I am about to release a new theme and layout for my blog tonight (Ash Wednesday), but before I do I think I should explain a little about why I blog in the first place. If I don’t make a clear declaration of my purpose in blogging, I will be posting blogposts aimlessly without reason.

I started off blogging in July 2004 without any specific purpose at gisrs.net, but to jot down my thoughts and feelings about life. Blogging was becoming popular and I wanted an ad-free place to share my thoughts, and so I got my own website and domain (which proclaimed my interest in GIS and RS–geographic information systems & remote sensing).

In the beginning, I didn’t have much to say about the church and Christianity, nor did I have many readers. But after restarting my blog in January 2006 here at sixsteps.org, I found a fresh zeal to share my faith on the web after attending Passion06. Thanks to Apprising.org and ChristianResearchNetwork.com (formerly SliceOfLaodicea), I have an increasing blog readership that I have yet to really cherish.

But know this my dear readers–I am continually thankful for God that you care (or are bored) enough to be reading my blog. I honestly hope and pray that my journey has been edifying to you and glorifying to God. In the past, I have made some serious blogging blunders by airing out the dirty laundry of my own church and the ministries I lead… mistakes that I am still learning and healing from. I am not perfect, and my love for you sometimes isn’t seen clearly in my writting. Please pray for me. If somehwere along the way I have hurt or offended you, I ask for your forgiven–please know that it was never my intention to do so. I have no personal vendetta against anybody, except for Satan and his evil followers, and want only to build up the body of Christ through my encouragements and exhortations.

Reformed and Reforming

If you have read my blog for the past year or so, you would have come to know that I am first and foremost a Reformed Christ follower. I say this with the utmost humility as I possibly can, knowing that I am only alive today because of grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, on the authority of Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone. I affirm that I am the worst sinner I know. For by the grace of God I am doing better than I deserve. For I deserve the righteous wrath of God because of my sin; I deserve to be punished eternally. However, in the mystery of His mercy, God sacrificed and crushed His Son on the Cross–as my substitute–so that I might be forgiven of my sin and know God as my Father rather than my Judge.

For all this…I am truly thankufl for and amazed by the grace of God. In as much as I am Reformed and believe in the doctrines of grace, my own theology is still reforming. Meaning, it isn’t set in stone (even though at times and on the primary, non-negotiable issues it is), and that I really do not know that much about theology–yet. I am still learning, I am still being molded by Scripture, and most importantly, I am still being shaped by the cross. From applying to Southern Seminary, I have reflected in the past couple months about my spiritual pilgrimage and realize that I am on a journey of being shaped by the Cross–and yearn that others around would also be continually transformed by Christ. This is what I call “cruciformity“.

Cruciformity is a compund word: cruciform + conformity.

1. conformity to the cruciform: the cross of Jesus Christ;
2. action in accord with Christian standards, attitudes, practices, etc.;
3. correspondence in form, nature, or character to Cross;
4. agreement, congruity, or accordance with the beautiful news of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in the substitutionary atonement that Christ provided when he suffered and died on the Cross;
5. compliance or acquiescence; obedience to live a life worthy of the Grace which we have received.

In blogging, I hope that I can be honest and genuine in showing that I have been and still am being cruciformed: that I love the Him and His church and His Word, and wish that the world would receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. With continual discernment and a truly humble orthodoxy, I hope that I can speak the truth in love (Eph.4:15-16), so that if at all possible, you would be benefited personally, spiritually…that His church and His body would grow and be built up in love.

Augustine once said, “Victoria veritatis est caritas.” Nothing conquers except truth and the victory of truth is love. I believe in and would die for the very truth that is (in) God’s Word. But if I blog in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal (1 Cor. 13). I would never want to be a cymbal or a resounding gong, but rather hope that my life and my words would be sound and coherent–a testimony to the grace of God.

I am not a preacher, though I hope to be one in the future. I am not very pro at this blogging thing, though by the Spirit’s empowerment and the grace of Christ, I strive to be better.

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.

I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
-Philippians 3:7-9, 13-14

In Christ alone,

Alex Leung
http://www.sixsteps.org/

SDG