We often want quick and myopic answers to our prayers. It’s in our nature. We cannot help being myopic – not knowing what we don’t know if perhaps the greatest of our weaknesses. If God’s grace is boundless and it is his general will that we all prosper as our souls also prosper, does it … More Why God doesn’t always answer prayers the way we want
“I delighted myself in the Lord. I worshipped, I sang, I served.” My wife continued, “but how does it work when my prayers don’t get answered? I didn’t win the lottery, I didn’t get pregnant last few months, I didn’t get the job I wanted.”
I think many people go through similar experiences and in understanding the verse this way, it understandibly leads to disappointment.
“I think there are two things that I suspect if you chew on, will open up that verse to it’s full potential.” I replied thoughtfully. … More Don’t miss the great revelation behind “delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4)
This post is for the people who are suffering to the brink of being broken, but also for those who haven’t got to that point but want to know the thoughts of a brother that has gone ahead in the journey of longsuffering and impossible adversities.
Dear sufferer, this is for you. I hope this revelation on suffering, the form that God can use, might cause suffering to “lose it’s teeth”, and we can have courage to traverse this season into victory on the other side.
I call this post Little gods, the Oven and Futility.
… More Little “Gods”, The Oven and Futility.
“Give me this mountain”, spoken by Caleb has always had a special place in my heart. It’s stored just above my boxes of disappointments with the world, my near-death experiences and faded scars to where wounds on my body used to be. Today, those boxes are covered by a scarlet cloth that make those boxes that were once decrepit to redemptively unmistakable.
I suppose you can call this blogpost “what Give Me This Mountain!” means to a person with a few years left to live. I hope this blogpost gives you a different perspective from a person who has gone through his “40-year wandering” to add dimensions to an already powerful verse in the Bible. … More Joseph Prince’s “Give Me This Mountain” (A man that had few years to live reflects)
Last month Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz publicly admitted to cheating on his gorgeous wife of 17 years who he met when they were both Hillsong Bible college students. He has since been fired from Hillsong Church. Sadly, cheating preachers, pedophile priests, snake-oil televangelists have existed before, but why did this particular episode hit me differently? … More What I learnt from Carl Lentz’s failing …
The US elections are here, my prayer is for God to preserve the precious soul of the country. Why? I am not American, but I have spent 12 years living in America in three blocks of 3 to 4 years. While I was in grade school in California, then university in New York, and then working as a business analyst in Nashville. I spent the rest of my life in Asia. Because of this, I realized many things about America that some Americans don’t realize because they have always stayed in America and hence don’t realize what they have because they have nothing to compare it with. There is a spirit in America that is intangible but very real. … More My Prayer for the US Election outcome.
Just saw another YouTube influencer being accused of being sexually manipulative to young victims. After living my decades of life, I am not surprised. Same old story. When the this YouTuber was a nobody, he virtue-signaled. Many YouTubers would say tropes like “you have to be your authentic self!” I cring at this. “You have to be the best version of yourself.” I cring again. Those tropes could have been used by Hitler as excuses himself. This particular YouTuber was then getting lots of hits by criticizing other YouTubers for being sexually manipulative to young girls. Fast forward a couple of years. The nobody developed clout and became famous. In the secret of snapchat and private DMs, Dee Kosh is now alleged of doing the exact same thing as the person he criticized.
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” goes the hackneyed trope.
This is too simple for me. … More Sand Crowns and Sand Castles don’t satisfy (Dee Kosh allegations)
As a skeptic, you can either think the success of Christianity was the biggest fluke in history that hacked human nature in unreplicatable ways, or wonder, what exactly happened that Easter day?
It’s either the greatest message of hope for a dark world, that the God of all creation came personally to show us how much he loved us, to change us to who we were meant to be and make certain our heavenly citizenship; or it is the greatest mystery to be solved because it made hopelessly selfish and vulnerable men do oddly selfless things. And, this “strange” condition will still be around even after Covid19 dies out. Either one is wondrous to behold. … More Easter. Hope’s Patient Zero.
If you’re struggling with pain as a result of religious wounding – if someone misrepresented God to you through toxic actions or words – please know you are not alone.
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Just notice those feelings and be gentle with yourself as you do. It doesn’t mean you don’t love God. In fact, it’s the opposite. Pay attention when you react to toxic messaging. Hurt parts of you are showing up on need of your care. And, that right there is downright heroic.
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It can take time.
It can be messy.
Other people might not get it.
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But Grace does its work. I promise you. … More God is more than crummy representations given by misguided religious leaders.
Don’t be afraid of God. Don’t hesitate to go before Him. Don’t hesitate to ask and receive the good gifts He has intended for you. Don’t disrespect the blood, sweat and journey into the darkness of Jesus by not going before God with a positive expectation of good.
May the impact of Good Friday put a positive tremble in our souls today. … More Good Friday. Blood/Sweat/Death x All Things.
letters to a modern-day Job 