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Showing posts from December, 2016

The Call of Moses: The Second Excuse - Authority - Divine Plan (Part 2)

"Then they will heed your voice...." (Exo 3:18) Moses' second question also includes the concern about the "How" of doing this mission. Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them,`The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me,`What is His name?' what shall I say to them?" (Exo 3:13) He is already calculating the possible problems aforehand, which is not bad. Moses' question button turns on God's light on His plan of redemption. God tells him what he has to tell the elders and what they should do, how they should meet the Pharaoh, how he would refuse to let the people of Israel go, and then how God would bring them out. Usually, the man or woman called to divine mission knows what the mission really is all about. However, not all of us have an idea of the divine plan. Sometimes, God shows us the entire plan at a glimpse. Sometimes, He leads us step by step. But, nevertheless,

A Winter Prayer

DEAR SAVIOR, Protect children from the chill-hands of winter! Protect families from accidents on foggy routes! Provide for the homeless clothes, food, and shelter! Fill hearts with warmness of love full of good fruits! May eyes blinded by hatred find healing in Your love That they may love and forgive and restore and build! May hearts stiffened by indifference find life in Your love That they may beat for the helpless and keep beating still. May broken homes, sad and sorrowful, find a Visitor Friend-- You, O Lord, come to these homes, and may all sadness end! For, times and seasons span our lives so short Till Eternity takes us into Your Celestial Court! Protect Your children, Lord, according to Your Promise: "No evil shall befall you nor shall any plague come near your dwelling". (Psalm 91:10)

Vacuums, Covetousness, Temptation, and Victory

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. (Psa 23:1) You are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. (Col 2:10) Covetousness is the desire-call of false and godless vacuum. Covetousness never desires God to fill its emptiness, boredom, greed, or desire because its hunger is false and godless. Covetousness looks for something more, something different, something other and is easily deceived into taking the unreal for real. There are at least 3 kinds of vacuums: 1. Original Vacuum. This is the vacuum of infinity within the human spirit (Eccl.3:11). It can only be resolved by faith in the Infinite God and loving devotion to Him. A life without Truth, without God is a bottomless pit, infinitely empty, and that is hell. This vacuum manifests as meaninglessness, purposelessness, hopelessness. People try to cover it up by a false belief in either the immortality of personal soul or a recourse to nihilism (or nothingness, absurdity, meaninglessness, pointlessness). 2.

The Call of Moses: The Second Excuse: Authority (Ex.3)

Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them,`The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me,`What is His name?' what shall I say to them?" (Exo 3:13) "So, who are You?" Moses asks the Lord. In response, God gives to Moses a three-fold revelation of Himself. 1. He IS that He IS. The FINAL Authority of Mission.  He replies, "I AM WHO I AM."..."Thus you shall say to the children of Israel,`I AM has sent me to you.'" (Exo 3:14). This reveals the ESSENTIAL IDENTITY of God. He cannot be identified with any definition because His existence is not dependent on anything outside Himself. My existence is dependent on many factors. So, if someone asks me who I am, I would reply saying, "I am the son of so and so, I live in such and such place, and I do such and such job or work for so and so...." This would still be only one aspect of the many things that makes me who I am. The

Babylonian Captivity of Theological Education

Since the Early Period of Christian history, the world has presented an almost inescapable allurement of dry logic or fake glory to divine faith. The world challenges faith to fight with it on its worldly ground, the ground of space-time reason (which apologists, sadly, find very compelling). On the one hand are the contextualists who try to localize revelation in terms of contexts, which attempts, most of which, have certainly been quite helpful, though some idolatrously inclusive. But, nothing has been more devastating to the cause of theological education than the allurement of the secular "university" system in modern times. In 1520, Martin Luther talked about the Babylonian Captivity of the Church. The Protestant Church soon forgot the lesson as it continued to be enamored with the gods of the surrounding nations, the gods of Enlightenment, Scientism, and Modernism. The chief warriors who fell to this honey-trap were theological professors who wished to appear as intelle