God is pleased with me

To say that would be a presumptuous and even a dangerous thing if God is not pleased with me, but a greatly encouraging and accurate blog explains how this is true, and in fact, the author insists that it is important to accept/preach this truth. I can't agree more, and after reading it, I was moved to worship the One in prayer and thanksgiving accordingly.

Loving the Lord

A worth while read for anyone who wants to sing songs for our beloved Lord, and live out one's life for Him who loves us, especially in this present age where the word 'love' is losing its meaning. As a teaser, I give you the title here: Jesus, I’m NOT in Love with You

Quote from Life At Its Best - 2: on Worship

I'm being greatly helped by this book I am reading, Life At Its Best.
As I read the book, I feel as if I am having a direct conversation with the author, and feel Mr. Peterson gently encouraging me to stand up again from my slump and walk in and with Christ. In fact, I am finding quotable texts more frequently than I get a chance to write a blog post here.

Anyways, here's one on worship.

I have put great emphasis on the fact that Christians worship because they want to, not because they are forced to. But I have never said that we worship because we feel like it. Feelings are great liars. If Christians only worshipped when they felt like it, there would be precious little worship that went on. Feelings are important in many areas, but completely unreliable in matters of faith. Paul Scherer is laconic: 'The Bible wastes very little time on the way we feel'. We live in what one write has called the 'age of sensation'. We think that if we don't feel something there can be no authenticity in doing it. But the wisdom of God says something different, namely, that we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act which develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God which is expressed in an act of worship, our deep, essential need to be in relationship with God is nurtured.

-pp. 46, Life At Its Best by Eugene Peterson

May God have mercy on me that I worship and serve Him always.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. - Rom 12:1

Repentance

I'm reading a book by Eugene Peterson, Life At Its Best. Actually this book contains three books that have been published before by the same author. I may not agree with some views Mr. Peterson holds to, but I am very much thankful for his service I received through the books he's written.

Here's a quote from what I read today, regarding repentance.

The usual biblical word describing the no we say to the world's lies and the yes we say to God's truth is repentance. It is always and everywhere the first word in the Christian life. John the Baptist's preaching was, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand' (Mt. 3:2). Jesus' first preaching was the same: 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand' (Mt 4:17). Peter concluded his first sermon with 'Repent, and be baptized' (Acts 2:38). In the last book of the Bible the message to the seventh church is 'be zealous and repent' (Rev 3:19).
Repentance is not an emotion. It is not feeling sorry for your sins. It is a decision. It is deciding that you have been wrong in supposing that you could manage your own life and be your own god; it is deciding that you wee wrong in thinking that you had, or could get, the strength, education and training to make it on your own; it is deciding that you have been told a pack of lies about yourself and your neighbours and your world. And it is deciding that God in Jesus Christ is telling you the truth. Repentance is a realization that what God wants from you and what you want from God are not going to be achieved by doing the same old things, thinking the same old thoughts. Repentance is a decision to follow Jesus Christ and become his pilgrim in the path of peace.

- pp. 25-26, Life At Its Best by Eugene Peterson

I think I'll be posting up more quotes from him.

Book Review: A Biblical Case For An Old Earth

I've finished reading "A Biblical Case For An Old Earth" by David Snoke. Here's my review.

Well presented case for an old earth view.

In this readable book, Dr. Snoke presents enough of both scientific and biblical evidence to build his case, while mainly using biblical texts to build his case. He also understands the theological implications of different views on the matter, not only of his own view.
While he powerfully builds his case (for a "day-age" model of old earth), he remains humble enough not to dismiss others with a patronizing tone as some other people in this field do. He tried to present the evidence and implications for an old earth view with integrity and honesty without causing unnecessary quarrellings.

To me, this book contains the most convincing arguments I have read so far regarding this subject, and I am persuaded in many ways.

Thank you Dr. Snoke for your humble yet persuasive work.

Original post at Shelfari. I gave it 5 stars. You can get it from Koorong, or from Amazon.

A new secular consideration on death

Found an interesting opinion on death.

[Professor Kellehear] said: "Forty years ago, being dead used to be very simple - it was the point at which your heart stopped beating. Now death itself has been complicated by the fact that we can keep alive people who are brain dead almost indefinitely. Brain death is the point at which doctors can switch off machines or begin harvesting organs, but, to relatives, being brain dead is not the same as being a corpse. Corpses are not warm, they are not pink, they do not move, they are not pregnant - but a person who is brain dead can be all of these things. ... I would argue that these should be social decisions. To better inform these decisions, we need a closer look at the social implications of brain death."

While this is discussion would be lead by secular ideas and understanding of death and human nature, hopefully it would help our society to be more biblically shaped by re-examining not only what "death" is, but the way some of the most fundamental issues have been handled in recent years. Am I being too naively optimistic about secular discussion? Maybe.

Vision and leadership: an example

I'm quoting from Gordon quoting Peter Jensen:

I have a dream - a dream to give all our fellow citizens in [Sydney] Diocese a copy of the word of God. This would have to be a major Christian effort and would involve planning, training, publications, prayer. If we set aside the year of 2009 in particular (the 50th anniversary of the first Billy Graham Crusade) and worked together on such a great project, I think we would experience much joy in the Lord's service. It would also help fulfil the aim of our Diocesan Mission that all may hear his call to repent and believe on him.

Would it not be a wonderful thing if, over the years following such an effort, many people became Christians? Would it not be wonderful if some person to whom you gave a copy of the word of God read it and was saved? Such things happen and we ought to trust God and pray to him that he will bless the distribution of his word in our region.

A vision and leadership I'd like to see... Read the original article here.

Christ(Gospel)-centred

Over at the Gospel Driven Life, a recent blog says:

We do not wish to build marriage-and-family-centered churches, or spiritual-gift-centered churches, or accountability-centered churches, or ordinance-centered churches, or spiritual-discipline-centered churches, or program-centered churches, or education/doctrine-centered churches. We wish to bring our emphasis to the Person and work of Christ again and again and let the applications fall in line around him. It is the solar system of theology -- the sun (Son) is the key, and the orbiting planets fall in line with it (Him).

Yes, yes, YES!
I can't agree more. It isn't so much that we cannot lead a (seemingly) "good Christian" life without hearing Gospel. It is possible for people to hear a persuasive and passionate talk which has no Gospel in it and they may change to more moral and "good". But that is the one of the worst, most devilish thing with non-gospel talks which tries to arouse hearers to be motivated to be "good". People won't even know that they are in need to Jesus, they won't even know they need to hear the Gospel over and over again and again, and they will slowly but surely go astray without even themselves noticing it!

Oh, God have mercy on me and my church, Your church, and bring the gospel-soaked preacher to our pulpit!

Go and read the whole thing!

Book Review: A Short History of Nearly Everything

Finished reading "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. Here's my short review of the book. (originally posted on shelfari)

What a trip!
From the tiniest particle we know of to the largest object we have seen in this universe, from the time of big bang (or just right after) to the 21st century.

If I learned anything from this book, it must be that we humans know so little about the world including ourselves. To be fair, it isn't so much that we are ignorant to all these, but rather the world is just so vast and there's simply so much more to know. Indeed, we only just begun to understand anything really.

Another good thing about this book was that the author didn't seem to take a side on an inconclusive scientific theory. As it is, Science should be understood as a discipline of approach to understanding the world around us, not the understanding itself. Good science tells us "what" in the universe, and sometimes "perhaps this is how" of it. But It shouldn't attempt to, and cannot explain "why" questions, since the "why" question is the subject of theology (and if you'd refuse to believe there's a such thing as theology, then, maybe philosophy). This book is humble enough to stop at "perhaps how".

Definitely a good read.

Unpacked!

After a whole week living out of boxes, I've finally got to clean up the new place and unpack my stuff. It's so much nicer now, but still very much in need of more cleaning work to my liking anyways. Now I've unpacked my stuff, my computer is connected as well, and I hope I won't spend too much time in front of the computer meaninglessly...

Frustrated

Every little thing is getting to me these days.
Same jokes that I laughed at before are annoying.
Little noise is irritating.

Maybe it's due stress after moving especially considering I haven't been able to unpack my stuff still.

Jesus, will you rule over my recent frustrations so I may find rest?