R³

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.
-Winston Churchill

On Tuesday, April 22, 2008 ; 10:44 AM
Xiangyu wrote:

Inspired by 1 peter 3 :15, which urges us to

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

So here i am, i am going to challenge you ! yes you reading my post. If you have an online journal, post about YOUR reason for the hope that YOU HAVE. Otherwise, please leave a tag to tell me about it. I’m really very interested to know…seriously!

Tell me, what your convictions are and why are you so sure of Jesus?

I can tell you guys why I’m so sure of Jesus, but I hope I never have to tell you of my convictions again. If it can’t be seen, then it means that I’ve failed to live them out. (See the post on Rhetorical Lives)

My walk with God has came to a point where I can never deny his existence. It’s not yet deep, but its deep enough to confirm that fact. It’s just like a child who is certain that he has a Dad, even though he may not know everything about his dad.

I have studied Him with knowledge and experienced Him with encounters. I would compare his existence to that of the Australia continent; I’ve not only seen it on the atlas, but I have set foot on it.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
-C.S. Lewis

If I ever do backslide, I cannot hope to escape with the plead of ignorance. I cannot say things such as “I’m not sure whether God is real.” or “I’m having doubts about my faith in Him.”

If I ever do backslide, it can only mean I have degenerated to the state of stubborn self denial where I know God, but I just don’t want to serve Him. It doesn’t make him any less real, just like how sticking my head into the ground doesn’t switch off the lights.

Don’t ever perform the ridiculous “Ostrich Maneuver”.

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.
-Abraham Lincoln

Imagine if you have 5 minutes with any person in the world, living in any era, and you are allowed to ask him or her only one question, what would it be?

Bill Hybels. Rick Warren. George Bush. Mother Theresa. Andy Stanley. John Ortberg. CS Lewis. Bill Gates. Bono. Lee Kuan Yew. Billy Graham. George Soros. Warren Buffet. Ravi Zacharias. Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama. Adolf Hitler. Mao Zedong. Donald Trump. Angelina Jolie. Martin Luther King Jr. John Wesley.

What are your convictions?

These beliefs alter destinies. It determines how these people lived their lives. Given that the life is lived proper and consistent, this question becomes rhetorical.

No one doubted Hitler’s conviction, he wrote it in the war. You can’t miss Chris, Torch & Shirley’s convictions*; it’s penned down with their lives!

I pray that question remains rhetorical in my life.

PS: For those who want a copy of the sharing of their convictions they did in Careleader’s Meeting, drop me a comment with your email address and I will mail it to you. I couldn’t seem to host the files online…

No, we are more then just paper drawings of flame.

If God is real, the fire He place in our hearts must also be real. If the fire is real, then something must be burnt, something must be consumed.

I know why revival is not upon us.

It has nothing to do with God’s timing. Not because He ain’t sovereign, but because His timing is determined by the readiness of His people. I have seen God sending good people to churches just like that. I have seen 1st time visitors coming not for caregroup, nor service, but for prayer meet. I have seen people coming to church though a less then ideal website; they basically did a Google search for a church to join.

Tell me tell you the truth: God is more ready to give then we are ready to receive!

God is not waiting for the His right timing, God is waiting for His people! I do not doubt the ability of God; His spirit can move and 500 can and would come to know Him overnight.

However, if that is the case, can we contain the 500*?
(500 is a generic number that can be replaced with any digits. 50, 5000, 5000000, etc)

Is our character strong enough to contain the 500?
Can we not get overly prideful and caught up with the fact that it given from Him, and not steal His credit and claim that our programmes and strategies won the 500 for us?

Is our structure strong enough to contain 500?
Do you have enough leaders to lead these 500 people, to teach and mature them into disciples of Christ?

Is our system stable and consistent enough to contain 500?
Do we have systems in place that allows us to grow these people continually, not just once off. Revival is a period of time, not a 3 day conference.

We claim we want revival.
No we don’t.
We don’t desire a revival enough to pray for it everyday.
We do not desire a revival enough for us to grow in our character.
We do not desire a revival enough for us to will our lives to God.
We do not desire it enough to devout our life for His cause.
We do not desire a revival enough to live a life of purity.
We do not desire it enough to stop our sinful ways.
We do not desire revival above our other desires.

We desire revival as much as we desire a bottle of coke; something we do not mind receiving, only.

I put people in a situation where they can question my stupidity, but they cannot question my love for God.
-TG Training/9th March

Why would God not want a revival?
When is His timing? Now!
When is Satan’s timing? Later…
Who is He waiting for? You!
Who is Satan waiting for? Everybody else.
So… why would God not want you to start the revival now?

Tell me!