Thursday, February 16, 2012

late-night essay

Using numbers and time to motivate my lethargic self as I churn out a 1500-word essay in one (late) night. I cited twelve references and only read five specifically for this assignment. I also like the opening quotes I remembered/found.

Thanks ASLAN!!! I also downloaded one of the most influential academic and non-academic writings I've read so far in my noob life. The abstract looks too dense, the article is fabulously understandable. 

That's three more encouragements for my lethargic, ready-for-bed self.

192/1500 1.28am
313 2.08am
547 2.46am
644 2.59am
719 3.08am
798 3.27am
947 3.52am
1001 3.58am
1082 4.10am
1138 4.22am
1282 4.38am
1306 4.50am (to be continued)

BUT bed is only for clean people, so I have to shower and clean up first. Nooooooo

zzz

Monday, February 13, 2012

walking so far below


If I seem a little unedged, it's because I am. 
Because a big price was paid for this grace! and we're walking so far below it... 
'Cause I think about what my Lord did, when I think about him having those nails driven into his hands - completely innocent - my Creator, he didn't deserve to die, but yet he chose to do it so that he could give me his nature
And we have reduced his grace! Down to fire insurance and a ticket to heaven it so angers me. Because the devil's having a party and he's going, "We've kept it from them. let them have all the church buildings they want, let them have all the Bibles they want. They're powerless, they're not hurting our kingdom." 
When in reality such a price was paid, that's why I seem a little bit unedged.

 Relentless Curriculum (2011)
John Bevere

In our work together with God, then, we beg you who have received God's grace not to let it be wasted.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Aslan


Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,
At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,
When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring
                                                         again.


Yes, Lion of Judah! When this decaying order of our world is replaced, when you wipe the tears from every eye, when there will be no more crying, mourning, or pain again (Revelations 21:4).

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Friday, February 3, 2012

real hope - faint not.

When Jesus was hungry en route to Jerusalem, he could not find any fruit on a fig tree he passed by that he could eat to fill his stomach, "because it was not the season for figs". Then he cursed the tree and it shriveled. 


But why did he curse the tree for not having fruit when it was not supposed to do so at that time?


This is what real hope, Christ's idealism looks like to me. 


It says a lot when a person is able to make the fig tree shriveled. He could be a destroyer who brings death upon people, though there is an astounding lack of such evidence in the Bible.  Early Jewish texts, however, apparently taught that Jesus was a sorcerer or someone who practiced magic and went astray. Some people even accused him of working for Satan (Luke 11: 14-23)! 


He could be a madman or someone with spiritual powers, whether for good or bad. But the spiritual nature of his work and Person cannot be ignored or obliterated at all. 


To call Jesus merely a moral teacher is like calling your parents merely your financial supporters - it is one aspect, but does not warrant as much attention as we may have given at the expense of larger undercurrents. 


The Bible on the other hand only has repeated firsthand accounts of him healing those with temporary sicknesses such as fevers as well as those who were terminally ill, such as those with skin diseases - some of which were contagious - and strange bleeding diseases. Or people with permanent conditions such as being born blind and being paralyzed. He cast out demons from people who were greatly compromised and controlled by these fallen angels (Mark 1: 21-27, Matthew 8: 28-24 and others). Where what happened to the person after was described, it was whopping amazing. He even brought some dead people back to life (Lazarus, the widow's son at Nain, Jairus' daughter are the three named in the Bible). 


He was someone who could curse a fig tree to die, and was someone who gave life, both literally and figuratively.


It's not a pretty sight at all I'm sure...looking at people tormented physically or internally, and how people shun them or grieve for them. It is all messy, exasperating, heart-cutting. Jesus "had compassion on the crowds", and those marginalized and shunned by society (Matthew 29: 34). 


But the fact that he has control over death and even the power to give life in bodily ways and spiritual ways...isn't that why the more saddening people and things are, the greater our hope is in Jesus? Because he has control over these things and if he is redeeming all aspects of the lives of those who follow him, surely he can also do the same for people whom we grieve for!


Jesus is sovereign not just over illnesses that can lead to death, but death itself and even the fearsome, destructive power of nature that humans can only avoid, alleviate, evacuate from and mitigate afterwards. And that gives me real hope. He can do what we as humans cannot do, although we like to think much bigger of ourselves than we actually are. 


We have real, rugged strength to work and bring real life, trusting that Jesus persuades and convicts people in their hearts to say yes to the redeeming he wants to do in them. As Jenny & Tyler sings, "not with "simple thoughts like 'come together be good-willed" ". Not with nice little stickers and motivational decals and posters, or a deliberate oblivion to evil in a bid to 'think happy thoughts' and 'think positive'.


No. Real Hope works amidst messed-up people, i.e. all of us. On a daily basis, we miss the standard of perfection God requires for true goodness, instead incurring grief, exasperation and anger from people around us and God due to our innate propensity to do evil (doubt, criticize, gossip, insult...) in the name of self-preservation (see Matthew 5:1-7:14Romans 7:14-8: 11). All this goes beyond a mere moral teaching of what is good and bad. Morals inform us in detail and in the head what we should do. But we cannot do what we know is good because it is not in our nature to do so.


The Real Hope is Jesus, the one who has changed the nature of all those who let him to be able to be good for the first time in our lives. If he has power over death, surely he has power over the decay that I see happening in the hearts and lives of loved ones. And he is working right now...


My brain is not working, but I needed to write this to stand firm when situations seem bleak.
Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.
Psalm 126


FAINT NOT.