O LORD GOD, WHO INHABITEST ETERNITY,
The heavens declare thy glory,
The earth thy riches,
The universe is thy temple;
They presence fills immensity,
Yet though hast of they pleasure created life, and communicated happiness;
Thou hast made me what I am, and given me what I have;
In thee I live and move and have my being;
They providence has set the bounds of my habitation,
    and wisely administers all my affairs.
I thank thee for thy riches to me in Jesus,
    for the unclouded revelation of him in thy Word,
      where I behold his person, character, grace, glory,
      humiliation, sufferings, death, and resurrection;
Give me to feel a need for his continual saviourhood,
    and cry with Job, ‘I am vile’,
       with Peter, ‘I perish’,
       with the publican, ‘Be merciful to me, a sinner’,
Subdue in me the love of sin,
Let me know the need of renovation as well as of forgiveness,
    in order to serve and enjoy thee for ever.
I come to thee in the all-prevailing name of Jesus,
    with nothing of my own to plead,
    no works, no worthiness, no promises.
I am often straying,
    often knowingly opposing they authority,
    often abusing they goodness;
Much of my guilt arises from my religious privileges,
    my low estimation of them,
    my failure to use them to my advantage,
But I am not careless of they favour or regardless of they glory;
Impress me deeply with a sense of thine omnipotence,
    that thou art about my path, my ways, my lying down, my end.

(From The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions, by Arthur G. Bennett)

Boundless has a really good article about “Blogging Responsibly“–especially as Christians!

Mark Dever @ the T4G blogs shares about evangelism & the need to be clear!

A new video sermon has been posted to New Attitude; Eric Simmons (of Covenant Life Church) speaks about our mission to reach the world next door.

Reformation21 has a great article about Calvin’s view of missions.

Albert Mohler talks about the controversial issue of women in the pastorate within the SBC.

Phil Johnson contends that though the unity that Christ called for was not organizational, we can still have unity that transcends denominations.

And anybody wanna play Fantasy Church with me?!?

I just got back from meeting with some people from my old Campus Challenge 2005 small group.  It’s been a while since we met up… for me, I didn’t see some of them for 2 years now LOL (coz I missed our last get-together a ~3months back).  We just met up at Starbucks (originally planned for Timothy’s) in Main Street, Unionville… there was only 4 of us who made it, but still it was a good time catching up.

The first hour or so we just caught up with each other’s lives, what’s been happening, anything new going on…which eventually led to the the inevitable discussion which lasted the bigger half of our night: dating & relationships.  One of the girls just started a relationship in May, and the ball just kept rolling from there.  I ended up sharing about the jist of what happened with my last relationship…and what’s happening now–and how complicated it is.  LOL!  And near the end of the night, we started discussing whether or not we would or could start or keep a long distance relationship.  I think it kinda started with me talking about such being a complication, that it’s only a matter of time that I’d be going to seminary for years–most likely out of the province or even out of the country–and whether or not I would wait for my current prospect/interest.  I don’t know if I/we concluded anything, but the truth is I’m already “waiting” in a sense.

In general, we found that most of us haven’t had that experience of having a long-distance relationship… though one of us shared that it just didn’t work for him.  With long-d, the distance and the time apart simply becomes less and less bearable over time.  Even for a strong and committed couple who are intentional and faithful in keeping the relationship going via phone/internet, many obstacles and issues will develop as you miss each other more and more and both parties developing ‘wonder’ about what’s really going on with the other.  It’s just really hard not to need and thus search for friendship when your companion is a million miles away and cannot see them for long periods of time.  I just finished reading “Message in a Bottle” and it was a major issue that came up in the story… sacrifices will have to be made, and somebody will have to give up more than the other.  In the end, whether or not it can work out, depends on the people in the relationship… whether or not both are willing to go through such a lengthy ordeal, and if their character and will can endure the loneliness of time and distance.

Knowing me and my hopeful-romanticness, being one who would be intensely jealous about my girlfriend being close with other guys… a long-d relationship would be very, very hard to sustain, and I don’t know if I could survive months apart.  Ideally, I would think that I could and would be patient and faithful, but over the course of time I’d never really know whether or not I could take it.  I only pray and wish that I don’t have to go through such a thing… but for some reason, my pseudo-gift of prophecy tells me that I’ll likely face this trial.  ~sighs~  These are the days I wish life were more simple–God does this all gotta be so hard?!?

“We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
–Romans 5:3-5

This may be a bit out of context, but I think what Paul says here speaks truth into this very issue of long distance relationships.  To put it a bit more plainly:
suffering –> endurance –> character –> hope.

And from this, knowing that God has called us to suffer–it’s a given–the question is whether or not we will thrive in this life, or just survive.  Do you want your life to display the greatness of the glory of God’s grace?  If so, then know this–any and all you’re suffering will ultimately show the world whether or not you are tranformed by the Spirit of God through the suffering of Christ Jesus that is extended to you.

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” (Colossians 1:24).  Nothing is lacking in the suffering of Christ for our salvation…but this suffering in our flesh is our working out our salvation with fear and trembling (not working for it).  All this is part of sanctification, the process of becoming holy and Christ-like, set apart for Him.  God has made us righteous, holy, forgiven and faithful–justification–made right and acceptable to God by the substituationary atonement of His Son Jesus Christ’s death on the the Cross… God’s love is hence poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.  And thus sanctification’s energy & power has its source in and is the fruit of this justifying gift of grace.

May we preach the Gospel to ourselves day in and day out.. and may God’s grace be the only thing that saves us, and moreover, the only thing that we need in life to sustain us.  May we desperately depend on His Spirit that is within us, eagerly expect Him to do wonders, and to humbly respond to His movement.

The sky has lost its color, the sun has turned to gray;
At least that’s how it feels to me whenever you’re away.
I crawl up in a corner, to watch the minutes pass;
Each one brings me closer to the time when you’ll be back…
You’re comin’ back

I can’t take the distance, I can’t take the miles,
I can’t take the time until the next see you smile.
I can’t take the distance and I’m not ashamed,
That I can’t take a breath without sayin’ your name.
I can brave a hurricane and still be standin’ tall
when all the dust has settled down.
But I can’t take the distance.

I still believe in feelings but sometimes I feel too much,
I make believe you’re close to me;
But it ain’t close enough–not nearly close enough!

Grace to you and peace from God our Father,
SDG

After a weekend of summer camp with my church’s Aletheia Fellowship, I’ve yet again been reminded about dating/courting within our church (fellowships) and how unwelcoming the environment at Jaffray is for dating/courting relationships.  It makes relationships very hard to talk about between people within the church, not to mention start or maintain one.

Like one of my t-shirt’s says, “I’m simple.  It’s complicated.”

Ok, maybe you”ll disagree with the “I’m simple” part, but that’s not my point.  The fact is, that the environment fostered at Jaffray hardly lives up to being seriously considered as a community of faith.  I’m not trying to bad-mouth my church here, but I am stating that there is a dire need for a genuine community of faith, that is united in one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.  While relationships are often talked about, like via workshop at summer camp this weekend, it is rarely discussed between members.  It is a taboo subject to talk about how each other feels (about others / likely ‘candidates’ in the church), as if it’s a shame to talk seriously and openly talk about where we stand personally in terms of dating/courtship.

How did it get this way?  I’m not sure… it could have been laziness or complacency.   My generation of 22 year old and older could very well be considered responsible for this lack of authenticity in our fellowship, prayer and worship life.  We can gossip all we want, but honest discussion and prayer about what is REALLY on our hearts has been neglected.  I know this by what people talk to me about, and what I talk to others about… and what others ask me to pray for them about.

Small talk.  Surface things.  Separation of church and your private (dating/courting/family) life…. as if it is not important.

This all brews an environment of anymosity and reticence… and in essence, I find us setting ourselves up for a fall.  Why?  Because it’s not really a community of faith.  We don’t support each other in our relational/emotional needs; we don’t seek the help, wisdom and prayers from the body; we don’t tell each other what’s really bothering us, we don’t pray for what really matters.  All we talk/pray about is work, school, job searching, ilness/death of family/relatives, and as of late, the apostasy of the Emerging Church movement.  Maybe I’m exaggerating, or maybe I just don’t see things clearly and making a huge assumption.  But my assumptions here are based upon hearing (this weekend) what is really bothering some (brothers) at church, and knowing what really bothers me in my heart.

I can tell you for certain that nobody in the so-called community of faith at my church knew any details about the breakup and hell I went through last year.  A few members on my worship team may have gotten to hear the basics as I requested for prayer during worship practices, and less than a handful of friends know anything about it from my mentioning after small talking became less small.  I’ll be honest–I found no support from the church or church friends when I was dating, and after breaking up.

Nobody asks; nobody tells.

We can talk & learn all about the Biblical principles of “it”, but never talk about what is actually going on between each other.  This is the main thing that makes me furious–the lack of genuine, authentic friendships where we can talk about things openly.  It breeds a pseudo-community of faith where the community does not actively support its individual parts.  And if it is, it’s in the smallest of cliques and not the larger community.  It’s like, we have cell groups to support married couples but no support for those (contemplating) dating… here I find our failure in the singles ministry, or rather, the lack of one–and the signifiance of this is neglect is only revealed when colosal disasters/heartaches happen. Within the younger generations of our church English congregation, seeking romantic relationships between church members will be complicated for a long time, in as far as the forseeable future.

I can testify that I’ve tip-toed into this realm of trying to start something, but only to get burned by the level of (or rather, the lack of) honest conversations about each other’s feelings and positions; we grow up together but can hardly say that many of us are good, good friends.  Other than 2 married couples and 1-2 longterm dating couples in our English congregation (not including our intern), stepping into the realm of possibily dating is tremendously complicated because there are too many issues in having a relationship with somebody from church.  (Many of us have grown up together, know each other’s parents, and even have each other’s general history like the back of our hand).  I know many of us, especially the teens, are scared off by this, since there’s bound to be gossip/rumouring on the girls side & the guys just seldom talk about this stuff.  So when somebody does speak up and feelings aren’t reciprocated, “silent treatment” or weird feelings, etc. are likely to ensue.  If parties invovled are not mature, it can cause dissension in the Body of Christ….which really sucks, sinice it’s all preventable.

I also find that the few public visible relationships I mentioned in our church have set a bad example for the younger folks, albeit unknowingly and even unintentionally.  It would seem that your first will be your last, that it’s easy and there are no serious trials and hardships in relationships… but stastically and in reality, that is not the case. People end up believing and hoping for something that isn’t possible, setting oneself up for a fall when it doesn’t work out like you thought it would.

What is wrong with this picture?

Are we not all God-fearing, worshipping, praying Christians who seek Him and His righteousness first in all things, and know + proclaim that Christ is our first love, that God is the only thing that satisfies us?   If all of us are God loving, Bible believing Christians who have been saved and forgiven by Christ’s atoning sacrifice–why do we still live this way and why do we still do fellowship/church in this manner?  What holds us back from being a genuine community of faith, if we all know the Biblical principles of manhood and womanhood, sacrifice and submission?

Why in the world are things the way the are?

Why do I say all this?  Because I can’t help but be humbled by how Scripture commands us to live in a way completely different than the way we are living… and I find that we have failed miserably in obeying His Word, to the point that we are barely trying–and I am partly responsible for this also.

“A community of faith that glorifies God and edifies others.”

Hebrews 10:19-25

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

The person and the work of Jesus Christ–our High Priest–has shed His own blood to redeem us from sin and shame, and to win our access into the Father’s power and presence; he became the penal substitutionary sacrifice for us–once for all–so that we could be forgiven, cleansed, that we could have a clear conscience, that we could be accepted by Holy God.

The implications of what Jesus has done for us is huge.  Since Christ has accomplished our salvation through His sacrifice, and since we have new life in Him–let us do what He has called us to do as a response.  Since God has given us revelation of who He is and what He has done, a response is demanded; worship is required.

Christ has sacrifice has ushered us into communion with God the Father, into community fellow believers.  He designed our Christian live to be lived together with other Christians; salvation is bigger than just me myself and I.  And this why I think the new life that Christ has graced us with is supposed to be a life lived together.  A life where we care for one another together, encourage each other together, guard one another together, and grow together.

I’m not saying that we have to tell each other (or the pastor) every nitty gritty detail about every date we go out on; nor am I saying that we should gossip.  I’m just saying that we can and should keep each other more accountable, to pray for each other continually in these matters of courtship and marriage, talk and discuss what really matters/bugging us.  Because the gift of singleness is the exception to the rule; because before there was even women in the world God put in man the feeling of loneliness and the need for intimate companionship.  Because we shouldn’t just need each other when we are in troubling times… because I think we could care and encourage one another before we experience hardship, before the real-life issues hit us–because we can better help and prepare each other for the obstacles ahead.  I’m sure life is more than just school and work–but too often, that’s just what we talked about.

I think that when Paul speaks about becoming a man and putting away his childish ways in 1 Corinthians 13–he exhorts us to a 3-fold maturity: speech, thought and reason.  He testifies that when he was a child he talked, thought and reasoned like it…but when he grew up, he put gave up all those childish ways.  God calls us to growing up (which is different from growing old) to full maturity: in speech, thought and reasoning.  I fear that we have put on a mask, a face of maturity that is seen to others in our actions and speech (maybe even in our thoughts shared with others)…but all the while, our reasoning is still immature and childish.  I fear that some of us may even be serving the community with our God-given spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12), but in the midst of it, doing so without true, agape, phileo love (1 Cor 13).  I feel compelled to remind us today, that it’s all useless–all our acts of service and gifts of the spirit–if we have not genuine, authentic love for each other.  Because Christ first loved us.

From hearing and praying about such dating/courtship issues for other church brothers over summer camp, I find myself in a position mentorship and discipleship.  There are a good bunch of younger guys at church who are experiencing things that I’ve “been there and done that” already.  In my teenage days, I had Pastor Ben to walk and talk me through, and the younger guys (and gals) lack such mentorship.   I hope that in the near future I can help give the guys the same kind of mentorship that I had received in my younger years.  That we can care, encourage, grow and guard each other together.

A photo from my 3rd year trip to Salzburg, Austria

Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of receiving a small gift in the mail from a friend in Maryland… Connie Chang.  She works for New Attitude Conference, a ministry of Josh Harris’ church, Covenant Life Church / Sovereign Grace Ministries.  She was kind of enough to send me a WorshipGod06 wristband, exacto knife?, prayer card, and a post card with some gracious words written on the back of it:

Anyways, before I post what I’ve been meaning to post for the past few days… I just want to leave a note here, about how/what I’ve been feeling.  It’s a complicated feeling, a good feeling, but a still a feeling that could very well fade away in an instant.  I could choose to let this go right now, at this very moment… but to think of what I’d be losing–I pause and realize that this will truly be a God-sized test of patience, the largest I’ve experienced in all my life.  A friend calls it being at a cross-road, but I just find myself walking my path, and my friend here walking hers… currently more or less side by side, though not hand in hand… sooner or later, when I leave for seminary, the distance will be much larger between us.  In a sense I’ve said what I really wanted to say, but the truth is, there’s more… a lot more… something big enough to encompass my entire future.

I’m tugging at my hair
I’m pulling at my clothes
I’m trying to keep my cool
I know it shows
I’m staring at my feet
My cheeks are turning red
I’m searching for the words inside my head
‘Cuz I’m feeling nervous
Trying to be so perfect
‘Cuz I know you’re worth it…you’re worth it…yeah

If I could say what I want to say
I’d say I want to blow you… away
Be with you every night
Am I squeezing you too tight?
If I could say what I want to see
I want to see you go down on one knee…
Marry me today!
Guess I’m wishing my life away…
With these things I’ll never say

It don’t do me any good
It’s just a waste of time
What use is it to you, what’s on my mind?
If it ain’t comin’ out
We’re not goin’ anywhere
So why can’t I just tell you that I care?
‘Cuz I’m feeling nervous
Trying to be so perfect
‘Cuz I know you’re worth it…you’re worth it…yeah

What’s wrong, with my tongue
These words keep slippin’ away…
I stutter…I stumble
Like I’ve got nothin’ to sa-ay…
I’m feelin’ nervous
Tryin’ to be so perfect
‘Cuz I know you’re worth it…
You’re worth it…yeah

Today is the 24th of August, hence I must dedicate this special post to saying

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
to 2 very special ladies of mine:

Princess, who turns 21 today…. … and Dark Eyes, who turns 19

 
I luv ya both very, very much, sisters… albeit in different capacities!

-

I’ve been resting, reading and drinking a lot of Neo Citran the past 24hrs… so I haven’t gotten around to finishing the post I started on dating in the church.  For now, I leave you with this very intriguing look at The Tyranny of Quiet Time, by Tim Challies: 

Like all Christians, I love my quiet time. I am always thrilled at the prospect of sitting down during the few quiet moments before a busy day to spend some time alone with God–a few moments one-on-one with my Creator. I love to open the Bible and to carefully and systematically read the Word of God, allowing it to penetrate my heart. I love to sit and think deeply and meditatively about the Scriptures and to seek ways that I can apply God’s word to my heart. I love to pray to God, pouring out my heart in confession, praise, thanksgiving and petition. It is always the best and greatest part of my day. I couldn’t live without my quiet time.

But that’s not reality, is it?

Like all Christians, I sometimes love my quiet time. While I am sometimes thrilled at the prospect of sitting down to spend some time with God, all too often I dread it. I’d rather catch up on the news or spend some time writing or reading a good book or find out how badly the Bluejays beat the Red Sox the day before. My quiet time is often invaded by little children, demanding my time and attention. Too often I hate to make my way through a difficult book of the Bible and dread spending another day reading through the prophecies of Isaiah. Thinking requires more time and effort than I am willing to give and it usually seems that a quick, cursory prayer is enough to make me feel that I’ve done my duty and asked God to bless my day and to forgive me for being a jerk with my kids the night before. I skim Scripture, breathe a prayer, and settle down to my breakfast.

That’s a little closer to reality, isn’t it?

In The Discipline of Grace, Jerry Bridges provides two scenarios and then a question. In the first, he describes a good day. “You get up promptly when your alarm goes off and have a refreshing and profitable quiet time as you read your Bible and pray. Your plans for the day generally fall into place, and you somehow sense that presence of God with you. To top it off, you unexpectedly have an opportunity to share the gospel with someone who is truly searching. As you talk with the person, you silently pray for the Holy Spirit to help you and to also work in your friend’s heart.” We’ve all had days like that. But we’ve also all had days like this: “You don’t arise at the first ring of your alarm. Instead, you shut it off and go back to sleep. When you awaken, it’s too late to have a quiet time. You hurriedly gulp down some breakfast and rush off to the day’s activities. You feel guilty about oversleeping and missing your quiet time, and things just generally go wrong all day. You become more and more irritable as the day wears on, and you certainly don’t sense God’s presence in your life. That evening, however, you unexpectedly have an opportunity to share the gospel with someone who is really interested in receiving Christ as Savior.” Bridges then asks if you would enter into those two witnessing opportunities with a different degree of confidence. Think about it for a moment. If you’re like most Christians, I suspect you would feel less confident about witnessing on a bad day then on a good day. You would feel less confidence that God would speak in and through you and that you would be able to share your faith forcefully and with conviction.

Why is it that we tend to think this way? According to Bridges, we’ve come to believe that God’s blessing on our lives is somehow conditional upon our spiritual performance. In other words, if we’ve performed well and done our quiet time as we ought to have done, we have put ourselves in a place where God can bless us. We may not consciously articulate this, but we prove that we believe it when we have a bad day and are certain that on this day we are absolutely unworthy of God’s blessings. This attitude “reveals an all-too-common misconception of the Christian life: the thinking that, although we are saved by grace, we earn or forfeit God’s blessings in our daily lives by our performance.”

Perhaps you, like me, have too often turned quiet time into a performance. If we perform well for God, we enter our day filled with confidence that God will bless us, and that He will have to bless us. We feel that our performance has earned us the right to have a day filled with His presence, filled with blessings, and filled with confidence. And, of course, when we turn in a poor performance, we feel that God is in heaven booing us and heaving proverbial rotten vegetables in the form of removing His presence and, in the words of a friend, “dishing out bummers.”

Quiet time becomes tyrannical when we understand it as a performance. Bridges provides a pearl of wisdom. “Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.” Whether we are having a good day or a bad day, the basis of our relationship with is not our performance, for even our best efforts are but filthy rags, but grace. Grace does not just save us and then leave us alone. No, grace saves us and then sustains us and equips us and motivates us. We are saved by grace and we then live by grace. Whether in the midst of a good day or bad, God does not base His relationship with us on performance, but on whether or not we are trusting in His Son.

Read the rest of the article here…

Well, my cold got worse yesterday… and I started sneezing and all that wonderful stuff.  I woke up this morning feeling better than yesterday, but still stuffed in my nasal passages.  Boo urns!

Yesterda, I started a very intriguing missive about dating within the church, or more specifically within my church.  I’ll be posting that soon…  Be ready for a reformed Charismatic view about dating in the church;-)

For now, I am reposting a very serious entry I posted a month ago concerning a one-time incident during a Sunday Worship Service at my church.  After serious consideration, I have now re-released the entry to the public, available here.  I encourage you to read it, and measure my view against what is Biblically and traditionally considered a ‘true church’, against what is necessary for the salvation.  Again, please consider the seriousness of my concern about this one-time incident. We are human and all make mistakes in life, even in putting together Worship Services in His name.  I don’t want to blow it up to huge proportions… so hopefully something of that nature will never ever happen again.  Please comment in that post, I’d love to hear what y’all think.