Caution lights called family
You will have flats called jobs.

But, if you have a spare called determination
An engine called perseverance
Insurance called faith
A driver called God
You will make it to a place called Success!

Story

2006-01-06T15:09:00.000+08:00

Imagine this happening to you...

One Sunday morning during service, a 2,000 member congregation was surprised to see two men enter, both covered from head to toe in black and carrying sub machine guns. One of the men proclaimed, "Anyone willing to take a bullet for Christ, remain where you are."
Immediately, the choir fled, the deacons fled, and most of the congregation fled. Out of the 2,000 there only remained around 20. The man who had spoken took off his hood, then looked at the preacher and said "Okay Pastor, I got rid of all the hypocrites... Now you may begin your service. Have a nice day!" And the two men turned and walked out.

So many times we claim that we will do things for Christ. Be it a simple prayer, offering or our valuable possessions. But how about our lives? It is the God-given breath of life that allows us to enjoy everything and do all the things in this world. And we say that we'll give up our lives for Him, do anything for Him and plenty more. There is no faith required in saying that, mainly because we believe we will never be in that situation. But if He chooses us to die for Him, so many people think twice and in their panic, flee. Just like Peter, he said he would never leave Jesus' side, yet he denied Him not once but three times! Not to mention he probably denied Him those three times in under a minute. Yet he went on and became a great man for God.

But losing our lives is quite a different case than denying Christ. Peter's life was not taken and thus he could repent and change for the better. But once our lives are taken, we can no longer repent, we are dead after all. But it is not merely the death, it is your attitude. There is a short story about two rabbis who were in a concentration camp in a Nazi controlled war-torn zone during World War II. One of them had lost his faith and said God did not exist, but the other kept believing and said that God would save them. When the time had come for the rabbis to go into the gas chamber, the believing rabbi said there was no God. The unbelieving rabbi then took a step of faith and prayed as he entered the gas chamber.

The story is unknown from there, whether he survived miraculously or not. But it is inspiring to see someone to have faith once again in the face of death. Same goes to us, same goes to those twenty people who remained, to have a good attitude and strong faith in the face of death. That is truly martyrdom.