- Mark Twain, humorist and author (1835 - 1910)
Anyway, back to two handed faith. "Two Handed Faith" basically means welcoming pleasures with one hand and afflictions with the left, convinced that both will serve God's design for us. The skeptic may say that this is letting God off the hook, but maybe this is what faith is, trusting in God's goodness despite evidence against it.
My dad brought up Jacob's wrestling with God once when i asked a question related to this topic (I think). I can't connect as yet. Anyway, written a lot of random thoughts again. Now I am interested in what the fear of God means. Will write after I've thought a bit more...Oh, and wondering about the concept of attitudes in life too....
My family called me last night (Yes, really. They all yell into the phone.) And it seems they are pretty happy about the election results! My dad opened the conversation saying: "Hello Tirza. Malaysia is a changed country!" (It's usually "Hello Tirza, how are you?") Then there was excited chattering in the background which I couldn't really decipher...and my brother Isaac (5 years old) got hold of the phone and yelled "Hello Tirza!!!" into it, whereupon my dad asked "Do you hear Isaac? He said hello!!! We're having dinner now. You mean you haven't heard about the election results?"
My family is pretty crazy.
Anyway, the gist of what they were excited about was basically the fact that the Rakyat voted across the racial divide: Malays voted for DAP, non-Malays voted for PKR and even PAS! Which is a big turning point for Malaysia. The Rakyat have matured while the BN is still stuck in the dark ages. Malaysia is ready for new things. WE want leaders who represent Malaysia, and not a particular race. And even the Malays with their hak keistimewaan Melayu (special rights) have voted for parties led by other races because they are disgusted with BN's racial propaganda and lies, nepotism, lack of transparency...immaturity. It shows...something. And many Chinese and Indians were against Lim Kit Siang's move to boycott the MB swearing-in ceremony. There are of course some who think he shouldn't compromise, but under the circumstances, I think it was right for him to apologize.
Barisan Rakyat has a long way to go. As can be seen from the mindsets of Malaysians nowadays, if they don't perform, if they don't try to work together for the good of all Malaysians, if they play dirty politics, if they play racial cards...they are not going to stay in power.
Lets thank God for the change in Malaysia. Thank God that we are on the right track, that voters are smarter and are no longer brainwashed by the mass media. And let us pray for our leaders to make wise decisions. They are our leaders for the next 5 years. Pray for wisdom, and pray that they will stay true to the people, and not get corrupted by the sudden power that has been given to them. The winds of change are blowing, lets pray they blow in the right direction.
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"Young men want to be faithful, and are not; old men want to be faithless, and cannot."
- Oscar Wilde, poet and author (1854 - 1900).
Yeah, about the issue of faith again. I'm reading Yancey's "Reaching For the Invisible God" now. Read it on the mrt back and forth from Kampong Glam, an hour away from NUS (Sigh) by bus and train (including waiting time). In chapter 5 now. I think I mentioned in my previous post that I was so desirous to please God that I justify everything. I praise God when good things happen, and when bad things happen, God is in control. So Yancey brings up this point: The more personal our relationship with God, the more painful it becomes when God doesn't seem to be coming to our aid. And he brings up another point: When we do this, skeptics laugh...they think we're nuts.
I think Yancey's points have nothing to do with what I said earlier...but I'll get there, eventually haha! Anyway, another of Yancey's points was that faith is the opposite of paranoia. It reassembles the events of life around trust in a loving God. So, as skeptics would say, we create a premise (there is a good and loving God) and everything else revolves around the fact that the premise is an absolute truth. Anything that contradicts that promise must have another explanation!
Then let us consider a spy operating behind enemy lines. If suddenly the spy loses contact with friendly forces from his home country, will he feel that they have abandoned him? Or does he trust that perhaps the communication line has been compromised, or contacts have ended for his own protection? C.S. Lewis wrote about trusting strangers. In getting a dog out of a trap, or extracting a thorn from a child's finger, or guiding a beginner up a difficult part of a mountain...we are asking them to believe that what is painful will relieve the pain, or what looks dangerous is their only safety.
Oh, and did you know that in Daniel 10, the bible describes a scene where Daniel can't understand why his prayers have not been answered. An angel then shows up in in a dream to explain that for three weeks the spirit of the kingdom of Persia blocked his way ...and he only recently got reinforcements from Michael. This is a side note, hehe...but it brings up a rather strange and abstract idea of spiritual battle actually being real and occurring right now in the unseen world.Anyway, the gist of what they were excited about was basically the fact that the Rakyat voted across the racial divide: Malays voted for DAP, non-Malays voted for PKR and even PAS! Which is a big turning point for Malaysia. The Rakyat have matured while the BN is still stuck in the dark ages. Malaysia is ready for new things. WE want leaders who represent Malaysia, and not a particular race. And even the Malays with their hak keistimewaan Melayu (special rights) have voted for parties led by other races because they are disgusted with BN's racial propaganda and lies, nepotism, lack of transparency...immaturity. It shows...something. And many Chinese and Indians were against Lim Kit Siang's move to boycott the MB swearing-in ceremony. There are of course some who think he shouldn't compromise, but under the circumstances, I think it was right for him to apologize.
Barisan Rakyat has a long way to go. As can be seen from the mindsets of Malaysians nowadays, if they don't perform, if they don't try to work together for the good of all Malaysians, if they play dirty politics, if they play racial cards...they are not going to stay in power.
Lets thank God for the change in Malaysia. Thank God that we are on the right track, that voters are smarter and are no longer brainwashed by the mass media. And let us pray for our leaders to make wise decisions. They are our leaders for the next 5 years. Pray for wisdom, and pray that they will stay true to the people, and not get corrupted by the sudden power that has been given to them. The winds of change are blowing, lets pray they blow in the right direction.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Young men want to be faithful, and are not; old men want to be faithless, and cannot."
Yeah, about the issue of faith again. I'm reading Yancey's "Reaching For the Invisible God" now. Read it on the mrt back and forth from Kampong Glam, an hour away from NUS (Sigh) by bus and train (including waiting time). In chapter 5 now. I think I mentioned in my previous post that I was so desirous to please God that I justify everything. I praise God when good things happen, and when bad things happen, God is in control. So Yancey brings up this point: The more personal our relationship with God, the more painful it becomes when God doesn't seem to be coming to our aid. And he brings up another point: When we do this, skeptics laugh...they think we're nuts.
I think Yancey's points have nothing to do with what I said earlier...but I'll get there, eventually haha! Anyway, another of Yancey's points was that faith is the opposite of paranoia. It reassembles the events of life around trust in a loving God. So, as skeptics would say, we create a premise (there is a good and loving God) and everything else revolves around the fact that the premise is an absolute truth. Anything that contradicts that promise must have another explanation!
Then let us consider a spy operating behind enemy lines. If suddenly the spy loses contact with friendly forces from his home country, will he feel that they have abandoned him? Or does he trust that perhaps the communication line has been compromised, or contacts have ended for his own protection? C.S. Lewis wrote about trusting strangers. In getting a dog out of a trap, or extracting a thorn from a child's finger, or guiding a beginner up a difficult part of a mountain...we are asking them to believe that what is painful will relieve the pain, or what looks dangerous is their only safety.
Anyway, back to two handed faith. "Two Handed Faith" basically means welcoming pleasures with one hand and afflictions with the left, convinced that both will serve God's design for us. The skeptic may say that this is letting God off the hook, but maybe this is what faith is, trusting in God's goodness despite evidence against it.
My dad brought up Jacob's wrestling with God once when i asked a question related to this topic (I think). I can't connect as yet. Anyway, written a lot of random thoughts again. Now I am interested in what the fear of God means. Will write after I've thought a bit more...Oh, and wondering about the concept of attitudes in life too....
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