I Was Just Wondering

I think one of the main reasons why I like Philip Yancey is because he distills some of the greater writings into palatable bite size nuggets of enlightenment There was a phase when i was so inspired by his description of certain classical writers that I bought the original books- it didn't help that I was in the States and books were really cheap off amazon. But 2 years later and counting, I have not managed to finish a single book with many 'given up halfway' attempts in between.

This book is a collection of his thoughts as he reads and observes the different phenomenon around him. Its kinda like a collection of blog posts arranged in loose themes. I love his writings because they juxtapose the reality of the world with God and show that they actually complement, unlike popular belief that they are always in conflict. I don't mean that the values of the world and God are in sync, but the distortions and beauty that we see around us are shadows of what the bible says. Its like how the old testament foreshadows Jesus, the world and the human experience foreshadows a greater being and realm. And in doing so, he strips away the jargon and the the hypocrisy to offer a new perspective.

The Me I Want to Be

Young Adult's Cell group material July 2011- current

Your Life is God's project, not yours.

The Me I want to be, not should be.

1 John 1:9

1 John 1:9

⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousnes

This is not meant for the believer. 

Only Paul was chosen to speak to gentiles and he wrote 3/4 of the new testament. Nowhere in his books is there mention to confess our sins. If confession was so important, he would have wrote about it somewhere.

Destined to Reign

This was my summary ( refer to post below). It is not written in nice prose but rather sentences that spoke to me- characteristic of all the other summaries in this blog. 

What's So Amazing about Grace.

This was actually written by David Lim at a time when I was trying to come to terms with  Joseph Prince's message of grace. For the unfamiliar, David actually attended New Creation church for about 2 years and the pastor there has a different take on the message and its application. And I needed intellectually to resolve the two interpretations before I can move on ( poor boy? haha).  So we decided to read two different interpretations of grace.. one by Philip Yancey who I'm familiar with and Pastor Prince's book on ' Destined to reign'. We then summarised a book each and shared it with each other. And they actually meet in many parts of their argument. Maybe I would do a similarities and differences one day when i reread these summaries written more than 2 years ago.

It was a long hard struggle of questioning before I came to some sort of resolution. I must thank David Chan also because he had a heart to share Ps. Prince message with us and loved enough to debate endlessly with me despite me being emotionally involved. And more importantly, he has a clear idea of why he believes what he believes which helped my understanding at the end. yup, i think i came away with a clearer idea of what grace is, something which i think is paramount! especially if you grow up with the image of a stern God. You should run to God more when you're darn dirty rather than wait till you're clean. okay enjoy reading if you decide to.

How Great is our God. DVD by Louie Giglio

Ps 33: By the word of the Lord, the heavens was made. The starry host by the breath of the mouth. Star breathing God. 

The Video describes 4 stars in the universe, with the intention to help us realise how truly big and marvelous outer space is.

Indescribable. DVD by Louie Giglio

 Indescribable

• God is indescribable. Using astronomy to emphasize it.
• Stars are shouting out to us that God is indescribable.
• Show of the splendor and the majesty of God who created the universe.
• We are really small and not in the center of our galaxy. Quarter and the galaxy is like the north America continent.
• What is man that you are mindful of him.
• Sun: intense power radiant splendor. That’s what came out of God’s mouth. Not a namsy pamsy God we are worshipping.
• He who did not consider equality of God something to be grasped..
• As high as the heavens is above, so great is the Father love for us.
• There’s grace everywhere.
• The cross in the black hole center of thewhirlpool galaxy
• Thank you for astronomical grace for teeny tiny people like us to rescue us back into His loving arms.

Faith and Asking

²⁴ Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. God's language of faith is present and past tense. When you pray, believe God for it and thank Him for it as if you've already 


'The Hebrew writers often express the certainty of a thing taking place by putting it in the past tense, though the actual fulfilment may not take place for ages. This is easily understood and appreciated when the language is used by God, as when He says, in Gen. xv. 18, "Unto thy seed I have given this land;" and in xvii. 4, "I, lo, My covenant is with thee, and thou hast become a father of a multitude of nations."
http://www.ccel.org/bible/ylt/ylt.htm'


Matthew 18:19
"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.

2 is the smallest plurality and the church is there even when there is two. 
The key word here is agree. If somebody believes that they would be cured by surgery, then pray with them for good surgery, for a painless recovery so that they can agree with you. Don't impose your ideas on them.

Charismatic vs. Conservative

The God of the conservatives is the God of the charismatics.

The Truth of God's Chatisement

Hebrews 12:7-11 NKJV

 ⁷ If^[a] you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? ⁸ But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. ⁹ Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? ¹⁰ For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. ¹¹ Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Prayer, Does it make any difference.

Prayer has always something that has been at the back of my mind. Why Pray? Does God answer prayer? when I pray in front of others and my prayers don't get answered, how is that a testimony of the powerful God I claim to serve?  How do you pray with faith if  prayer might not get answered? I think alot of Christians have asked this question but never really gotten a satisfactory answer. I think this book helps address some of the key questions, helps put things in perspective, highlights certain idea. I think ultimately we have to see prayer as conversation with God, and not like rubbing the genie.

Soul Survivor

Like many Christians, Philip Yancey has often felt kicked around, abused, and damaged by the institutional church. And like many Christians, he has found solace in reading about and getting to know some extraordinary individual believers. He profiles 13 of those believers in Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church. "I became a writer, I now believe, to sort out words used and misused by the church of my youth." 

I bought this book while I was doing a study exchange in the states. Looking back, I am grateful for God's grace for the existence of such a book and for the writings of Philip Yancey. Amazon is a great resource if you're in America for books and I was goggling for something to lift me out of my extreme dissatisfaction with the institution of the church. It was in fact the push factor for my exchange. And reading the book was the beginning of a slow ascent back to having hope in God and thus in the church again.

Captivating

Every woman was once a little girl. And every little girl holds in her heart her most precious dreams. The message of captivating is this: Your heart matters more than anything else in all creation.

Reaching for the Invisible God

Is God playing Games? What can we count on this God for? HOw can we know? How can we know God?

What Good is God? In search of a Faith that Matters

Philip Yancey travels the globe in search of an answer to a query posed the world over. It's a universal question, one that ' occurs in some form to every person who experiences pain or death or poverty or unfairness- in other words, to everyone. ' What good is God in a world where terrorist attack tourists site, where a gunman kills 32 student, where 6 million people in South Africa alone suffer with HIV/AIDS. Or on a more personal level, does faith really matter when you're struggling with addiction, when you get laid off or when chronic depression sits in. 


This book is divided in 10 sections where each section comprises of two parts, the context and preparation and the actual speech itself. 

The Bible Jesus Read

In the old testament, I discovered a rich tapestry of encounters with GOd that added an important background to paul's example. In the psalms, for example, i found disorientation, confusion, rage, despair and anguish such that I had never heard discussed in my church.

The Old Testament's overwhelming lesson about God is that he is personal and intimate, its overwhelming lesson about human beings is that we matter. What we say, how we behave, even what we think and feel- these things have an enormous effect on GOd. Thay have in fact cosmic implications.

When I don't Desire God, how to fight for joy.

Disc One : The fight for Joy is Essential ( Part 1) 

4 things He is not preaching about:
1. Not preaching that God will make one rich and healthy so that you would have joy
2. Not preaching to add icing on your decision for Christ
3. Not preaching on a mission to put one's happiness above God's glory but to situate one's happiness in God's glory. " God's most glorified, when youa re most satisfied in Him'.
4. Not on a mission to help you feel good about yourself, but rather to feel so good about God that you forget yourself and enthusiastically tell others about Him.

God does all that he does in order to display his glory for the enjoyment of all who find in Christ their highest treasure.

We are to be a telescope to God's glory, that's why we exist Isiah 23:45, 1 Peter 4:11, Ephesians 1:11-12.

God's gift of love to us is show us Himself, his exaltation and self presentation is synonymous with love for God.

Disc two: The fight for Joy is Essential ( Part 1)

When you delight in Him, we magnify Him. You Glorify what you enjoy. The pursuit of Joy is not optional because God's pursuit of His Glory is not optional.
Deut 28:47-48
⁴⁷ Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, ⁴⁸ therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.

Mathew 13:⁴⁴ “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field."

Get through suffering by the Joy of the Lord. 

The opposite of joy is despair. 

The aim of this conference, book is how to sustain sacrifice.
Fight to join Jesus on the Calvary Road. Hebrews 12:2

The problem comes when I don't desire God.

Some further thoughts about fighting for Joy. 
1. The fight for Joy is the fight for Joy in God and not a fight of joy in general.
    why pursue joy and not God.
     a)  Its not piper, its bible talk.
     b)  God is glorified by our joyful experience of Him and not just our thoughts of Him.
          Doctrine and doing won't glorify God by itself.

     c) Commandment 10, Desire is damming, what do you desire?

2. Why must we fight if joy is a gift/fruit?

^{1 Cor 1:24} Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm.
 
Central element of faith is joy. John 6: 35

Proverbs 21:31 The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the LORD.
I will prepare but victory is with the Lord, Joy belongs to the Lord.
Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.

The war is to rest in the the right place. The world wants you to rest in your money, insurance, portfolio, looks, padlocks. 

3. Do not fight to be justified but fight as a justified sinner. Know the secret of gutsy guilt .
justified by faith, knowing that everything that has to be done to reconcile you to God has been done.

know that the joylessness that you fight is forgiven joyfulness.

micah 7:7-9

 ⁷ But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD,
   I wait for God my Savior;
   my God will hear me.
 ⁸ Do not gloat over me, my enemy!
   Though I have fallen, I will rise.
Though I sit in darkness,
   the LORD will be my light.
⁹ Because I have sinned against him,
   I will bear the LORD’s wrath,
until he pleads my case
   and upholds my cause.
He will bring me out into the light;
   I will see his righteousness.

4. The fight for Joy is mainly to see. If God's purpose is to display his glory, then the human's response is to see. To fight to see God for who He really is.

2 kinds of seeing:

1. hearing they do not hear.
2. The glory of God is a spiritual reality, not a material reality. Do not see it with the eyes of the head but with the eyes of the heart.

Ephesians 1:18
¹⁸ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people

Disc 5 and 6

16 Strategies to Fighting for Joy.

1. Meditate on the word of God and memorise it.

Psalm 19:8 The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart
Jeremiah 15:16 ¹⁶ When your words came, I ate them; 

 they were my joy and my heart’s delight,

for I bear your name,

   LORD God Almighty.

Psalm 1:2-3

• the sword of the Spirit is the word  of God. kill the devil who eats faith.
• long daggers, short daggers.
• memorize the bible so that you can preach to yourself.
• pick a time of day when it is going to happen, pick a place, pick a plan. preaching should model how you should meditate.

2. In all your reading, focus on the centrality of God and espcially Christ.

• Have a goal when you read the bible, I want to see God + I want to see Christ. I want to know something about God from this event, because the glory of God is the fire for our joy. ask who are you, what are you like, what are you trying to see. So that when you meet Him when you are worshipping, it won't be a surprise.
• Jesus don't talk to ignorers of the truth. when people tried to trap Jesus, He asked them about something else. and when they say they didn't know it, He said he doesn't talk to people like that.

Be on the look out for things that turn you on about Jesus.

3.don't skip the fearful parts of the Bible. Nehemiah 1:11

• oh Lord let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servent who delight to fear Your Name. there soemthing about the way that God made creatures like us is that a component of our joy in GOd is trembling as His inscrutable power and wrath. why do people pay to get the 'hell scared out of them', an echo for God.

4. Learn to preach to yourself.

• like David. Soul, this morning what are you downcast? preach to yourself the promises of God.

5. Pray earnestly and continually for everything you need to be happy in God.

• acronym IOUs.
• I- psalm 119:36 Incline my heart to you, give me the desire for your word.don't let me drift 
• O- Psalm 119:18 Open my eyes, that I may beholdwondrous things out of your law.
• U-  Psalm 86:11 Unite my heart. Teach me your way, O LORD,that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. when you are thinking about so many things. 
• S- Psalm 90:14 Satisfy us in the  morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
• Pray and Pray that God will do all this. 

6. Resolve to fight any known sin.

• Something is more delightful and attractive than Christ. if you are sining, you are in darkness and you can't really see Jesus.

7.  Share their faith. A spring cannot be alive unless it creates streams. awesome privilede of spilling over to a stranger some of my pleasure.

8. Spend time with God saturated people who will help you see God and fight the fight of faith.

• 1 samuel 23:16. And Jonathan, Saul’s son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God.
• are there people in your life you can go to to be admonished and encouraged?

9: Read biographies of christian.

• Hebrews 11:4
• see how people who have walked long and honestly with God.

10. Read great books of God- theology.

• doctrinal books are more helpful devotional then devotional books. heart sings unbiddingly while they are working through a tough bit of theology.

11. Get the proper rest, diet and exercise that God ordained you to have. we are all embodied human beings. 
12. Make a proper use of the revelation of nature.  

• Spiritual highly woven with body.
• e.g.The fruit of the Spirit is patience. My patience level rises and fall with how much sleep I have. Is is a fruit of the spirit or sleep?
• perhaps one of the ways the Holy Spirit work is by humbling me that the world can go on when we sleep.you are not God! ;p 
• sedentary activities has the tendency to create despondency. He who forget the humming of the bees, the cooing of the pigeons, the sighing of the wind among the pines needs to wonder if his heart has forgotten to sing. and the toiling ministers would have life. It would yield oxygen to the body. These great remedies are forgotten.  Its like music to the soul. It can mediate common gace and point you to saving grace.
• take care of this temple of God.

13. Do the hard and loving thing for the sake of others.

• Isiah 58:10-11

^10(A) if you pour yourself out for the hungry
   and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
^(B) then shall your light rise in the darkness
   and your gloom be as the noonday.
¹¹And the LORD will guide you continually
   and satisfy your desire in scorched places
   and make your bones strong;
and you shall be^(C) like a watered garden,
   like a spring of water,
   whose waters do not fail.

•  Find a way to minister to the more needy.

 14. Get a global vision of God.

• God is at work at every square of the planet.

15. Be patient in God's seeming absence.
Psalm 40:1-3

  ¹I waited patiently for the LORD;
   he inclined to me and heard my cry.
²He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
   out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
   making my steps secure.
³He put a new song in my mouth,
   a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
   and put their trust in the LORD