Thinking Aloud

Dunno where this thought popped out of my head.

” As Christians, we are citizens of every country, and yet of none…”

Pastor Shih Ming said something pretty significant this morning during Good Friday service.

"…if we can trust Him with our eternity, why can’t we trust Him for our daily needs…" or something to that effect. I can’t remember the exact wording.

It was really a timely word from the Lord, I think. All this while, I have been running on my own steam. Thinking about what I will do after I graduate, how much I will earn after I graduate. Will I be making a living out of the skills that I have or not. Who I will marry in the end…loads and loads of things to worry about. And the net result…more worries.

I haven’t been trusting.

But what stuck me even more was that it is possible that I don’t trust Him because I don’t really know what it really means to trust Him for my eternity.

I guess it is the issue of eternity. Do I really care about eternity? Do I really believe that heaven makes a difference on earth today, as I live out my life daily?

Tough questions to ponder over the weekend.  

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that I am not the type of person who likes to get into debates.

Wait…let me take back these words. I do. I debate with my mother, father. I tease and argue with my sister. I’ve had deep discussions with John (Tey), Raj, Lydia, Faith and others etc…(I hardly talk with my brother, which is quite a shame). Heck, I’ve even debated my EXCO chairman, Paul who is a practising lawyer now.  (Pretty brave of me yah..lolz).

But one thing I don’t debate is religion. I have had several talks with Pacey (for instance) on Christianity. But I just left it at that. I think I’ve never really shared the gospel on a one-to-one basis before in my entire life. I think the reason is simply that it makes me uncomfortable.

I think a lot of people would come to my side and cast an understanding nod.

But, though I would appreciate the empathy, I cannot agree with the reasoning behind it.

Simply put, faith comes from the hearing of the word. I can’t find it in the Bible that true faith grows on a person, or is gradually realized from being moved by good deeds (although this would help out alot.) I disagree with St. Francis of Assisi. The Gospel must nessecarily  be preached with words.   

Look at the evidence: Great revivals trace back to great preaching by great preachers. John Sung, Wesley, Spurgeon, Moody and the like. The Apostles preached, Paul certaily did and Jesus himself took every opportunity to preach (and discuss) the good news. Mother Teresa may have inspired many-only to more good works and not to belief in Christ per se.

Words are risky indeed. They reveal us as bigots, sometimes rightly so. It is a flawed tool, but a redeemed one. Simply put, it takes a lot of guts to say to a friend or stranger, " Repent of your sins and believe in Christ that you may be saved." And saved from what? Injustice, alienation and oppression? There is a part here that is being missed out and sadly underemphasized: Saved from future-but certain-judgement.

Sometimes the gospel is preached hurtfully, sometimes with arrogance, sometimes intolerantly and most often that not, demeaningly. But because the message is so precious and so urgeant, words are by far the fastest and most efficient way of getting the message across. I’ve heard it countless times, " Show don’t tell!" The truth of the matter is " Show AND TELL!"  

I guess it is time for me to make a choice and commitment. To share the gospel with at least ( I know modest lar, but must start small first right) one person by the end of this year.  

Was at PCM group last night. During one of the rounds of sharing, Kelvin(a group member) shared about his experiences as a very young christian during his primary days.

He used the phrase, "….dancing to the tune of Christ.."

Somehow it sounded so right and so beautiful that I had to put it up here. It’s really who we are isn’t it? Dancers, to the tune of Christ.

It’s high time I got myself something Christian to read. And this sounds like a great book to get.

 

 

(Hehe…sorry, got the pic from Amazon.com)

But anyways, here’s a review of the book from the internetmonk.  

Here’s an interesting link. How do you feel about Christmas?

Anyway, this is how I feel.

  and

The High Cardinal has replied to my previous post. And this is what he wrote. Rather long, but worth a look through, if you are so inclined.

Another interesting link, for those following the event happening in Malaysia, is a download link to an e-book: Doing the Right Thing: A Practical Guide on Legal Matters for Churches in Malaysia on the Kairos Research Center website.

Since the exams are over, have some time on my hands to respond to this interesting topic brought up by the High Cardinal. No one expresses this dilemma more clearly than he, so allow me to quote directly from his blog.

"…The question raised early was this: If you could create a utopia from scratch, including populating its inhabitants, where they would be eternally happy and blissful, but yet in order to achieve this utopia, it is necessary to torture to death one child (or Son of God in the Christian context), would you do it? Let us call this question, the Utopia Question…"

"…As I said earlier, the reason why I raised the Utopia Question is to draw a strong analogy to God and the creation of the universe. God seeks the utopia of the free love of man and in order to realize this utopia, He creates man with freewill which God infallibly knows will lead to all kinds of wickedness, evil and suffering into the world. Thus the Utopia Question applied to God is this, does the goal to realize this Utopia of man’s free love of God morally justify all the horrible evil and suffering that must follow? (note: whether or not the evil that follow is a "necessary process" to realize this utopia is besides the point, the important thing is that it is necessary that is all that matters)

" If one’s answer is simply that, no, it does not justify it, then we are done. God does not exist. For a morally good God would never create a world where people must suffer pain and injustice, even though it may lead to a future heaven or utopia of utter bliss. The pain and injustice will never ever be outweighted by the future bliss and happiness of others. If the pain and injustice is, in some sense, necessary to realize this utopia, then God should not create at all…"

This post will be a reponse. This is a link to the first and second post concerning this subject.

The very kickstart of the discussion is summarized by the following syllogism.

Premise 1: If God creates an utopia, then a child gets tortured.

Premise 2: If a child gets tortured, then it is a morally unjustifiable act.

Conclusion: If God create an utopia, then it is a morally unjustifiable act.

So then, if Premise 1 was true, the creation of an utopia is unjustifiable. The crux of the matter here is encapsulated in the first premise. What is the price of utopia?

Admittedly there are versions of utopia that require sacrifice and struggle. No war is great, voilence is always evil, though at times the lesser of two evils. But there are wars which lead to a betterment of mankind. The conclusion of World War II ended the Holocaust, stemmed Japanese militancy and brought mankind out of the lala-land of modernity. Nearer to home, it marked the rise of Asian nationalism and the relative peaceful struggles to gain independance.

There are many good things that came out of a terrible time as war. So, does the good justify world war II. Different strokes for different people, and historians of different ages will judge differently. But from the brute logic of the syllogism above, the answer is NO.

From the Christian point of view; from the Almighty’s point of view, I venture that the answer is NO.

Evil is never justified by the good it produces. Ivory Tower is right to be disturbed

 

"…It has disturbed my heart often to think that all of our pain and suffering are just, to use Ivan’s term, "manure" to fertilize the fields of this utopia…"

The word redemption is a Christian invention. The truth that evil can be forgiven and something good brought out of it is God’s answer to suffering. It is a very deep observation that no other religion or philosophy teaches forgiveness the way Jesus taught it. It does not explain suffering (much less justifies it), but provides a solution to the evil that suffering often engenders: vengeance, bitterness, cynicism and hate.

 

When God promised a heaven, it wasn’t meant to be a justification for the suffering we have to endure here on earth. No child needs to suffer in order for heaven to be created; they suffer because of our sin. In fact, Heaven ‘was there’ before the world was created. Also, heaven isn’t some kind of ‘carrot’ God dangles at the end of a stick to make the struggles here on earth a little bearable (like what is a popular philosophy nowadays.)

Heaven is a promise of rest. A promise of an end to the struggles here on earth. The promise of communion with God forever. It is a mistake to think that promise is just a vieled way of saying, "Dun complain so much lar, you gonna get big juicy prize at the end. So for now, shut up and endure!" Heaven is comfort, not as some of our more cynical friends would understand comfort, but the way godly people understand comfort. Read the psalms, biographies of great men and see the way they understand comfort and how they are comforted.

I must conclude this post. Ivory Tower quoted two great works of literature in which this theme features prominently: Brothers Karamazov and The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (by Ursula LeGuin). It is thought provoking work; but my conclusion is that the analogue and parrallel to the Christian story is false. Simply put, their version of utopia and its construction has nothing in common with God’s story of heaven, redemption and forgiveness.  

 

For context, the full news report is here.

Here’s the relevant excerpt I am interested in

.…

Bardakoglu said Turkey was a free country where people had the democratic right to protest. 

"But any street protests will not reflect the mainstream hospitable attitude of Turkey," he added. 

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a pious Muslim, said he expected the Pope to give positive statements that would improve ties between Christians and Muslims. 

"I believe it will create a new climate," Gul told Reuters. 

"He may make some good statements, saying we have only one God although we have different religions. We have sympathy for each other and we should not exploit the differences in a negative way." 

The Pope is due to hold talks during his visit with the Istanbul-based spiritual head of the world’s 250 million Orthodox Christians, Patriarch Bartholomew, who has complained of property and other restrictions his church faces in Turkey.

…

 

With all due respect, I cannot bring myself to agree with the statement made by the Turkish minister. I’m not sure how the Pope would respond had he been confronted with such a statement publicly. But I know that Islam and Christianity are two different things. Our fundamental beliefs are different; the God we worship are not the same.

Mrs. Wong invited me to her PCM group today. Had a heavy tea, which doubled up as my dinner!

But attending the PCM made me think about CF during my hostelite days. I miss those times. Miss the worship, discussion, the laughter (and tears) and the general nonsense that people do when they meet up together. Of course, ehem….there was also certain someone that I would ‘want’ to meet there… 

It was the joy of working together to achieve something as well. The first Jesus screening I organized in my first year, all the combined CG meets, the welcome suppers and christmas dinner during my second, the evangelistic exam blessing in my third and baking cookies for exam blessing in my final year.

Somehow there is something about CF that will never be replicated elsewhere. Something about the close bond of fellowship forged by communal living, sealed by the spirit of the living God. Something just different… 

Can’t get any more explicit than that can I?

He made the speech, and should be responsible for it.

And part of responsibility is sticking to your guns about your intentions. I think that most newspapers have reported this matter fairly. We all can read what actually happened for ourselves and make our own informed judgements.

From the way I see it, the Pope was using the quote to point out that violence is never compatible with the propogation of religion. He was using a real historical figure, and real perspectives at that time to show that throughout history, everyone has viewed religous violence as evil and malicious. Put it simply, the Pope’s message was: Religion and violence don’t mix.

I think radical Muslims have purposely misunderstood him and ignored the context  of his address. It is a hijack-a veiled assault against Christiandom by whipping up the sentiments of the moderate Muslim.

The response of the OIC (of which majority of member states are moderate Muslim countries) shows that radical Islam still has a influential grip on these people. No matter how much you try to distance yourself from extremist views, the fact of the matter is that the sense of ummah  is pretty strong, extending and accepting everyone who professes Mohommad as the Prophet.

So I think that as a responsible act, the Pope has tried to reach out to these people. I observed that he has never actually apologized (i.e. an expression of his mistake) but is trying (very hard!) to tell the leaders (of moderate Islam) that he never meant to insult the Prophet.

I don’t think that its rather fair of Islam to keep on misunderstanding the Pope. I also observe that forgiveness in the Muslim faith is conditional upon apology or repentance. Perhaps, great minded Muslims should prove me wrong in this regard.  

I invited Dominic out for lunch and to debate Calvanism and Arminianism. The subsequent discussion made me realize that my views (and attitude) of this controversy have changed a lot over the years. So much so that to a lay person, my views would be very confused and self-contradictory.

This post will be a chance for me to better articulate what I believe currently.

Just for the record, I believe that Christ died and rose for my sins, and by this faith I’m saved. Ok, this point settle.

How does Calvanism and Arminianism come into the fray then. I guess several philosophical issues lend fuel to this controversy.

1) The Euthypro Dilemma: Is God good because of what he commands, or is his commands good because He decreed it so.

2) Determinism and Free Will

3) Do certain actions have intrinsic moral value and are we allowed to pass moral judgements based on our conscience alone.

4) The degree of God’s transcendence: Does God’s ontological transcendence imply that He is ethically transcendance as well? (i.e. it is optional whether God wants to subject himself to the morality that ‘binds’ us as human beings)

These are by no means an exhaustive list of philosophical issues that we discussed. There were more but I couldn’t really remember. We discussed general and special revelation as well, but I felt that it was not really relavant to the discussion at hand.

My stand on Calvanism and Arminianism is this: Theorectically, I’m Calvanist, but in the outworkings and day to day crunch, I’m a practising Arminian. The discussion with Dominic helped me work this out clearly.

The tenets of predestination, probation and regeneration makes it very hard to motivate me to share the Gospel in my daily life. Indeed the very premise of evangelism (as recorded in the bible) is simply that time is short: Christ is coming again as judge, hence the urgency of reaching out. Knowing that God has already set in place some who will go to heaven and hell doesn’t help in evangelism neither does it help in spiritual formation. It seems to me that a Calvanist cannot see himself committing apostasy. By the very tenet: "Once saved always saved" an apostate Calvanist cannot even come to the conclusion that he has left the faith. For all that matters, he could be backslidden and yet cannot bring himself to admit it because he is convinced that he cannot lose his salvation. This is very dangerous, in Apostle James words, " A faith that is dead." On the contrary, wise christians heed the fact that if they do not maintain spiritual disciplines and formation, they will backslide. This constant self examination as appraised in 1 Peter has been taught to me since I was a child.

This is why, I say I am a practising Arminian. I live out the faith as though my ultimate destination depended on what I do.

On the other hand, knowing that God has predestined me into saving faith provides a deeper incentive to do all these (good works, spiritual discipline and worship). On one hand, I know that God had to intervene to overcome my rebellion against him, but what takes my breath away is that God forknew that these would happen and set events in motion so that I would be saved. One one hand, I am grateful that God has forgiven my sin unconditionally, but what astounds me is that He has this idea of forgiveness even before I was born. Even before I was I, He had already known me.

This tells me something important about God. It tells me that God is distant and yet so near. If I can learn anything from the doctrine of predestination, it is that paradoxically, God is intimately involved in my world and life but yet doing so from a mysterious distance. God is far, yet because he is far, he is near. God’s will is transcendent, yet it infuses all of life.

Now I have come to notice that the combination of this mysterious fact and the practical warnings afforded by an Arminian point of view create a proper cradle and expression for my love for God.

While Christ was still on earth, his disciples could express their love to Him by simply expressing brotherly love. But then Christ ascended into heaven. In the meantime, how are we able to love Christ without reducing our love to a love for doctrine about Christ? How can we love the ascended Jesus without falling into the trap of loving facts about him.

I contend that it is the mystery of predestination and the practise of spiritual disciplines provide both the proper expression of my love for Christ and the means of doing so. By contemplating the mystery of predestination, we see very clearly grace, mercy and judgement. Because of grace, we are set free to obey whatever God commands us to do, whatever spiritual formation and discipline for the right reasons. And love is always a good reason to do. But yet predestination is a mystery, not a well defined concept or an axiom in a chain of reasoning. It is a mystery because we do not fully understand predestination, though we simply know it. Indeed the very logical impasse of reconciling determinism and free will prevents us from understanding predestination.

So this is one long overdue thesis. Oh gosh, it sounds so verbose and ….blah.  

I just made an interesting observation:

Guys and girls experience romantic love differently. Duuuhhh….

But let’s put it this way, secular society priviledges the male point of view in these matters. After perusing Men’s Health and corrobarated by my occasional perusals through women’s magazines (no, I’m not a closet pervert! ) it’s really about how to get the girl. It’s all about getting what you want.

But since I’m also acquianted with the Christian p.o.v. in these matters, I am beginning to think that it is the women’s point of view that is priveldged when Christian boys and girls start to hush and blush

After all, we (including me) talk about waiting, finding the right one, being patient… Get the drift.

Tough leh, sometimes I really find it a miracle that people even get attached. Simple things like this also cannot see from the same point of view.

Thinking about it, it seems easier to find that girl you like and marry her in those golden old days. Nowadays, damn  extremely complicated (whether you’re a Christian or not.) Must be like this first, must like that first, must have this feeling, must have money, must have style, must wait…

Haih…   

He who died on the tree has comforts me,

He who rules above has not forgotten me,

He who counsels me in quiet moments refreshens me.

He who walked on the dusty road guides me,

He who walkes the Milky Way charts a path for me,

He leads me to quiet pastures shows the way.  

He who breathes life in all man, gives me my daily bread,

He who ate and drank with all man shares with me his table,

He who is the breath of life is my daily portion.

He is, he was and will always be.

Not I, but You Lord.  

Haha, I finally got down to reading Dan Brown’s controversial piece. Apparently its the second in book where Robert Langdon is featured as the protagonist (The first is Angels and Demons).

I can see where the controversy comes from. But the most crucial of the claims in the novel-the parts which cannot be reduced to a mere fictional device-is the fact was Jesus was merely a man.

In a sense this claim is nothing new. Philosophers and contrarian theologians have been claiming that Jesus wan not divine ever since. It’s also the central premise in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Material’s trilogy. God is not divine, just a glorified angel.

Another contentious point is the nature of faith. Brown’s definition of faith is what we are all familiar with-a neccessary lie that makes the world a better place to live in.

Anyway, just for the record, like Pullman’s opus, I liked the book as an example of good storytelling. I sort of anticipated the ending (there’s a plot twist which I won’t spoil for anyone). But the ending satisfying nonetheless. Suffices to say, I don’t think Brown was attacking the church cos in the story, the ultimate bad guy wasn’t even the church (or in particular the Catholic Church).

‘Nuff said, if you are on the look for a murder mystery with a garnishing of an ironic plot twist, here’s a good one for you.

Time to hold my breath.

The deed is done, now everything hinges on God’s almighty hand. If He wills, then nothing can stop it from passing.

What is faith?

I guess faith is like love. It is beyond definition, but it is always recognizable.

For a long while I thought I had faith, that I dared to dream. But this semester I discovered that all these past three years I never went beyond myself; be it in studies, hall activities, student ministry. I played safe. I thought I was confident, but it was an illusion. A safety net constructed so that I will not have to risk failure.

But this time it is different. Failure is defined in black and white terms. There is no hiding, no way to justify, or outreason the consequences.

Do I have faith? I have learnt that I have none. True faith trusts, and one truly trusts when one is not in control.

There are things which I have no control over, and it is in these things that faith is made real.

And I know I can trust Him, because He loves me.

The theme of death has been sweeping over my thoughts lately.

Life is so fragile.

Its probably the wrong time to be thinking about something so morbid. But come to think of it, death is perhaps the greater mystery.

After all we know a little about life, since we experience it. But nobody has told us anything about death. Unfortunately for us, people who die don’t come back to tell us.

And yet even more powerfully, in real life demonstration, Christ conquered death by dying.

I forget that death is God’s curse upon his own creation. I think that sometimes that death is the same thing as sin. But sin and death are two different things all together. Sin leads to death, only because 1) It is a judgement upon sin 2) it is the way that God makes sure that evil does not endure. But death is God’s architecture, and so it is beyond understanding that it was God himself, who became man, die to reverse the effects of His own curse.

When I forget this, I think I can win because Christ has won. I don’t think this is correct. I cannot beat death, because it is God who has curse me. But because it is God himself who lifts this curse, therefore I am now free. There is no winning or struggle or battle. In a sense, death has been defeated, so the thought of me ‘winning’ is rendered irrelevant.

And how do I know all this? That death has been defeated…

…because Jesus rose from the dead.

Haven’t been posting anything substantial here lately. Actually a lot has been happening. Just that I don’t feel like putting it down. Exams are round the corner and I just finished some heavy stuff on homology. Don’t feel like studying later tonight.

This morning saw me meditating on love. How sacrifice is a defining quality of love. What drove me to that strain of thought was the cross-Christ would choose to take our sin upon himself, even when we didn’t ask for it.

This struck me as mind blowing. Being brought up in a Chinese culture, the idea of unmerited love is hard to swallow. Human love, is given subject to terms and conditions. And this is so pervasive in my culture. We could only have a glimpse of what true love ought to be.

But with Christ and the cross, we see true sacrificial love in blood and flesh, in its tears and anguish. That this love is lavished upon us even when we didn’t deserve it tells me that there is another way. It is possible to love even the unlovable. And it is the only way to love, to be truly human.

Just the thoughts that could feed the hungry soul.

Since I’m speechless, I only want to share these few verses.

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness,
12That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

For His anger is but for a moment,
His favor is for a lifetime;
Weeping may last for the night,
But a shout of joy comes in the morning.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

If you happen to know more verses in the same vein, leave a message on the tagboard.

At this moment in time, I just look back and whisper, ” Time really flies.”

But then again, isn’t it true that yesterday seemed like a dream from a century ago?

It was just last semester that I first stepped into the world of ‘real’ (being relative) mathematics, but now that dream is going to be cut out from me?

It is really in moments like this that my capacity to trust Him is tested to the limit.

When God’s people pray, great things happen.

I’ll be leaving the ministry that means so much to me in a couple of weeks.

Student ministry has given me a taste of what God can do when people pray.

But perhaps even more meaningful are the friends that we make during our short sojourn in VCF.

Friends, everyone including those not represented in the photo above have added much colour to my life. They are the reason, why we stick on in student ministry, even when we are tired and dissappointed.

Here’s a post dedicated to all Cfers-past, present and those to come-pray! And pray together with friends. This is where great things happen.

This prayer helps us to put ourselves at God’s disposal. St Ignatius describes this ‘Preparatory prayer’ as asking for the grace that all my intentions, actions and operations may be directed purely to the praise and service of the Divine Majesty. (The Spiritual Exercises, no. 46) You might try these words:

Lord, I so wish to prepare well for this time.
I so want to make all of me ready and attentive and available to you.
Please help me to clarify and purify my intentions.
I have so many contradictory desires.
I get preoccupied with things that don’t really matter or last.
I know that if I give you my heart
whatever I do will follow my new heart.

In all that I am today, all that I try to do,
all my encounters, reflections - even the frustrations and failings
and especially in this time of prayer,
in all of this may I place my life in your hands.
Lord, I am yours. Make of me what you will. Amen.

Taken from Sacred Space.

Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

4 Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:

6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

Just wanna share how encouraged I am with the God has been providing for me. How everything just falls nicely into place. How I see His guiding hand amidst the turmoil of graduation and change.

This verse is just so ALIVE…

I just found a place to stay when I move out of hall. I couldn’t have asked for more…

Second, Paul is showing that we never “get beyond the gospel” in our Christian life to
something more “advanced”. The gospel is not the first “step” in a “stairway” of truths,
rather, it is more like the “hub” in a “wheel” of truth. The gospel is not just the A-B-C’s
but the A to Z of Christianity. The gospel is not just the minimum required doctrine
necessary to enter the kingdom, but the way we make all progress in the kingdom.
We are not justified by the gospel and then sanctified by obedience, but the gospel is
the way we grow (Gal.3:1-3) and are renewed (Col.1:6).

-Tim Keller, in one of his ‘lecture notes’ available by following this link.

No I don’t know Tim Keller and I’m sure he doen’t know me. But I’m posting this up here because… this is some blardy important things to know.

Here’s something that really struck me.

Open my eyes, O Lord, that I may see my self-serving and hypocrisy in the name of serving you. Have mercy on me, O Lord, that I may not offend you in the name of serving you. Amen.

-excerpt from Journeying with Christ to the Cross, Daily Devotions for Lent 2006.

Something to think about yah…

Today is Ash Wednesday.

The start of a 40-day journey to the cross. Meet you there at the throne of grace.

Returning to the subject of worship after a short break.

This is a good place to get a sense of what I’m driving at. I’ll admit this post got me stimulated on the theme of man as a worshipping being.

Yes, it is true that man is a worshipping being. I used to phrase the same idea is the more obscure form, ‘man is fundamentally religious.’ But yes, the former is a clearer way of putting things.

In one sense, the drama of the cross and resurrection is a story of God working to create for himself worshippers. He is loooking for worshippers who will “..worship Him in spirit and in truth”
but yet at the same time “…no one seeks God.” So we have the magnificent picture of God as the sheperd, who “…leaves the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?”

Here is the solution to the dilemma: That God demands our worship and will avenge the lack of it. But yet at the same time comes to our rescue to change us into a people that will worship Him as he desires it.

This is the mystery and beauty of redemption.

Which means: “With the Holy Ghost”

And in context of

Quoniam tu solus sanctus,
tu solus Dominus,
tu solus Altissimus,
Jesu Christe;

Cum Sancto Spiritu
in gloria Dei Patris. Amen

which translated simply means:

For thou only art holy,
thou only art the Lord,
thou only art the most high,
Jesu Christ:

With the Holy Ghost
in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

One aspect of Christian worship has always been the primacy of words.

Be it in song or psalm, liturgy or creed words are one way in which Christians worship God. Some Christians even consider prayer as a form of worship; indeed prayer is an act of speaking to God. And this involves words.

The use of words in worship gives focus, intentionality and personality to our worship. It is through words that worship becomes an offering that an individual brings to his God. When we worship God through our speech, we are giving concreteness to our prior meditations of Him. The proper use of words in worship forces us to cleanse our mind and heart. A heartfelt worship of God uses words that express adoration, and the shows that at once, Christian worship is a dialogue between a Lover and the beloved.

Indeed, there is a time to be silent before God, but joy expresses itself through words. Especially the exuberant, ” Hallelujah!”

God demands our worship, that much is clear.

The problem with us is that sin corrupts the heart that wants to worship God. Be it ridiculous unbelief, the proud knee that refuses to kneel or behaving frivolously before an angry God, all these attitudes birthed from a rebellious heart are extremely offensive before God’s eyes.

The Tabernacle Sacrificial system, the rituals and festivals followed by the Israelites were meant to instill a proper attitude of reverence before a Holy God.

Without starting from reverence, I believe that I cannot worship God as He wants me to.

A reverent heart is not proud; neither is it decietful. Above all, reverence is an expression of love proper to how a creature relates to his Creator. And finally, birthed from reverence and worship is joy. And then a deep strength that flows from a joyful heart is one that will enable us to face uncertainty and trails.