Nowadays, many of us here this term used in different parts of our lives. Yesterday during a test review session, the prof told us that we could write up a cheat sheet but it would be useless, since the questions on the exam are either you know the answer or you don’t. “Positive psychology”, he said. “If it makes you feel better, do it! If not, then don’t do it.”

Positive psychology is not a bad thing but it is missing a fundamental truth: the truth that God makes all things work for His good.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28 (ESV)

This is the fundamental truth behind positive psychology that will never ever make you disappointed! One day when positive psychology does not go your way, it will fail you and you will feel a loss of grip in life. But what matters the most is that if you are called to do something and things do not work out so well, there is a reason for it and God will make the purpose greater.

Where do bad things come from? Sin! What is the worst thing that can happen? Nothing can compare to what Jesus has done for us on the cross. A sinless man who is fully God was beaten, mocked and crucified, due to the sin of man. Yet God used the worst thing that can ever happen to become the most amazing thing He has done for us, that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life because He has paid it all!

My dear brothers and sisters, is there something hindering you and you had to turn to worldly means for resolution? Turn to God and learn from Him, be patient; and for sure, you will not be disappointed.

God Bless!

Blessings!!!

For those of you who know me, I love pilot analogies. Here is one I recently thought of.

You are trying to fly from destination A to destination B. There is known weather activity in front of you causing you to make certain decisions.

In the ideal sky without other traffic, you may request to deviate from your course to navigate around the weather activity, climb to higher altitude to avoid the weather, or in worst cases, turn back to the airport of origin or fly through the weather if you’re stuck.

The constraints are the situations given to you in this world that you can’t choose. These can be things such as family background, race, gender, etc. Sure, there can be some leeway in improving the situation by deviating flight paths by a few miles or climbing to another altitude but further deviation might put your plane in collision course with another aircraft.

If deviating flight path or climbing to avoid weather does not work, then turning back may be an option. But before you do so, consider the losses that you have to take in with not getting your passengers to where they want to go. Safety is a number 1 priority but you’ll still have to fly the same route if you want to take passengers to where they want to go, but maybe another time. Maybe that’s not bad either as we make decisions in life and God’s will is done in God’s time. Also, what if weather activity has built up behind your aircraft, you may be left with no choice but to proceed.

As a pilot, how do you make judgement calls? You gather information from weather reports before you take off, pilot reports (PIREPS) and your weather radar and use wisdom and experience to navigate through. As a person, you gather information through your senses that God has blessed you with, through constant prayer for wisdom and discernment, and make decisions through the wisdom God has gifted us with (James 1)

Now then, what if you have to fly through some adverse weather conditions? The saying as a pilot is “trust your instruments”. As a person, trust God! Know that He has everything under control. Sometimes there’s places you need to go to where there’s known to be weather activity, but you have to go through it because that’s the only way and there’s no turning back. Trust God!!!

What do you know, maybe the weather activity might have already disappeared by the time your plane passes through the area. And hey, you’ll gain experience (as a pilot and knowing God) more and the destination can be VERY rewarding.

Thoughts mainly based off Psalm 23.

God Bless!!!

A very common topic brought up to non-believers and believers is what does the Bible teach about relationships? Statistics show that most young men and women spend much of their time thinking about relationships. As age increases, the more desperate one gets for going into a relationship. However, what does the bible teach about a biblical relationship? How do we resist our temptations? Are there any rules we should follow?

First thing is first, the bible consists of guidelines and teachings on how to have a biblical marriage. These are subject to different types of interpretations but as the verses are taken into context, the interpretation of Scripture can be very clear.

Let us take a look directly into Scripture:

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. ~ Ephesians 5:22-24 (ESV)

Here, we witness that God has commanded that during a marital relationship for the wife to be submissive towards to the husband’s leadership towards Christ. This should not be interpreted as the wife having to do everything that the husband commands her to do like a slave, but rather, submit towards the spiritual direction of the family. The wife discusses important issues with the husband, they can come to a consensus and the ultimate decision lies on the husband as he is responsible for the family.

It can be seen that in the Old Testament, Eve was the one who fell for Satan’s temptation first to eat from the tree of knowledge but what do we know from this. Since Adam did not stop Eve from eating the fruit, we all declare the first man who sinned and that is Adam (Genesis 3). For directing the family towards sin, he is ultimately responsible for the sin.

The wife takes the role of the church, which is submissive to Jesus but the catch is that Jesus did not sin!

Now, many argue that God may be sexist. This is because again, they are cherry-picking, taking bible verses out of context and thus having bad theology (see my previous post for more details). Simply read the following verses to the above verses:

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. ~ Ephesians 5:25-30 (ESV)

What does this mean? Husbands, you are the man! You are commanded to love the wife with the sacrificial love Jesus had for the church. It is as simple as if there was one place on a lifeboat when a ship is sinking and it is either you or me situation, husbands should love their wives so much that they give their seat to their wife and die for her. If the genuine love is achieved, this would be a perfect relationship.

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. ~ Ephesians 5:31-33

A marriage is a union between a man and a woman as they join as one flesh, a direct image of Jesus is marrying the prostitute, the church. The church is known as the prostitute as we have all sinned against God but Jesus has come to sanctify us of our sins.

Therefore, when I am approached about dating advice on a certain person, I ask the following questions.

To men:

1. Do you think this woman will be submissive to your leadership towards Christ?

2. Will you potentially love her sacrificially so much that you are willing to die for her if needed?

To women:

1. Do you see yourself potentially submitting to this man’s leadership as a family towards Christ?

2. Will this man potentially love you so much such that he will die for you if needed?

Now let’s answer some common questions that are asked about relationships:

Is premarital sex bad?

The bible commands from Ephesians 3:31 that the husband and wife join together as one flesh. Therefore, premarital sex is seen as adultery with more than two bodies involved, and can be seen as being unbiblical.

How about marrying a nonbeliever?

The bible commands us that we must not be unequally yoked.

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? ~ 2 Corinthians 6:14

This is seen as a verse that tells us not to marry nonbelievers as we are spiritually different. Also, nonbelievers and believers hold a different vision of their life. This will lead to further problems of a relationship.

Francis Chan stated in his sermon that a relationship without Christ is like two goldfish in the same tank, fighting for each other, for more oxygen. As the male and female fight, they are never satisfied with each other and will eventually run out of oxygen, suffocate and die.  In a biblical relationship, each fish is in a different tank with ample oxygen from God and they are swimming in the same direction towards sanctification with Christ.

Also, a nonchristian marriage does not fulfill the questions that are based on Scripture I have posted above as either the wife cannot submit to her husband for leadership towards Christ or the husband cannot lead the wife towards sanctification.

Is it okay to date a nonbeliever?

We have to look at the definition of dating. Christians date for the purpose of marriage and we do everything for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Dating itself is not necessarily defined in Scripture but we know that it can lead to temptations.

Obviously dating in vain not for the purpose of marriage is not biblical and just subjecting yourself to more temptations. On top of that, one may argue that they would like to date because of missionary dating.

Unless you are 100% sure that you will not fall into temptations, missionary dating is dangerous. I personally have witnessed many people leave the church after they dated a nonbeliever. Also, there is no way you will be 100% sure about yourself falling into temptations, that is God’s call, not yours.

Therefore, keep the gospel as the backbone of your life and the backbone of your relationship.

God Bless!!!

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

One of the most important doctrines that directly affect salvation is the knowledge of Christ, and the church has had debates and disputes about the deity of Christ but the results from each argument has resulted in the same result: the doctrine of the trinity. In this series of posts, I will attempt to explain how we arrived at this doctrine from a simplified systematic theology approach.

For starters, let’s define the definition of the Trinity. The Trinity is the doctrine that summarizes the teaching of Christology in three statements:

1. God is three persons.
2. Each person is fully God.
3. There is one God.

We should notice that the doctrine of the Trinity is revealed progressively through Scriptures. We can observe from the beginning of the Bible:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ~ Gen 1:1 (ESV)

This is the first of many statements on Christ’s character in the Bible exhibiting monotheism, meaning the attribute of God being one God (mono – one, theo – God). The following excerpts of Scripture from the Old Testament also affirm the claims of our God the only God and there is no other God.

To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. ~ Deut. 4:35 (ESV)

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ~ Deut. 6:4 (ESV)

I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things. ~ Isaiah 45:5-7 (ESV)

remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, ~ Isaiah 46:9 (ESV)

Other than these, there are other pieces of Scripture such as the obvious Ten Commandments. What then does the New Testament have to say about God’s monotheistic character?

since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. ~ Romans 3:30 (ESV)

You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! ~ James 2:19 (ESV)

Yes! The New Testament claims God as having monotheistic attributes.

Now that we agree that the Bible teaches about a monotheistic God, here is the major question that affects the most about salvation: Is Jesus God?

Stay tuned for the next blog post on The Doctrine of the Trinity: Is Jesus God?

Christians have the desire to be Holy. From a Christian’s perspective, more than often, we may think that we are not worthy to be God’s disciples because we are not Holy enough. From some non-christian’s perspective, they may believe that they are never able to achieve holiness due to their lifestyles and thoughts, etc. Some non-christians may even question the need to be holy and believe that we should all be living for today and try to be a good person.

Now let us dig deeper into the concept of holiness. In the bible, God indeed commands us to live holy lives.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. – Romans 12:1 (ESV)

However, too often than enough, we find ourselves falling short of this and believing that we are undeserving of God’s love. We try to carry our burdens by ourselves and feel horrible about things we do to ourselves and to others, and we don’t meet even our own expectations of being a not even holy, but good person.

Now we should all realize that being Holy is not something we can achieve by ourselves, but something we need to desire. We can never be completely sinless, like Jesus since we have already sinned; i.e. our track record is already bad. However, we need to put our trust in Him that He who lived a sinless life has already done it all.

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. – ‭‭John‬ ‭19:30‬ ‭(ESV)

Yes, Jesus has done it all!!! No matter what you have done, if you genuinely put your trust in Jesus that He is Lord who washed away all your sins and genuinely repent, it is finished!

Many of us Christians are confused about the concept of prophesy. The bible teaches quite a lot on this topic but we need to be careful about what we believe about this matter. In this post, I will explain about my views on prophesy and things we need to be careful of. This was what I wrote for a discipleship session:

Prophesy is anything that God spontaneously brings into someone’s mind. Prophesy originally has the same authority as Scripture, as seen in the Old Testament (Num. 22:38, Deut. 18:18-20, Jer. 1:9, Ezek. 2:7, …). It can be seen that in those cases, the words of prophets are taken to have the same authority as Scripture and are thus followed as God’s words.

However, the Old Testament itself also warns us on false prophets, a prime example being Jeremiah 23, and also 28. Though prophesy itself is pure and powerful to begin with, the sinful nature of men and the work of demons and evil spirits requires us to approach prophesy with wisdom and discernment. Though false prophets will result in eternal damnation (Matthew 7:21-23), we must be cautious to not listen to them (Matthew 7:15-20). Therefore, we must be sure that the prophesy does not contradict with Scripture as we can be certain that Scripture is the word of God and shall be regarded with full authority (Joshua 1:8, Joshua 23:6, …) and that it is God breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). One must be careful to discern prophesy as it may be contaminated by sin, but must seek wisdom and discernment through the Holy Spirit. The bible also teaches that one may observe by observing the fruit (Matthew 7:20), but one must be cautious that the fruit does not mean numbers, but true fruit from a heavenly perspective.

There is a fine line between prophesy and teaching as prophesy points to revelations from the Holy Spirit and teaching is simply the explanation and application of Scripture. In terms of prophesy within a church, it should be encouraged (1 Cor. 14:1, 1 Cor. 14:39) as it edifies the church (1 Cor. 14:4) but executed carefully through prayer and biblical discernment. However, not everyone has the gift of prophesy (1 Cor. 12:29) and therefore, it is unbiblical to “teach people how to prophesy” or to tell someone that “they must prophesy to be saved” as the Holy Spirit distributes different spiritual gifts to different brothers and sisters in Christ (1 Cor. 12:4-11).

From the above, I pray that we have a better understanding of what the concept means first. If anyone says things like “I feel this from God” or “God is telling me to do this” that is spontaneously brought into the mind much relation or response to Scripture that has been meditated on, they are claiming to prophesy. As I have noticed, many of us, youth, sometimes claim “God tells me this” and “God tells me that”. Some of those times, they could claim something that is unbiblical. As we do so, we have to be aware that using God’s name to support your decision is something that should be taken seriously, and using God’s name in vain is a serious sin (Exodus 20:7).

Therefore we should all be very careful to use the name of our Lord carefully and test the Spirit if we encounter a prophetic thought. If we hear others claim the name of our Lord, make sure it is genuine by testing it with Scripture and making decisions prayerfully with wisdom and discernment.

God Bless!

For Christians, this is a verse that you may have come across reading or heard someone preach about. For the nonchristian, it may seem very irrational or even sound threatening as this verse could be quoted out of context and used for terrorism. But before we jump to any conclusions, what does this verse mean??

Let’s put it into context. This verse is found in Phillipians, a letter written to the Phillipians church by Paul the apostle. This was a response for the church sending a gift to Paul when he was imprisonned. The main theme of the letter is joy, so why is the word death written in an epistle of joy??

I learned the true meaning of this verse on my mission trip to India, in the state of Orissa; the most persecuted state. People there were killed daily for their faith by scouts that the extreme Hindu government send out, and on top of persecution, they were living in extreme poverty. The lack of food can be seen by the shape of their bodies and the lack of basic healthcare meant that someone could die just from a fever since there aren’t any doctors around.

Compared to the North American lifestyle, many may claim that their living conditions are living hell. Knowing that their life is harsh and and being a Christian just makes it harder, I have almost never witnessed that type of faith in North America.

A family of 7 are crowded in a room less than 15 squared meters. That is smaller than the size of my department’s cubicle where it seats 4. They sleep, eat and spend their time in this space although their house was double the size. Why? It’s because they were called to serve the Lord to a point where they gave up half of their house to use as a church!

Why then do they do all of this? This is because of the bible verse:

To live is Christ, to die is gain. Phillipians 1:21 (ESV)

These people are so sure that they will be with the Lord to a point where they devote everything in their lives to God and they have their eyes completely fixed on the future; eternal life! They don’t care about the sufferings of this life since they fully understand that is the cross they are called to carry (Luke 14:27) . They understand that they will receive their reward in heaven for all that they have done: loving our Lord our God with all their hearts, souls, strength and mind (Matthew 22:37).

Going back to Paul, he explicitly claims later that

I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. – Phillipians 1:23 (ESV)

It is clearly seen that the type of faith witnessed in the persecuted church is the type of faith Paul has and what God has called us to.

Therefore brothers and sisters, do you have this type of faith? If you really believe in Jesus, I challenge you to live a life believing in having no guilt in life no fear of death as Jesus washed our sins away! It is amazing!!! This is one of the bible verses I live my born-again life on.

If you don’t have this type of faith, don’t worry! Keep on praying for God to grant you this faith and witness transformation in your own life!

God Bless!!!

As Christians, we are all called to be good theologians. You may not realize but you yourself are a theologian the moment you start seeking and desiring God. What is theology then?

Theology, as complex as it sounds, just means “the study of the nature of God and religious belief”. The study of theology is not limited to Christians but also other belief systems. Even within the church, every Christian holds different theological views; no two people hold the same views. This is because everyone has a different personal experience with God. No two lives in this world are the same so no one will have the exact theological views as someone else.

However, from a Christian’s perspective, what makes a good theologian?

Good Christian theology must be rooted in Scriptures. A question I always ask myself is am I constantly reshaping my theology to align with Scriptures or am I constantly reshaping Scriptures to align with my theology?

The former is what the Bible commands (Romans 2:2) while the latter may become heretical and is clearly unbiblical.

Let’s take it one step further. Here is a verse from the Bible:

If you worship me, it will all be yours – Luke 4:7 (NIV)

It sounds amazing doesn’t it? Hold on a sec, something feels wrong… What context is this in?

Let’s look at the whole verse

The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” – Luke 4:5-7

Wow! What do you see? Notice how dangerous it is to take Scripture out of context? What is this called?

Cherry-picking

Never do that. However, how do we know if we are cherry-picking?

1. Pray about it. Consult God first for wisdom and discernment as He grants it generously (James 1:5)
2. If you are aware that your theology is satisfying some verses and conflict others, you are cherry-picking. Good theology will not conflict Scripture at all.
3. If you are unsure, consult your brothers and sisters in Christ or your pastor.

Proper theology is vital in our everyday lives. Bad theology will lead someone astray or even to a point where they loose their salvation. Therefore, brothers and sisters, read your bibles in context and constantly renew your theology to align with Scriptures. There will always be some flaw in our theology but as long as we believe in Him, He his grace is sufficient.

God Bless!

Whenever we stumble into sin, what do we do? Let’s be honest here. Depending on the situation we may keep on continuing on with the sin, hide from the sin and pretend it didn’t happen, pray to God for repentance or blame it on the devil. Let’s stop here, how do you feel after reading the previous sentence?

Continuing on with the sin means running away from God and being carried away by earthly desires. Best case scenario from hiding from the sin may be to stop sinning but that does not mean much unless you repent.  Of course repenting your sins in front of God is the right thing to do, but what about demons and evil spirits?

The Bible does teach about people unable to control themselves and demons consequently being cast out from their bodies by Jesus Himself in the gospels or in Jesus’ name in Acts. This does not mean that exorcisms only happen in the Bible as I believe it can happen even in the present day. However, before we get all worked up about demons, let’s take a look at who they actually are first.

Wayne Grudam’s Systematic Theology defines demons as follows:

Demons are evil angels who sinned against God and who now continually work evil in the world.

It is written in Scripture that these fallen angels will consequently be casted into hell (2 Peter 2:4). “Satan” is the name of the head of the demons. It is written in Scripture that Satan is the origin of all sins (1 John 3:8). However, should we be afraid of Satan?

Let’s take a look at the qualities of our God. He is omnipotent (all-powerful), omnipresent (in all places at the same time), omniscient (He knows everything), and omnibenevolent (He only does things that are all good). However, Satan has none of these qualities. Satan’s abilities are limited and Satan even needs to get God’s permission before doing anything (Job 1:6-12). Satan is weak and thinks that he can destroy all the good works of God but the opposite happens and he will be thrown into hell when the time comes (more to be discusses in a later post).

Therefore, Satan and his demons are limited. There are not enough demons and evil spirits to go and haunt every one of God’s creations as they are finite beings. This doesn’t mean we should not pray against them as it is biblical to do so in the Lord’s Prayer but we should not blame every single trouble we have in our lives on evil spirits and demons and we should not think that every sinful act that happens is because something or someone is possessed.  If the blame on demons and evil spirits is abused, it just sounds irresponsible as this is transferring the blame to other things and claiming yourself to be innocent. Yes, Satan is the root of sin but our flesh sins. It is not a struggle against flesh (Ephesians 6:12) but a process of submitting to God’s will of living a Holy life.

Therefore, next time you fall into some sort of sin or your friend is having struggles, rather than just focussing on casting out a devil, if it seems to be some sort of a fleshly struggle, take time to repent in prayer and ask God for wisdom so that you may live a life pleasing to God.

Dear readers,

I apologize for being off my blog for so long. All sorts of ministry have been going on and God has been leading me to do all sorts of things taking me out of my comfort zone. Life is as always not necessarily happy, but living for the joy of the Lord.

I have started serving in the Cantonese Congregation at my church as a student leader and speaker in the student ministry and also a worship leader in the congregation. I really enjoy apologetical teaching and God has blessed me with a church fellowship where more than half of the participants are non-believers and are here to seek to know more. Many times, I have received questions and had to reply as an apologist. 6 months ago, there was no Cantonese church student ministry in downtown Toronto and also I had no knowledge of apologetics whatsoever. If it wasn’t for the divine calling of our Lord and also God’s plan for me to go to RZIM Summer School 2015, I wouldn’t be doing what I am doing today. The Lord certainly provides.

Serving as a worship leader with a language barrier has really taught me about living in humility and surrendering everything to God. Being responsible for leading the church to the throne of the Lord meant choosing worship music with wisdom and discernment and that alone will not do with the language barrier; I needed God’s grace the most.

It’s been just a bit more than three years ever since I stepped into the doors of Chinese Gospel Church. I thought I was a Christian back then but I was just a seeker, but the Holy Spirit has taught me that through submission to God, he will renew our strength and make us soar like eagles (Isaiah 40:31).

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, I invite you to subscribe to this blog. Make it a commitment to read God’s word everyday and if you are not interested in reading the bible yet, read this as leisure reading. I will be updating this blog on at least a weekly basis because I feel the need to use this to assist in some of my discipleship sessions. My prayer for you is that if you are still a nonbeliever and are interested in knowing more, this blog will give you more information on a Christian mindset and quench your thirst (John 4:4) and if you are a believer, I pray that this blog will let you desire more and take up your cross to follow Him (Matthew 16:24). My prayer for myself here is that if there is anything I write here that is nonsense or is against biblical teaching that I will be rebuked and those who read it will not be led astray but will forget about it.

God Bless!