Just got to comment on Desiree's and Jo's posts....

God is mystery - yes - because the finite will never be able to fully comprehend the infinite.
But we should always aspire to know God through his revelation - Jesus Christ and the Bible. Because the more we behold the true God, the more we'll be motivated to love Him.
Yes! Please follow the link given by Desiree to learn more.

As for Jo's maths, physics and chemistry lessons... I understand that our tendency is to give further analogy to explain something that we find hard to understand. But with regard to Trinity, I seriously propose that we just speak what the Bible speak. The danger of analogy in this situation is that we may just end up confusing the truth further.... There is a saying in Mandarin: yue4-miao2-yue4-hei1

On the concept of Trinity: http://www.icr.org/article/2590/

I forgot who sent me this, really long ago, but whoever you are, thanks!

And I think we shouldn't try to understand God too much, there's no worship without mystery.

I was reading through the questions and I found this particular one. Hahah. My friend had an interesting analogy for the Trinity...

So essentially, the Trinity comprises of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. All are God, all are one, each one is different but the same. Oxymoron? Not really. It works like this...

1 x 1 x 1= 1

Get it? :D

Another interesting way of explaining would require a more sophisticated facet of knowledge in Science. If you've done Physics at the JC level, remember the concept of the triple point temperature? It is a specific value at which the substance can exist in all 3 states, solid, liquid and gas. Like how water can exist in all 3 states simultaneously at 273.16 Kelvins.

So God is God, but constantly existing in 3 different 'states' simultaneously. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one! Just like how liquid water, ice and water vapour all have the same chemical notation of H2O although they're in different states.

Hope that helped? Hahaha. Just had to type this out. God bless (:

Big difference!

When satan accuses us of our sins, he wants us to despair and give up doing good. His purpose is our destruction.

When Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins, He also at the same time urge us to go to Jesus for forgiveness. His purpose is our salvation!

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Good question.
If they are mentally disabled, how can they understand the Gospel? How can they respond to God? Therefore, how can they be saved?
The Bible did not directly address this question. But the Bible does have an answer.
We must understand the process of salvation - it is called "election".
It is God choosing us, not us choosing God.
If salvation is us choosing God, then some mentally disabled cannot be saved because they may not have the mental capacity to choose God!
But thanks be to God. Salvation is from God. God elects us.
For those of us who are able to respond, we responded by confessing our sins and putting our faith in Jesus!
But those who are not able to respond may be chosen too. Just that they may not be able to respond the way we do! But we'll never know how their "faith" is expressed! But God knows.
So we should share the Gospel with one and all. And always pray for the salvation of all people.
And then we submit to God to make His own decisions.

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Before I start, remember that the Holy Spirit is God. He is a person. Holy Spirit is not some kind of "force"!

Now I'll start.

First, Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts even before we are believers. He convicts us of our sins and enable us to believe in Jesus as our savior and lord. (This is the process of "election"!)

Second, Holy Spirit enable a believer to bear fruit in his life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, etc. How does he do this? One very important tool He uses is the Holy Bible. When a believer read God's word, the Holy Spirit will be there to enable the believer to say, "Amen!" Then the believer will be motivated to do exactly as the word says.

Third, Holy Spirit give gifts to the church (i.e. gathering of believers) so that they may use those gifts to bless each other and enable each other to grow in Christlikeness. During Faith Factor, we use so many types of gifts to serve and encourage each other towards love and good deeds!

Finally, remember that the believer has a duty to respond to the Holy Spirit. And a duty to ignore his sinful nature. When the believer willfully follow the Holy Spirit, he will transform into Christlikeness and build up the church.

And this is the part which shall blow your mind away... even our willfull submission to the Holy Spirit is the work of the Holy Spirit!

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Yes, of course.

Because he may just be saying it on his lips.

But true confession comes from the heart and not from the mouth.

And only God can see one's heart. Other people can't. Therefore we can all be cheated. We can even cheat ourselves. But no one can cheat God. :)

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It is like impossible to explain Trinity on this blog!!!!

But these few things I'll say: If you read the Holy Bible carefully, you'll end up with a "Trinitarian" understanding of God.
You will realise that God the Father is God, God the Son is God and God the Holy Spirit is God.
Yet the Bible insist that there is only ONE God! Arghhh!!!!
Our Christian fore-fathers describe Trinity this way: "God exist in 3 persons and 1 substance."
I know it's like making you more confused!

Trinity is like the hardest thing to comprehend with the human mind. Imagine saying there are 3 distinct things and yet insisting there is only 1 thing - all at the same time!
Go meditate upon this awesome truth of God.

To read more, you can go to "http://www.bible-knowledge.com/Trinity-God-Jesus-Holy-Spirit.html" and "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity". But be prepared for a long long read.

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Evan and I came up with this design. It is for publicity of our upcoming evangelistic event in KPC too!


:D I'm posting for my first time, with my first mid-year paper just 3 days away. Best thing, I have 3 out of 4 subjects not even half covered.

Future's looking reaaaaaaaaally bright, but I'm actually quite happy in this situation because somewhere inside I know my marks now don't really matter (what matters is the 'A' levels) but I'm quite afraid that this happiness might not be present when I get my grades. Haha.

Pray for us poor JC things. WE HAVE EXAMS AFTER HOLS D:







Commitment. COMMITMENT. COMMITMENT.

We hear these words all the time. So how does a Christian keep going in these "sinful and adulterous" times? I have a link to this sermon by a church in Texas. Please bear in mind that it is by no means complete, and shouldn't be taken as a complete solution or a fully authoritative source. I just wanted to help us a little in our commitment with God. :D

http://aldersgate.texas-church.com/sermonnotes/surefoundation/Church%20Remain%20Faithful.doc

These are some fantastic things that you've learnt from yesterday's lesson:

- "Service is essential to a Christian's LIFE!"
- "Do not position yourself equal to Jesus because you can never do what he did for us."
- "Ask God for mercy and follow him"
- "The Christian life is about service"
- "We should put our trust in Jesus"
- "We must be willing to serve others, being kings and queens in training, like Jesus"
- "We often ask for prestige and power, but we we should really ask for is mercy"
- "Christianity is about serving and definitely not status"
- "Ask for things and God may not give, but ask for forgiveness and He will give"
- "When I follow Jesus, I must be humble and remember to serve others, and not seek power, prestige or honour."
- "To serve and not to be served"
- "If we want to be first, we have to be last."

AMEN!

The question is, what are you busy with? Are you busy with doing God’s will?

If you are, I think that kind of busyness will keep you very close to God. Don’t you think so?

Usually, we are busy with doing things that the world expects of us (e.g. Study for tests, training for competition, going out to every party, etc.) Have we seriously considered whether God expects us to do those things? Have we been OVER-DOING some things and UNDER-DOING some other things? Do we have a “balance” in the things we are busy with?

I suggest the problem may often times not be “busyness”.

The problem is we are busy with the wrong things.

We are over-doing certain things out of sinfulness. It is good to study hard – but if we put so much time into studying text books but neglected the Bible, we have a problem. It is good to keep relationship with friends – but not knowing how to say “no” to certain parties is a problem. It is good to learn certain things at CCA – but being fanatic by putting all of one’s energy into the CCA is a problem.

We need to learn to be contented with good enough school results, good enough CCA achievements, good enough entertainment, good enough salaries, good enough life style, etc. And NOT be influenced by friends (or even teachers and parents) who are never satisfied with a good enough effort/result.

No doubt, we must “do our best” in life (i.e. don't be lazy!!!). But “doing our best” doesn’t mean putting all our efforts into just one basket. “Doing our best” means being balanced in the way we put our efforts into all the things that pleases God. (Remember: it pleases God that we get adequate rest and spend quiet moments with Him "doing nothing"!)

What are you busy with?

This question is important because your answer will very much decide whether you are going closer to or further away from God.

Labels: Ask Pastor

Yes. The bible teaches Jesus’ sacrifice is meant for the sin of the WORLD, and anyone can receive forgiveness by receiving Jesus (i.e. putting our trust in Him). The problem is, not everyone is willing to trust Jesus or ask Him for mercy – the greatest human problem is after all “pride”.

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In the Bible, there are 2 meanings for the phrase “son of man”.

When we write it in small letter, it means “human being”. For example, in Psalm 8, the writer wrote, “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?”

Another meaning is conveyed in the capital letter “Son of Man”. It means the messiah of Israel. For example, in Daniel 7, Daniel said, “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”

Based on the context in the Gospel, when Jesus called himself “Son of Man”, he is revealing himself as the Messiah.

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Rick Warren (REMEMBER HE WROTE 'PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE')
You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having 'wealth' from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren,

'Purpose Driven Life ' author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California

In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:

People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.

I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.

We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.

The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort.

God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.

I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.

And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.

If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness,'which is my problem, my issues, my pain.' But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.

It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.

Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.

It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.

So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.

Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.

Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?

Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.
God's Blessings on you today.



by Jeremy Tay

Your way to Mas Selamat,
The only way to find him,
Is to take a boat to the Pulau Ubin...

[Sten 1]
They said he was a terrorist and a dangerous man
But I don't care and I hack care and
They also said he was worth 1 million dollars
But I don't believe it is 1 million dollars
Until the police said it is really true, oh!
No my mind is driving me crazy!

[Sten 2]
Now I believe it is 1 million dollars
But I don't know what to do
So I decided to call my friends
So they decided to come join with me
To plan what to do, to plan what to do, oh yeah!
We are going to find Mas Selamat

[Sten 3]
When the night has come,
We are at the Pulau Ubin
And we're going to find Mas Selamat
When we see Mas Selamat,
We're going to kill him
Because he is worth 1 million dollars
So Mas Selamat please let us kill you, oh please?
Because you are worth 1 million dollars, oh!
Because you are worth 1 million dollars

Editor's note: I hope you've decided to kill him because you're "loving your enemy"? Cannot agree with your theology. But, at least, you said "please" ! :)

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