Jesus

#yolo

/ Henry Jiang / 3 Comments

My beloved brothers and sisters, as you may have seen, most of my posts during the week surround the same theme. Though this site is only 1 week old, we have started with the theme of Spiritual Blindness and have moved on to the theme of prayer. I thought that it would be nice to spend a day each week (which would be Sunday) to share interesting things that come up in our lives that makes me ponder.

A member of our Yumcha Fellowship introduced the term yolo to me. To those who do not understand, it means “You Only Live Once”. Sometimes the term is combined with swag, forming the term yoloswag. One of the ways he would use this phrase would be:

Yolo! I gamed the entire night and did not study for the exam. GG

For your information, GG means Good Game, in which gamers say when they loose a game. I never really came to understand the concept of You Only Live Once here. Is it because you only live once that you should game? A few weeks after hearing this term, I rebuked him with the following verse:

The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. — Proverbs 13:4 (NIV 1984)

Honestly, gaming to an extent where it takes over your priorities in life is a form of idolatry, as you are worshipping games. Are you bringing any Glory to God? The Holy Bible commands us to do everything for the Glory of God. If you are a non-believer, do you feel emptiness after gaming for extended hours? If so, why? What do you feel when you log out or turn off your game? Imagine everything being taken away from you tomorrow including your laptop, what would you think of gaming now?

My perception of the concept Yolo. I personally believe that it should not be seen as a term with negative connotations. You Only Live Once? So what? We only live once, so we need to treasure this time of only living once in this world. What do we do? First we must obey the Ten Commandments. Next, we must execute the Great Commission which is “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19) We only live once and during this short time of living in this world, we have to bring as much Glory to God as possible and obey His commandments in order to be saved (which also means we have to declare our faith and prove our faith).

What are you waiting for my brothers and sisters? You’ve all heard the Great Commission, go out and do it! #yolo

Have a very, very blessed week! Love ya ❤

Needless Pain We Bear

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My beloved brothers and sisters, have you taken a look at yesterday’s post? The post about meditating on the lyrics of the well known hymn: “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”. Honestly, though we are told to fear God, we should also treat Jesus as our best friend. However, although we understand that Jesus is our best friend, many times, we forget about this because we don’t physically see Jesus. Moreover, it is important to believe when we haven’t seen Jesus physically (John 20:29). In my personal life, I can witness the Holy Spirit existing at every corner of the world. But due to the human instinct of requiring to see something in order to be reminded, we often forget about asking Jesus in times of high stress and struggles, and this again comes back to the sin of self-reliance. However, Joseph Scriven has left behind a poem (later transforming into a hymn) which we should meditate on especially at times of trouble.

Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!

Honestly, if we are not praying to God about all our struggles and burdens, we are forfeiting our peace and feeling needless pain. This is the truth. 1 Corinthians 16:11 is one of the Bible verses that back up this claim but it is actually so simple. Also, in Scriven’s poem, the first verse uses the diction “privilege to carry”, and this is very true. We do not even deserve to talk to God face to face because we are such sinners, and that is why the temple veil was torn when Jesus was crucified: Jesus took away our sins so that we are washed to be sinless and made worthy to even talk to God, only when we repent and confess our sins and believe in Jesus Christ.

Therefore my brothers and sisters, have you been forfeiting this privilege? Are there any problems causing you pain and burden that you haven’t taken to Jesus in prayer? Have you ever thought of Jesus as your friend? I challenge you to ponder about these questions and reflect on how you are using these words of wisdom in your daily lives.

 

What a Friend We have in Jesus

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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?