Acknowledgement of how big your God is.

Have you ever invested some time in worrying about something? Perhaps you spent a long time thinking about it. One time when I was going to pray and fast about a certain situation (it was a mess!), the Lord said to me, "Get filled with the Holy Spirit today—do that first."

The reason he said that is because otherwise, all you're doing is 'stirring up the dirt.' And prayer is not a time for 'stirring up the dirt'; it's a time for getting into the mind of God to see things as he sees them! As I took time to be filled with the Spirit, from that place in him, I only saw answers. I didn't see problems. I didn't even remember what the problem was. I still fasted, but not from a posture of fear and worry, but from a posture of faith and victory.

http://www.rhema.org.sg/index.cfm?GPID=96

Do you apply this?

I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? (1 Corinthians 5:9-12)

What is Paul's message to me in this text? (application) Could it be that I should not separate myself from Muslims and the unchurched in order not to end up like picture 1 (holy huddle, separated because of fear, insecurity, and subculture)? These are the people God has called me to live among as salt and light. Could it be that the people I should separate myself from are the born-again Christians who hate Muslims, demonize them, and live with self-righteousness and a superior attitude towards the unchurched? Could it be that if I stayed around these judgemental Christians I might become snoobish and exclusive and motivated by ethnocentricity rather than by love? If this is the right interpretation (application) then this is a very radical teaching. It is quite radical to love Muslims and avoid arrogant born-again Christians.

- Nabeel Jabbour, The Cresent through the Eyes of the Cross (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress 2009), 126-127

Leadership

A leader is someone who takes responsiblity regardless of the circumstances. He is in-charge, for himself and his followers. If he is religious, he has faith that God will provide.

I asked Ken Largent for advice on writing book reviews. He gave me the following suggestions,

Yipeng,

Thanks for the email and the question. I'm pretty new at this, and not really sure that I'm going to be an effective book review. So far my writing has been limited to college papers and sermons.

I have been trying to read reviews to get a feel for what's good. A friend sent me an article by one of his professors (Robert Yarbrough), who has written many reviews. Here's some of his advice:
1. Peruse the whole book. Read start and finish carefully. Look for big ideas.
2. Spend half your words describing, and half assessing.
3. Affirm good things.
4. Don't criticize it for what it's not.
5. Be fair. The author should be able to read the review and say, "That's what i wrote."
6. Try to place the book within the context of other books like it.
7. Be careful, serious, and reluctant in your criticism of the book.
8. Keep within the assigned word limit. Write, let the review sit for a couple of days, then re-read. Edit as necessary.

Good Reviewing!

Hopefully I will be able to make good use of his advice. =]

How Satan Saves the Soul

He said, "You have become arrogant." People in the church were actually boasting in this immorality. Now how could that be? What kind of theology would give rise to boasting in immorality? We have seen it in Paul's letters elsewhere. It says, "Let us sin that grace may abound" (Rom. 3:8; 6:1). So it's a theology that misunderstands the power of grace, and turns it into license. It's a theology that misunderstands freedom and uses it as "an opportunity for the flesh" (Gal. 5:13), and says (as they were saying at Corinth) "all things are lawful for me" (1 Cor. 6:12; 10:23). And so they were boasting in their freedom and in the tolerance of grace. Pride was the basis of sinful toleration not pharisaical judgment.

***

Biblical brokenness submits to the painful, risky, time-consuming, often oppressive process of church discipline. It says, "I will take the log out of my eye that I may see clearly to do whatever eye-surgery the Bible calls upon me to do." It says, "I will look to myself lest I too be tempted as I try to follow God's counsel in excluding another in the hope of reconciliation." Humility does not tell God how to be gracious. It listens and tries to obey with fear and trembling.

***

"...To choose impurity week after week, without repentance, is to choose against the purpose of the cross and to thrust a sword into Jesus' side with every new act of immorality. He did not just die to pardon your sin, he died to empower you against sin. And those who do not embrace the power of the cross to fight their sin will not have the pardon of the cross to forgive their sin."

The pride of Corinth was that they presumed to cut Christ asunder. They thought they could have him as one who pardons and reject him as one who purifies.

To that Paul gives a clear answer in verse 7: No. But "clean out the old leaven, that you may be" what you really are in Christ—unleavened and pure. For if you do not act like what you are, you aren't. The proof of your pardon is your passion for purity.

***

quotes from John Piper

Reciever of Communion

^{1 Cor 2:14-16 (the message paraphrase)} The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can't receive the gifts of God's Spirit. There's no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit—God's Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God's Spirit is doing, and can't be judged by unspiritual critics. Isaiah's question, "Is there anyone around who knows God's Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?" has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ's Spirit.

God will reveal what he is doing to me? Oh wow...

Great Commision

Outreach is every leader’s concern – leaders leading by example through teaching and showing and, doing it together.