Hades, or Shoel, or Hell, the abode of the dead, was generally thought to be a meaningless place from which there was no return to real life. In the Old Testament, ancient times people does not believe that a human life can altogether extinguished, but that is a different thing from believing in the resurrection. Enoch and Elijah were spared going to Hades at all, and such a person might even restore life to one who had died. - 1Kings 17:17-23 -

Yet the Old Testament lays the foundations for a belief in resurrection by its repeated affirmation that life is essentially renewable. The Book of Daniel quoted a few texts on resurrection from the dead. Ezekiel, the prophet, for instance, uses resurrection language to speak of the whole nation's being restored to life. To sin and be forgiven is to experience a kind of resurrection. Faith in God who will not allow His purposes to be frustrated was commanding people toward a belief in resurrection.

But God will redeem my life
from the grasp of Shoel, and will receive me. - Psalms 49:15 -

Bless Yahweh, my soul,
and remember all his kindnesses;
in forgiving all your offences,
in curing all your diseases,
in redeeming your life from the Pit,
in crowning you with love and tenderness. - Psalms 103:2-4 -

By New Testament times only the Sadducees still not believing in the resurrection, and Jesus explained and teaches them that God's personal relationship with the patriarchs of old made it impossible to think of them as eternally separated from God, for He is God, not of the dead, but of the living.

Jesus replied, 'The children of this world take wives and husbands, but those who are judged worthy of a place on the other world and in the resurrection from the dead do not marry because they can no longer die, for they are the same as the angels, and being children of the resurrection they are sons of God. And Moses himself implies that the dead rise again, in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all men are in fact alive.' - Luke 20:34-38 -

The significance of Jesus' resurrection is explored throughout the New Testament. It was a vindication of all that Jesus had said and done. It was a token of what for others was still to come, for "Christ has in fact been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep." - 1Cor. 15:20 - Speculative questions about the form of that experience were dismissed by Saint Paul with a peremptory  "Fool!"

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. - 1Cor. 15:35-38 -

Resurrection, however, is not treated in the New Testament as something that can be experienced only beyond death. It is seen as a quality of life that can be appropriated at once and will immediately influence every facet of behavior. In Colossians chapter 3, Saint Paul immediately goes on to describe in detail the characteristics of resurrection life as it is lived here and now.

Is it true that life can be caught up into a force that makes it indestructible?

More is at stake than a belief in life after death, though that would be plenty. The Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible view of resurrection is an affirmation about the nature of all human life and of the world itself. It says that we are part of a system in which renewal is always a possibility. The laws of entropy do not have the last word. It is not true that everything is perpetually running down so that it must all end in decay and death. Life is a renewable resource.

The person who believes in resurrection in this broad, biblical sense will neither cling to existing forms and institutions nor readily write them off: he or she will be prepared for them to rise again and to assume a new embodiment for the purpose. This belief has sociological understanding as well as personal consequences. All that and heaven too!

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By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
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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 -

"We bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this day he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus." The Resurrection of Jesus is the crowning truth of our faith in Christ, a faith believed and lived as the central truth by the first Christian community; handed on as fundamental by Tradition; established by the documents of the New Testament; and preached as an essential part of the Paschal mystery along with the cross: Christ is risen from the dead!

          Dying, he conquered death;
          To the dead, he has given life. - CCC 638 - Acts 13:32-33 -

The mystery of Christ's resurrection is a real event, with manifestations that were historically verified, as the New Testament bear witness. In about A.D. 56 Saint Paul could already write to the Corinthians: "I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve..." The Apostle speaks here of the living tradition of the Resurrection which he had learned after his conversion at the gates of Damascus. - CCC 639 - 1Cor. 15:3-4; Acts 9:3-18 -

"Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen." The first element we encounter in the framework of the Easter events is the empty tomb. In itself it is not a direct proof of Resurrection; the absence of Christ's body from the tomb could be explained otherwise. Nonetheless the empty tomb was still an essential sign for all. Its discovery by the disciples was the first step toward recognizing the very fact of the Resurrection. This was the case, first with the holy women, and then with Peter. The disciple "whom Jesus loved" affirmed that when he entered the empty tomb and discovered "the linen cloths lying there," "he saw and believed." This suggests that he realized from the empty tomb's condition that the absence of Jesus' body could not have been of human doing and that Jesus had not simply returned to earthly life as had been the case with Lazarus. - CCC 640 - Matt. 28:11-15; Luke 24:3, 5-6, 12, 22-23; John 11:44, 20:2, 5-8, 13 -

Mary Magdalene and the holy women who came to finish anointing the body of Jesus, which had been buried in haste because the Sabbath began on the evening of Good Friday, were the first to encounter the Risen One. Thus the women were the first messengers of Christ's Resurrection for the apostles themselves. They were the next to whom Jesus appears: first Peter, then the Twelve. Peter had been called to strengthen the faith of his brothers, and so sees the Risen One before them; it is on the basis of this testimony that the community exclaims: "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" - CCC 641 - Matt. 29:9-10; Mark 16:1; Luke 22:31-32, 24:1, 9-10, 34-36; John 19:31, 42, 20:11-18; 1Cor. 15:5 -

Everything that happened during those Paschal days involves each of the apostles - and Peter in particular - in the building of the new era begun on Easter morning. As witnesses of the Risen One, they remain the foundation stones of his Church. The faith of the first community of believers is based on the witness of concrete men known to the Christians and for the most part still living among them. Peter and the Twelve are the primary "witnesses to his Resurrection," but they are not the only ones - Paul speaks clearly of more than five hundred persons to whom Jesus appeared on a single occasion and also of James and of all the apostles. - CCC 642 - 1Cor. 15:4-8; Acts 1:22 -

Given all these testimonies, Christ's Resurrection cannot be interpreted as something outside the physical order, and it is impossible not to acknowledge it as an historical fact. It is clear from the facts that the disciples' faith was drastically put to the test by their master's Passion and death on the cross, which he had foretold. The shock provoked by the Passion was so great that as least some of the disciples did not at once believe in the news of the Resurrection. Far from showing us a community seized by a mystical exaltation, the Gospels present us with disciples demoralized ("looking sad") and frightened. For they had not believed the holy women returning from the tomb and had regarded their words as an "idle tale." When Jesus reveals himself to the Eleven on Easter evening, "he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. - CCC 643 - Mark 16:11-14; Luke 22:31-32, 24:14, 17; John 20:19 -

Even when faced with the reality of the risen Jesus the disciples are still doubtful, so impossible did the thing they thought they were seeing a ghost. "In their joy they were still disbelieving and still wondering." Thomas will also experience the test of doubt and Saint Matthew relates that during the risen Lord's last appearance in Galilee "some doubted." Therefore the hypothesis that the Resurrection was produced by the apostles' faith (or credulity) will not hold up. On the contrary their faith in the Resurrection was born, under the action of divine grace, from their direct experience of the reality of the risen Jesus. - CCC 644 - Matt. 28:17; Luke 24:38-41; John 20:24-27 -

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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 -

"By the grace of God" Jesus tasted death "for everyone." In his plan of salvation, God ordained that his Son should not only "die for our sins" but should also "taste death," experience the condition of death, the separation of his soul from his body, between the time he expired on the cross and the time he was raised from the dead. The state of the dead Christ is the mystery of the tomb and the descent into hell. It is the mystery of Holy Saturday, when Christ, lying in the tomb, reveals God's great Sabbath rest after the fulfillment of man's salvation, which brings peace to the whole universe. -CCC 624 - John 19:30,42;  1Cor. 15:3; Heb. 2:9, 4:7-9; Col. 1:18-20 -

Christ's stay in the tomb constitutes the real link between his passible state before Easter and his glorious and risen state today. The same person of the "Living One" can say, "I died, and behold I am alive for evermore." - CCC 625 - Rev. 1:18 -

God [the Son] did not impede death from separating his soul from his body according to the necessary order of nature, but has united them to one another in the Resurrection, so that he himself might, in his person, the meeting point for death and life, by arresting in himself the decomposition of nature produced by death and so becoming the source of reunion for the separated parts. - St. Gregory of Nyssa -

Since the "Author of life" who was killed is the same "living one [who has] risen" the divine person of the Son of God necessarily continued to possess his human soul and body, separated from each other by death: - CCC 626 - Acts 3:15; Luke 24:5-6 -

By the fact that at Christ's death his soul was separated from his flesh, his one person is not itself divided into two persons; for the human body and soul of Christ have existed in the same way from the beginning of his earthly existence, in the divine person of the Word; and in death, although separated from each other, both remained with one and the same person of the Word. - St. John Damascene -

Christ's death was a real death in that it put an end to his earthly human existence. But because of the union his body retained with the person of the Son, his was not a mortal corpse like others, for "divine power preserved Christ's body from corruption." Both of these statements can be said of Christ: "He was cut off out of the land of the living," and "My flesh will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let your Holy One see corruption." Jesus' Resurrection "on the third day" was the proof of this, for bodily decay was held to begin on the fourth day after death. - CCC 627 - St. Thomas Aquinas, Is. 53:8; Ps. 16:9-10; Jon. 2:1; Hos. 6:2; Acts 2;26-27; 1Cor. 15:4; Matt. 12:40; Luke 24:46; John 11:39 -

Baptism, the original and full sign of which is immersion, efficaciously signifies the descent into the tomb by the Christian who dies to sin with Christ in order to live a new life. "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death. so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life," - CCC 628 - Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12; Eph. 5:26 -

To the benefit of every man, Jesus tasted death. It is truly the Son of God made man who died and was buried. - CCC 629 -

During Christ's period in the tomb, his divine person continued to assume both his soul and his body, although they were separated from each other by death. For this reason the dead Christ's body "saw no corruption". - Acts 13:37 - CCC 630 -

Jesus "descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens." The Apostles' Creed confesses in the same article Christ's descent into hell and his Resurrection from the dead on the third day because in his Passover it was precisely out of the depths of death that he made life spring forth: - CCC 631 - Eph. 4:9-10 -

Christ, the Morning Star, who came back from the dead,
and shed his peaceful light on all mankind,
your Son who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen. - Roman Missal, Easter Vigil 18, Exsultet -

The frequent New Testament affirmations that Jesus was "raised from the dead" presuppose that the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection. This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ's descent into hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead. But he descended there as Savior, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there. - CCC 632 - Rom. 8:11; 1Cor. 15:20; Heb. 13:20; 1Peter 3:18-19 -

Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, "hell" - Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek - because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God. Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or righteous, while they await the redeemer: which does not mean that their lot is identical, as Jesus shows through the parable of the poor man Lazarus who was received into "Abraham's bosom". It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Savior in Abraham's bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but free the just who had gone before him. - CCC 633 - 1Sam. 28:19; Ezk. 32:17-32; Ps. 89:49; Luke 16:22-26; Acts 2:24; Phil. 2:10; Eph. 4:9 -

"The gospel was preached even to the dead." The descent into hell brings the Gospel message of salvation to complete fulfillment. This is the last phase of Jesus' messianic mission, a phase which is condensed in time but vast in its real significance: the spread of Christ's redemptive work to all men of all times and all places, for all who are saved have been sharers in the redemption. - CCC 634 - 1Peter 4:6 -

Christ went down into the depths of death so that "the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." Jesus, "The Author of life," by dying destroyed "him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and [delivered] all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage." Henceforth, the risen Christ holds "the keys of Death and Hades," so that "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth." - CCC 635 - Matt. 12:24; John 5:25; Acts 3:15; Rom. 10:7; Heb. 2:14-15 -

By the expression "He descended into hell," the Apostles' Creed confesses that Jesus did really die and through his death for us conquered death and the devil "who has the power of death." - CCC 636 -

In his human souls united to his divine person, the dead Christ went down to the realm of the dead. He opened heaven's gates for the just who had gone before him. - CCC 637 -

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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 -

The best human being (other than Jesus Christ) comes short of the uprightness God requires. God's communication to people concerning Himself, His moral standards, and His plan for salvation. Because of God's universal revelation in nature, many philosophers could said, 'Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe...the starry heavens above us and the moral within us.'

When practicing Christians defend justice, honesty and decency in schools, homes, neighborhoods, businesses, and governments, they do not impose their special beliefs upon others. They merely point to universal principles that all sinners know but suppress in their unrighteousness.

The anger of God is being revealed from heaven against all the impiety and depravity of men who keep truth imprisoned in their wickedness. - Rom. 1:18 -

As valuable as general revelation is for justice, honesty, and decency in the world today, it is not enough. It must be completed by the Good News of God's mercy and His gracious gift of perfect righteousness. Nature does not show God's plan for saving those who sin against Him and do wrong: that Jesus was the Son of God, that He died for our sins, and that He rose[resurrected] again from among the dead. The message of salvation was seen dimly throughout Old Testament sacrifices and ceremonies. It was seen more clearly as God redeemed the Israelites from enslavement in Egypt and as God disclosed to prophetic spokesmen the redemptive significance of His mighty acts of deliverance.

The full and final revelation of God has occurred in Jesus Christ.

At various times in the past and in various different ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his Son, the Son that he has appointed to inherit everything and through whom he made everything there is. - Heb. 1:1-2 -

Christ has declared God to us personally, and to see Christ is to see the Father. Christ gave us the words which the Father gave Him. At the cross Jesus revealed supremely God's self-giving love. There He died, 'the just for the unjust', 'the sinless for the sinful.'

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 1:18 -

'Have I been with you all the time, Philip' said Jesus to him 'and you still do not know me?

To have seen me is to have seen the Father,
so how can you say, "Let us see the Father"?
Do you not believe
that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words I say to you I do not speak as from myself:
it is the Father, living in me, who is doing this work. - John 14:9-10 -

Now at last they know
that all you have given me comes indeed from you;
for I have given them
the teaching you gave to me,
and they have truly accepted this, that I came from you,
and have believed that it was you who sent me. - John 17:7-8 -

Why, Christ himself, innocent though he was, had died once for sins, died for the guilty, to lead us to God. In the body he was put to death, in the spirit he was raised to life, and, in the spirit, he went to preach to the spirits in prison. - 1Peter 3:18 -

The Good News is not complete until we hear that He rose [resurrected] again triumphantly over sin, Satan, and the grave, and is alive forever more.

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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 -

In the Old Testament, Israel's concepts of the resurrection were born out of her relationship to God in her tumultuous history. At first glance the prophet Isaiah seems to express a view that the resurrection is for the faithful and that the wicked may not arise. The Jewish loyalist of the book of 2Maccabees apparently agreed that for some there will be no resurrection to life.

If a favour is shown to the wicked,
he does not learn the meaning of integrity.
He does evil in the land of uprightness,
he fails to see the majesty of Yahweh.

Yahweh, your hands is raised,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your jealous love for this people and be ashamed,
let the fire prepared for your enemies consume them.

Yahweh, you are giving us peace,
since you treat us
as our deed deserve.

Yahweh our God,
other lords than you have ruled us,
but we acknowledge no one other than you,
no other name than yours.

The dead will not come to life,
their ghosts will not rise,
for you have punished them, annihilated them,
and wiped out their memory.

Enlarge the nation, Yahweh, enlarge it,
to the nation grant glory,
extend all the frontiers of the country.

Distressed, we search for you, Yahweh;
the misery of oppression was your punishment for us.
As a woman with child near her time
writhes and cries out in her pangs.

so we are, Yahweh, in your presence:
we have conceived, we writhe
as if we were giving birth;
we have not given the spirit of salvation to the earth,
no more inhabitants of the world are born.

Your dead will come to life,
their corpses will rise;
awake, exult,
all you who lie in the dust,
for your dew is radiant dew
and the land of ghosts will give birth. - Isaiah 26:10-19 -

But prophet Daniel announced "Of those who lie sleeping in the dust of the earth many will awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting disgrace. - Dan. 12:2 -

The New Testament consistently teaches hope in the resurrection of the believer based on the resurrection of  Jesus Christ as the 'firstborn from the dead.' This resurrection is also expressed in terms of such images as a transformed body. - Phil. 3:21; 2Cor. 5:2-4; Rev. 6:11 -

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...But Christ has in fact been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of all who have been asleep............ Never give in then, my dear brothers, never admit defeat; keep on working at the Lord's work always, knowing that, in the Lord, you cannot be labouring in vain. - 1Cor. 15:12-58 -

Now the Church is his body,
he is its head.
As he is the Beginning,
he was first to be born from the dead,
so that he should be first in every way. - Col. 1:18 -

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy has given us a new birth as his sons, by raising Jesus Christ from the dead, so that we have a sure hope and the promise of an inheritance that can never be spoilt or soiled and never fade away because it is being kept for you in the heavens. Through your faith, God's power will guard you until the salvation which has been prepared is revealed at the end time. - 1Peter 1:3-5 - 1Thess. 4:14-18 -

The Gospel of Saint John contrast resurrection to life with resurrection to judgment. "Those who did good will rise again to life; and those who did evil, to condemnation." - John 5:29 - Acts 24:14-16 - Apparently a similar contrast lies behind the statements in Revelation 20 about "the first resurrection" - 20:5 - and "the second death." - 20:14 -

So significant is the resurrection of Jesus Christ that without it there would be no Church or Christianity, and we would still be in our sins. - 1Cor. 15:17 -

                                                                     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 -

Adoption is the act of taking voluntarily a child of other parents as one's child; in a theological sense, the act of God's grace by which sinful people are brought into his redeemed family. In the Old Testament, adoption was never common among the Israelites. It was done by foreigners or by Jews influenced by foreign customs. Pharaoh's daughter adopted Moses and another pharaoh adopted Genubath. - Ex. 2:10; 1Kin. 11:20 - Furthermore, there is no Hebrew word to describe the process of adoption. When the Pharaoh's daughter adopted Moses, the text says, 'And he became her son.'

In the New Testament, the Greek word translated adoption literally means 'placing as a son.' It is a legal term that expresses the process by which a man brings another person into his family, endowing him with the status and privileges of a biological son or daughter.

By New Testament times, Romans exercised a great deal of influence on Jewish family life. One custom is particularly significant in relation to adoption. Romans law required that the adopter be a male and childless; the one to be adopted had to be an independent adult, able to agree to be adopted. In the eyes of the Law, the adopted one became a new creature; he was regarded as being born again into the new family - an illustration of what happens to the believer at conversion.

Saint Paul used this legal concept of adoption as an analogy to show the believer's relationship to God. Although similar ideas are found throughout the New Testament, the word adoption, used in a theological sense, is found in the writings of Paul. Paul's emphasis was that our adoption rests with God, who predestined us to adoption as sons. However, Gentiles believers have also been given the 'Spirit of adoption' which allows them to cry out, "Abba, Father."

Everyone moved by the Spirit is a son of God. The spirit you received is not the spirit of slaves bringing fear into your lives again; it is the spirit of sons, and it makes us cry out, "Abba, Father!" The Spirit himself and our spirit bear united witness that we are children of God. And if we are children we are heirs as well: heirs of God and coheirs with Christ, sharing his sufferings so as to share his glory. - Rom. 8:14-17 -

From the beginning till now the entire creation, as we know, has been groaning in one great act of giving birth; and not only creation, but all of us who possess the first-fruits of the Spirit, we too groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free. - Rom. 8:22-23 -

Now before we came of age we were as good as slaves to the elemental principles of this world, but when the appointed time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law and enable us to be adopted as sons. The proof that you are sons is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts: the Spirit that cries, "Abba, Father" and it is this that makes you a son, you are not a slave any more; and if God has made you a son, then he has made you heir. - Gal. 4:3-7 -

Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence, determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ, for his own kind purposes. - Eph. 1:4-5 -

Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us,
by letting us be called God's children;
and that is what we are. - 1John 3:1 -

Saint Paul also used the term to describe Israel's place of honor in God's plan: The privileges of Israel.

What I want to say now is no pretense; I say it in union with Christ - it is the truth - my conscience in union with the Holy Spirit assures me of it too. What I want to say is this: my sorrow is so great, my mental anguish so endless, I would willingly be condemned and be cut off from Christ if it could help my brothers of Israel, my own flesh and blood. They were adopted as sons, they were given the glory and the covenants; the Law and the ritual were drawn up for them, and the promises were made to them. They are descended from the patriarchs and from their flesh and blood came from Christ who is above all, God for ever blessed! Amen. - Rom. 9:1-5 -

God's adoption of the believer also has a future dimension, the assurance that the believer's body will be resurrected.

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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 -

HOLY  WEEK  REFLECTIONS  FOR  EASTER.

The Last Supper  -  Since our Divine Lord came to die, it was fitting that there be a Memorial of his death. Since he was God, as well as man, and since he never spoke of his death without speaking of his Resurrection, should he not himself institute the precise memorial of his own death? And that is exactly what he did the night of the Last Supper... His Memorial was instituted, not because he would die and be buried, but because he would live again after the Resurrection. His Memorial would be the fulfillment of the Law and the prophets; it would be one in which there would be a Lamb sacrificed to commemorate spiritual freedom; above all, it would be a Memorial of a New Covenant...a Testament between God and man.

When the hour came, [Jesus] took...a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to [his apostles] saying, "This my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood." - Luke 22:14-20 -

The Inner Cross  -  Every unhappy soul in the world has a cross embedded on it. The cross was never meant to be on the inside, but only on the outside. When the Israelites were bitten by the serpents, and the poison seeped within, Moses planted a brazen serpent on a stick and all who looked on it were healed...So the Son of Man came in the likeness of man, but was without sin, and all who look upon him on his cross are saved. In like manner, the inner cross disappears when one catches a vision of the great outer Cross on Calvary.

[Jesus] came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him. When he reached the place, he said to them, "Pray that you may not come into the time of trail." Then he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, knelt down, and prayed, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done." Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground. - Luke 22:39-44 -

The Scourging And The Crowning  -  Our Lord described himself as having a baptism wherewith he was to be baptized. John gave him the baptism of water, but the Roman soldiers gave him his baptism of blood. After opening his sacred flesh with violent stripes, they now put on him a purple robe which adhered to his bleeding body. Then they plaited a crown of thorns which they placed on his head. They mocked him and put a rod in his hand after beating him on the head. Then they knelt down before him in feigned adoration.

Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed. - Isaiah 53:4-5 -

The Cross  -  Many a cross we bear is of our own manufacture; we made it by our sins. But the cross which the Savior carried was not his, but ours. One beam in contradiction to his own. To the women who met him on the roadway, he said: "Weep not for me." To shed tears for the dying Savior is to lament the remedy; it were wiser to lament the sin that caused it. If Innocence itself took a Cross, then how shall we, who are guilty, complain against it?

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me...?
I am a worm, and not human;
scorned by others, and despised by the people...
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joints;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
my mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
For dogs are all around me;
a company of evildoers encircles me.
My hands and feet have shriveled;
I can count all my bones. - Psalm 22:1,6,14-17 -

The Fire Of Sin  -  The green tree was Christ himself; the dry tree the world. He was the green tree of life transplanted from Eden; the dry tree was Jerusalem first, and then the unconverted world. If the Romans so treated him who was innocent, how would they treat the Truth that is in his Church; in an uneasy conscience perhaps he beckoned you to his confessional; in a passing prayer he called you to greater prayerfulness...You accepted the truth, you confessed your sins, you perfected your spiritual life, and lo! in those moments when you thought you were losing everything, you found everything; when you thought you were going into your grave, you were walking in the newness of life...The antiphon of the Empty Tomb was striking on the chords of your heart. It was not you who died; it was sin. It was not Christ who died; it was death.

Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. - 1Corinthians 5:6-8 -

Our Mother Of Mercy  -  Through the centuries the Church Fathers have said that Our Lord keeps for himself half his regency, which is the kingdom of justice, but the other half he gives away to his Mother, and this the kingdom of mercy. At the marriage feast of Cana, Our Lord said that the hour of his Passion was not yet at hand - the hour when justice would be fulfilled. But his Blessed Mother begged him not to wait, but to be merciful to those who were in need, and to supply their wants by changing water into wine. Three years later, when not the water was changed into wine, but the wine into blood, he fulfilled all justice, but surrendered half his kingdom by giving to us that which no one else could give, namely, his Mother: "Behold thy Mother." Whatever mothers do for sons, that his Mother would do for us, and more.

Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph, who, though a member of the council, had not agreed to their plan and action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea, and he was waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. - Luke 23:50-56 -

The New Dynamics Of Easter  -  Finally the Easter lesson comes to our own lives. It has been suggested...that it is better to go down to defeat in the love of the Cross than to win the passing victory of a world that crucified. And now it is suggested in conclusion that it is better to go down to defeat in the eyes of the world by giving to God that which is wholly and totally ours. If we give God our energy, we give him back his own gift; if we give him our talents, our joys, and our possessions, we return to him that which he placed in our hands not as owners but as mere trustees.

Whatever gains I [Paul] had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ...For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes  through faith in Christ... I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. - Philippians 3:7-10 -

The executioners expected Jesus to cry, for everyone pinned to the gibbet of the cross had done it before him. Seneca wrote that those who were crucified cursed the day of their birth, the executioners, their mothers, and even spat on those who looked upon them. Cicero recorded that at times it was necessary to cut out the tongues of those who were crucified to stop their terrible blasphemies. Hence, the executioners expected a word, but not the kind of word that they heard...Like some fragrant trees which bathe in perfume the very axe that gashes them, the great Heart on the Tree of Love poured out from its depths something less a cry than a prayer - the soft, sweet, low prayer of pardon and forgiveness.

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 -