In the study of law one of the most important subjects is evidence. One of the reasons why so few have arrived at a truth in which they believe absolutely is that they have forgotten the importance of proof. Evidence is one of the importance divisions of theology. No belief can be accepted without proof or a "motive of credibility". One might say that the greatest skeptic are the Christians, for they will not believe in the Resurrection until they see crucified and dead Man arise from the grave by the Power of God Himself. One could take any doctrine of Christianity as an example of proof and of evidence but we will take one which the modern world has rejected for the last 300 years (after believing in it for the first 1600 years) namely, the Virgin Birth of Jesus from His Mother Mary, who is a Virgin.

Before adducing our evidence, it is importance to realize that the Church which is the Mystical Body of Christ, does not derive its belief from the Scriptures alone. This will come as a surprise to those who, whenever they hear of a particular Christian teaching, ask: "Is it in the Bible?" The Church was spread throughout the entire Roman Empire before a single book of the New Testament was written. There were already many martyrs in the Church before there were either Gospels or Epistles. An authoritative and recognized ministry was carrying on the Lord's work at His command, speaking in His Name as witnesses of what they had seen, before anyone decided to write a single line of the New Testament.

To the early followers of Our Lord, and to us, the authority of the Apostles was equal to the authority of Christ, in the sense that it was the continuation of His teaching. Our Lord said, "He that heareth you, heareth me" The Apostles first taught and then later on, two - and only two - of the twelve left a Gospel. To His Apostles, Our Lord said: "Going, therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you; and behold I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world" - Matt. 28:19-20 - And again He said: "As the Father hath sent me, I also send you" - John 20:21 -

The Apostles were the nucleus of the Church, the new Israel, the first visible manifestation of Christ's Mystical Body. That is why on Pentecost they chose one out of the community of 120 to take the place of Judas. The successor had to be an eyewitness of the Gospel events; that was the absolute condition of being an Apostle. The Church was an organic body of cohesion, the sorce of unity and authority with Peter presiding because he was Divinely appointed. It would still be almost twenty-five years before the first of the Gospels would be written; hence those who isolate a single text from the Bible from this apostolic tradition or study it apart from it, are living and thinking in a vacuum. The Gospels need tradition as the lungs need air and as the eyes light, and as the plant the earth! The Good Book was second and not first. When finally the Gospels were written, they were the mere secretarial reports of what was already believed.

Pick up the Gospel of Luke which was written sometime before the year 67 and read the opening lines: "For as much as many have taken hand to set forth in order, a narration of the things that have been accomplished among us: According as they have delivered them unto us who from the beginning were eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word: It seemed good to me also, having diligently attained to all things from the beginning, to write to thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mayest know the verity of those words in which thou hast been instructed" - Luke 1:1-4 -

Luke did not write to Theoplilus to tell him something brand new about someone who died over thirty-four years before. Theophilus, like every other member of the Apostolic Church in the Roman Empire, already knew about the miracle of the loaves and fishes, about the Resurrection, and the Virgin Birth. It is similar to this. If we pick up a history book which tells us that in 1914 World War I began, it does not create that belief in us, it just confirms what we already know. So, too, the Gospels set down in a more systematic way what was already believed. If we had lived in the first twenty-five years of the Church, how would we have answered the question: "how can I know what I am to believe?" We could not have said, "I will look in the Bible" For there was no New Testament Bible then. We would have believed what the Apostolic Church was teaching and, until the invention of printing, it would have been difficult for any of us to have made ourselves so-called infallible private interpreters of the book.

Never once did Our Lord tell these witnesses of His to write. He Himself only wrote once in His life and that was on the sand. But He did tell them to preach in His Name and to be witnesses to Him to the ends of the earth, until the consummation of time. Hence those who take this or that text out out of the Bible to prove something are isolating it from the historical atmosphere in which it arose, and from the word of mouth which passed Christ's truth. If there are three persons in a room, there are also in it six legs and six arms - but they never create a problem because they are related to the physical organism. But if we found one arm outside the door, it would be a tremendous problem because it is isolated from the organic whole. So it is with certain Christian truths which are isolated from the whole-for example, the doctrine of penance if it is isolated from original sin. It is only in the light of the circle of truth that the segments of the circle have a meaning.

When finally the Gospels were written, they recorded a tradition; they did not create it. It was already there. After a while men had decided to put in writing this living tradition and voice which explains the beginning of the Gospel of Luke: "That thou mayest know the verity of those words in which thou hast been instructed." The Gospels did not start the Church; the Church started the Gospels. The Church did not come out of the Gospels, the Gospels came out of the Church.

The Church preceded the New Testament, not the New Testament the Church. First there was not a Constitution of the United States and then Americans who in the light of that Constitution decided to form a government and a nation. The Founding Fathers preceded the Foundation; so the Mystical Body of Christ preceded the reports written later by inspired secretaries. And incidentally, how do we know the Bible is inspired?

It does not say so! Matthew does not conclude his Gospel saying: "Be sure to read Mark; he is inspired, too. "Furthermore, the Bible is not a book. It is a collection of seventy-three books in all. It is worth opening a Bible to see if we have them all and have not been cheated. These widely scattered books cannot bear witness to their own inspiration. It is only by something outside the Bible that we know it is inspired. We will not go into that point now but it is worth looking into.

When finally the Gospels.......

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

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 WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

From the Bantu tribes of Congo Africa comes this story. A Bantu mother believed that the evil spirits were disturbing her child although the actually had only whooping cough. It never entered the mind of the woman to call on the name of God-although the Bantus had a name for God, Nzakomiba. God was utterly foreign to these people was presumed to be totally disinterested in human woes. Their big problem was how to avoid evil spirits. This is the basic characteristic of missionary lands; pagan peoples are more concerned with pacifying devils than with loving God.

The Missionary Sister who is a doctor and who treated and cured the child, tried in vain to convince the woman that God is love. Her answer was an entirely different word: Eefee. The Missionary Sister then said: "But God's love is like that: NZakom'Acok'-Eefee. God has the same feeling of love for us that a mother has for her children". In other words, mother-love is the key to God's love. Saint Augustine of Hippo who was so devoted to his mother, Saint Monica, must had something like this in mind when he said: "Give me a man who has loved and I will tell him what God is".

That brings up the question: Can religion do without motherhood? It certainly does not do without fatherhood, for one of the most accurate descriptions of God is that of the Giver and Provider of good things. But since motherhood is as necessary as fatherhood in the natural order - perhaps even more so - shall the devoted religious heart be without a woman to love? In the animal kingdom, mothers are the fighters for their offspring whom paternity often abandons. On the human level, life would indeed be dull if through every beat of its existence one could not look back in gratitude to a mother who threw open the portals of life to give life; and then sustained it by the one great, irreplacable love of each child's universe.

A wife is essentially a creature of time, for even while she lives she can become a widow; but a mother is outside time. She dies but she is still a mother. She is the image of the eternal in time, the shadow of the infinite on the finite. Centuries and civilizations dissolve but the mother is the giver of live. Man works on this generation: a mother on the next. A man uses his life; a mother renews it.

The mother, too, is the preserver of equity in the world, as man is the guardian of justice. But justice would degenerate into cruelty if it were not tempered by that merciful appeal to excusing circumstances which only a mother can make. As man preserves law, so woman preserves equity or that spirit of kindness, gentleness and sympathy which tempers the rigors of justice. Virgil opened his great poem by singing of "arms and a man" - not of women. When women are reduced to bear arms, they lose that specific quality of femininity; then equity and mercy vanish from the earth.

Culture derives from woman - for had she not taught her children to talk, the great spiritual values of the world would not have passed from generation to generation. After nourishing the substance of the body to which she gave birth, she then nourishes the child with the substance of her mind. As guardian of the values of the spirit, as protectress of the morality of the young, she preserves culture which deals with purposes and ends while man upholds civilization which deals only with means.

It is inconceivable that such love should be without a prototype Mother. When one sees tens of thousands of reprints of Murillo's "Immaculate Conception", one knows that there had to be the model portrait from which the copies derived their impression. If fatherhood has its prototype in the Heavenly Father, Who is the giver of all gifts, then certainly such a beautiful thing as motherhood shall not be without some original Mother whose traits of loveliness every mother copies in varying degrees. The respect shown to woman looks to an ideal beyond each woman.

As an ancient Chinese legend puts it: "If you speak to a woman, do it in pureness of heart. Say to yourself: "Placed in this sinful world, let me be pure as the spotless lily, unsoiled by the mire in which it grows", Is she old? Regard her as your mother. Is she honourable? Regard her as your sister. Is she of small account? As your younger sister. Is she a child? Then treat her with reverence and politeness".

Why did all pre-Christian people paint, sculpture, lyricize and dream of a ideal woman if they did not really believe that such a one ought to be? By making her mythical and legendary, they surrounded her with a mystery which took her out of the realm of time and made her more heavenly than earthly. In all people is a longing of the heart for something motherly and divine, an ideal from which all motherhood descends like the rays from the sun.

The full hope of Israel has been realized in the coming of the Messiah; but the full hope of the Gentiles has not yet been fulfilled. The prophecy of Daniel that Christ would be the 'Expectatio Gentium' is so far fulfilled only in part. As Jerusalem had the hour of its visitation and knew it not, so every people and race and nation has its appointed hour of grace. Just as God in His Providence hid the continent of America from the Old Testament for almost 1500 years after His birth and then allowed the veil which hung before it to be pierced by the ships of Columbus, so He has kept a veil before many nations of the East so that in this hour His ships of grace might finally pierce its veil and reveal, in this late hour, the undying strength of the Incarnation of the Son of God. The present crisis of the world is the opening of the East to the potency of the Gospel of Christ.

The practical West, having lost faith in the Incarnation, has begun to believe that man does everything and God does nothing; the impractical contemplative East which has believed that God does everything and man does nothing, is soon to have its day of discovery that man can do all things in the God Who strengthens him.

But it is impossible to conceive that the East will have its own peculiar advent or coming of Christ without the same preparation that Israel once had in Mary. As there would have been no advent of Christ in the flesh in His first coming without Mary, so there can be no coming of Christ in spirit among the Gentiles without Mary's again preparing the way. As she was the instrument for fulfilment of the hope of Israel, so she is the instrument for the fulfilment of the hope of the pagans. 'Her role is to prepare for Jesus'. This she did physically by giving Him a body which could conquer death, by giving Him hands with which He could bless children and feet with which He could seek out the lost sheep. But as she prepared His body, so she now prepares souls for His coming.

As she was in Israel before Christ was born, so she is in China, Japan and Oceania before Christ is born. She precedes Jesus - not ontologically but physically, in Israel, as His Mother, and spiritually, among the Gentiles, as the one who readies His tabernacle among men. There are not many who can say "Our Father" in the strict sense of the term, for that implies that we are partakers in the Divine Nature and brothers with Christ.

God is not our Father by mere fact that we are creatures; He is only our Creator. Fatherhood comes only by sharing in His nature through sanctifying grace. A liturgical manifestation of this great truth is found in the way in which the "Our Father" is recited in most of the ceremonies of the Church.It is recited aloud in the Mass, because there, it is assumed that all present are already made sons of God in Baptism. But where the ceremony is one in which sanctifying grace cannot be presumed among those present, the Church recites the "Our Father" silently.

Thus pagans, who have not yet been baptized either by water or desire, cannot say the "Our Father" but they can say the "Hail Mary". As there is a grace that prepares for grace, so there is in all the pagan lands of the world the influence of Mary, preparing for Christ. She is the spiritual "Trojan horse" preparing for the assault of love by Her Divine Son, the "Fifth Column" working within the Gentiles, storming their cities from within even when their Wise Men know it not, and teaching muted tongues to sing her "Magnificat" before they have known Her Son.

BY ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN (1895 to 1979)

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If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

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 WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

Jesus showed clearly, by what He taught, what He practiced and by how He lived that He viewed Moses' Law (God Law) as authoritative for the people of God. - Matt. 5:17-19 - To the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus expounded the things concerning Himself written in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the writings of the Old Testament.

Then he said to them, 'You foolish men! So slow to believe the full message of the prophets! Was it not ordained that the Christ should suffer and so enter into his glory?' Then, starting with Moses and going through all the prophets he explained to them the passages throughout the scriptures that were about himself.
When they drew near to the village to which they were going, he made as if to go on; but they pressed him to stay with them. 'It is nearly evening' they said 'and the day is almost over'. So he went in to stay with them. Now while he was with them at table, he took the bread and said the blessings; then he broke it and handed it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognised him; but he had vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, 'Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?'
They set out that instant and returned to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven assembled together with their companions who said to them, 'Yes, it is true. The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon'. Then they told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognised him at the breaking of bread. - Luke 24:25-35 -

The New Testament, however, shows that Moses' teaching was intended only to prepare humanity for the greater teaching and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. What Moses promised, Jesus fulfilled, 'For the law was given to Moses but grace and truth came through the Lord Jesus Christ'.

Indeed, from his fulness we have, all of us, received-
yes, grace in return for grace,
since, though the Law was given through Moses,
grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God;
it is the only Son who is nearest to the Father's heart,
who has made him known. - John 1:17-18 -

                                                                      Page 1

If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

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 WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

One understanding of the image of God in man is that refers to qualities or attributes present in the person. Thus, the image of God is identified as human reason, will, and personality. Others believe the image is something present when the person is in a relationship to God and in fact, is that relationship. The image is present like a reflection in a mirror, rather than like a photo - a permanent image printed on paper. Still others believe the image is something which a person does.

Immediately after God made man in His image, He gave man dominion or authority over the whole earth. - Gen. 1:28 - According to this view, this active tending and caring for God's creation constitutes the image of God in man. Thus, the image of God refers to the characteristic of man which God endowed him at creation, distinguishing him from the rest of God's creatures.

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. - Gen. 1:26-27 -

The Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible does not indicate exactly what the image of God in man is. It may involve all these ideas. Man alone has personal, conscious fellowship with God. Man is to take God's place in ruling over and developing the creation. Yet these are possible only because of certain qualities of personality which man alone has.

God said, 'See, I give you all the seed bearing plants that are upon the whole earth and all the trees with seed bearing fruit; this shall be your food. - Gen. 1:29-30 -

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 admonition, 'You may eat indeed 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'. - Gen. 2:15-16 -

It was you who created my inmost self,
and put me together in my mother's womb;
for all these mysteries I thank you:
for the wonder of myself, for the wonder of your works. - Ps. 139:13-14 -

To be created in the image of God means that we humans have the ability and the privilege of knowing, serving and loving God, and that we are most fully human when fulfilling our spiritual potential. Every human life is precious to God and this is exactly how we should treat the people with whom we share the world.

                                                                       Page 1

If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

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 WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

I am no longer trying for perfection by my own efforts, the perfection that comes from the Law but I want only perfection that comes through faith in Christ, and is from God and based on faith. All I want is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and to share his sufferings by reproducing the pattern of his death. That is the way I can hope to take my place in the resurrection of the dead. Not that I have become perfect yet: I have not yet won but I am still running, trying to capture the prize for which Christ Jesus captured me. I can assure you my brothers, I am far from thinking that I have already won.

All I can say is that I forget the past and I strain ahead for what is still to come; I am racing for the finish, for the prize to which God calls us upwards to receive in Christ Jesus. We who are called 'perfect' must all think in this way. If these is some point on which you see things differently, God will make it clear to you; meanwhile, let us go forward on the road that has brought us to where we are. - Phil. 3:9-16 -

In the Old Testament, God communicated with His people, the nation of Israel, through Moses, to whom He had already made Himself known in the vision of the burning bush. God instructed Moses to tell his fellow Israelites what had been revealed to him. This was no impersonal force at work but the God of their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob[Israel] in fulfillment of His promises to them, God was acting now on behalf of their descendants.

In communicating with His people. God revealed both His identity and His purpose. His purpose was to make the Israelites a nation dedicated to His service alone. This message, conveyed to the Israelites through Moses, would have been ineffective if God had not delivered them personally. On the other hand, His deliverance would have been meaningless without the message. Together both constituted the Word of God to the Israelites - the saving message of the God who both speaks and acts.

This pattern of God's mighty acts and the prophetic word interacting with each other continues throughout the course of salvation history. The Babylonian Captivity is a good example of this process. A succession of prophets warned the people that if they did not mend their ways, Captivity would come on them as judgement. But even during the years of the Captivity the prophets continued to speak, encouraging the captives and promising that God would deliver them from their plight.

The prophets were God's primary spokesmen to the people of Israel in the Old Testament times. But they were not His only messengers. Priests and sages, or wise men, were other agents through whom God's will was made known. The teachings of many of these messengers are preserved in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible.

In addition to God's revelation of Himself through Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible, God's Word also records the response of those to whom the revelation was given. Too often the response was unbelief and disobedience. But at other times, people responded in faith, love and obedience. The Psalms, especially proclaim the grateful response of men and women who experienced the grace and righteousness of God. These faithful people sometimes voiced their appreciation in words addressed directly to God. At other times they reported to others what God had come to mean to them.

In the New Testament, revelation and response came in the person of Jesus Christ. On the one hand, Jesus was God's perfect human form. His works of mercy and power portrayed God in action especially His supreme act of sacrifice to bring about "the redemption that is in Christ Jesus". His teaching expressed the mind of God.

God's justice that was made known through the Law and the Prophets has now been revealed outside the Law since it is the same justice of God that comes through faith to everyone, Jew and pagan alike, who believes in Jesus Christ. Both Jew and pagan sinned and forfeited God's glory, and both are justified through the free gift of his grace by being redeemed in Christ Jesus who was appointed by God to sacrifice his life so as to win reconciliation through faith. In this way God makes his justice known; first, for the past, when sins went unpunished because he held his hand, then, for the present age, by showing positively that he is just and that he justifies everyone who believes in Jesus. - Rom. 3:21-26 -

The words and acts of Jesus also proclaimed the meaning and purpose of His works. For example, His act of casting out demons "with the finger of God" was a token that the kingdom of God had come upon them. He also declared that His death was the fulfillment of prophetic Scripture, was "a ransom for many". - Mark 10:45; 14:49 -

In his life and ministry, Jesus also illustrated the perfect human response of faith, love and obedience to God. Jesus is the Son of God. Thus, He performed the mighty acts of God and He spoke authoritatively as God's Messenger and Prophet. - Heb. 3:1-2 -

                                                                       Page 1

If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

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 WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

The Lord's Day is the first day of the week, Sunday; the day especially associated with the Lord Jesus Christ. A special honour was reserved for Sunday, the first day of the week. This was the day on which Jesus was raised from the dead; every Lord's Day, therefore, is a weekly memorial of Christ's resurrection. Clearly the early Church assembled for worship and religious instruction on Sunday, the Lord's Day.

Every Sunday, each one of you must put aside what he can afford so that collections need not be made after I have come. When I am with you, I will send your offering to Jerusalem by the hand of whatever men you give letters of reference to; - 1Cor. 16:2-3 -

The Lord's Day is not to be confused with the Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest. The Jewish Sabbath corresponds with our Saturday, the seventh or last day of the week. The special day to the Jews commemorated the day on which God rested after the creation of the world. The Lord's Day is our Sunday, the first day of the week; it celebrates the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Under the new dispensation of grace, Christians are not to be trapped by the old legalism of observing days and seasons. The Jerusalem Council did not include a demand for Sabbath observance in its rules for Gentiles Christians.

I rule, then, that instead of making things more difficult for pagans who turn to God, we send them a letter telling them merely to abstain from anything polluted by idols, from fornication, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. - Acts 15:19-20 -

Accordingly we are sending you Judas and Silas who will confirm by word of mouth what we have written in this letter. It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to saddle you with any burden beyond these essentials; you are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from fornication. Avoid these, and you will do what is right. Farewell. - Acts 15:27-29 -

Some Christians of the early Church 'esteemed everyday alike'; they made no distinction between days, including Jewish festivals and Sabbaths and possibly also Sunday. The apostle Paul said they were not to be judged if they were acting in good conscience out of the fear of God. Some Jewish Christians continued to observe the Sabbath and Jewish festivals. Neither should they be judged for 'esteeming one day above another'. Apostle Paul declared, for their behaviour was guided by conscience in the fear of God. Paul believed such observance was a matter of Christian liberty, so long as the convert did not regard the observance as necessary for salvation.

If one man keeps certain days as holier than others, and another considers all days to be equally holy, each must be left free to hold his own opinion. The one who observes special days does so in honour of the Lord. The one who eats meat also does so in honour of the Lord since he gives thanks to God; but then the man who abstains does that too in honour of the Lord and so he also gives God thanks. - Rom. 14:5-6 -

From now onward, never let anyone else decide what you should eat or drink or whether you are to observe annual festivals, New Moons or sabbaths. These were only pale reflections of what was coming: the reality is Christ. Do not be taken in by people who like grovelling to angels and worshipping them; people like that are always going on about some vision they have had, inflating themselves to a false importance with their worldly outlook. A man of this sort is not united to the head, and it is the head that adds strength and holds the whole body together, with all its joints and sinews - and this is the only way in which it can reach its full growth in God.

If you have really died with Christ to the principles of this world, why do you still let rules dictate to you, as though you were still living in the world? It is forbidden to pick up this, it is forbidden to taste that, it is forbidden to touch something else; all these prohibitions are only concerned with things that perish by their very use - an example of human doctrines and regulations! It may be argued that true wisdom is to be found in these, with their self-imposed devotions, their self-abasement, and their severe treatment of the body; but once the flesh starts to protest, they are no use at all. - Col. 2:16-23 -

Paul's principle of Christian liberty about holy places and holy days comes from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus described Himself as one who is greater than the Temple and "The Son of Man is master of the Sabbath" The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath.

Or again, have you not read in the Law that on the sabbath day the Temple priests break the sabbath without being blamed for it? Now here, I tell you, is something greater than the Temple. And if you had understood the meaning of the words: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the blameless. For the Son of Man is master of the sabbath. - Matt. 12:5-8 - Mark 2:27-28;Luke 6:5 -

When the early Christians called the first day of the week the Lord's Day, this was a direct challenge to the emperor worship to which Saint John refers so often in the Book of Revelation. Such a bold and fearless testimony by the early Christians proclaimed that the Lord's Day belonged to the Lord Jesus Christ and not the emperor Caesar.

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If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

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 WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -

As a theological concept, assurance is one of the richest doctrines of the Apostolic tradition, Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible and the Church. It refers to the believer's full confidence and conviction that the penalty of his sins has been paid and that heaven has been secured as his eternal life destiny by Christ's passion, death and resurrection.

Assurance means that the Christian not only possesses salvation but he also knows what he possesses; freedom from doubt and uncertainty - he is assured of his salvation.

God has given us eternal life
and this life is in his Son;
anyone who has the Son has life,
anyone who does not have the Son does not have life. - 1John 5:11-12 -

The basis of assurance must never be our own subjective experience which can waver with fear, doubt and uncertainty. True assurance is founded in the Lord Jesus Christ - the Holy Spirit bearing witness to our spirits that the Word of God became flesh. When the believer stands upon the faith and love of God, he gains a joyous freedom to live the Christian life. He has been forgiven by God in Christ and is now free to forgive others, to love as he has first been loved by God.

The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice;
I know them and they follow me.
I give them eternal life;
they will never be lost
and no one will ever steal them from me.
The Father who gave them to me is greater than anyone,
and no one can steal from the Father.
The Father and I are one. - John 10:27-30 -

He called those he intended for this; those he called he justified and with those he justified he shared his glory. After saying this, what can we add? With God on our side who can be against us? Since God did not spare his own Son but gave him up to benefit us all, we may be certain, after such a gift that he will not refuse anything he can give. Could anyone accuse those that God has chosen? When God acquits, could anyone condemn? Could Christ Jesus? No! He not only died for us - he rose from the dead and there at God's right hand he stands and pleads for us.

Nothing therefore can come between us and the love of Christ even if we are trouble or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking food or clothes, or being threatened or even attacked. As scripture promised: For your sake we are being massacred daily and reckoned as sheep for the slaughter. These are the trails through which we triumph by the power of him who loved us.
For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing, can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Rom. 8:30-39 -

Assurance, then, is not just a 'theological' concept but a practical matter. As long as a person is uncertain about his own standing before God, he is defensive and self-centered. But fully assured of God's salvation, the believer can begin to walk in the footsteps of Christ.

Love will come to its perfection in us
when we can face the day of Judgement without fear;
because even in this world
we have become as he is.
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. - 1John 4:17-19 -

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If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.

By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

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 WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -