Rounding up some interesting links that I want to share
John Piper on Tongues and Prophecy: This topic has been in my mind for a while.
Tim Challies talking about Bibliolater: Do you worship the God revealed in Scripture or do you worship the Bible (the paper and ink and word)?
$5 Friday Sale at Ligonier: Perhaps some good stuff on sales.
Oprah Winfrey, Nick Vujicic and Rick Warren: Somewhat went viral in the Christian Community.
Reference Menu is a title in which I share some links with you that stood out to me. These links can consist of articles, book reviews, news, youtube, and much more to name in however way God wants to use these links to bless my brothers and sisters.
Louie Giglio – This article is a roundup of different articles from different view about the recent situation of Louie Giglio withdrawing himself from the inauguration of prayer for President Obama.
End It Movement – This is the movement that Louie Giglio started. It is about ending human trafficking and slavery.
Awake My Soul – Chris Tomlin released a new album called “Burning Lights”. This is one of the new songs that was composed featuring Lecrae. I believe the song is based upon Ezekiel 37.
Be in prayer for our nation. Be in prayer for Louie Giglio. He did one of the bravest things by responding graciously to the invite of doing a prayer of inauguration for President Obama.
During my holidays from school, I usually post more blog entries. Given the free time I have to think through stuff, I make the time to share my thoughts with you and what God is teaching me through Scripture. Now that school is in procession again, I will not have a lot of time to post blog entries. To have this blog become a bit more lively, I’ll do my best, by the grace of God, to post at least one entry per week, just to share with you how I am doing.
Never have I thought, by the grace of God, I would read Jeremiah again. Some of my friends say I have the gift of knowledge, in which specifically to recall Scripture reference and know the Bible a lot. I take that as a compliment. I just spoke on knowledge because I remember the horror and pain and strive in reading the book of Jeremiah the prophet. I do not mean the book is hard and dull to read, and I have to wrestle with the dull passages. What I really mean, is the emotional impact that it gave me when I read the horrendous evil and the atrocity that the Israelite had committed in the history of Jews.
Jeremiah the prophet was called into ministry by God as a youth to prophecy to the nation of Judah. The time that he was called was during the last couple of kings before Babylon came and invade Jerusalem in 586 BC. Jeremiah saw the atrocity and he saw how Jerusalem was destroyed. And he was persecuted and throw into torture for prophesying against Judah and telling them to repent. Again and again throughout the book of Jeremiah, there is sin after sin after sin, and nobody repented. Because Judah’s sin, God’s unleashes His wrath and cast judgement upon Jerusalem. At the same time, there is a promise, a new covenant, and hope being made in the middle of Jeremiah, but I’m not going to talk about that in this post. Read these passages and get a feel for Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 2:12-13
Jeremiah 3:1
Jeremiah 4:22-26
Jeremiah 5:3
Jeremiah 7:30-31
Jeremiah 10:14-15
Jeremiah 11:7-8
I’m usually a long reader, so I read a chunk of chapters during my devotion. Absorbing what the Word of God says, I feel overwhelmed, emotional, and about to tear up. Most of the time, I think, when Christians read the Old Testament, they mock, tease, insult the Israelite for being stupid and wonder why they would not repent and turn to God knowing that they would be judged. Christians, remember what the Apostle Paul said:
Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.
(1 Corinthians 10:11)
They were written down for our instruction. Why? So that we too won’t fall into the same idolatry as they did. They were examples for us as to the consequence of idolatry. So too during the Jeremiah’s time, the Jews whore after other gods like Baals and abandoning Yahweh.
We too are as sinful as they were. We are no different. In this society, the temptation to fall into idolatry is everywhere. We worship and praise something or someone other than God Himself. For me, reading Jeremiah helps me to also see that I am also a sinner and I am also an idolater, but Christ has redeemed me and saved me. And my old self is put away and I am a new creature in Christ. Because of what Christ through His death and resurrection, and when we die to sin and become alive in Christ, we can to put to death what is earthly (Colossians 3:5). Christians, let me urge you to reading the book of Colossians and understand the impact the gospel makes in a believer’s life.
Let me add one more thing before I stop blogging.
I enjoyed updating the songbook. The amount of work being put in just pays off in the end, but I don’t think that’s the real deal that I’m talking about. It’s the joy of serving others for God’s kingdom. I’m already used to doing tedious work at school, so it’s not a huge deal for me to do other tedious work. 🙂
During my break from school, I was getting myself busy by updating the new songbook for my church, specifically for the Youth and Young Adult ministry. It’s not normal for me to sit at home and do nothing. When I don’t do anything, it’s usually a break for me to relax and settle down from the business of school. Usually I take time and plan for the future by looking at jobs and praying about it.
The work (updating the songbook) that God gave me is almost complete. It took a very long process to collect 200 songs, adding and rewording tiny details of the lyrics, and discerning which key is best for every song and adding the chords.
This job was extremely tedious with lots of sweat and good eyes to spot errors. You need a lot of patience, especially when dealing with technological difficulties. Most of the time the lyrics or words of the song would shift to the next page, which would affect the rest of the songs as their lyrics would also go to the next page, so you need to go through the pages and fix that.
Choosing songs can be a tough job. I attend a small church, and my youth group has around 15-20 kids show up for every Sunday school. And our youth is room is just a simple room with couches and instruments. We do not need any hip and cool, rock and roll, and concert like worship. God does not need our worship, but our worship is about responding to God.
This afternoon, I was listening to Passion 2013 live broadcast, and +John Piper was preaching. I don’t know what the main topic was, but he was talking about the joy of suffering for Christ. And Piper, again, gives a very deep statement that made me ponder for a while.
Our worship is the subjective echo of God’s objective worth.
God is already infinitely worthy. He has this inherent worth. He doesn’t need our worship to make Himself even more worthy or add to His worth. His glory is immense and far surpasses everything else in this universe and galaxy. Our act of worship is a subjective, inner, and personal response of God’s already infinite worth, whether if you’re singing, praying, studying, living…your life is worship (Romans 12:1-2).
I love how the Psalmist puts it, and I think it resonates with what John Piper stated.
How lovely is your dwelling place,
O LORD of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.
(Psalm 84:1-2)
Going back to choosing songs, I want to find songs that may be helpful for everyone in my church to sing. I’m also thankful for others who have suggested songs that we could sing together in such a way that the songs could teach us something, edify us, admonish us, and help us to respond to God’s glory (Colossians 3:16-17).
To help my brothers and sisters out there that are having hard time finding songs, below are some links that you may find helpful and hopefully would increase your ministry by the grace of God.
http://www.worshiparchive.com/
http://www.ccli.com/
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/
http://higherpraise.com/
I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
(Romans 9:1-3)
I’ve been meditating on this passage for the whole day. As I think about those who don’t have a relationship with God, it is not only my friends who need salvation in Jesus Christ, but my whole family also needs know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
I pondered and wondered what Paul was experiencing when he said he has “sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart”. I imagined tears. I also pondered why he would wish to be separated from God for the sake of his brothers. The answer is very simple: love. Paul would wish, if it were possible, that he would be accursed and to suffer the eternal punishment from God in exchange for his fellow Jews being saved. However, even if Paul wished that, it wouldn’t do any good. As Christians, we must recognize that we do not have the supernatural power to save anybody. God can use us and empower us to share the gospel with them, but the ultimate result is up to God. There’s not much we could do to save our lost friends and families, but Paul still had hope in God through prayer:
Everyday, as I am blogging, is a grace from God. Every breath that I take is mercy from God. Everyday, as a sinner, God rescued me from the pit of despair and being dead in my sin. I’m here because of God’s grace and mercy through Jesus Christ’s life, death burial and resurrection. God has been gracious, and He’s inviting us to ask Him and to talk to Him.
I am a reader. A geek or a nerd who likes to read. The book that I can read and study forever is the Bible. Aside from the Bible, I also read Christian books from time to time. Not just any ordinary Christian books, but books that are Gospel-centered and Bible-based. Additionally, books that are philosophical and apologetic. There are many Christian books out there, but a lot of them are garbage. How do I know? You can always walk around the bookstores, such as Chapters, and go to the Christianity section and pick up any random book from there and read the content and what it is about. Or you can always browse through the internet, such as amazon, to find books. Teaching Christians how to live the Christian life is especially popular with regards to books. Books that teach Christians how to live, how to be a better you, how to be successful, how to be victorious, and etc.
Tommy Wong 