Wednesday, October 15, 2008
All-time Favourite Authors
A.W. Tozer
John Bevere
Ed Silvoso
Edmund Chan
Rick Joyner
Henry Cloud & Townsend
J.C. Maxwell
Jane Austen
Shakespeare
G.K. Chesterton
C.S. Lewis
John Bevere
Ed Silvoso
Edmund Chan
Rick Joyner
Henry Cloud & Townsend
J.C. Maxwell
Jane Austen
Shakespeare
G.K. Chesterton
C.S. Lewis
Notable Readings for Past Year
Biography of William Wilberforce
Old Testament Template
Church Shift
Anointed for Business
Mentoring Paradigms
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Faulty Theology
Been reading Growing Deep in God and am very struck that the theological crisis Edmund Chan described in the book could be true about the people I'm raising up especially the younger ones.
We often seek the "anointing" and reject life's problems when, from God's point of view, we grow much more through the anguish than the "anointing". The "anointing" may enlarge our capacities, but it is the anguish that deepens our character. If your theology cannot survive the onslaught of anguish, it is worthless.
The Church of today faces a serious theological crisis. We accept as a norm the profound lack of willingness, or ability, to think deeply and consistently about truth. We are lulled into a passive mode of thinking. Instead of countering the fallacy of secular philosophy with rich biblical and theological truths, and a deep life congruent with those truths, we live in a generation where a sound theological foundation is ignored; or worse, even snubbed upon.
Unexamined assumptions shape the intellectual contours of a lazy and slothful generation, tainting the moral and spiritual landscape of the soul. As such, one of the distinct weakness of the modern Church is that of having zeal without knowledge. We end up with a superficial faith without a deep theological foundation.
At the heart of this theological crisis is a man-centered worldview that corrupts our whole orientation of life--even our basic orientation to the spirituality of prayer. We focus on the sacrifices we make, the duties we perform, the commitments we have. Prayer becomes more about us than about God. We approach Scriptures the same way. We read it primarily for answers to our questions, for solutions to our problems, for comfort for our needs or for insights to boost our egos.
We place ourselves as the centre of gravity in life, around which all things revolve. Instead of God being our anchor, we ourselves have become our own pitiful security. Instead of depending on and acknowledging God's gracious provisions, we depend on our intelligence, our wealth, our resources or our resourcefulness.
Case in point: ask any Christian why Christ came to earth, and the most common answer given is, "He came to die on the cross for our sins." This is true but inadequate. The fundamental problem with this answer is that it is too man-centered. As if the world revolves around us! While it is true that Christ came to earth to die for our sins, it is more significant to understand that Christ came, first and foremost, to glorify God, not to gratify man! Jesus declared conclusively, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work."
We speak more about our commitment to God than of God's commitment to us. No wonder we struggle and falter in our walk with God. We need to rediscover God's uncompromising commitment to us. Thus, we sometimes begrudge what prayer cost us; and forget what it cost God!
Oh Lord, that I may raise up 200 Warriors of Light in 5 years! Give me this mountain.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Passion & Rest
Experiencing my first burn out as a fervent believer barely a year into the journey of following Christ, my cell leader gave me a book--Renewing Your Spiritual Passion (or some title like that). I remember this teaching. Each person has 3 tanks--spiritual, emotional and physical. Our daily duties will cause the tanks to deplete, so we need to be disciplined in filling them up. Pretty simple, like gas for a car. To fill the physical tank, you'll need to sleep and do some physical activity. To fill the emotional tank, you'll need to have your hobbies, close friends to talk to and recreate. To fill the spiritual tank, you'll need to get alone with Jesus, read the Bible, pray in the Spirit, etc. With respect to the emotional tank, you can classify the people you come across into 5 groups.
- Very very important people - your mentors, Pauls, when you meet them, you are so filled up, so encouraged and can see how to move forward. +++ to your tank
- Very important people - peers with you in your passion, Barnabases, when you meet them, you are also highly encouraged to move forward. ++ to your tank
- Very trainable people - your mentees, Timothies, when you meet them, you are so encouraged by their teachability, their yieldedness to the cause you're pursuing. + to your tank
- Very nice people - pew warmers, those who tell you they follow you and admire you, etc, but little action on their part, many of those who claim they love you and are loyal to you can fall in this category depending on how much of what you say is being applied to their lives. Too much time with these dilutes your passion. 0 to your tank
- Very draining people - broken wings, eternal complainers, Extra Grace Required, broken record of their problems on and on and on, the world owes them something. Some people just have hurts and can't help it, but they are - to your tank.
All this discussion revolves around filling your tank. While it's not nice to tell pple they belong to your category 4 and 5, in ministry, we must be clear where people stand with us, because if we don't keep ourselves in good health, we're not going to be able to be used to help anyone at all.
Do guard your time with groups 1-3, because they usually don't come demanding for your time as much as groups 4 and 5. With time, grace, anointing and in the right appointment of God, groups 4 and 5 can shift to become group 3.
Another good reflection when we read this kind of thing is to ask ourselves, who are we group 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 to? Try not to be group 4 or 5. The really quality people are those who are groups 1-3 to most people in their lives. Those in group 5 should go to encounter, discipline their minds and fast and pray and wipe the floor with their tears to get Jesus to heal them. I know how it feels, I was there...
It's a marathon... go get it!
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Reflection
Thinking is a dying discipline in a society that throbs with activity. How many blessings have I robbed myself of in life for not pausing to think?
Into this rushing lifestyle have come theories on meditation telling us how to think on nothing until we realise we are divine inside. The Bible does not tell us to empty our minds and think nothing but to exercise the minds God has given us to think on things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy (Phi 4:8) and to meditate on His law (Ps 119:97), and "to take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Cor 10:5).
Unless we learn to think and reflect on things above we will reflect the hollowness of a world moving fast but slow to think... at the end of the day if you have spoken but not listened, you have spent without income and sooner or later an expenditure of words without an income of ideas will lead to conceptual bankruptcy. Wonder enriches you when you take the time to reflect and to ponder the greatness of our faith in Jesus Christ.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Extreme Dependency can be... Deadly to a Love Affair
The bottom line is showing respect for yourself and for another person, which is the foundation on which romantic love is built. It is refusing to beg, plead, and whine if a partner does not feel about you the way you feel about him or her.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Recapture the Wonder
It's not just about maintaining a discipline of reading that is important, but WHAT you are reading. "There are books by the score on the shelves of Christian bookstores... What do they point to? Is it to the nobler and higher and richer truths of God, or is it to more of ourselves?... judging by the titles and content, one would think the Christian faith is all about me and how I feel and what I want... Is your own reading shallow or deep? The wonder that you will find in the shallow end can only be for a child. Swimming in the deep is for the mature. If the follower of Jesus Christ does not mature in his or her reading, the church could end up running the biggest nursery in the world."
"Good reading is like looking for something you have lost and finding it, but in the search finding something else that had also been lost. That is how wonder is constantly replenished."
Friday, October 13, 2006
When "peace" just won't do...
Disturb us, Lord
when we are too well pleased with ourselves;
when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little;
when we arrive safely because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess
we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love
with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity;
and in our efforts to build a new earth,
we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
to venture on wider seas where storms will show Your mastery;
where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back the horizons of our hopes,
and to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope and love.
