A Devotional Corner

Last Friday, my parents and I attended one of the events that were part of the Sydney Festival called: See - The World of Animation. The event showed the process of producing animation and how technology has brought the quality of animation to such a long way. It was held in the open park area and my parents began to worry the changing weather was going to become one violent storm as the southerly wind whipped through the area.

I was too attracted to the animation that was shown and I didn't really care about the weather despite the fact that I'll be soaked if the storm really hit the park! Without an umbrella, my parents decided to force me home to dodge the rain. (A big child I am indeed!)

Many people plan for the weather ahead of them. Even with extensive weather forecasting technologies that we have today, there is no one who could precisely tell when the first drop of rain will fall in a storm. But even in this uncertainty, people would still carry an umbrella with them; or, like in our instance, would do something about it to avoid getting drenched in the violent weather if we weren't carrying an umbrella. I guess you would be stupid if you knew it was coming, and you didn't do something about it!

There are many telltale signs today such as earthquakes, famines and wars that fit the description that Jesus gave as signs before his second coming (see Matthew 24). These signs are like the southerly winds bringing in the storm clouds, telling us that it is going to rain any minute now. Just like no one could precisely tell when the first drop of rain will fall, Jesus tells us in Matthew 24:36-51 that no one would know when he will precisely return.

If I was not dragged away from the mesmerising animation, my consequence would merely be getting drenched for ignoring the telltale signs of a storm coming. But if the telltale signs of Jesus' second coming is ignored and you decide to not follow Jesus and be mesmerised in your own earthly life, the consequence is eternal punishment, far greater than just getting drenched:

[T]he master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:50-51 ESV)

Posted by Ivan at 11:02 pm | Permalink | Comments

Australian parents often introduce their children to small amounts of alcohol early to help them learn to control their behaviour in later life. "Harm minimisation" is the nice sounding term for this whole procedure.

Although this term sounds very new to me, the procedure certainly has been familiar to me since my teenage years of growing up. Friends used to occasionally boast in front of me during the years where we were still a minor (being under the age of 18 in Australia) for being able to have that sip of alcohol from their parents. The parents say they feel they have the responsibility to train their children up so the evil world out there would not have a chance to use their children's inability to drink alcohol against them. However, according to the Australian, 'parents who allow their children small amounts of alcohol in an attempt to instil safe drinking habits may be setting them on the path to becoming binge drinkers' (read all about it here).

We often have to have alcohol to get the socialising going whether it be in the pub, bar, disco, you name it! Yet we know if we have too much, it damages our body. Whether it be a temporary damage where we lose control of ourselves or the long term damage to our liver to get rid of the excess alcohol, we know its bad for our bodies. But alcohol is a rather strange consumable where when we clearly know its bad, parents out there still believe they should get their children to load it into their bodies!

You don't think it is strange? Well I have not heard of parents training their kids with illicit drugs so they have safe habits of not damaging themselves when they go out partying. But Ivan, how can you talk about illegal drug use? Fine, what about smoking then, have we heard parents getting children to smoke so they could get used to all the passive smoke around us today? I probably cannot guarantee there is absolutely no parent who would do such a thing, but I could bravely say responsible and reasonable parents would definitely not!

So why the exception? Why do we make alcohol the exception when we clearly know it is bad for us? We shouldn't! If we would like to have a good healthy life, it is obvious that we should keep it out of our lives so it will not affect us! It's obvious that the harm removal approach is much better than harm minimisation, by far!

The many so-called "rules" within the bible that many people misunderstand them to be is like God, our creator, telling us that if we would like to live a Holy life, that is, living the way He intended things to be, we should follow Him and remove ourselves from certain bad habits that we may have. Rather than being the "binge drinker" in life, indulging ourselves in our bad habits and slowly killing ourselves in the long run, we should free ourselves so we may live a more purposeful and meaningful life before God.

Which type of person are you: a harm removalist or a harm minimalist?

Matthew 5:29-30 (English Standard Version)

29If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Posted by Ivan at 10:24 pm | Permalink | Comments

There is an Hong Kong Evangelical Team that recently went to Adelaide Australia to do a shooting for a gospel sharing film. In the process of reaching the shooting location, the Evangelical Team has unfortunately experienced a motor accident. Fortunately, there were no deaths but it has caused severe injuries to the crew. Fiona Leung, who was previously a renowned Hong Kong actress, was part of the crew as programme host. Fiona attracted a lot of attention of the general public in the Hong Kong community towards this motor accident. (read about it here in Chinese)

This incident was raised as one of the many topics discussed in one of the Christmas dinners that I attended last year. The conversation began commenting on how unfortunate the crew were, and why such accident had to occur on a bunch of good people with wonderful intentions. The most impactful statement made in the course of discussion was: 'Fiona is a devoted Christian. She is actively serving in gospel sharing activity. She is not a lazy Christian, so why didn't, at the very least, Jesus protect her but exposed her to this accident? She should at least got what she deserved for being so devotional?'

When it comes to times of pain and suffering, we tend to think we are the better "managers" of life, questioning why people who suffered did not get what we would perceive are the better things in life. People often would accuse God and question why He just sat there with His arms crossed and did nothing to stop the bad things from happening on the good guys. While it may be a difficult challenge for people to have faith and hope that God will provide us with all the good things when times are rough, we should constantly remind ourselves God does have His own timing and own plan for everything to take place.

In Genesis 6, God has told Noah He is going to destroy everything and told Noah that if he wanted to save himself, he is to build something no one would have ever thought of building at the time: an ark. People during Noah's day would have probably questioned why a man would be so stupid to build such a big boat (if a boat was ever an invention known in those days!) in the middle of nowhere on dry land with no apparent reason. Noah himself would probably want to know how the ark is going to save himself. However, with so many uncertainties in mind, Noah still persisted and placed his faith in God's direction for almost the next 100 years to get the ark built!

Imagine having no clarification on the given directions for almost 100 years! Would you have thought God crossed his arms and have forgotten what He had commanded Noah to do? With the benefit of hindsight, that is certainly not the case. By Genesis 7, it is revealed that God had never been forgetful and I am sure everyone can fill in the rest of God's gracious plan for mankind: the flood came and only Noah's family, along with all the pairs of animals survived.

Today, the attitude of many people has not changed much compared to the days of Noah. Many bad things happen on good people that make a person's faith in Christ look "stupid", just like Noah looked "stupid" for building an ark in the middle of nowhere. Questions like "Why do devoted Christians have to suffer? Jesus should have saved them from it!" make the Christian faith incomprehensible. But with Noah's lesson in mind, 1 Corinthians 2:9 further reminds us that "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him" (ESV).

There is no way we would be able to see how God is preparing for us. While we may not understand why some bad things inevitably has to happen to us, we should remind ourselves that it will ultimately be good in God's big picture at the end of the day. The prophet Isaiah writes in Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV):

8For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
9For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Posted by Ivan at 4:34 pm | Permalink | Comments