Monday, November 18, 2024






One of the names for God in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible, in the Old Testament is "Yahweh". The four letter Hebrew word "YHWH" was the name by which God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush. Then Moses said to God, 'I am to go, then, to the sons of Israel and say to them, "the God of your fathers has sent me to you." But if they ask me what his name is, what am I to tell them?' And God said to Moses, 'I Am who I Am.' This 'He added' is what you must say to the sons of Israel: "I Am has sent me to you." And God also said to Moses, 'You are to say to the sons of Israel: "Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (Israel), has sent me to you.'" This is my name for all time: by this name I shall be invoked for all generations to come. - Exodus 3:13-15 -

The divine name "Yahweh" is usually translated "Lord" in English versions of the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible because it became a practice in late Old Testament, that is, Judaism are not to pronounce the sacred name "YHWH" but to say instead "my Lord" (Adonai) a practice still used today. From the New Testament times, many Christians use the word "Yahweh" that is, "Lord." Jesus, God's Son, in human body is a literal revelation of God in the form of man. Jesus was in the form of God but He took "the form of a servant", the "likeness" and "appearance" of a man to save us and reveal the depth of God's love. Therefore, we can literally speak of God in human form.

His state was divine,
yet he did not cling
to his equality with God
but emptied himself
to assume the condition of a slave,
and became as men are;
and being as all men are,
he was humbler yet,
even to accepting death,
death on a cross. - Philippians 2:6 -

Anthropomorphism refers to the practice of describing God in human terms, as He has feet - Exodus 24:9-11 - hands - John 10:29 - a face - Matthew 18;10 - a heart - Hosea 11:8 - and so forth. Although the Old Testament and New Testament deny any literal similarity of form between God and His creatures, the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible uses such human language to affirm that God is personal and active in His creation. - Job. 9:32; John 4:24 -

KENOSIS is a theological term used in connection with dual nature of Jesus as fully human and fully divine, true man and true God. The word comes from a Greek verb which means "to empty" - Philippians 2:7 - but emptied himself, "Jesus made Himself of no reputation".

In fact, human beings: man and woman, male and female was created to see God. By sin, man/woman lost the blessedness for which he/she was made and found the misery for which he/she was not made. He did not keep what was good even though he could keep it easily. Without God it goes badly for us. Our efforts are in vain without God. Man cannot look for God unless God himself teaches him and find him or unless God reveals Himself. God created man in his image so that he might be aware of him, think about him and love him. The believer does not try to understand so that he may believe but he believes so that he may understand - for if he did not believe, he would not understand. - St. Anselm of Canterbury -

WHY GOD BECAME MAN - This is the debt which man and angel owe to God and no-one who pays this debts commits sin; but everyone who does not pay it, sins. This is justice or uprightness of will which makes a being just or upright in heart, that is, in will; and this is the sole and complete debt of honour which we owe to God and which God requires of us. - St. Anselm of Canterbury -

Adam and Eve were created by God in a state of sinless perfection so they could glorify God, reflecting His 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 them not to eat of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil". - Genesis 2:17 - Adam and Eve were to demonstrate their willingness to live "by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord". - Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4 - God warned them clearly that their disobedience would result in death. They disobeyed and failed to submit to the authority of GodHence, they sinned against God. This event plunged them and all mankind into a state of sin and corruption. The account of the Fall is found in Genesis Chapter 3. The disobedience and sin of Adam and Eve that caused them to lose the state of innocence in which they had been created.

The fall from their original state of innocence occurred when Satan approached Eve through the serpent who tempted her to eat of the forbidden fruit. Satan called into question the truthfulness of what God had spoken about the tree and its significance. Satan urged Eve to discover through trail and error whether it was in her best interest to do what God had forbidden. Eve's sin did not only consist of being tempted but in believing and acting on Satan's lie. Her rejection of God's command occurred when she ate of the forbidden fruit and persuaded her husband to do the same thing. The term Fall should not be interpreted to suggest that their sin was accidental. The temptation was purposeful and their submission to it involved their willing consent.

The immediate consequence of the Fall was death, symbolized by their loss of fellowship with God. For the first time, Adam and Eve experienced fear in the presence of the Lord God; and they hid when God approached. - Genesis 3:8-10 - Because of their unbelief and rebellion, they were driven from the garden that God had provided as their home. From that time on, man would experience pain and encounter resistance as he worked at the task of earning his daily bread. Physical death with the decay of the body is not a natural process. It entered the human experience as God's curse upon sin.

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 persons receive from them a corrupt nature. It is this 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 Paul confirmed of Christ as the second Adam who would rebuild the old, sinful Adam through His redemption and salvation.

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 hands 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. - 1 Corinthians 15:20-26 -

Be transformed by the changing and renewing of your heart, mind, attitude, character inwardly or in appearance, to the values, ideals and behaviour of a fallen world. Believers should continually renew their heart and minds through prayer, pondering and reflecting of God's Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit and so be transformed and made like Christ. - 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 -

Transform refers to change radically in inner character, condition or nature. The apostle Paul exhorted Christians, 'Do not model yourselves on the behaviour of the world around you but let your behaviour change, modelled by your new mind. This is the only way to discover the will of God and know what is good, what it is that God wants, what is the perfect thing to do.' - Romans 12:2 -

*** The experience of God in His Transcendence is supposed to be complemented with the experience of God in His Immanence. The former understands God as "completely Beyond human reach"; the latter understands God as the "intimate all pervasive Being". The first is prone to objectify the experience in clear and distinct ideas about our relationship to God; the second prefers to describe similar experience. The former experiences God as cold and distant; the latter finds God an intimate all encompassing Force.

Stern objective legalism in religion which comes from the experience of the Transcendence, can be tempered with subjective personal flexibility which flows from the experience of the Immanent. The rigidity of community demands can be softened with a respect for the legitimate rights of the individual person.

Christians find the harmonious tension of the Transcendence and the Immanence in Jesus Christ. He reveals to us the "Completely Other", God the Father, not as an inexorable Force who punishes and rewards accordingly but a loving Father. He reveals also the Holy Spirit, the "intimate" Counsellor, Consoler and Guide who dwells in us. However, the Holy Spirit only reveals what He has heard from the Father and the Son.

But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembering all that I have said to you. - John 14:26 - When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority but whatever he hears he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. - John 16:13-15 - So the experience of the Immanent cannot be subjective in the bad sense of the word. What the Spirit of God reveals conforms with the basic truths of objective revelation. 

A Christian, therefore, must discern whether what he/she receives is from God or from the Evil. Saint John tells Christians, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God." - 1 John 4:1-3 -

On the other hand, God the Father is not worshipped in ritualism nor obeyed legalistically, for Christians, God is spirit, and those who worship "must worship Him in spirit and truth" - John 4:23-24 - We obey God the Father or the Transcendence because we love Him. If, out of love, we obey His laws which flow from His love for us, we will be perfected.

The subjective is tested by the objective; the objective is personalized by the subjective.

In a similar way, Jesus Christ holds together the demands of the community and the legitimate rights of the individual. The key to unlock this seeming contradiction is love. Love takes care of the needs of the individual in such a way as to build up the community. The community, on the hand, exists so that individuals can blossom to be full mature persons. Jesus said, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" - John 10:10 -

The most comforting result of the experience of Jesus Christ, God with a "human face" is the knowledge and experience of being loved and understood by God as we are: human beings with all our strong and weak points, with all our joys and sorrows, etc. God, having shared our human existence, tells us strongly in a way we humans can understand that He cares for us in all our joys and sorrows. Having experienced this, we are then able to communicate it to others: we try to love as God loves us. This experience is unique to all Christians. 

*** By His Grace Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing S.J.

Love is not only one of God's attributes: it is also an essential part of His nature. "God is Love" - the personification of perfect love. Such love surpasses our powers of understanding.

Out of infinite glory, may he give you the power through his Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until knowing the love of Christ which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God. Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever. Amen. - Ephesians 3:16-21 -

God is love and He has demonstrated His love in the gift of His Son. The greatest desire of God is that we love Him with our whole being. - Matthew 22:37 - Our love should be expressed as His has been expressed, in both words and deeds. People sometimes find it difficult to say to God and others 'I Love You'. But when love for God fills our lives, we will express our love in prayer to the one who is ultimately responsible for all that we are. For the Lord Jesus said: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life". Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them will be one who loves me; and anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father and I shall love him and show myself to him. - John 14:21 -

If you remain in me
and my words remain in you,
you may ask what you will
and you shall get it. - John 15:7 -

My dear people,
love one another
since love comes from God
and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Anyone who fails to love can never have known God,
because God is love.
God's love for us was revealed
when God sent into the world his only Son
so that we could have life through him;
this is the love I mean:
not our love for God,
but God's love for us when he sent his Son
to be sacrifice that takes our sins away. - 1 John 4:7-10 -

In love there can be no fear,
but fear is driven out by perfect love:
because to fear is to expect punishment,
and anyone who is afraid is still imperfect in love.
We are to love, then,
because he loved us first.
Anyone who says, 'I love God',
and hates his neighbour,
is a liar,
since a man who does not love the brother that he can see
cannot love God, whom he has never seen.
So this is the commandment that he has given us,
that anyone who loves God must also love his brother. - 1 John 4:18-21 -

We speak well of one whom we highly esteem and love. The one who we respect and love above all others naturally receives our highest commendation. For God Himself. We glorify and worship Him, for His love, His works and for His words, His peoples give sincere praise. Amen.

"What does it profit a man/woman to gain the whole world, if he/she suffers the loss of his/her soul?"

-     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 -

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