Spiritual Blindness

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. — Matthew 13:16 (NIV 1984)

Your Will Be Done

/ Henry Jiang / Leave a comment

My lovely brothers and sisters, after meditating on The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) from yesterday, have you learned anything new? Today, I would like to touch on a specific verse in the lord’s prayer, and talk about some misconceptions even some mature Christians have which lead to deception of Scripture. This is a very slippery slope as many have fallen into this trap, and this has generated false doctrines, such as the prosperity gospel. It is very upsetting that these brothers and sisters who begin with the will to follow Jesus but end up following worldly values, such as wealth or honour.

One of the most debated verses in the Bible is Matthew 7:7:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Christians have used this verse to argue against each other, some state that it should not be taken word for word as just stating this verse is taking it out of context as the audience of this passage has to be considered. This should not create any disunity in a church as it does not violate any primary doctrines. However, secondary doctrines may have different takes at this verse, in which I (I admit I am biased) believe that Scripture should be taken as is, and this verse is directed towards all of us. The condition that this verse must meet is that we are following how Jesus commanded us to pray in Matthew 6:9-13, especially Matthew 6:10

Your will be done

It is vital (and I cannot stress this any more further) that we are living to fulfill God’s will, and NOT our will. Any form of living for ourselves is self-idolatry and not bringing Glory to God, thus not living life to its sole purpose. Romans 4:7-8 states that

For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be careful when you are praying for things. Always ask yourself if what you are praying lines up with Scripture, and if you are not sure, pray for wisdom as wisdom is promised to us through Scripture:

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. James 1:5 (NIV 1984)

Only when we are praying for the right things (i.e. God’s Will), it will be given to you. This goes the same for passages such as Matthew 18:19. What we need to keep in mind is that God is always good (Psalm 136:1) and we must put our faith in Him as He knows the plans He has for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). So my brothers and sisters, ask yourself what you are praying for, are you praying the right way? If not, do you know what you should pray for? If not, ask God for wisdom as it is promised to you through the Lord.

God Bless You All! Amen!

P.S. Don’t get me started on the discussion of Jeremiah 29:11 taken out of context. I understand I am biased but again, I hold the point of view that Scripture is written for everyone and honestly, if someone was to use that portion of Scripture for means of prosperity gospel (stating that God has plans for us to prosper in this world), they honestly lack foresight. I am not saying that this will not happen, but it is not guaranteed. However, God will keep His promise and we are guaranteed to prosper in Heaven if we follow Him.

What a Friend We have in Jesus

/ Henry Jiang / Leave a comment

This happened during the Cornerstone Regent Park Soup Kitchen. I was playing hymns on that very out-of-tune out-of-shape piano and an elderly man came over to comment. He told me he really liked the hymns I played and he only knows the hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”. Turns out he plays the piano at his church for only 2 hymns and I asked him to play it for me on the piano.

He played a really weird somewhat-like jazz version of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” (Although I did not really like that interpretation, I do not disapprove of any worship music when the intentions are correct). Later, we talked and he told me he is worrying very much about the political state of his home country along with his household struggles. I asked him does he pray about it and he told me that he only prays when he is in deep trouble and only then does God answer his prayer. The ironic thing is I don’t really think he looked carefully at the lyrics of this hymn.

For today’s blog post, I challenge you, my beloved brothers and sisters to meditate on the lyrics of this old hymn. There is a lot to take out from this hymn and the posts for the next few days will be based on this famous hymn as we discover God’s goodness and how we should treat Him as our best friend, and at the same time fear Him. The hymn has enough to speak for itself!

What a Friend We Have in Jesus — Joseph M. Scriven (1855)

 

What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful,
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Saviour, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
Thou wilt find a solace there.

Blessed Saviour, Thou hast promised
Thou wilt all our burdens bear;
May we ever, Lord, be bringing
All to Thee in earnest prayer.
Soon in glory bright, unclouded,
There will be no need for prayer—
Rapture, praise, and endless worship
Will be our sweet portion there.

 

God Bless you all! 😀

Lost

/ Henry Jiang / Leave a comment

When things turn for the worse, we often find ourselves lost physically and spiritually. Our self-dependent vision of the world deceives our foresight and forces us to take it upon ourselves. When we find ourselves in situations like this, we need to remember that we need to be committed to the Lord, as it is written:

For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.  2 Chronicles 16:9

In times of destitute, many of us reach a point where it feels like we don’t time for anything. We want alone time for ourselves. Even knowing James 1:2-4, we often try to solve the problem by ourselves, and as a result, it may turn into so-called stress-relieving methods such as eating, drinking, gaming, taking drugs. Doing anything that is not sinful to a proper extent is alright but overdoing things such as over-eating, drinking alcohol until you are completely insane, gaming like crazy is a form of idolatry as you are allowing it to take over your life. After doing things that are not giving glory to God’s name, you would feel a sense of emptiness. Why? This is because the sole purpose of the creation of human beings is to bring Glory to God (Isaiah 43:7). Moreover, the Bible commands us to do everything for God’s glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). Failing to live for your purpose of life will thus bring you the feeling of emptiness when doing things that are useless.

Reading the Book of Ecclesiastes can be very depressing as it talks about how worthless our temporary life on the earth is, but we are reminded constantly in the New Testament of the everlasting eternal life we are to spend with God in heaven. Christ has commanded us to carry the cross with him (Luke 14:27, Matthew 16:24-26). Imagine what Jesus went through, how He was wrongly crucified though He lived a sinless life, the pain and suffering He went through to carry the cross. In addition, think of Jesus’ disciples and other Christians that were tortured and martyred for their faith. Now look back at yourselves. I challenge you, my lovely brothers and sisters, to compare the largest challenges you are currently experiencing with the experiences listed above.

Things that are neither Bright nor Beautiful

/ Henry Jiang / Leave a comment

Reflecting from yesterday’s hymn “All Things Bright and Beautiful”, it reminds me of the time I have stumbled upon the thought: What about things that I feel are not bright and beautiful? Are these not creations of God? Is this hymn just blaspheming about things that are Bright and Beautiful and completely ignoring the things that are not?

When we think of this, we have to keep in mind that God is good and fair. Scriptures such as  Matthew 7:11, Matthew 19:17, Romans 5:8, John 3:16 and John 15:12 describe the goodness of God and how He loves us. But why do we have people ranting on about how miserable their lives are? Why does God put these people in those situations.

Last Sunday, I was having lunch at Village by the Grange. There was this elderly black lady sitting in front of me, constantly talking. For a moment, I thought that she was calling someone on her phone but later, I realized she was ranting about living on community housing and how the world is messed up. I was eating my beef Pho when I felt a type of spiritual unrest for her. I felt like she needed God and peace, and I felt the urge to give her one of those ESV Economy Bibles I carry around. I finished my bowl of noodles and confronted her with the Bible, she thanked me and told me she already has one and asked me to give it to someone else on her behalf. Then I asked her if I could pray for her and she agreed.

These days, I often invite the Holy Spirit to lead me in prayer so that I pray for things that the Holy Spirit wants and not what I want in my life. During the prayer, I prayed for this lady to receive more foresight by looking into God to strengthen her soul. I thanked God for giving her these challenges as we understand that we should rejoice at times of trial as the testing of your faith produces perseverance and that perseverance must finish its work so that we may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (James 1:2-4). God wants the best of us and providing us with these challenges or things that are not bright and beautiful, He is setting us up to receive His everlasting fruits He will bless us after this short-termed life in this world (And it was actually from the prayer where I came up with the name of this site). After the prayer, the lady stopped ranting and was smiling until she left the area. Praise the Lord!

Now my lovely brothers and sisters, ask yourselves, “What is your attitude when you are faced with trials and temptations? Are you allowing God to make you perfect by developing your perseverance? Is your foresight perhaps blinded by the current situations that arise and in your mind act as a barrier between God and you?”

All Things Bright And Beautiful

/ Henry Jiang / Leave a comment

Yesterday, I talked about my realization of God’s great creations. Actually, there was a hymn that came to my mind, one of the first hymns that I sang in children’s choir when I was in Grade 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlhV80QPUuI

 

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

Each little flow’r that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.

The purple-headed mountains,
The river running by,
The sunset and the morning
That brightens up the sky.

The cold wind in the winter,
The pleasant summer sun,
The ripe fruits in the garden,
He made them every one.

The tall trees in the greenwood,
The meadows where we play,
The rushes by the water,
To gather every day.

He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.

— Cecil F. Alexander (1848)

 

Those are the exact thoughts I have whenever I see something wonderful in this world. God Himself declared that all his creations are good with the phrase “And God saw that it was good” appearing a total of five times in the first chapter of Genesis. Take a moment to meditate on these lyrics. Is this what you are really feeling about God’s Creations? If not, look into yourself. What do you not agree with? Feel free to use the form below to submit an anonymous message to me and I might talk about it in blogs to come 😀

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Eye-opener

/ Henry Jiang / Leave a comment
My Personal Niagara Falls for 20 Minutes

My Personal Niagara Falls for 20 Minutes

Have you ever had the experience when certain things in this world bring you awe? As a continuation of yesterday’s thought of opening your eyes to see more of what’s around you, these eye-opening views are just too obvious to miss. The photo shown above used to be my Facebook cover photo, during my one-day trip to the United States on reading week in 2013. I arrived at Niagara Falls at around 6:30 pm when all the souvenir shops are shut down and there was noone at the falls on the U.S. side, except me. Although it was way below freezing there, having the Niagara Falls to myself for 20 minutes is an experience that I will never forget. However, although my eyes were wide open at that time, I was blind.

Many have wondered how long I have been living this spiritual life and what has changed me to commit to God to this extent. Here is my recent testimony (I will share my life-death testimony some other day). Although I was already a born-again baptized Christian, I was spiritually drained out due to the stress the University of Toronto Engineering Science program as put me under. Being exposed to mediocre grades as compared to 95+ averages in high school, it was depressing and demotivating. Last year from September to December, I was really down spiritually and I kept that to myself. It got to a point when sermons at our church started to not make any sense. The only thing I kept on doing that made me feel like a Christian was praying, and although I would forget to pray sometimes up to 3 days, I would pray for God to pull me closer to Him.

It was not until I suddenly messaged a sister one day for matters that are unimportant and she invited me to go to a winter retreat for the fellowship at her church. This church was the church I “grew up” in when I was a primary school student. I used to only go to church for children’s choir and nothing else. Although I was returning the night before the retreat from Atlanta, Georgia, I felt a push to go. In the beginning of the retreat, things were still not making sense. The Pastor was talking about how God will be present at our retreat and we would observe miracles happening, in my mind, I was thinking to myself, “There’s noone with cancer or some kind of deadly disease or disability, how can we see miracles?” This proved how drained out my spiritual mindset was. The second day of the retreat, it was -30°C so the nature prayer walk was cancelled but for some reason, I insisted on going out. During that walk, the surroundings were completely static due to the lack of animals (all were hibernating) and I walked up to this frozen lake. We had a small pamphlet that told us to pray and listen to God. I was silent and listened to God.

Then all of a sudden, I realized all of these jaw-dropping, eye-opening views are views of God’s creation, especially the view I saw can be under Genesis 9. This was the start of a complete change in perspective of life. The Book of Genesis is not just a story where we learn the basics of Christianity, it should be applicable to our daily lives just as any other Scripture. As 2 Timothy 3:16-17 states that Scripture is breathed out by God, living by Scripture is recognizing God and if you take it to the next level, loving God (Matthew 22:37). Therefore, I challenge you my lovely brothers and sisters to question the perspective you perceive this world. If you have not read the Book of Genesis, start from the first chapter, it is at the very beginning of your Bible! Are you recognizing God’s presence in any scene in this world?

Blindness

/ Henry Jiang / Leave a comment

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I usually don’t call myself blind, until I have to go searching for my glasses. -3.25 and -3.50, my vision is not that bad compared to some of my friends but I can hardly see anything without my glasses. I realized that more when it took me around 15 minutes to search for my glasses. However, even if you had perfect 20/20 vision, how much can you see? How far can you see?

Right after I found my glasses, I was thinking to myself about my limited vision. However, God Almighty can see anything, the Holy Spirit is present everywhere in the world he and he can see everywhere, even inside you (Psalm 139). Moreover, He can do anything He wishes to.

Now if this was a person on earth, what do you think he would do? He can rob all your money, mess around with your life, make you his slave, mess around with your life. Now don’t worry, my brothers and sisters because our God is nothing like that. Although our sole purpose of our lives is to bring Glory to His name (Isaiah 43:7), He is a good God and He loves us. He is a fair God too and cannot tolerate any sin (wrongdoings) in our lives and every wrongdoing we commit is subject to punishment and eternal damnation. However, He loves us so much that keeping His fairness, God the Father sent His Son Jesus to die for our sins so that we do not need to suffer eternal damnation as that has been already taken care of. What more can you ask for?

Looking back at myself on a note I posted 2 years ago during Christmas, I see that I am not as blind as before. Through the journey God is leading me through, I can see more and more with my growing faith and cultivated heart through Scripture, Prayer and Worship. If you open your eyes and heart to God, He will provide you with more and more to see and admire in awe.

Therefore, I challenge you brothers and sisters to look into yourself. What can you see? How much can you see? And what are things that you could see but probably missed out on?