Some reflections on the sotong & kangkung chat...
Shih Chung,
It's great to see people open up over a plate of char koay teow, sotong and kangkung... some of the best 'spiritual' conversations take place over meals, rather than in a '4 spiritual laws' setting :)
And familiarity breeds contempt doesn't it? One of the dangers for us, long-time Christians, is that we get into a 'I heard it all before' rut...
Listening and understanding our frens is always a first step before even trying to suggest a response to their questions...
Btw I'd be going to Minneapolis and hope to meet up with Piper... And he wud probably say that God demands our worship NOT because he is starved for attention...
If God is infinitely worthy and deserving of our worship, if all of us are hungering and thirsting for the fulfilment only found in Him, then it is supremely LOVING and self-giving that God should want us to worship Him...
Worship fulfils us and glorifies Him (not vice versa)
Sometimes I wish more of us Christians could also be "comfortable wearing a string of monastery prayer beads around his wrist while wandering into a mosque, then sitting on a church pew, soaking in all the tranquility of rest in the heat of the city, then eating in an Indian restaurant and enquiring about their Hindu statues"...
More often than not, we're just too scared of being infected by demons if we ever dare to wander to those places... I'm not calling people to worship the icons or bow before other gods...
But wat's wrong with appreciating the good teachings of love and truth that can be found in others' expressions of spirituality?
Surely if all truth is God's truth, we need not be afraid of beauty and truth found elsewhere, but use these bridges to connect with our friends, leading them to Christ who is the only final fulfilment of all truth, grace and beauty... :)
I absolutely agree with the observation it is a kind of inauthentic faith to have
"a fear-driven approach to following God, a thou-shall-not syndrome, a culture of guilt, a lack-something-to-be-filled spirit. Where is the spontaneity of love, kindness and goodness?"
Having said that, I also find that God is not only love, kind and good... but also just, 'wholly other', holy...
Simply put, He is not like us. He will not rubber stamp our wrongdoings.
He will not compromise on His holy standards and has the power to bring us to justice for the cruelty we have inflicted on ourselves and others.
If that is true, authentic faith seems to call for a certain 'fear and trembling' in our response to God... (mysterium tremendum)
Authentic faith is also humble (ie not proud individualism) in that it is open-minded enuff to learn from others if some 'divine laws' are indeed good for us...
and unless we are without sin altogether, perhaps an element of guilt is appropriate because we are in fact guilty in some ways...
That again calls for humility on our part...
Yes, I do find myself nodding in agreement that we oughta respect others' right to choose... Didn't God himself show that kind of respect to our choices when we strayed? He could coerce faith if He wants to, but He didn't.
So for people who are happy with their way of life without Christ, it's different from people who are downtrodden and need 'rescue'...
There seems to more place for probing questions in their lives for which Christ is the answer, rather than giving nicely-packaged, ready made answers in a tract hehehe....
Keep up the good work, buddy! :)
PS: In Christianity, we do find an element of mystery in God, who is after all so much bigger than our 3.5 pound of brain matter. But oftentimes, in some quarters, we're also told not only believe in mysteries but also nonsensical contradictions not found in bible...
My bet is on an approach to spiritual matters that is both intellectually critical and spiritually experimental :)
On a happier note, Dr Ng Kam Weng will be preaching in CDPC this Sat 6pm and Sunday 10 am... It's a free topic so I'm really looking forward to this :)
Shih Chung,
It's great to see people open up over a plate of char koay teow, sotong and kangkung... some of the best 'spiritual' conversations take place over meals, rather than in a '4 spiritual laws' setting :)
And familiarity breeds contempt doesn't it? One of the dangers for us, long-time Christians, is that we get into a 'I heard it all before' rut...
Listening and understanding our frens is always a first step before even trying to suggest a response to their questions...
Btw I'd be going to Minneapolis and hope to meet up with Piper... And he wud probably say that God demands our worship NOT because he is starved for attention...
If God is infinitely worthy and deserving of our worship, if all of us are hungering and thirsting for the fulfilment only found in Him, then it is supremely LOVING and self-giving that God should want us to worship Him...
Worship fulfils us and glorifies Him (not vice versa)
Sometimes I wish more of us Christians could also be "comfortable wearing a string of monastery prayer beads around his wrist while wandering into a mosque, then sitting on a church pew, soaking in all the tranquility of rest in the heat of the city, then eating in an Indian restaurant and enquiring about their Hindu statues"...
More often than not, we're just too scared of being infected by demons if we ever dare to wander to those places... I'm not calling people to worship the icons or bow before other gods...
But wat's wrong with appreciating the good teachings of love and truth that can be found in others' expressions of spirituality?
Surely if all truth is God's truth, we need not be afraid of beauty and truth found elsewhere, but use these bridges to connect with our friends, leading them to Christ who is the only final fulfilment of all truth, grace and beauty... :)
I absolutely agree with the observation it is a kind of inauthentic faith to have
"a fear-driven approach to following God, a thou-shall-not syndrome, a culture of guilt, a lack-something-to-be-filled spirit. Where is the spontaneity of love, kindness and goodness?"
Having said that, I also find that God is not only love, kind and good... but also just, 'wholly other', holy...
Simply put, He is not like us. He will not rubber stamp our wrongdoings.
He will not compromise on His holy standards and has the power to bring us to justice for the cruelty we have inflicted on ourselves and others.
If that is true, authentic faith seems to call for a certain 'fear and trembling' in our response to God... (mysterium tremendum)
Authentic faith is also humble (ie not proud individualism) in that it is open-minded enuff to learn from others if some 'divine laws' are indeed good for us...
and unless we are without sin altogether, perhaps an element of guilt is appropriate because we are in fact guilty in some ways...
That again calls for humility on our part...
Yes, I do find myself nodding in agreement that we oughta respect others' right to choose... Didn't God himself show that kind of respect to our choices when we strayed? He could coerce faith if He wants to, but He didn't.
So for people who are happy with their way of life without Christ, it's different from people who are downtrodden and need 'rescue'...
There seems to more place for probing questions in their lives for which Christ is the answer, rather than giving nicely-packaged, ready made answers in a tract hehehe....
Keep up the good work, buddy! :)
PS: In Christianity, we do find an element of mystery in God, who is after all so much bigger than our 3.5 pound of brain matter. But oftentimes, in some quarters, we're also told not only believe in mysteries but also nonsensical contradictions not found in bible...
My bet is on an approach to spiritual matters that is both intellectually critical and spiritually experimental :)
On a happier note, Dr Ng Kam Weng will be preaching in CDPC this Sat 6pm and Sunday 10 am... It's a free topic so I'm really looking forward to this :)
Comments
two nights ago, I heard Piper in person for the first time. He was giving the William Still Lectures at the Tron Church in Glasgow. Last Sept I heard Don Carson, N.T. Wright, and Paul Helm in person.
I'm telling you this to tempt you to include Scotland into your future travels. You'd be surprise who you might get to meet in the Kirk (Scottish for church) on this side of the Atlantic!