Surrender

What He gives, He can take away...
All that I have, all that I am were given to me and they are His to take.
I constantly take my life in my own hands but now, once again...

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I'm giving you my heart, and all that is within
I lay it all down for the sake of you my King
I'm giving you my dreams, I'm laying down my rights
I'm giving up my pride for the promise of new life

And I surrender all to you, all to you
And I surrender all to you, all to you

I'm singing You this song, I'm waiting at the cross
And all the world holds dear, I count it all as loss
For the sake of knowing You for the glory of Your name
To know the lasting joy, even sharing in Your pain
----------Surrender by Lincoln Brewster-----------

God is very real and alive!

Freedom

cont. from da last post......
What is "Freedom"???

Does it not mean the ability to make decision and act upon it without being caused by any___thing?


'anything' per se includes everything and it is therefore in-exclusable.
Many would fill the blank with 'external' but... how would we differentiate what is external and internal?

To define 'external' we much know what is 'internal' first!
What is really the inmost of the inmost? is it just the desires we have?
could not have our desires been caused by other things?
The words that could indicate the inmost are "I" and "me" .... not my [eg. belongings, emotions, desires].... just me

Provided that humans are created by God, in His own image and for Him.
From the previous point of view, human are then not able to be truly free at all! We are His!
If we had answered "yes" to the question then only God must have the true freedom now!

So the only "freedom" that makes sense for us would be FREEDOM IN GOD
where we are free to be what we have been made for!

Rom 7:15-20
5I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

I would say Adam and Eve had the freedom too. God gave them the freedom to do choose anything.
Now it's different, we're all slaves to sin!
Someone who says "true freedom includes the freedom to sin" ... is not wrong technically
but by nature, it would mean "true freedom includes the freedom to do good" too!
It was true for Adam and Eve but us... we try to do good but fail! Why?!
Adam and Eve didn't try really hard but failed to do what they wanted to (as a struggle between doing good or evil), they chose.
So it's not a matter of choices anymore but slavery.

But guess what! God has set us free! Then again, we can choose to be set free or not to be set free!
If we CHOOSE to receive the freedom, then we have the FREEDOM in God!

Predestination and free will

Predestination is such a contraversial thing to discuss,
but I reckon God has opened mi eyes a lil bit more to look at it in a clearer way.
Rom 8:28-39 has been on mi wall for at least one year n i read it nearly everyweek.
Today, when I read it again in a 'philosophical' approach, I have realised something.

28 'And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose'

Does that mean only those who have been called love Him and therefore ultimately means God picks who He wants to 'work for the good' of them?

29 'For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conform to the likeness of His Son that he might be the first born among many brothers.

ah ha, this is where 'predestination comes in... but wait! what is this 'foreknowledge'???!!!

[Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English] Foreknowledge is a formal knowledge that something is going to happen before it actually does.

eh?? why then does the 'foreknowing' come before predestination?

To me, it sounds like God knows what each person would do and THEN predestines

This is where it gets confusing! Human's mind just can't seem to synthesise free will and predestination together... well isn't this an aspect of what makes human just human?

30 'And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified'

It's like a sequence, ay?

oh look, there it is again "Called"!

I reckon this answers the question raised in 28 ;-)

since "foreknowing" gives "calling" which gives "love of God" which gives "all things work together for good for 'em"

Therefore, the latter comes from God's foreknowledge.

..... doesn't this foreknowledge indicate free will?

If free will wasn't given then why did God told Adam and Eve NOT TO eat from that particular tree? If we all were 'robots' then why did we go out of God's original plan?

and anyways, like Rom 9 says, whatever God does, who are we to talk back to God? Shall we call Him unjust? Who defines justice in the first place? The word 'God' per se indicates sovereignity above all things!

Then again, God is just! How would anything, except God Himself, say that God is unjust??? since no one knows everything fully -_-"
so, blaming God is the most unjustified, selfish and irresponsible thing to do!

Therefore, sis n bro, u can choose... choose to walk with Him!

Time ...???

Time is just a measurement between the beginning and the end. Then.... what's before the beginning and what's after the end? Time? That would be self contradicting since time indicates a starting point and an end point. Outside of 'time' known to human is ETERNITY which is mysterous and incomprehendable (i can't spell) and yes it proves the limitation of human. How about 'nobody knows the time and the hour (of the judgement day)' 'God does things in the perfect time' If 'time' does not exist then how would we interpret those sentences??
Many would say time is a fracment of eternity. But if the 'time', which can be measured, is a fracment (no matter how small) of something then the whole thing must be able to be measured too... but no!
all in all, my conclusion is: Time is just a human's perception and a measurement of motion's relativity.
Eternity is the opposite of time. If there's no planets to revolve around suns and spirits don't birth (anymore), nor age nor die, then time would not exist!

Jehovah Rapha

Jehovah Rapha, The Lord our Healer!
Sounds kool, doesn't it? It comes with a great meaning too!
Healing... who says it's just about physical body?
For me, God heals my boo-boo body, my mad mind, my emo emotion and my sick spirit.
-_-" Things I want to do, I do not do. Things I do not want to do, I do.
Who shall save me from this, except God my Healer?!?!
lol... i sound like an old preacher hahaha

Well, on Sun nite i felt like i was gonna have the sore throat and I had to stay up to prep for my English Presentation. On Mon nite, da thing was still in my neck. I kept eating Vitamin C and honey and prayed lots.
guess wat!! PRAISE GOD!!! Now it's all gone!!! I was able to ave lots of sleep last nite too and regained my strength back. =D and also too many personal emotional things that God provided a way out!!

He's da best!!!

Throwing???

If God saved my life then I am His, all that I am and all that I have.
How can a person give some spares to God and call that an offering to God??
It's more like throwing! Throwing some money, throwing some time, or even throwing a few speeches and some energy at Him!
2 Sam 24:24 "...I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing."
It's a pretty hard decision that needs to be constantly made... It's that if I was to give something to God then I would give everything to God... even my life.

I used to wonder why God rejected Cain's offering. I mean, it was what he had, vegetables. When I read it again carefully:
Gen 4:3 "...Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD."
Note the word 'some'. It was already wrong to bring vegetables because the atonement of sin is to be done by blood. He didn't even bring the best.

Yes, so let's talk about doing something that costs us. Do it with a passion!