What difference does it make?

Philip Yancey, while writing his book Reaching for the invisible God, asked his friends this question: If a seeking person came to you and asked how your life as a Christian differs from his or hers as a moral non-Christian, what would you say? I've been thinking about what my answer would be.
I wonder if people see anything more to me than a decent guy who goes to church on Sundays. Shouldn't there be be more to a follower of Christ than that, I ask myself. And if there is, shouldn't it be apparent to everybody?

If I understand my faith correctly, I think the biggest difference being a Christian makes in my life is how I love others. Jesus said to his disciples, Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognise that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.” (John 13:34-35). 

Christian love is radically different from any other love. Our natural love is always dependant on who the recipient is. We love people either because they are related to us or because they poses the qualities we admire; beauty, intelligence, courage, friendliness, integrity, social status etc. Christian love is unconditional. The message of the gospel is pretty simple, we had no desirable qualities that God should love us and yet he did. Go and do likewise, Jesus said, while explaining the parable of the Good Samaritan. 

Loving people who have nothing to offer in return is hard. It means caring for people who might not appreciate the time, effort, money or self sacrifice you made for them. It means loving the unlovables. Followers of Christ love like that. But sadly, most people do not find the 'church people' that loving these days. In conversations with my non-Christians friends, I often hear about how judgemental, unforgiving and hypocritical the church is. Most also claim to be living more 'moral' lives than the alleged 'Christians'. It grieves my heart to admit they are right to some extent. Often, the church does not seem to follow it's central teaching; love God and love others. 

However, there are plenty to Christians, that live out that message everyday. Consider the guy I heard about last week. One of South Korea's top surgeons, he leaves his six figure salary and comfortable life and goes to a remote village in northern China, where he's been running a hospital for the poor for the last 15 years. It takes more than a sense of philanthropy to do that. He could have sent money for a hospital and doctors if he wanted to. But somehow Christian love demands sacrifice, it's a giving of your life to others that makes love so powerful. 

I recently watched a little know film titled 'Noble' based on the life of Christina Noble, a children's rights campaigner and charity worker who has changed the lives of thousands of street children in Vietnam through her work. Christina had a difficult life herself. Born in Ireland in the mid 40s, Christina was sent to live in an orphanage at age ten, gang-raped while living on the streets, her son forcibly adopted, and a victim of domestic abuse. Yet despite all these hardships, this woman went on to fulfil her vision of caring for the abused street children of Vietnam. 

What compels these people to do what they do? I believe it's the message of the gospel. Loved people, love people. And most importantly, they love the people that ordinary 'moral' people don't love. The ones that have nothing to offer. That's called grace. That's what Christianity is all about. And that is what makes all the difference.  

Overcoming Lust and Pornography Addiction

One of the best teaching I've ever listened to, this is a must watch guys:


"Man School: Porn and Lust vs. Pursuit of a Wife", by Matt Popovits, Campus Pastor, CrossPoint Westgreen. 1/23/2011 from crosspt media on Vimeo.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky on God's Love

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) is among the greatest men of letters Russia has ever produced and arguably, one of the greatest novelists of all time. He was also a devout Christian. He regarded the parable of the Prodigal Son as 'the most perfect gem in any literature' and wove it into most of his own novels, reminding the world of what the Gospel of Grace is all about.

I have recently started reading his final novel, The Brothers Karamazov regarded by many as his greatest work. Right in the beginning of the book, is this little scene that really moved me.

As the story goes, three brothers and their father go to see a renowned priest, who is the head of the monastery near their town, to seek his advice about a family matter. The holy man, Father Zossima, is regarded as a saint by the people and they come from all over the country to seek his advice and blessing. As the old man is very sick and ill, he does not have the strength to minister everyday, and pilgrims wait days for him to come out and bless them. The story describes one such eventful day when the Father goes out to listen to and pray for the people that have been eagerly waiting to see him. Among the crowd, is this woman. I'll let Dostoyevsky tell the rest:

'But the elder had already noticed in the crowd two glowing eyes fixed upon him. An exhausted, consumptive-looking, though young peasant woman was gazing at him in silence. Her eyes besought him, but she seemed afraid to approach.

“What is it, my child?”

“Absolve my soul, Father,” she articulated softly, and slowly sank on her knees and bowed down at his feet. “I have sinned, Father. I am afraid of my sin.”

The elder sat down on the lower step. The woman crept closer to him, still on her knees.

“I am a widow these three years,” she began in a half-whisper, with a sort of shudder. “I had a hard life with my husband. He was an old man. He used to beat me cruelly. He lay ill; I thought looking at him, if he were to get well, if he were to get up again, what then? And then the thought came to me—”

“Stay!” said the elder, and he put his ear close to her lips.

The woman went on in a low whisper, so that it was almost impossible to catch anything. She had soon done.

“Three years ago?” asked the elder.

“Three years. At first I didn't think about it, but now I've begun to be ill, and the thought never leaves me.”

“Have you come from far?”

“Over three hundred miles away.”

“Have you told it in confession?”

“I have confessed it. Twice I have confessed it.”

“Have you been admitted to Communion?”

“Yes. I am afraid. I am afraid to die.”

“Fear nothing and never be afraid; and don't fret. If only your penitence fail not, God will forgive all. There is no sin, and there [pg 051] can be no sin on all the earth, which the Lord will not forgive to the truly repentant! Man cannot commit a sin so great as to exhaust the infinite love of God. Can there be a sin which could exceed the love of God? Think only of repentance, continual repentance, but dismiss fear altogether. Believe that God loves you as you cannot conceive; that He loves you with your sin, in your sin. It has been said of old that over one repentant sinner there is more joy in heaven than over ten righteous men. Go, and fear not. Be not bitter against men. Be not angry if you are wronged. Forgive the dead man in your heart what wrong he did you. Be reconciled with him in truth. If you are penitent, you love. And if you love you are of God. All things are atoned for, all things are saved by love. If I, a sinner, even as you are, am tender with you and have pity on you, how much more will God. Love is such a priceless treasure that you can redeem the whole world by it, and expiate not only your own sins but the sins of others.”

He signed her three times with the cross, took from his own neck a little ikon and put it upon her. She bowed down to the earth without speaking. '

What a powerful illustration of God's Love.

Our just so stories...

I love reading stories. They fascinate me, some are entertaining, some are thought provoking, some inspire and encourage, some challenge me, some just make me feel good, some disturb, some disgust and some I have regretted reading. Such is the nature of stories. They have certain powers attached to them...

The Bible is full of stories. At it's center is the greatest story ever told, it tells of how much God loves us humans; imperfect, stubborn, rebellious, sinful people, who never quite manage to even return a fraction of His love back,even at our greatest. Who let Him down over and over again, who never seem to get the point, and yet He never seems of stop showering us with grace...

And then there are sub-plots in this grand story. One of my favorite ones is how God changes a person's life. You read about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. You read about extraordinary people doing ordinary things and then you get to know some people who discover that God loved them in spite of what they did...The amazing stories of these people make the Bible believable. If the Bible depicted it's heroes like myths do, it would have been nothing more than a fairy tale. some fantasy world to aspire to. Just a mere good story.

But no; Bible heroes are ordinary, imperfect and flawed people like us. They show amazing faith and courage, but the times when they messed it all up is also recorded for us, lest we doubt them being real. You read about Abraham, father of nations, doubting the God he chose to follow, you see Moses, God's friend, take matters into his own hands, a man after God's heart, David, commits adultery and murder.. Fast forward to the New Testament and you read of the disciples full of doubt and scared to death even with Jesus at their side, then there's the Apostle Paul stoning Christians to death... the list goes on and on. It's amazing how God changes lives, and how he can use any of us, all of us,in fact. He doesn't look for the perfect ones, the clean record ones or the strongest ones, he only looks for the willing ones. Those that hunger and thirst for Him....

It always fascinates me when I come to know the story of someone I know whose life got transformed by God. You cannot help being amazed when you come to know that the pastor of your church had spent most of his youth in sex, drugs, alcohol and rock n roll; the really friendly lady at the welcome desk was sexually abused as a kid and had grown up in all sorts of pain and bitterness, that guy on the stage who confessed to having lost count of how many women he had slept with, the worship leader who used to be a drug addict; though some are more dramatic then others, every person has a story.

These people are proof of what God can do with a life. When I met them, I could never have looked at them and imagined the things they say they have done. Too many people think you have to be good to be accepted by God, that somehow Christians are a bunch of clean people, who have it all together. Here's a revelation for you all, if that were the case none of us would qualify, saints would have to be dethroned. We've all messed up at one time or the other. Our stories have dark corners. That's what God's love is all about, that's why these men and women go around calling him the Saviour, that's why they all have a story to tell.

Winter chills and snow storms

We go through life in a rush, always busy, sticking to routine, out of breath, running around from one thing to another. And then sometimes, God disrupts the schedule. He changes the lights to red, and causes us to come to a halt. The stop signs come in a variety of shapes and sizes, sometimes it's a lost job, sometimes it's sickness, sometimes it's the loss of a loved one, sometimes it's people, sometimes it's friends and family, and many a times, it's just a bad day. And occasionally God brings in nature. For me, it was Snow. And lots of it. It disrupts our daily life, brings cars and planes and people to a crippling stop. But it also changes our vision. Snow makes black things look white, the ordinary becomes beautiful, and the beautiful comes ordinary. We no longer admire the snow-covered car as beautiful, but we surely admire the trees in the back garden, that were there all along, but had never gotten our attention. The streets we cross everyday,the roads, the houses, the people, everything looks beautiful. Majestic. Sacred. Why? it's a change of lens, a different filtering of light, another perspective. Some coloured pictures look more elegant in black and white. And all stop signs are there for a purpose. They keep us safe. I thank God for the red lights He's placed in my life, (I might have ran over a lot of people without them; provided I didn't kill myself first), but sometimes I wonder wouldn't it be better if God didn't have to use a megaphone to get my attention? What if a gentle whisper was enough?

What do they think of me?

John Donne penned the words, 'No man is an island, entire of itself'. We are taught that man is a social animal. We have to be around people in order to survive. And what others do, how they interact with us, affects us greatly, even determines our behaviour. Perhaps one of the greatest of all questions we ask ourselves is the question: What do they think of me? What is the opinion of other people about me? Do they like me or not? Do they think I am beautiful or not? Do they thinks I am 'cool' or not? We tend to spend our lifetime trying to 'fit in' the culture around us, we labor to develop an image of ourselves which would be acceptable and appreciated by people around us. We all want people to like us. And we tend to go great lenghts in order to achieve this objective.We make sure our clothes are current fashion, we listen to popular music, we try to keep up with the latest gossip, all beacuse we don't want to be left out of anything.

In the world today, where Christians are considered 'anti-everything', it is quite impossible to fit into the life around us. There are certain things a follower of Christ cannot do, certian things he should not hear or see, certain words he should not speak, certain places he cannot go. Where does he fit in, then? Jesus said, "If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you".(John 15:19,NIV)

Yet,the question still nags me, and I believe it nags us all as human beings; what do they think of me? As a Christian, called out of the world, I still want the world to like me. The opinion of other people around me is extremely important.I still ask, what do they think of me? So what do I do then, do I go on living, saying things like 'I don't care what anybody thinks about me', yet deep down I know that I really do care...
or I can turn to Jesus.... What would He have done? What did he do? No deep meditations required. The scriptures tell us, to my great relief, that Jesus too, asked this question. Three gospel writers, (Matthew, Mark and Luke) record that Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do the crowds say I am?"
They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life."And then he asked them,"But what about you?", "Who do you say I am?" and Peter answered, "The Christ of God." Luke records that, eight days later, Peter, James and John accompany Jesus to a mountain to pray, and they hear a voice from heaven saying 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.'

I see an answer to my question in these scriptures. What do they think of me? Jesus starts with the crowds, he gets a mixed response. Jesus doesn't discuss their response, it seems to me he wasn't especially interested in what they had to say, probably because he knew, that for every person that likes you, you'll find a multitude that hates you. And here's lesson 1: Never mind the crowd, you can never please them all. The fact that Jesus repeats the question when asking his disciples goes to show that, he was far more interested in what they had to say. Lesson 2: The opinion of people closest to you is very important. I believe that's because they know you inside out, they see the real you rather than an image the crowd sees. And even if one of them appreciates who you are (like Peter among the disciples), you're on the right track. And finally, consider the voice from heaven. I do not believe Jesus needed to hear that God the Father loved him and was pleased with Him;his disciples needed to hear it. So God made sure that they heard Him clear, and here we learn the most important lesson: Make sure you are pleasing God, and He'll make sure that those around you know well what they should think of you!
Its about time I start asking myself, 'What does God think of me?'.

The goodness of God

Two and half years old. Shiny Black eyes. Curly Black hair. Tone of skin: Chocolate. But don't ever call her that. "I am not chocolate, I'm Hossana!" she would say. The taliban killed her father for preaching the gospel, in a drive-by shooting in Peshawar, Pakistan, just two days before she turned two.(I mentioned him in the post: of compassion of suicide bombings). Despite all that has happened to her family, this little girl sings. She sings the little chorus, "God is so good, God is so good, He's so good to me". What has baffled the greatest of philosophers, God has revealed to this little girl: His goodness. For ages the world's greatest minds have debated, how could a good God allow so much pain in the world; since he can't so either He isn't good or he isn't the god we claim he is. But such questions don't perplex little children. They surely don't arise in Hossana's mind. I think its because a child's mind is pure. Unpolluted by the rubbish this world has to offer. Undefiled by man's sin, his passions, his lust, his arrogance. I think Hossana sees what Job, the most righteous man of his time, saw through his unjust suffering: No matter what the circumstances, God is always in control. He knows what He's doing. Our job: Only to trust Him for who He is: Our loving heavenly father, who has the whole world in His hand. And in times of pain, we need to learn from Hossana. We need to be singing, rather than weeping.Singing, "God is good, all the time".