Retreat 221010

Today had a much needed and long-awaited retreat with the Lord at some secluded coffee house in town. Drinking the ice mocha reminds me of the personal retreat time in Nagoya, except that the ice mocha in Nagoya was so much nicer.. (awwwwsss)

Looking through today, the retreat wasn't exactly planned. I had a meeting in the morning. But by afternoon after the meeting was over, my heart was too burdened to carry on. I could pinpoint that to a bit of self doubt and esteem attack happening to me as I struggle to put studies for my quizzes and ministry together as well as carving the spiritual discipline I so badly lack in my Spiritual Walk with Jesus.

I guess when I couldn't carry on anymore, Jesus was still there to pick me up. I re-looked at a verse that spoke again to me today (John chapter 21), where God was re-instating Peter for having lost his focus on Jesus and also denied Him 3 times. There and then I sat at the empty seat in front of me, sipping my ice mocha as I prayed for Jesus's presence. Sometimes, I really feel my heart and mind is so pre-occupied with the work on hand I cannot focus on Jesus.

I wanted to seek help for alot of questions. But I began on the wrong side of the mind. I started from myself. I wanted to know how the verse will speak to me in today's time, in today's struggle. Perhaps it was more correct to look to Jesus, which I did and there and then after I ranted everything out, I felt Jesus asking me each line of my complaint: "Yes, my child, I know you are troubled.. but do you Love me more than these? Do you Love me?"

Focusing on the Lord really makes all the "problems" seem unimportant at that moment, for what mattered most was that I was focusing on God. And I'm glad when in the later verses, Jesus said again: "Follow Me."

God is not really an option to choose from to solve our problems, a genie we rub from a lamp to our troubles, but He IS the One and Only Truth, the Way and the Light. The living Water, and the Living bread, whom willed for me to believe in Him. All it took was whether I believed.

And I believe.

Faith and Reason: Do they always clash?

Attended a faith and reason Q&A by Dr. Rev. Stephen Tong in my university (Nanyang Technological University). He is a famous evangelist from Indonesia and within the Chinese church community. I believe God has given him a great deal of wisdom, having him self-teaching himself alot of fields of knowledge of man. He is well versed in Chinese history, philosophy, history (probably) and etc.

I went to a similar session 2 years ago at exactly the same venue, and I'm very much thankful for the work God is doing through his life. I remember a verse in the bible that talks about worshipping God in the famous conversation in the bible with the Samaritan woman by the well:"

²¹Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

John 4:21-24

Now, what is meant by in Spirit and in Truth?

In this talk Pastor Stephen Tong defined reason as a way we make sense of the world around us and the 2 greatest knowledge fields of man is Science and Philosophy. Science is a quantitative way of experimenting and discovering the truths about the physical world. Philosophy can be defined as a field of thought dedicated to the systematic and rational way of making sense of the world, by thought that is.

However, many fields of knowledge of man add up and still is finite in a sense we cannot fully understand or grasp things beyond the reach of the 5 senses or our thoughts. Hence Faith comes into place to allow us to accept things that we are yet to fully grasp. That though is not blind faith we are talking about. Blind faith is dangerous and I have heard of many stories of how children die of some little illnesses because of the fact that their parents are not willing to seek medical help from doctors, claiming God will heal them. I believe firmly that God put doctors around us for a reason and miracle healings sometimes happen but is out of the norm (that why it is a miracle, as it does not happen all the time)

Putting faith in God doesnt mean blindly believing God without any basis. For the christian perspective, the Bible is a book that records an amazing testament of many 'Faith Giants' whom have placed their trust in God. The faithfulness of God in these accounts form a basic understanding of God's character as One who Loves, is faithful in keeping His promises (covenants), unchanging, Holy.. and etc. If we do not even know who is this God we believe in, how can we be sure of what we hope for?

And that is why we need to worship in Spirit and in Truth. We know that the Spirit will be with us because of Jesus' promise in John 14:15-17:

^"16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— ¹⁷the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be^{a]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[a]} in you."

God gave us the right to be as children of God when we repent of our sins and let Him take control of our lives as our personal Lord and Saviour. He also grants us the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of Truth to guide us and be our comforter to empower us in our walk with Him. In 1Cor 12:3 it says:"Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit."

He also gave us His only Son, in Christ Jesus who says in John 14:6 :"⁶Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." There is also the Word of God inspired by God Himself in the Bible we have. If we truly pay attention to the truths of the Bible God revealed to us, and practice them, we will be worshipping in Spirit and in Truth.

Anyone who claims to know God cannot just worship alone in Spirit, because he will have a weak foundation in the knowledge of God. Neither can a christian only worship in the knowledge of God, following the Law of the Bible but only as a knowledge itself and in self righteousness.... (this is what we call as Pharisees in bible, hypocrites who 'follow' the Word of God but do not practice what they preach).

Hence, there needs to be a balance of both, in faith and reason, in Spirit and in Truth.

Today I learnt many new perspectives too just hearing Dr. Rev Tong speak. May God really open our spiritual eyes to know Him as well as the hunger to dig into His Word for truths.

Just attaching a faith a reason video here for your viewing pleasure.. alot of it can be found on youtube... XD

On "Is our God the only God or Trinity?

God Bless!!

Blog repost: What does it mean to say yes to God

Originally posted on http://lisachildofgod.blogspot.com/ by Lisa on 26 Dec 2009:

Personally I feel this piece of heartfelt sharing resonates in my soul about God's character in
'getting' our response to say 'yes' and follow Him. I thank God for fellow christians whom I can grow my faith together with.

Personally I'm on a journey to find out at the same time what it truly means to follow Jesus.
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Wow its been such a long time since I written on this blog. There has been so much going on inwardly and outwardly that some times it just takes time to process. To share prematurely is to release the treasure before the time is right. So recently I have been pondering what it means to say 'yes' to God. This thought has entered my mind through an Advent meditation I read on Mary. The author Kathleen Norris wrote:

Who is she, a peasant girl that an angel of God should appear before her? Who is she to bear the Savior God promised to Israel? Why should this great blessing and burden come into her humble life? Mary believes. For her question to the angel is not 'how will I know' but 'how can this be?' She has already accepted the truth of what the angel tells her. But Mary still has to assent to it, to answer 'yes'. And on that our salvation hinges. The answer depends on Mary and it depends on us.

The questions God asks us are always questions of being rather than knowing. And simply recognizing these moments, stopping for a moment because something or someone wants our attention can matter.....but it will be clear that we are being asked to say 'yes' or 'no' to embrace or ignore what God has set before us.

Like the ancient Israelites in the desert, we can long for the security of the world we know in Egypt. Slaves after all have the security of knowing their place in the world. Or like Mary, we can say 'yes' to the new, uncertain reality that promises true freedom. Say 'yes' to God will always mean more than we can possibly imagine, both for us and for others. Walls and stumbling blocks that seemed impossible crumble suddenly, as we let our fears go. Like Mary, we have no way of knowing any of this. We can ask for courage, however and trust that God has not led us into this new land only to abandon us there.

My spirit is arrested on so many levels when I read the words of this devotion. For my heart is prone to wander but God beckons me back showing me that when I say 'yes' to Him, He is opening up new vistas for me to see and doors to step through. As this year ends and a new year enfolds, I want to find myself always in that posture of willingness to say 'yes' to Christ for in doing so I am being led to a deeper faith, deeper trust, a deeper knowledge of His heart. Saying 'yes' will mean greater sacrifices, counting the cost, saying 'no' to what seems like other good choices which aren't the 'best' choices. Over the years, my desire has always been to live without regret and so saying 'yes' to God is to say 'yes' to new adventures, to walk through fears. It is truly a journey to greater freedom in Christ but is one that God calls us all to take individually. No one can do it for us but we do have the promise that when we say 'yes', God promises to go before us, to part the proverbial Red seas and Jordan rivers. Saying 'yes' may mean saying 'goodbye' to friendships that once fed our souls, to letting go and again allowing God to bring other sojourners and pilgrims who will join us in a journey of courage to a new land, the promised land that God has in store for us. Like Mary of old, I am reminded that her blessedness was born out of faith, a faith that choose to believe, that took God at His word and in so doing, lives were impacted for eternity. Oh Lord, quicken that kind of faith in me that you planted in Mary's heart so many centuries ago, that like her, each of us who chose to walk by faith and not by sight, may taste the blessedness she tasted and we may find favor in your eyes!

Posted by Lisa at 3:59 PM 1 comments