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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

Best-selling author of ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ Pastor Rick Warren speaks at the 19th annual National Conference on Preaching in Woodbridge, Va., on Tuesday, April 8, 2008.
(Christian Today)

Internationally revered Pastor Rick Warren slipped into the conference hall unnoticed Tuesday night, comfortably mingling with the hundreds of pastors gathered at the 19th annual National Conference on Preaching, before stepping on stage to deliver a sermon that reminded the audience why Warren is one of the most popular pastors in the world.

In his sermon entitled “Growing Spiritually,” Warren recounted the runaway success of his book The Purpose Driven Life – the best-selling book in history behind the Bible – to the audience gathered at Woodbridge, Virginia, in the US. The sermon was based on the story in Exodus 4 about the scene where God tells Moses to throw his staff on the ground and it transforms into a snake.

“That question, ‘What is in your hand?’ is one of the most important questions in life. What is in your hand?” Warren asked his audience, citing God’s question to Moses in Exodus 4:2.

Read the complete article here

The trick is to figure out what’s in your hand without bothering about what’s in others’ hands.

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…

Here’s something for all Christian leaders who have been in the system long enough to understand that workings and procedures. We know the phrasing and words to say to justify ourselves, but at the end of the day, it’s all about our heart’s motive.

[John 12:3-6]
Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages. ” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

This is what I call the “Holy Excuse”; using something biblical to cover up something else carnal.

Classics Works:
We did not work hard to grow the group - God is testing us in perservance
I don’t want to get out of my comfort zone - I do not sense God’s calling for me
I want to hang out more with the opposite gender - I like to fellowship
I don’t want to do it now - It’s not yet God’s timing

[Jeremiah 17:9]
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

No wonder God judges the heart.

Disclaimer: I’m not an Obama supporter; I’m a Singaporean for goodness’s sake! However, this guy said something that really stirred the inner recesses of my heart

People often ask why I liked Superman that much. I kept telling them its a symbolic representation of the power I wanted from God, but I never really did explain it thoroughly.

Well, like any other idealistic youngster, I wanted to change the world for the better. It took no doctorate or religious brainwashing for me to realize that the world is screwed up. I am sick of the injustice present in the world. I cannot stand by and permit evil to take its course. My conscience would not allow me to commit inaction. I should not, I will not and I must not. In that aspect, I totally agree with Bonhoeffer.

“If I see a madman driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders,” Dietrich Bonhoeffer explained to his sister, “then I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe and then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try and wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.”

The German theologian, a pacifist, was attempting to convey why he had joined with others to plot an unsuccessful assassination of Adolf Hitler. The most extreme ambition is to attempt revolution. Bonhoeffer tried and failed and was executed on April 9, 1945, as a result.

Perhaps I might need to start a revolution, create a revival, raise a riot, by any methods, using any means. I do not fear hard work, but I only fear helplessness in stamping out evil.

Hence I came to a conclusion. To have any visible and impressionable impact on this world, we will need power. We will require as much power as possible, as much power as we can get and we cannot be ashamed to ask for it. Without it, there can be no hope of a change. No hope of a significant change.

Therefore I strived for power, or positions of power. I wanted to be a politician; perhaps I can redirect a country. I wanted to be rich businessman; perhaps currency can readjust the world’s trajectory. In that sense, I would love to be an “Obama” - Someone who asked for power so that he can change the world.

“…because good intentions were not enough. We’re not fortified with political power… and political will.“
-Barack Obama’s Speech in Youngstown [1.00-1.08]

However, as I mature in Christ, I have come to understand that secular power is not enough. Policies cannot change our human condition. Legislation cannot stop us. Economy cannot save us. Education cannot mould us. We are still greedy for money, unkind to the minority. We are still committing murders, starting wars. We are still poor in spirit. I have come to realize, what we need exactly is actually the redemptive power of Christ. If you know the history of this term, you would know its irony from its usage by the predecessors. Yet my limited vocabulary can express it in no other forms.

Christ is our “Final Solution“.

There is no such thing as a simple sin. There are only complex sins, multiple sins in one action.

If I were to steal, the sin will not only be thievery, but probably jealousy, insecurity, perhaps even greed as well.

In a way, this complex sin concept is like the fruit of the spirit.

One fruit, many parts; one action, many sins.

Oh, I didn’t know you are a Christian?