We live in a secular age. Never has there been an age where people build a way of life as if there was no God. The news on our televisions is always sad news. A murder, a rape, a gunfight, or all of them together. People do as they choose, and they care only for themselves, resulting in others getting hurt. Secular thought has also developed greatly in the last two centuries. In fact, this is the time that people are adamantly professing that the material world is all that there is.
We also live in a religious age. The idea of spirituality has become popularized to many different people. Famous celebrities like Madonna and Britney Spears are turning to the recent religion of Kabbalah. Your friends and family may follow the daily horoscopes in the newspaper religiously. Even the Eastern religions, such as Buddhism, are spreading to the Western world. Everywhere around you, people are looking for a deeper sense of life. No longer is the world satisfied with just what they can see.
So which one is it? Is there no God at all, or is there a God? Or many gods that are above our lives? Is there any meaning to life, or can I just go with the flow, because it doesn’t matter anyway? The answer to these questions can be understood in looking at the history of religion.
Religious thought has been part of humanity since the beginning. There have been many amazing archaelogical finds deep inside cave systems which gives us an insight of religion in ancient times. Vivid paintings can be found, dating back to the Palaeolithic era (50,000 to 10,000 BC). They show scenes of animals such as deer and bison, many of them riddled with arrows and lances of hunters. These paintings are very deep in the caves, and the distances from the cave entrances are up to several hundred metres. What was the point of having these paintings so deep inside the caves? It is clear that these paintings were not for others’ viewing pleasure, as they would not have been painted so far in the caves. Most experts view these pictures as ritualistic or magical. Religious ceremonies were probably held before the hunters left their caves and families to seek for food. These hunters were definitely more than just a bunch of savages fighting for survival.
Even further back in history, there is evidence of prehistoric human communities that took care of their dead. They used a certain substace in burials that Australian aboriginals today believe to represent blood and life. Could this mean that these prehistoric people believed in a life beyond death? Some skeletons that were found from this era appear to be buried in a similar position that a baby in the womb would take. Could this suggest the idea of a new birth after death? The truth behind all these rituals will never be discovered, but it is very clear that even in such ancient times, these humans had a spiritual dimension in their lives.
People began to organize themselves into cities. Agriculture provided food, and cities began to grow. Survival was no longer a great concern, and therefore the people spent time to develop ideas about the spiritual dimension. Writing and language was also developed, and it allowed ideas to be passed around more readily than before. The newly organized religions then began to produce their own scriptures. The Middle East, India and China were the three areas where the great world religions began. In Israel, the Hebrew prophets preached the ideas of Judaism, of which Islam and Christianity would develop in the future. In India, Hinduism was growing, and the Upanishads, the Hindu scriptures, were written. In China and other parts of South-east Asia, Gautama Buddha founded Buddhism, which was based on Hindu beliefs. No longer just a band of hunters, the civilized people not only did not abandon their spiritual side, but their ideas about spirituality grew and blossomed. The majority of humanity sensed that there is more to life than what meets the eye.
The times seem different in the 21st century. People are beginning to turn away from spiritual convictions, or just not bothering anymore. Agnosticism and secularism make the list of the world religions. Because of technological advances, many scientific discoveries have led people to become more and more uncertain about any spiritual dimension. But no matter what, these organizations of anti-spirituality cannot fully escape the thoughts of religion. The teachings of Marxism may not be as religionless as they think. Ninian Smart writes “God may have been absent from Marx’s view of the world, but there was something about his teaching that appealed to springs of human hope.” Just like how Christians looked forward to the coming of the kingdom of God, Marxists also await the time when communism will be implemented universally. And when it comes to dealing with critical moments in life, such as marriage, birth and death, it is impossible not to think of spiritual ideas. Anti-spirituality has started off with a shaky foundation.
So which one is it? Spirituality or no spirituality? Still, the answer cannot be written in black and white. But the history as been laid out, and what remains is your own judgment. The search for spirituality is no overnight stay, but it is a long journey in consideration of all the options. May these words be the beginning of your spiritual journey.
-Victor Lau
Based on the article “The Spiritual Dimension” by Gavin Reid
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Sunday, April 10, 2005
part 2
I watched as the little boy plopped onto a nearby sofa chair. Happily, he opened his Spiderman comic, and immediately appeared focused into it. It felt like everything went quiet, watching the boy read his comic. The silence was serene, and at the same comfortable. I smiled at that.
I watched for a while, until the silence started to tingle my skin. From my pocket I took out my Ipod, and put the white earphones into my ears. The music covered the silence as the first song played. It started with no instruments, surprisingly Chinese. Soothing, calm and peaceful. The next song was "On Fire", by Switchfoot, and then "Can I stay here Forever" by Starfield. The song drew to a close.
Then I opened my eyes, and realized where I was, and that I actually drifted off to sleep. I rubbed my eyes, and looked up to the little boy. For some reason, the next song reminded me so much of him. It was only a few lines...
"To see the Lord, the promised Land. Wherein all sins, pearly gates look bland. And what was once a pearl, now sand. That blows away.. that blows away, in light of Him."
The little boy's innocence made my own mistakes clear.
I looked to the end of store, and I saw a bunch of people there. Some of them had faces that looked very familiar, but most of them were people that I have never seen before. The little boy looked as well, but to my surprise he also closed his comic book and got up. He started to walk to this group of people, with his little steps. I heard his funny clothes rustle as he walked, as if the bookstore became silent for him. He joined this group of people, and they walked off. It was a shock that such a small child would join such a large group of people that he didn't know. I decided to follow them, for the sake of the child. But there were familiar faces! I knew some of these people! Why would they take such a small child and lead him to a place he does not know? Maybe I am doubting them. Either way, I felt insecure. Every moment that passed made me think that I was very much like the boy. The four songs tingled in my head.
Now I felt annoyance that the boy left with a bunch of strangers. Sighing in displeasure, I followed him to make sure he would be safe.
(that made no sense.. what's up with that? who IS this boy?!)
I watched for a while, until the silence started to tingle my skin. From my pocket I took out my Ipod, and put the white earphones into my ears. The music covered the silence as the first song played. It started with no instruments, surprisingly Chinese. Soothing, calm and peaceful. The next song was "On Fire", by Switchfoot, and then "Can I stay here Forever" by Starfield. The song drew to a close.
Then I opened my eyes, and realized where I was, and that I actually drifted off to sleep. I rubbed my eyes, and looked up to the little boy. For some reason, the next song reminded me so much of him. It was only a few lines...
"To see the Lord, the promised Land. Wherein all sins, pearly gates look bland. And what was once a pearl, now sand. That blows away.. that blows away, in light of Him."
The little boy's innocence made my own mistakes clear.
I looked to the end of store, and I saw a bunch of people there. Some of them had faces that looked very familiar, but most of them were people that I have never seen before. The little boy looked as well, but to my surprise he also closed his comic book and got up. He started to walk to this group of people, with his little steps. I heard his funny clothes rustle as he walked, as if the bookstore became silent for him. He joined this group of people, and they walked off. It was a shock that such a small child would join such a large group of people that he didn't know. I decided to follow them, for the sake of the child. But there were familiar faces! I knew some of these people! Why would they take such a small child and lead him to a place he does not know? Maybe I am doubting them. Either way, I felt insecure. Every moment that passed made me think that I was very much like the boy. The four songs tingled in my head.
Now I felt annoyance that the boy left with a bunch of strangers. Sighing in displeasure, I followed him to make sure he would be safe.
(that made no sense.. what's up with that? who IS this boy?!)
Monday, April 04, 2005
there and back again
i had quite the weekend at waterloo. i learned a couple of things as well. here is how the weekend went..
i was driven to york mills subway station by my aunt. being employed by the city of toronto as a junior inspector, i've become quite the quick driver. my aunt's driving was like turtle. after what seemed to be hours.. i got to the station (less 10 than minutes away from home). i had to wait for the bus to get there. but in meantime i started thinking of something smart to say to clara when i see her! she said that she was taking that fedbus, and we'd see each other. it was so exciting. the bus came.. and one by one, students got off the bus, and i watched each one.. until the last person got off. no clara! what the heck?! what about my witty comment?
being in charge of measuring all the small streets of scarborough with a trundle wheel, walking is becoming more and more of a chore, and being in waterloo, the chore was still present. having decided to sleep at richard's place, i decided to find a phone. mikeys was a good idea. the chances of my running to anyone are close to zero. when i got there, i didn't have to open the door to have seen kat and family, joanna and herman eating dinner. surpise #3 now? totally unprepared for that, i went in and tried my best to converse with them, still in shock of the surprise.
tip #1: think. but think quickly. it is difficult to expect the unexpected, but smarter to be prepared for anything. don't just stand there, stupy!
afterwards we headed to ccf. it was good to see familiar faces, as well as somewhat familiar faces. i left after worship to grab some timmys. laura and joanna later came to find me to tell me ccf changed rooms.. how nice of them. jo went back to rez, so me and laura went back to ccf together. wee were late, so ppl looked at us funny when we went in. the sharing was.. interesting. it was unfortunate that i didn't know most of the ppl in ccf, especially the upper years, but a couple of things that i thought were important were.. trial by fire, the importance of the Holy Spirit, and the importance of serving.
ccf ended, and i was convinced to go to hockey (not convinced enough to play). my backpack (with all my stuff) immediately became goal post #1; luckily my sleeping bag was free. that night was friggin cold as death. i gave jacqueline my gloves. the rest of the night consisted of huddling for warmth in an american car, emzhei's all day booger, lorna is very VERY loud, and annato, who threatened me, took funny pictures of me, and wanted me to go skipping like jasmine, laura, emzhei and herself did. annato is cool haha. the night ended at 2ish, where i headed off to derek and jon's place.
tip #2: when getting people's phone numbers, make sure they are accurate before you use them. otherwise you will not have the home you planned on having.
derek and jon's place.. they are nice ppl. frozen bananas with nutella was good.. but the BEST thing at their place was.. sleeping on jon's bed, and in turn derek and jon sleeping in the same bed together mwahahahhaa! that was quite the funny. the next morning's highlight with them was.. ninja turtles with derek haha. eventually they both had to leave, and i went to find the rev girls for lunch. holy mother that was like a half an hour walk to rev.
eating with the girls was cool, but quite soon everyone's attention was diverted to heath ledger in "a knight's tale" and his "hotness". back upstairs, a girl on the floor asked to open a glued-up bottle of super glue, and i managed to open it, but said the wrong thing after she said "you're amazing!".
tip #3: never use lines from popular sitcoms in real life.
soon after, i became a victim of chick flick. gahh.. sleepless in seattle. but it took us (me) like half an hour to get the vcr working, and that was very disappointing indeed. the kid was apparently cute, tom hanks was apparently attractive to hundreds of women across the states, hearts can be apparently lit on the empire state building, romances can be apparently started via letters, listening to the radio and sheer luck. and apparently some CRAZY lady actually flew to the empire state building to meet some guy she didn't know to get married to him.
ehh.. i loved the movie, girls, it was great. ANYWAY after that we started planning for dinner, which was at golden mango (aka pho), of which kat emzhei jasmine joanna and myself showed up to.
tip #4: just do it. you have the power. you don't have to put the burden on others.
soon enough, i conjured the idea of labelled napkins, and now we all have a napkin with our name, chinese name, favourite colour, and favourite place to be on it! herman joined after. after the dinner.. we had to go to waterloo towers for herman to shower, and then we headed over to rev. at rev.. me herman and joanna went to play pool for a bit.. then we were going to play monopoly, but rev office was closed.. so we ended up playing cards.. big2 and "slap the pile when the number is called" game. we played till we were about dead.. and waited for kat and emzhei to get back from studying. then i jumped into some chick's bed and slept.
sunday started off with washing up in a girl's washroom (forgetting to put the seat down) and changing in the hall of an all girls' floor. after service was lunch with rich and elliot, the scbc boys. kat laura and sarah later joined us, and the lunch became.. interesting (see tip #5 at end)
waterloo towers with herman came nextand finally the long overdue heart to heart talk with herman, while upper years walked in and out clearing furniture. scripture based action, and becoming a more open person. we were there for maybe 1.5 hours before we went to find clara. then i yelled at her for not being on the fedbus.. and herman slept on her bed. we went to slc together, becuz ppl were studying, and clara desperately needs to study. i went to rev myself to get my stuff back in preparation to leave, and said bye to jasmine. surprisingly i saw that chris was back, and i talked with her for a bit. i think she passed her exam. going back to slc, i proceeded downstairs to tim hortons for my last supper, of which i ran into jacqueline. eventually i realized that i had left my shiny aero hoodie back at rev.. and now joanna is its guardian for the month. i said my goodbyes and left the slc, wanting to look back, but not.
halfway down the stairs, i realized that i forgot my donut...
tip #6: think. acting on impulse doesn't work very well. acting on emotion doesn't work well either. messing up smooth exits because of a donut.. could have been prevented.
tip #5: never forget the big picture. setting your focus on certain things will cause you to disregard everything else.
and that is that. there and back again. back to toronto, back to the family, back to pointless hours of work, back to loneliness.
was a weekend of happiness and heartache...
i was driven to york mills subway station by my aunt. being employed by the city of toronto as a junior inspector, i've become quite the quick driver. my aunt's driving was like turtle. after what seemed to be hours.. i got to the station (less 10 than minutes away from home). i had to wait for the bus to get there. but in meantime i started thinking of something smart to say to clara when i see her! she said that she was taking that fedbus, and we'd see each other. it was so exciting. the bus came.. and one by one, students got off the bus, and i watched each one.. until the last person got off. no clara! what the heck?! what about my witty comment?
being in charge of measuring all the small streets of scarborough with a trundle wheel, walking is becoming more and more of a chore, and being in waterloo, the chore was still present. having decided to sleep at richard's place, i decided to find a phone. mikeys was a good idea. the chances of my running to anyone are close to zero. when i got there, i didn't have to open the door to have seen kat and family, joanna and herman eating dinner. surpise #3 now? totally unprepared for that, i went in and tried my best to converse with them, still in shock of the surprise.
tip #1: think. but think quickly. it is difficult to expect the unexpected, but smarter to be prepared for anything. don't just stand there, stupy!
afterwards we headed to ccf. it was good to see familiar faces, as well as somewhat familiar faces. i left after worship to grab some timmys. laura and joanna later came to find me to tell me ccf changed rooms.. how nice of them. jo went back to rez, so me and laura went back to ccf together. wee were late, so ppl looked at us funny when we went in. the sharing was.. interesting. it was unfortunate that i didn't know most of the ppl in ccf, especially the upper years, but a couple of things that i thought were important were.. trial by fire, the importance of the Holy Spirit, and the importance of serving.
ccf ended, and i was convinced to go to hockey (not convinced enough to play). my backpack (with all my stuff) immediately became goal post #1; luckily my sleeping bag was free. that night was friggin cold as death. i gave jacqueline my gloves. the rest of the night consisted of huddling for warmth in an american car, emzhei's all day booger, lorna is very VERY loud, and annato, who threatened me, took funny pictures of me, and wanted me to go skipping like jasmine, laura, emzhei and herself did. annato is cool haha. the night ended at 2ish, where i headed off to derek and jon's place.
tip #2: when getting people's phone numbers, make sure they are accurate before you use them. otherwise you will not have the home you planned on having.
derek and jon's place.. they are nice ppl. frozen bananas with nutella was good.. but the BEST thing at their place was.. sleeping on jon's bed, and in turn derek and jon sleeping in the same bed together mwahahahhaa! that was quite the funny. the next morning's highlight with them was.. ninja turtles with derek haha. eventually they both had to leave, and i went to find the rev girls for lunch. holy mother that was like a half an hour walk to rev.
eating with the girls was cool, but quite soon everyone's attention was diverted to heath ledger in "a knight's tale" and his "hotness". back upstairs, a girl on the floor asked to open a glued-up bottle of super glue, and i managed to open it, but said the wrong thing after she said "you're amazing!".
tip #3: never use lines from popular sitcoms in real life.
soon after, i became a victim of chick flick. gahh.. sleepless in seattle. but it took us (me) like half an hour to get the vcr working, and that was very disappointing indeed. the kid was apparently cute, tom hanks was apparently attractive to hundreds of women across the states, hearts can be apparently lit on the empire state building, romances can be apparently started via letters, listening to the radio and sheer luck. and apparently some CRAZY lady actually flew to the empire state building to meet some guy she didn't know to get married to him.
ehh.. i loved the movie, girls, it was great. ANYWAY after that we started planning for dinner, which was at golden mango (aka pho), of which kat emzhei jasmine joanna and myself showed up to.
tip #4: just do it. you have the power. you don't have to put the burden on others.
soon enough, i conjured the idea of labelled napkins, and now we all have a napkin with our name, chinese name, favourite colour, and favourite place to be on it! herman joined after. after the dinner.. we had to go to waterloo towers for herman to shower, and then we headed over to rev. at rev.. me herman and joanna went to play pool for a bit.. then we were going to play monopoly, but rev office was closed.. so we ended up playing cards.. big2 and "slap the pile when the number is called" game. we played till we were about dead.. and waited for kat and emzhei to get back from studying. then i jumped into some chick's bed and slept.
sunday started off with washing up in a girl's washroom (forgetting to put the seat down) and changing in the hall of an all girls' floor. after service was lunch with rich and elliot, the scbc boys. kat laura and sarah later joined us, and the lunch became.. interesting (see tip #5 at end)
waterloo towers with herman came nextand finally the long overdue heart to heart talk with herman, while upper years walked in and out clearing furniture. scripture based action, and becoming a more open person. we were there for maybe 1.5 hours before we went to find clara. then i yelled at her for not being on the fedbus.. and herman slept on her bed. we went to slc together, becuz ppl were studying, and clara desperately needs to study. i went to rev myself to get my stuff back in preparation to leave, and said bye to jasmine. surprisingly i saw that chris was back, and i talked with her for a bit. i think she passed her exam. going back to slc, i proceeded downstairs to tim hortons for my last supper, of which i ran into jacqueline. eventually i realized that i had left my shiny aero hoodie back at rev.. and now joanna is its guardian for the month. i said my goodbyes and left the slc, wanting to look back, but not.
halfway down the stairs, i realized that i forgot my donut...
tip #6: think. acting on impulse doesn't work very well. acting on emotion doesn't work well either. messing up smooth exits because of a donut.. could have been prevented.
tip #5: never forget the big picture. setting your focus on certain things will cause you to disregard everything else.
and that is that. there and back again. back to toronto, back to the family, back to pointless hours of work, back to loneliness.
was a weekend of happiness and heartache...
Sunday, March 13, 2005
the fun to read story that goes on and on...
The little boy walked up the big wooden stairs. The steps had to be large, and the footing had to be careful, otherwise he would have fallen over backwards, and landing on his little bum. Finally he managed to climb up those mountains, and he looked up, scratching his little head with his little hand. He fidgeted, apparently dissatisfied with the scratching, probably because his scalp was covered by a colourful jester hat for warmth. The bells on the hat jingled every time he moved. The rest of his outfit was just as heartwarming. His parka was blue, and it made the boy looked bigger than he was. He wore loose jeans, and black boots.
Slowly he walked up to the counter, approaching the Starbucks counter. There he waited in line behind some people, many times bigger than he was. The boy looked down, avoiding their eye contact, in fear of confronting them. Eventually the big big people passed, and the boy moved to the front of the line. He realized the counter was too tall, and he could not see anything in front of him. So he stepped back to see behind the counter a pretty girl with a green Starbucks apron. She smiled at him warmly, but he didn't know what to do, frozen in the tracks. "What would you like?" she asked. The boy gulped, and noticed that his knees were shaking. He looked up to the Starbucks girl, and managed to say, "A peanut butter cookie, please." The girl proceeded to get the cookie.
It was odd. The boy, all by himself. My heart beated hard against my chest, as I saw it all happen. The image was clear. I continued to watch as the girl handed the little boy the cookie, and the boy reciprocated by pulling out change from his little pockets, reaching up to the counter. "I can do it!" he told her. The girl let him reach higher, but to no avail, so he jumped and slapped the coins on the counter. Then he walked away. In amazement I stared, listening to the clumping of his footsteps, hand holding a cookie, and now a Spiderman comic.
(what is so special about this little boy? what's so special about what he's doing? find out next time!)
Slowly he walked up to the counter, approaching the Starbucks counter. There he waited in line behind some people, many times bigger than he was. The boy looked down, avoiding their eye contact, in fear of confronting them. Eventually the big big people passed, and the boy moved to the front of the line. He realized the counter was too tall, and he could not see anything in front of him. So he stepped back to see behind the counter a pretty girl with a green Starbucks apron. She smiled at him warmly, but he didn't know what to do, frozen in the tracks. "What would you like?" she asked. The boy gulped, and noticed that his knees were shaking. He looked up to the Starbucks girl, and managed to say, "A peanut butter cookie, please." The girl proceeded to get the cookie.
It was odd. The boy, all by himself. My heart beated hard against my chest, as I saw it all happen. The image was clear. I continued to watch as the girl handed the little boy the cookie, and the boy reciprocated by pulling out change from his little pockets, reaching up to the counter. "I can do it!" he told her. The girl let him reach higher, but to no avail, so he jumped and slapped the coins on the counter. Then he walked away. In amazement I stared, listening to the clumping of his footsteps, hand holding a cookie, and now a Spiderman comic.
(what is so special about this little boy? what's so special about what he's doing? find out next time!)
Saturday, March 05, 2005
worship idea
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-- This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transofrmed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will."
Romans 12:1-2
A very familiar passage to most people, this passage struck me in the most interesting way. Today, I had the privilege to go up to Fair Glen to visit my former high school fellowship at SCBC, Gideon Fellowship, for their annual Winter Retreat. The speaker for the saturday was interestingly the Pastor Fred Tham, who recently left SCAC, and is in search of a new home church. The interesting part of it is that our former youth pastor was his twin brother Pastor Ted Tham, of which i have a very good relationship with. But in bringing up this passage, Fred mentioned a point that i thought was very intriguing:
worship <==> sacrifice
in living a life of worship, it is important that we should be making sacrifices. essentially, being a christian is about making sacrifices. many times we are tempted to do something that is the desire of our lustful hearts, but not of our Father's heart. we must sacrifice these desires and grow to love our Lord's desires (easier said than done, not too possible with human power). in that, as we develop as a christian, i think that God shows us what parts of our lives we need to change, and we should stretch ourselves and make those sacrifices and lifestyle changes. in making such sacrifices, living sacrifices, then it is holy and pleasing to God, and that is a spiritual act of worship, as it says in the text.
God parallels the importance of sacrifice in his son Jesus. Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice of dying on the cross for humankind. Evidently, it was something that he didn't want to do ("My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as as I will, but as you will." Matthew 26:39b), but he was willing to make the sacrifice for the sake of God's will. Jesus' second prayer on Gethsemane: "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless i drink it, may your will be done." Mt 26:42b. Knowing that this was the only way, and it was God's will that this should happen, Jesus took the sacrifice upon himself.
so next time u think about what worship really is.. remember that worship is not just singing a bunch of nice songs with a bunch of nice people. no way it's so much more than that. He asks so much more of us than that. worship is sacrifice, according to his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:1-2
A very familiar passage to most people, this passage struck me in the most interesting way. Today, I had the privilege to go up to Fair Glen to visit my former high school fellowship at SCBC, Gideon Fellowship, for their annual Winter Retreat. The speaker for the saturday was interestingly the Pastor Fred Tham, who recently left SCAC, and is in search of a new home church. The interesting part of it is that our former youth pastor was his twin brother Pastor Ted Tham, of which i have a very good relationship with. But in bringing up this passage, Fred mentioned a point that i thought was very intriguing:
worship <==> sacrifice
in living a life of worship, it is important that we should be making sacrifices. essentially, being a christian is about making sacrifices. many times we are tempted to do something that is the desire of our lustful hearts, but not of our Father's heart. we must sacrifice these desires and grow to love our Lord's desires (easier said than done, not too possible with human power). in that, as we develop as a christian, i think that God shows us what parts of our lives we need to change, and we should stretch ourselves and make those sacrifices and lifestyle changes. in making such sacrifices, living sacrifices, then it is holy and pleasing to God, and that is a spiritual act of worship, as it says in the text.
God parallels the importance of sacrifice in his son Jesus. Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice of dying on the cross for humankind. Evidently, it was something that he didn't want to do ("My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as as I will, but as you will." Matthew 26:39b), but he was willing to make the sacrifice for the sake of God's will. Jesus' second prayer on Gethsemane: "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless i drink it, may your will be done." Mt 26:42b. Knowing that this was the only way, and it was God's will that this should happen, Jesus took the sacrifice upon himself.
so next time u think about what worship really is.. remember that worship is not just singing a bunch of nice songs with a bunch of nice people. no way it's so much more than that. He asks so much more of us than that. worship is sacrifice, according to his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)