Further Instructions

 2Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. 3At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison– 4that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.  5Conduct yourselves wisely^[b] toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Final Greetings

 7Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant^[c] in the Lord. 8I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, 9and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here.

–

Today, I want to focus on verses 2-6, and bring up a somewhat touchy/controversial issue…but first, on prayer. 

Paul calls the Colossians to pray continually…to really devote (NASB) ourselves to it.  To be continually persevering, to be steadfastly adherent, to give constant attention–to prayer.  I know God definitely speaks to us through His Word, that is the Bible (the very thing we are doing in these devotions), but all relationships requires communication that is not just one-way but two-way: when God talks to us–and boy does He do that constantly–it means that we gotta talk back!  Even if we don’t know what to say to Him, or how to express it coherently–just do it–pray!  …But hey, don’t get trapped in the “me, me and me” type prayers when it’s about all we want and need from God.  Paul reminds us to give thanks (=praise) to God in our prayer!  And lastly…pray for evangelism, for those who are in places and positions of preaching (this should include all of us, His royal priesthood) so that we can share His good news with unbelievers.

Which brings us to the issue of relating to “outsiders”: how do we do it? 

Consider this: what if a couple (man+woman) came to visit your church this sunday for the first time, really enjoyed the service, but at the end of it had one question for you–”What is your church’s stance on homosexuality?”  How would you answer them?  Would you straight up tell them your church’s position, that is the Baptist General Conference’s position, on homosexuality?  Or recite the passage from Leviticus & Romans that explicitly says it’s wrong?  Or will u act wisely and season your speech with salt and grace, inviting them to experience the grace and power of God to forgive and give them life when they’d repent+accept Christ as their Lord and Saviour?

Often, and I think in most situations in life, there’s more to the question than just being honest about the truth or saying what is right.  We have to “pastoral” in a sense, to see the motivations & understand the actual question that lies beneath the question voiced.

If you’ve been paying attention to the chatter that’s been going on between the reformed/conservative and the pomo/emergent sides, this was the question that was asked of Brian McLaren a few weeks ago.  Basically, McLaren has so far avoided answering the question directly.  Personally, I agree that finding a pastoral response is a Biblical way of dealing with the Question…but considering I lean towards a reformed theology, I also affirm Pastor Mark Driscoll’s responsive question to McLaren– “Do you personally believe that all sexual activity between two persons of the same gender is always a sin?” 

Reading God’s word and sow it deep down into our lives,  is not meant to build up our theology but to change our reality…  And I hope we all answer YES to Driscoll’s question–an overflow of our theology into our reality. that we could bear witness to the power of God for the salvation of those who believe…to give testimony to the great hope for all of us sinners to be made alive in Jesus Christ.

Long post, but to end of, a quote from McLaren’s first post to finish off the story:

Later that week I got together with the new couple to hear their story. “It’s kind of weird how we met,” they explained. “You see, we met last year through our fathers who became . . . partners. When we get married, we want to be sure they will be welcome at our wedding. That’s why we asked you that question on Sunday.”

I just hate it sumtimes when God speaks to me so bluntly…a conviction in my heart and soul about a truth, all the while during a time of confusion, bitterness, unhappiness, trying-to-figure-it-out, lost, angry, mad…

The title of this post is supposed to get you to read the verse in the NASB, the most literal modern english translation there is.  I’d suggest reading the whole verse 12, but the point i’m trying to make, that God’s been making clear to me is this: hypocrisy.  We gotta get rid of it completely.  “Let love be without hypocrisy.”  Or as the ESV puts it more elegantly–”Let love be genuine.”  I don’t mean to judge anybody, except myself.  That such a big part of my worship in song is hypocrisy, that my life worship doesn’t even come close to it.  Seeing this in myself opened my eyes to those close and dear to me who also struggle in this lack of genuine, sincere, honest worship. 

And all this is really shaping my theology for this year’s Campus Challenge worship.  I’m just sick and tired of singing all this great amazing songs of worship, and yet our lives do not reflect what we sing.  I’m just disappointed at what effect it will be to plan all these great sets of songs of praise, if we do not express and confess to our God what we truly feel and live.  It’s just all about being real, u know!?  These songs, this soundtrack that plays…it’s useless futile and meaningless unless there’s a movie, a story, something going on in life that brings true substance and weight to what we say and sing to God, what we do with our hands and feet.

On the way back home, I was listening to an old sermon by Louie G, “Lovers of the King” from the Passion on the Hill 2002 series…and this passage just hit me hard:  1 John 4:7-21

God Is Love

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Self explanatory….but i’ve bolded/italicized/underlined some things that really woke me up.. just awakened me to the liars we have been at times, hypocrites of being a so-called Christian.

Sighs~ God is love. “Beloved”–as in, “IAMloved”. Thus God loved…He loved us first, and to be known as His, we are simply to love one another. Without this, or if we do this hypocritically, the world will not see His hand at work in our lives, our witnessing will be ineffective to say the least.

anywayz..need to study.

Past couple days I’ve been…sulking?  I was thinking of posting something yesterday, since relatively a lot “happened”: awkward surprise, perplexed, intrigued, shocked, uneasyness, sudden/out-of-the-blue, confused…judgement affected without me actively letting it be influenced.  insert classic Alex smile face with question mark ;-?

7 days from now, my world could be flipped upside down, or maybe I’ll flip it upside down.  But I’ve got a feeling it’s not gonna be flipped at all, and then I’m gonna flip out (no matter how insignificantly) about this.  I honestly deteste being the only one who’s got the ball in hand and won’t do anything about it coz I know I suck at basketball and a very high probability that I’ll miss, but still there being a very minute possibility of scoring a basket.  Stupid analogy, thought of this just now on the fly :S  But u know what I mean.  Actually, better yet put it this way–I tried my hand at basketball, failed miserably despite it not being entirely my fault and lack of basketball skills; got thrown out of the sport…and now, I guess I’m moving back to what I enjoyed before: ice hockey.  I can skate, shoot, and boy can I shoot, and bodycheck…so I should be really good at this..(only thing is I haven’t learned how to hockey-stop, hopefully this doesn’t mean anything).

Anywayz, been browsing thru Swarovski twice within 7days, not a good thing to do–it gives me ideas, sets price ranges in my head, and gets me to evaluate varies shapes, sizes and bling-intensity of crystal jewellery.  Last Thursday I went with my sis Jack, and today with Joyce.  Hmmm…I dunno, honestly, I think I wont be spending such $$ until many months down the road.

And at this rate, it might be a year. –>I am such a wuss… or maybe I’m just still so very guarded and scared still to open up my heart to anybody else.  I think the later is more true, I haven’t really opened up my life recently to anybody other than my close friends…and to the extent that I have with friends, I am still quite uneasy about spilling the whole truth of what’s aching me and only saying what hurts least. 

I feel like a little mouse that doesn’t click: earlier tonite I was on my desktop, unlocked my desktop with my username/password–but the mouse would not budge, stuck not moving, left right back forward buttons don’t work.  looking at the bottom, LED light is on.  weird, I unplug it out of my keyboard’s usb port, plug back in: no effect.  try the 2nd usb port: no effect.  After a minute, realized that BitComet had froze up again as usual (for some reason it does that after X amount of hours)…so I killed the process, and then my mouse worked again.
–> I think some software running in this OS of my life has froze up, and I’m just stuck unmoving.  Things just don’t click between me and..u know who,..my world.  It’s not easy and smooth as the past was, so despite my feelings and inclinations, and move forward and any clicking motion I initiate seems futile.

~sighs~  I don’t think I’m making any sense!

EDIT:
Oh my…I am distracted in my techy-news surfing by this cute Microsoft Chinese lady, Jenny Lam!  What do ya think?!?  A smart, techy Chinese gal…shweetess!  And I never imagined this–so much of my Windows eXperience was done by her :)  oh la la =D

n. Moral anguish arising from repentance for past misdeeds; a feeling of deep, bitter regret.  [Middle English remors, from Old French, from Medieval Latin remorsum, from neuter past participle of Latin remordre, to torment  : re-, re- + mordre, to bite; see mer- in Indo-European Roots.]

It’s what you would feel when you have caused another pain, or in my case, caused a dear–and damn, I mean dear–sibling in Christ to stumble and fall, and barely lift them up, edify or encourage them.

Apparently there is no need to be sorry for such things, but God has convicted me otherwise. So if you think me, feeling remorseful and with a heavy heavy conscience is not the right thing to do, please have a talk with my Heavenly Father, and I am sure He will explain to you how my heart beats and bleeds for the body of Christ, for love, forgiveness and reconciliation between brothers and sisters in Christ, His body which is the church.

I do not want to judge me or anybody else for how strong their faith is–I am simply convicted of the lack of my own.  However, please know this: I am weak, and Christ is strong, and He wants you and I to know that the way to life and glory is through our weaknesses.  To put it bluntly, He ordained all this–all of our weakness and failures–so that the power of our Saviour Jesus Christ may rest on us and be perfected.

In my tired weary body this morning, God spoke to me on all that I must give up in order to follow Him (Luke 14:33).  He wants my everything, and your everything, and He cannot accept anything less than our entirety.  In our lives so entrenched in modern western culture, so often I find myself giving up greed, materialism and the pleasures of this world and take up instead “hard work” and so many good ‘works’ that seemingly make me feel ‘godly’.  But it’s all such a lie.  Anything we do without faith is sin (Rom 14:23); and also in the same way, our faith with works is dead and useless (James 2).  And so I simply beeseech all who read this, to live by grace, through faith.  Let us be continually changed, everyday, by the Sovereign grace of God in His son Jesus Christ our LORD, and let the fruit of us being transformed by His grace to faith be works…good works.

Right now, I just pray that God grant me peace and serenity in trusting Him to carry me through. I am nothing and have nothing and can do nothing apart from Him.  This life is His, and all that happens in it, is also His.  I just hope that He will be all the more glorified in our obedience than our disobedience…coz such descension in the body simply splits the body apart and kills it.  I wanna die to my selfish ambition, self trying and self power, but I want to live to Christ.

“Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother… for the kingdom of God is a matter of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. …Let each of us please each other for the good of the other, to build him up.  May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”

Break our hearts O God, break our hearts
Break our hearts O God, break our hearts
For the sin in our lives, break our hearts
For the sin in our land, break our hearts
                
We cry out, we need Your hand
Come back to our land
We confess, we’ve lived in sin
Please show Your power once again

P.S.-The 2nd part to Internal Transformation is coming soon, I have not forgotten about that…just collecting my thoughts.

I’ve now officially exhausted all my Yahoo!Photos storage space!!  I have 0.00MBs of storage remaining!  I’ve tried deleting all my Cookies/Temp files, reinstalled the Yahoo!EasyUpload Tool, tried uploading one at a time through their regular HTML interface, but still I can’t upload any more photos:( 

And this is all after playing Email tag with Rogers support, and even had the issue “escalated a trouble ticket to our network engineers requesting them to investigate” this issue!–They are completely useless! They uploaded photos successfully onto my Yahoo!Photos after *I* provided them with my account password; this was before I filled up my storage as per this post.  Now I can’t upload anything, so they shall be hearing my mean angry voice in a few minutes!

Check out these screenshots & emails Rogers sent me back:

Dear Thomas More,

We apologize for the delay in responding to your email.  We are
currently receiving higher email volume than normal, and are attempting
to answer all email as quickly as possible in the order they arrive.

We are happy to assist you. The trouble ticket on your Photos issue is
still pending with our network operations centre. However, in the work
log of the ticket, our tests indicate that we were able to upload test
photos to your account from our end. If you are still encountering this
issue, please try clearing your cookies and browser cache to see if
this will resolve the issue.

If you have any further questions or comments regarding our service,
please fill out the online form on our Customer Support page listed
below or contact us by phone at 1-888-288-4663.

Sincerely,
Darren P.
Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet
Electronic Support Group
—–

Dear Thomas More,

Thank-you for your email.  We strive to provide you with the highest
level of customer support, and hope we can be of assistance in
addressing your questions.

Thank you for the information.

We have escalated a trouble ticket to our network engineers requesting
them to investigate this issue.  If this problem continues and you
would
like an update, please call or email us, quoting reference number
XXXXXXXXX and we would be pleased to provide you with any updates
that
are available.  

It normally takes our network engineers between 24 and 48 hours to
commence an investigation once all information is received, and add an
update to the ticket itself.  We apologize for any inconvenience in the
meantime.

If you have any further questions or comments regarding our service,
please fill out the online form on our Customer Support page listed
below or contact us by phone at 1-888-288-4663.

Sincerely,
Chris V.
Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet
Electronic Support Group
—–

Dear Alex Leung,

Thank you for emailing the Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet Electronic
Support team. We appreciate hearing from our subscribers regarding our
service.

We would be more that happy to assist you with your concerns.

In order to better determine the cause of the problem you are
experiencing, please email us your password for the Rogers Yahoo! user
ID in question. If you do not feel comfortable emailing this
information, please call us at our technical support number below.

If you have any further questions or comments regarding our service,
please fill out the online form on our Customer Support page listed
below or contact us by phone at 1-888-288-4663.

Regards,
Anil M.
Rogers Yahoo!Hi-Speed Internet
Electronic Support Group