-   GOD EFFECTS EVERYTHING, AND THAT ALSO REQUIRES HUMAN ACTION   - 

Be ambitious for the higher gifts. And I am going to shows you a way that is better than any of them. - 1 Corinthians 12:31 - "In short, there are three (3) things that last: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love." - 1 Corinthians 13:13 -

Faith is indeed the minimum requirement without which we cannot please God. Faith alone does not justify a person. The faith that we have must be a repentant faith, not just an intellectual faith that believes in God. Repentance is not just a thought process (faith) but an act (work) by which we ask God for His mercy and forgiveness, thus, the faith that justifies us is "faith working through love" Further, all faith (initial and perfection) are gratuitous gifts from God, and not earned or merited by any human action. Therefore, justification is only achieved by faith and works.

"Take the case, my brothers and sisters, of someone who has never done a single good act but claims that he/she has faith. Will that faith save him/her? If one of the brothers/sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on, and one of you says to them, 'I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty', without giving them bare necessities of life, then what good is that? Faith is like that: if good works do not go with it, it is quite dead.

This is the way to talk to people of that kind: You say you have faith and I have good deeds; I will prove to you that I have faith by showing you my good deeds - now you prove to me that you have faith without any good deeds to show. You believe in the one God - that is credible enough, but the demons have the same belief, and they tremble with fear. Do realise, you senseless people, that faith without good deeds is useless. You surely know that Abraham our father was justified by his deed, because he offered his son Isaac on the altar? There you see it: faith and deeds were working together; his faith became perfect by what he did. This is what Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible really means when it says: Abraham put his faith in God, and this was counted as making him justified; and that is why he was called friend of God'.

You see now that it is doing something good, and not by believing, that a person is justified. There is another example of the same kind: Rahab the prostitute, justified her deeds because she welcomed the messengers and showed them a different way to leave. A body dies when it is separated from the spirit, and in the same way faith is dead if it is separated from good deeds." - James 2:14-26 - 

If faith is necessary for all people at all times and in all places, and if a true saving faith demands a clear knowledge of what we have to believe, it is clear that a infallible teaching ??? is an absolute necessity. Such a ??? alone can speak to peoples of all classes and at all times; it alone can, by reason of its perpetuity and ageless character, meet every difficulty by a declaration on the sound form of doctrine which is to be held.

Reason therefore needs faith if it is to be completely itself; reason and faith need one another in order to fulfill the true nature and their mission. Let us put it very simply; people needs God, otherwise he and she remains without hope. Love grows through love. Love is "divine" because it comes from God and unites us to God; through this unifying process it makes us a "we" which transcends our divisions and makes us one, until in the end God is "all in all".

Science can contribute greatly to making the world and mankind more human. Yet it can also destroy mankind and the world unless it is steered by forces that lie outside it. Anyone who promises the better world that is guaranteed to last forever is making a false promise; he and she is overlooking human freedom. Those who followed in the intellectual current on modernity that he and she inspired were wrong to believe that people would be redeemed through science. Such an expectation asks too much of science; this kind of hope is deceptive. Sadly, this applies even in terms of this present world.

                       - GOD EFFECTS EVERYTHING, AND THAT ALSO REQUIRES HUMAN ACTION - 

            - HENCE IT IS NOT SCIENCE THAT REDEEMS PEOPLE; PEOPLE IS REDEEMED BY LOVE - 

When everything is subjected to the One - the Creator, the Almighty God - Omnipotence, Omniscience, Omnipresence - then (The Lord Jesus Christ) the Son of living God, himself will be subject in his turn to the One who subjected all things to him, so that God is "all in all."

"Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people's sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes." - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 -  

"Love takes no pleasure in other people's sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes. Love does not come to an end. But if there are gifts of prophecy, the time will come when they must fail; or the gift of languages, it will not continue forever; and knowledge - for this too, the time come when they must fail. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophesying is imperfect; but once perfection comes, all imperfect things will disappear. When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, and think like a child, and argue like a child, but now I am a man/woman, all childish ways are put behind me. Now we are seeing a dim reflection in a mirror; but then we shall be seeing face to face. The knowledge that I have now is imperfect; but then I shall know as fully as I am known." - 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 - 

The Origin Of The World And Of Mankind - THE CREATION AND THE FALL - The first account of the creation

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God's spirit hovered over the water. God said, 'Let there be light', and there was light. God saw that light was good, and God divided light from darkness. God called light 'day', and darkness He called 'night'. Evening came and morning came: the first day. God said.......

God saw that is was good. Evening came and morning came: the fourth day. God said, 'Let the waters teem with the living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth within the vault of heaven'. And so it was. God created great sea-serpents and every kind of living creature with which the waters teem, and every kind of winged creature. God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas; and let the birds multiply upon the earth'. Evening came and morning came: the fifth day.

God said, 'Let the earth produce every kind of living creature: cattle, reptiles, and every kind of wild beasts, every kind of cattle, and every kind of land reptile. God saw that it was good.

God said, 'Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild beasts and all the reptiles that crawl upon the earth'. "God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. God blessed them, saying to them. 'Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all living animals on the earth, and all the trees with seed-bearing fruit; this shall be your food. To all wild beasts, all birds of heaven and all living reptiles on the earth I give all the foliage of plants for food. And so it was. God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good. Evening came and morning came: the sixth day. 

Thus heaven and earth were completed with all their array. On the seventh day God completed the work he had been doing. He rested on the seventh day after all the work he had been doing. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day He had rested after all his work of creating." - Genesis 1:1-31; 2:1-4 -

Such were the origin of heaven and earth when they were created - The second account of the creation -Paradise -

"At the time when Yahweh God made earth and heaven there was as yet no wild bush on the earth nor had any wild plants yet sprung up, for Yahweh God had not sent rain on the earth, nor was there any man to till the soil. However, a flood was rising from the earth and watering all the surface of the soil. Yahweh God fashioned man of dust from the soil. Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thus the man became a living being. (God then called the man Adam, and later created Eve from Adam's rib)  

Yahweh God planted a garden in Eden which is in the east, and there He put the man he had fashioned. Yahweh God caused to spring up from the soil every kind of tree, enticing to look at and good to eat, with the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden. A river flowed from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided to make four streams. 

The first is named the Pishon, and this encircles the whole land of Havilah where there is gold. The gold of this land is pure; bdellium and onyx stone are found there. The second river is named the Gihon, and this encircles the whole land of Cush. The third river is named the Tigris, and this flows to the east of Ashur. The fourth river is named Euphrates. Yahweh God took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and take care of it. Then Yahweh God gave the man this admonition. 'You may eat indeed of all the trees in the garden. Nevertheless of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die.' 

Yahweh God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helpmate.' So from the soil Yahweh God fashioned all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven. These He brought to the man to see what he would call them; each one was to bear the name the man would give it. The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of heaven and all the wild beasts. But no helpmate suitable for man was found for him. So Yahweh God made the man fall into a deep sleep. And while he slept, He took one of his ribs and enclosed it in flesh. Yahweh God built the rib He had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man. The man exclaimed: 

                                          'This at last is bone from my bones,                                                                                                                                                       and flesh from my flesh!                                                                                                                                                                       This is to be called woman,                                                                                                                                                                   for this was taken from man.' 

This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they became one body. Now both of them were naked, the man and his wife, but they felt no shame in front of each other." - Genesis 2:5-25 -

THE  FALL - "The serpent was the most subtle of all the wild beasts that Yahweh God had made - 

The serpent asked the woman, 'Did God really say you were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?' The woman answered the serpent, 'We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden. But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, "You must not eat it, nor touch it, under pain of death". Then the serpent said to the woman, 'No! You will not die! God knows in fact that on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.' The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, and it was desirable for the knowledge that it could give. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She gave some also to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realised that they were naked.... The Yahweh God said to the woman (Eve) 'I will multiply your pains in childbearing, you shall give birth to your children in pain. Your yearning shall be for your husband, yet he will lord it over you.' To the man (Adam) Yahweh God said: 'Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat, 'Accursed be the soil because of you. With suffering shall you get your food from it, everyday of your life. It shall yield you brambles and thistles and you shall eat wild plants. With sweat on your brow shall you eat your bread, until you return to the soil, as you were taken from it. For dust you are and to dust you shall return.'

The man named his wife 'Eve' because she was the mother of all those who live. Yahweh God made clothes out of skins for the man and his wife, and they put them on. Then Yahweh God said, 'See, the man has become like one of us, with his knowledge of good and evil. He must not be allowed to stretch his hand out next and pick from the tree of life also, and eat some and live for ever.' So Yahweh God expelled him from the garden of Eden, to till the soil from which he had been taken. He banished the man, and in front of the garden of Eden he posted the cherubs, and the flame of a fleshing sword, to guard the way to the tree of life. - Genesis 3:1-24 -

Eve, the wife of Adam was tempted by Satan and has given in, through the serpent to eat the forbidden food and then persuaded her husband (Adam) to do the same thing, instead of being told by Yahweh God: To lives on everything that comes from the mouth of Yahweh God. "Yahweh God gave them this admonition, 'You may eat indeed of all the trees in the garden. Nevertheless of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die.'

Adam and Eve were created by God in a state of sinless perfection so they could glorify God, reflecting God righteousness on the earth and enjoy fellowship and union with Him. Their calling was to exercise dominion or control over God's creation through their own labours and those of their offspring in faithful response to the Word of God.

As a specific test of this loyalty. God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." Adam and Eve were to demonstrate their willingness to live 'by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.' God warned them clearly that their disobedience would result in death. They failed and this event plunged them and all mankind into a state of sin and corruption. The temptation was purposeful. Eve and Adam submission to it involved their willing consent. Adam and Eve did not sin simply as private persons but as representatives of all members of the human race. Their sin is the sin of all; and all human beings receive from them a corrupt nature. It is a nature that stands behind all personal violations of the Lord's commandments. For this reason, the fall of Adam is the fall of the human race. 

The Apostle/Saint Paul confirmed of Christ Jesus as the second Adam who would rebuild the old, sinful Adam through His redemption and salvation.

The Resurrection of the Dead - The fact of the resurrection -

"Brothers/Sisters, That fact is, I want you to realise this, the Good News I preached is not a human message that I was given by men, it is something I learnt only through a revelation of Jesus Christ." - Galatians 1:11-12 -  

"Brothers/Sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I (Apostle/Saint Paul) preached to you, the gospel that you received and in which you are firmly established; because the gospel will save you only if you keep believing exactly what I preached to you - believing anything will not lead to anything." - 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 -

"Well then, in the first place, I taught you what I had been taught myself namely that Christ Jesus died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures; that Jesus was buried; and that Christ Jesus was raised on the third day, in accordance with the Sacred Scripture; that he appeared first to Cephas (Simon Peter) and secondly to the Twelve. Next the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers/sisters at the same time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died; then the Lord Jesus appeared to James, and then to all the apostles; and last of all he appeared to me too; it was as though I was born when no one expected it. 

I am the least of the apostles; in fact, since I persecuted the Church of the God, I hardly deserve the name apostle; but by God's grace that is what I am, and the grace that he gave me has not been fruitless. On the contrary, I, or rather the grace of God that is with me, have worked harder than any of the others; but what matters is that I preach what they preached, and this is what you all believed.

Now if Christ raised from the dead is what has been preached, how can some of you be saying that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, Christ himself cannot have been raised, and if Christ has not been raised then our preaching is useless and your believing it is useless; indeed, we are shown up as witnesses who have committed perjury before God, because we swore in evidence before God that he had raised Christ to life. For if the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, you are still in your sins. And what is more serious, all who have died in Christ have perished. If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we are the most unfortunate of all people.

But Christ has in fact been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep. Death came through one man and in the same way the resurrection of the dead has come through one man. Just as all men die in Adam, so all men will be brought to life in Christ; but all of them in their proper order: Christ as the first-fruits and then, after the coming of Christ, those who belong to him. After that will come the end, when he hand over the kingdom to God the Father, having done away with every sovereignty, authority and power. For he must be king until he has put all his enemies under his feet and the last of the enemies to be destroyed is death, for everything is to be put under his feet. -Though when it is said that everything is subjected, this clearly cannot include the One who subjected everything to him. And when everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subject in his turn to the One who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all in all.

If this is not true, what do people hope to gain by being baptised for the dead? If the dead are not going to be raised, why be baptised on their behalf? What about ourselves? Why are we living under a constant threat? I face death everyday, brothers/sisters, and can I swear it by the pride that I take in you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If my motives were only human ones, what good would it do me to fight the wild animals at Ephesus? You say: Let us eat and drink today; tomorrow we shall be dead. You must stop being led astray; 'Bad friends ruin the noblest people'. Come to your senses, behave properly, and leave sin alone; there are some of you who seem not to know God at all; you should be ashamed." - 1 Corinthians 15:3-34 -

The manner of the resurrection - A hymn of triumph. Conclusion

Someone may ask, 'How are dead people raised, and what sort of body do they have when they come back?' They are stupid questions. Whatever you sow in the ground has to die before it is given new life and the thing that you sow is not what is going to come; you sow a bare grain, say of wheat or something like that, and then God gives it the sort of body that he has chosen: each sort of seed gets its own sort of body.

Everything that is flesh is not the same flesh: there is human flesh, animals' flesh, the flesh of birds and the flesh of fish. Then there are heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the heavenly bodies have a beauty of their own and the earthly bodies a different one. The sun has its brightness, the moon a different brightness, and the stars a different brightness, and the stars differ from each other in brightness. It is the same with the resurrection of the dead: the thing that is sown is perishable but what is imperishable; the thing that is sown is contemptible but what is raised is glorious; the thing that is sown is weak but what is raised is powerful; when it is sown it embodies the soul, when it is raised it embodies the spirit.

If the soul has its own embodiment, so does the spirit have its own embodiment. The first man, Adam, as scripture says, became a living soul; but the last Adam has become a life-giving spirit. That is, first the one with the soul, not the spirit, and after that, the one with the spirit. The first man, being from the earth, is earthly by nature; the second man is from heaven. As this earthly man was, so are we on earth; and as the heavenly man is, so are we in heaven. And we, who have been modelled on the earthly man, will be modelled on the heavenly man.

Or else, brothers, put it this way: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God: and the perishable cannot inherit what lasts for ever. I will tell you something that has been secret: that we are not all going to die, but we shall all be changed. This will be instantaneous, in the twinkling of an eye, when the last trumpet sounds. It will sound, and the dead will be raised, imperishable, and we shall be changed as well, because our present perishable nature must put on imperishable and this mortal nature must put on immortality.

When this perishable nature has put on imperishability, and when this mortal nature has put on immortality, then the words of scripture will come true: Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your victory? Death where is your sting? Now the sting of death is sin, and sin gets its power from the Law. So let us thank God for giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Never give in then, my dear brothers and sisters, never admit defeat; keep on working at the Lord's work always, knowing that, in the Lord, you cannot be labouring in vain. - 1 Corinthians 15:35-58 -

  -     WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY     - 

Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 - 

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 - 

I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -

Your generous contribution and support is profoundly cherish. I sincerely pray that: God blessing be upon you, always. Amen! Bank transfer: Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah - Public Bank Berhad account no. 4076577113 - Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.