Cross Cultural Understanding Part 1

Non-Buddhist don't really understand what's going on inside Buddhist cultures, Buddhist families and Buddhist lives. Most Buddhists also don't really know what Christianity or the Bible is all about. They sometimes perceive each other as enemies, which is simply not the case~ What I intend write in the following is to emphasize are the many largely unrecognized similarities between Buddhism and Christianity, which serve as a bridge for cross-cultural understanding. Thai terms be used here, and their definition or explanation will be stated.

Firstly, we should start with a famous word/term which Buddhist love to say; karma. Karma will follow people from their past life of sins and Buddhists' belief that karma always follow them. It will follow them forever until somehow it is paid for. Thai Buddhists called it as wain gum or the revenge of the karma. To free yourself from karma, the monk may advise you to meditate, then sadau kro. Sadau kro requires performance of a good deed that usually involves buying something; eg. buying birds or eels and releasing them. This probably descended from the Old Testament practice (from the Bible) of releasing the scapegoat into wilderness (Lev:16:22) and releasing a clean bird dipped in blood into the open field (Lev:14:6). The Old Testament practice predated Buddha by 3000years, and was codified by the time of Moses 1000 years before Buddha. Southeast Asia, doesn't have native goats, they substituted the Biblical practice with other things; like pigs, chicken, eels, or even flower.If you are unable to sadau kro, then become a nun/monk to pay off your sins. What Christian believed in is, God has sent His One and ONLY son to die for us. Jesus was crucified, bared our sins and His blood washes off our sins.

Karma is always retributive. The self-blame, the fear of karmic revenge, the hopelessness of never being set free from a curse, all add stress and uncertainty to a Buddhist life. Please do not think that a typical Buddhist is living in harmony with nature or floating on a cloud of peace. The doctrine of karma does not usually produce compassion, but condemnation. A sincere Buddhists will try to purify themselves of their own karma and keep all 227 laws of Buddha (for men) and 311 laws for women. This produces even more condemnation when they realize the cannot do it. However, This doesn't mean that Buddhist will not need to hear the Gospel that Christians have to share with them. This is because Buddhism is a set of practices, not a set of answers. Buddhism does not answer the questions of the origin of the universe, the origin of demons, the origin of mankind, the beginning or ending of karma. It merely states that karma comes from our inward lusts, but it doesn't tell us why we have them. The issue of a "First Cause" is completely ignored! But the Bible tells them all. So please do refer to your Christian friends for all the blank answers. The Biblical account will fill gap that Buddhism leaves wide open.

Thank you for your patience to read this article...More of such articles will be written and summarized from the book from Buddha to Jesus   by Steve Cioccolanti. Next article will be related to misunderstandings about Buddhism and Christianity, the concept "Luck" and "First Cause".

Lucy, the papaya tree

Lucy the papaya tree

I would say this papaya tree would be rather special in my eyes compared to other papaya trees. Our church members gave her a name, Lucy. I’m not sure why they named it Lucy. I would say Lucy has gone through many difficulties in surviving from the rough conditions due to her small size; hot weather, dry, hard and sandy ground, and struggled to obtain food due to many plants around her. My friend has a special desire to plant a papaya tree in front of the Ministry House. He dug Lucy out of the ground and placed her into in front of the ministry ground. The ground is not that fertile either, it contains mostly sand and full of grass growing on it. Each and everyone of us told my friend that it would not survived for long and the maximum life spend of hers would be two weeks due to damaged roots and harsh conditions. However, this friend of mine continued to believe that Lucy will continue to grow healthily just like other papaya trees. She looked withered. dry and a little dead in the beginning, but my friend took good care of her faithfully by watering her. One day hot afternoon, friend of mine went to water her before our lunch. I began my conversation by asking him “How often do you do gardening?” He did not reply me because he thought I’m asking a sarcastic or to make fun of him. I told him that plants will die when you water them during hot day because the cells would be “cooked/boiled” causing them to die. Up till today, Lucy survived and shoots start to spring out from her though she is small.

                Let’s reminiscence the story above a while, does this story similar to all our happenings in our daily lives? A mindset where initial judgment is set right before our eyes; deceived by what we saw, heard, learnt and believed. We feel hopeless and impossible in every situation that we face because we did not include the grace and mercy of God. We should never under estimate the supremacy and the majesty of our God, the creator of everything. We should believe that through Christ where by His grace and mercy we are able to do everything!

It All Starts with God

Finally I'm able to find some time to read my new book Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren after struggling over my busy schedule. Well i'll be sharing on what i have learnt on "What is the purpose of our in life" based on daily basis (hopefully). Chapter 1 indeed starts with a strong impact of verse.

For everything, absolutely everything,

above and below, visible and invisible,...

everything got started in him and

finds its purpose in him.

(Colossians 1:16) [msg]

The first sentence immeadiately this verse; "It's not about you" caught my attention  because most of them will ask "It's my life, if it's not me, then who?". Life is indeed far greater than our own personal fulfilment, peace of mind, or even your own happiness. Is there life more than these? Ofcourse we do have more than those in our lives! Everyone is born by HIS purpose and for HIS purpose. Most of people just puzzled around for their purpose of their existence in their life and they never find it. That is because they always begin with the self-centered questions like "What do  want to be? What should I do in future, my goals, ambitions and etc...Focusing on self-centered questions will definately get you no where. You will not be able to discover the purpose of your life by looking within yourself!!

Try thinking the purpose of our life begins with God, your creator. We exist today because of God wills that you exists. You were made by God and for God – until you understand this, life will never make sense. It is only through God, we are able to discover our self; our identity, meaning, purpose, significance and destiny. You may try other paths, but all will just lead to a dead end. Many people often try to use God for their own self-actualisation, resulting doomed to failure. Life is about letting God to use you for his purpose, not using him for our purpose.

One thing we have to bear in mind is that being successful in life and fulfilling your purpose is not the same!! You could achieve all your personal goals, becoming a raving success by the world’s standard, and still miss the purpose for which God created you. Some people may thought of this the moment before their death or some time in their life; “What have I been doing all these while? I’m nothing but a slave to the world.”  Some may achieved all their ambitions and dreams yet still felt unsatisfied because he has not discovered and fulfilled his purpose of his life that is planned by God. Besides, life is not about how to cram more activities into an overloaded schedule. By doing so, you are actually allowing yourself to learn how to do less inn life!

As a conclusion, God is not just the starting point of our life; he is also the source of it. To discover our purpose in life we must turn to God’s word, not the world’s wisdom.

Switching blog

Hi fellow readers....i'll be switching my blog to witheverything.blogspot.com. I'll be sharing the blog with few other authors... Happy Following up the blog =D

Covenant of God

Let's think a while, are we far apart from God? Well, sometimes it's just us who felt God is so near but seem so far. Guess again, I found out that the first staement mentioned above is wrong when I am doing my devotion. What are the reasons? You'll know when I continue to share on about what God have revealed to me about this and prompted me to share with everyone. Let's focus our thoughts in the Covenant of God.

Let's start off with the most fundamental thoughts, what does the word covenant meant in the eyes of God? It's an "agreement" between us and God to do refrain from doing some act; a compact." Let's get start rolling on the Old Covenant. Then make a difference and conclude the benefits of living in God in this new era.


The Old Covenant 
~> This is what the people of God practised in the times of our fore-fathers. One of the most commonly mentioned is the Ten Commandments. You may refer to http://www.the-ten-commandments.org/the-ten-commandments.html if you are not familiar with it. The Ten Commandments are practised by the Israelites those days and they disobeyed God's Ten Commandments. They have the attitude of unbelief, rebellion, disobedience and disregard for the law [the Ten Commandments], therefore they were severely punished by God Himself. Their disobedience and unbelief reflected on God's reputation. However, God desired the Israelites to be obedient so they can continue in God's light. Till now, the Israelites or most of us are still bounded to keep the law because it was the covenant way of life. Coming up is also a practise by the olden days where they sacrifice animals [lamb]. This is rather a just a "ceremony" where most people thought this old covenant is like a various ceremony that consists of food and drinks [Heb 9:10]. They require blood of an undefect lamb [perfect]. Besides, they conduct this ceremony in the Most Holy Place where only can be accessible by High Priest not anyone else. The people of God who gone through this ceremony is only "outwardly clean" but not spiritually because it is not able to clear the conscience of God's people/ His worshippers. This leads to most people being ignorant and continue to commit sins with no honest repentance. Therefore, their regular basis of sinning helps us to realise our weakness and limitations and this leads us the needs to seek guidance and aid from the Holy Spirit [God's Spirit] to overcome our human nature. The practise of Old Covenant is rather a disadvantage because we only received materials blessings if we obey and able to fulfil the requirement of keeping the law. This is rather more depending on human effort than God's grace. However, we still be saved by God's grace but God did bring them salvation and never promise an eternal life in the Old Covenant.


The New Covenant
The new covenant starts after the death and resurection of Jesus. This is because God said that " A covenant is only valid only when men are dead; never able to enforce when alive." Unlike the Old Covenant, the new Covenant came by grace and truth by Jesus. The new covenant is a better hope introduced by God, so we can draw close to God [Heb 7: 19]. This can be testified in God's oath about Jesus where He is a High Priest forever; pure, perfect and defectless [Heb 7: 26~27]. He does not need to cleanse Himself from sins before cleansing people's sin. God's love us for us that He sent His one and only son to die for us. Jesus able to save us permanently for those who come to God through Him; because He always interceed on our behalf. After Jesus was sacrifised for us, the law has been made pefect forever (Heb 7:28). Therefore, by accepting Jesus in our lives; for His blood able to cleanse our conscience from sin (acts that leads to death) so that we may serve the living God. By His blood that purify us; it has forgive our wicknedness and sins. Hence, it is said that we can enter to the Most Holy Place through Jesus blood and communicate with God. However, it is also important to know that sins, pride and other worldly wicked act will hinder us to communicate with God. The new covenant relies on Jesus living His own life in us through Holy Spirit. It's a direct change where it is not about the abedience of law like the Old Covenant, but we live in the grace of God [Romans 6:14] . We still be saved by God's grace but God did bring us to salvation and  promise an eternal life in the New Covenant.

How do we treasure the New Covenant?
~> Honest Repentance
~> Acknowledge the value/importance of the New Covenant
~>A correct attitude in communion.
~>Conviction towards Christ and live a righteous life.


Conclusion
As a conclusion, it is indeed an advantage to live for God in the new era. It is important to know that we can seek God anywhere with the desire of seeking Him in correct attitude; without entering the Most Holy Place.

**I will be focusing God's word in the new blog with 3 other admins. Feel free to drop by to http://witheverything.blogspot.com/   **

Worship & Growing in Worship

Apart growing in His words and prayer, it is important to grow in worship as well because:
~> Worship is more than just a service itself!
~> A normal part of Christian life.
~> Build a close relationship with God. God created us to worship and to fellowship with Him.
~> God will not accept the wrong kind of worship from our own ways, culture and tradition.
~> We should always worship God better than the previous session we have (improvement).

Worship~> Can be done in various ways. (singing,clapping hands, dancing & etc..). It also covers every actions of our lives daily. Bible also tells us to present our very own lives to God as living sacrifises (Romans 12: 1~2). This allows God to use you in His good work. Worshipping not so much comes from actions and work, but what comes out from heart! We have to differentiate between give thanks and worship because some of us tends to get mixed up just like the difference of mercy and grace. Give thanks~> For what he has done in our lives. (blessings, protection and etc...), meanwhile Worship ~> For who He is and for His worthyness.

Why do we worship?
1) One of the way to fellowship with God.
~>Christians continue to worship our Lord in heaven eternally.
~>We will get to know the heartbeat of His when His presence comes to us during worship.

2) God is seeking true worshippers.
~> Very important in God's sight.
~> God is very delight when we worship Him.
~> True worship does not depend on the place where we worship him, or who we are: It depends upon your heart attitude towards God. No point if we just worship Him by singing and etc...without sincerity of our hearts and acknowledging the Lord.

3) Bible commands us to worship.
~> refer Psalms 29:2 and Psalm 95 : 6~7

4) Worship is an act of honouring God.
~> We worship Him for all what he has bore much sufferings for us and died for us at the cross.
He deserved to be worshipped.

5) Worthy to be praised and worshipped.
~> Our God is always great and waesome!
~> Acknowledge Him & the wonderful deeds for us.
~> For He has chosen us and saved us from sins, treating us as His Treassured possession.

Growing in worship~ (Luke 7: 36~50) as ref text
Keep in mind that the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart. Most of us may keep on mentioning coming back to heart of worship. But do we really know what does it means fully? The word "H.E.A.R.T" has it's own meaning itself.

H stands for Humility or Humbleness of Heart.
~> When we seek God, we should always humble ourselves down before God. Most of us expect God to reach out to us, but the we should have done the vice~versa. Always remember that pride is the primary hindreance to worship. Pride makes us to be consumed with the thoughts about yourself. Therefore, we must not concern how people looking at you. Just worship as who you are! Humility cause us to think more of God and this makes us more focus in worshipping.

E stands for Emotion. (luke 7: 38)
~> Do not hold back any genuine and visible emotion.  It is OK to let it all out to God. It's OK to cry, raise our hands and etc... for our God! We put our pride aside, submit yourselves and everything to Jesus. Come with the spirit of humility and get involve in emotion totally to worship God.


A stands for Adoration.
~> Adoration has a definition of to worship as divine and giving the person at the highest all, most respect. Do we give the Lord the adoration that He supposed to get? It's easy that we adore others such as animals, pop stars, worldly materials, but what about God? This is one of the reason why sometimes we are out of the presence of God when we seek God in the house of God. This is because we have adored the wrong things! We should be full-life in worshipping Him, commited and fully to worship Him.


R stands for Repentance. (Luke 7 : v39, 47, 48)
~> Of everything, we must never deny the fact that we are sinners!
~> We should learn to surrender your everything to God; weakness, wrong doings & sins before God.
~> To grow in worship we need to grow in righteousness because when we walk in sin we cannot worship God fully. So, we should confess our sins before God. To worship Him must accept 2 truths;
i) Who God is & who we are. We are saved sinners!
ii)Honest repentance ~> so that we won't lie to God, ourselves and others.


T stands for thanks giving Heart (luke 7: 46~47)

~> Let's reminiscence a moment in our lives, do we really felt thankful for all he did sometimes?

~> We must have a  mindset that God is the most precious thing, more than everything we have in our lives.

~> live a life of content, gratefulness and thankfulness for what he has blessed you. 

~> Give to God what belongs to Him. (eg. music talents--> serve Him the best in worshipping team, tithes, and other talents).

~> Do not hold back and give your best shot in worshipping Him.

~Conclusion~

Begin with a himble Heart

             Brims over Emotion

   Exhibit yourself in Adoration

         Leads a life to Repentance

       Have a heart of Thanks Giving

*To bring enjoyment to God is your first purpose of your life; this proves your worth, you are important to God. -Rick Warren-

Growing in HIS words

Do you ever know that Bible is one of the most popular books sold on Earth? No book in the world can be compared with the Bible because it is not written by man, but through the inspiration of God. The Bible is also a single, unified book, with a single unfolding theme concerning God's redemptive plan for mankind. The Bible is God's revelation to man; free from human error. Bible has great influence towards lives of readers. This is because Bible is the source of all revealed and unchanged truth. Bible is also the highest standard and truth for our lives. Christians uses biblical teaching in their daily lives to weigh the rights and wrongs of problems they encounter.

Bible is divided into 2 main compartment;
Old Testament~> There is only one, true, and living God and before Jesus is born. More towards to law, relationships between God and Man and also about prophets and their prophecies. It also shows God's wrath on human and the old covenant. Text originally written in Hebrew

New Testament~> Jesus Christ is the Saviour of all mankind. He died on the cross for our sins and was raised 3 days later from the dead. It also discuss Jesus' journey of live in ministering, His second coming and how we, believers will reign eternally with Him. Text originally written in Greek.

Why do we need to read Bible?
a) Word of God is our spiritual food ~> Man is made up from 3 parts; body, soul [mind] and spirit. Just like our physical body needs food, our spirit too requires food to "grow". God's Word provides nourishment for our spirit, helping our spirit to "grow" and help us in becoming more like Christ-like character.
b) Gives direction in our lives~> It is said to be our lamp and light which guides us to walk on the right path that God desire us to go [God's Will]. Reading bible on the regular basis helps us to understand God's plan and His will for our lives.
c)God's word is like a mirror ~> Not only reveals the holiness of God but also reveals the imperfection of men. It also helps us to reflect upon our mistakes and sins that we have committed. 

d)Prepare us for His every good work~> Bible is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so we can be thoroughly equipped for every work He has prepared for us.
e) Training us more to be like Jesus ~> God calls us to transform ou lives to be as perfect as our heavenly Father. No doubt that we cannot do it alone, but with God's grace and through following the teachings of the Bible will help us in that aim. God does not expect us to change in one day, but He gradually develop and transform our lives to be more like HIM.


Right Attitudes towards the Bible.
1) Obey the Bible~> The bible is full of authority because it is the Word of God. We should sincerely be submissive and obedient to the Bible.
2) Hunger for God's Word~> We must have the desire to know and understand the Bible fully. Even though you did not understand what His scripture says, do not worry as you just have to accept for the time being and pray that He will reveal the meaning of it.
3) Having Faith towards Bible~> Bible allows us to draw close to the Lord and enter into His presence. We should read the Bible with faith and not with the attitude to disprove its truth. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Have faith in it because; free from human error, holds the highest standards, precepts and truths, able to transform us into a better being.
4) Commitment in His words~> regardless how busy we are and what we faced in our lives, we should spend QUALITY time daily in HIS words.
5) Quick in listening~> This means we listen carefully in order to get the right message. It is important to do so because the Devil wants us to listen to wrong things as to corrupt our mind. Devil can corrupt us through emotions [prejudice, anger, sorrow and etc..] , songs [emo type] and etc..All these are the walls build by the Devils to separate us from listening to God.
6) Slow in speaking~> We're talking about the inner whisper, not the externally. We cannot listen carefully while you are thinking. You also must not have the attitude of rejection where you cannot accept the God's words and His teachings.
7) Slow in becoming anger~> the word anger means orge in Greek where it shows an inner resentment. Therefore, it is important to have the value of patience while you are learning and also endure throughout the process of learning.

It is important to prepare yourself spiritually so you are ready to accept and listen to His words. We can prepared spiritually by;
a) Pray before you read
b) Worship
c) Do not argue with God

Conclusion
1)We must daily read the Bible with Hope and Faith that it will transform our lives.
2) Bible reveals God's will for us.
3) Bible as a guideline in our lives.
4) SPEND SOME TIME READING BIBLE DAILY!!!

Growing in Prayer Life

Growing in Prayer Life
Let's start our discussion by these verses from (Matthew 6:5~13) which are some verses related to prayers...In our daily life, we can continue to have a personal and yet intermiate (close) relationship with the Lord through prayers besides reading His Words. Prayer is more like talking to a person; in Christians case, we do talk to our Lord. It is important to let everyone to know that we cant just do prayer alone without reading the bible. This is because we will become "floating Christians" where we do not have "an anchor" to grip the ocean floor when waves arrive. Therefore, both act must be well balanced so that we won't pray for something which is out of track and the bible shows us the reality. As a Christian, a non-prayer life is definately DULL!!! Some of us indeed may require help when it comes to Prayer lives because they do not know how to pray; as in starting and closing it.

Below are the components of prayer. You are NOT necessary to follow it, just a guideline!
a) Praise --> We should praise God for who is He and for what He has done for us. We can also begin by telling how great He is[e.g. Our Heavenly Father, The Creator of Life, Almighty God, and  etc..]. They are two kinds of praise which are Adoration; where we proclaim His Character. Another praise is with Hallowed which is through Respect.

b) Thanks Giving--> We should show our gratitude towards God for what he has done for us; may it be an abundant and little blessing. We also should thank Him for His mercy [what we do not deserved] and grace[receiving something that I don't deserve] towards us. The most important thing we should thank Him for is "salvation". Therefore, we should never stop being thankful towards the Lord.

c) Confessing our sins --> We should always confess our sins that we have either done it intentionally or unintentionally and either sinning against God or man. We usually commit sin when we disobey God and we behave in a manner that is below God's standard. Confession of sin will able to free us from bondage of sin and give us another chance to start a new day with the Lord. However, do not misuse/abuse the chances given by committing sin again and again. Besides, we can also make restitution to others if necessary [Matthew 5: 23~24]

d) Asking --> As Christians, we have the right to ask God for what we need because we are His children. We know that our father loves us, therefore we ask God to provide us our daily needs. Furthermore, we should not only ask God for what we need but we ask for other's needs as well. However, please do remember that we must ask Him according to His will; It's all about the Father's will to be done not ours.

e) Closing prayer: It's rather simple, you can just say " In Jesus name I pray to, Amen". Some ask why in Jesus name...This is because God's blessing come to us by the power of His name
[Matthew 7:7~8]. Therefore, always pray in Jesus name.

Why must we pray?
a) It is command of the Lord. [1 Thessalonians 5: 17 says "pray continually"]
b) Apart of our lives
c) Even Jesus also pray to His father early in the morning... [John 17:1~26]
d) God delights in hearing our voice..God wants us to depend on Him.
e) Will not be easily defeated when we face trials and temptations.

How do we enhance our prayer life?
a) Right Attitude-->we must always humble ourselves, correct motives, hatred & unforgiveness free when we pray. Hatred and unforgiveness can lead to unheard prayers because it forms a hinderence. One major point here is BE REAL when in prayer [Matthew 6:5]. We should not impress people like the Pharisees where you pray in different ways, colorful and bombastic words and try to cover our weakness. It is always the best where we go straight to the point where your heart leads you!

b) Be Relax ~> Find places where you can be alone and quiet. This helps us to be more focus into God. It is also important to set up a specific time to talk to God on daily basis. Find a time where we can leave all our worries of the day behind.

c) Be revealing (Matthew 6: 7~8) ~> Do not hide anything from God, as He knows everything and witnessing in what we have and will go through. Just be yourself, do not copy others when praying.

d) Recognize your position ~> We must always keep in mind that whose will must be done...It's the Lord's will not ours.We as man can only plan out things, but it's up to God to make the ultimate decision. We can also use a humble position when praying such as kneeling down.

e) Join Prayer Meetings [Acts 2: 42] ~> Group prayer is powerful

Conclusion
a) Prayer is a very powerful weapon that God gave us.
b) Praying in groups has greater effects.
c) Believe by faith in whatever you are praying for.
d) Prayer will also can help to train us to become more godly [more like Christ-like character]
e) Pray Daily!

Joke--- First Time Sex

It is clean and funny. FIRST TIME SEX 

A girl asks her boyfriend to come over Friday night to meet, and have a dinner with her parents. 

Since this is such a big event, the girl announces to her boyfriend that after dinner, she would like to go out and make love for the first time.  
  The boy is ecstatic, but he has never had sex before, so he takes a trip to the pharmacist to get some condoms. He tells the  pharmacist it's his first time and the pharmacist helps the boy for about an hour. He tells the boy everything there is to know about condoms and sex. 
 At the register, the pharmacist asks the boy how many condoms he'd like to buy, a 3-pack, 10-pack, or family pack. 
The boy insists on the family pack because he thinks he will be rather busy, it being his first time and all.
  That night, the boy shows up at the girl's parents house and meets his girlfriend at the door. 
"Oh, I'm so excited for you to meet my parents, come on in!"
  The boy goes inside and is taken to the dinner table where the girl's parents are seated. 
The boy quickly offers to say grace and bows his head. A minute passes, and the boy is still deep in prayer, with his head down.

 10 minutes pass, and still no movement from the boy.
Finally, after 20 minutes with his head down, the girlfriend leans over and whispers to the boyfriend, 'I had no idea you were this religious.'

    The boy turns, and whispers back, 
'I had no idea your father was a pharmacist.'

-Shared by Gwee Shang Jun-