Sunday School on Religious text, very brief: Quran (variant original manuscripts compiled and then finally codified by Caliph Uthman, thus not as direct revelation as the Muslims claim to be), Hindu text (I didn't get to see the slideshow points due to distant seating). Didn't touch on Buddhism, perhaps short on time. This is a membership related series. Last Sunday School we looked at various English translations of the Bible. The pastor used this site for data: https://notjustanotherbook.com/biblecomparison.htm
Sermon on 1John 3:1-10 "Born of God". I think wolves in sheep's clothing was mentioned. But I digressed: I suddenly pondered on the idea "wolf in sheep's clothing, rather than in shepherd's clothing, so that no sheep has an excuse for not listening to The Shepherd (The Lord)but the wolves instead. Would wolves in sheep's clothing also indicative of shepherds (pastors) being fooled?
During the morning 8:30am praise team rehearsal, Tom & Eleni brought up that Paul & Moses were weak in speech. I debunk the part about Moses right away, since it was obvious in Acts 7 (and you can't ignore God's rebuke against Moses by the bush) However, I believe that the verse they were referring to for Paul's problem was 2Corinthians 11:6: where the Greek being: ἰδιώτης (idiotes)
KJV: "rude" in speech
ESV: "unskilled" in speaking
CUV: 我的言语虽然粗俗，我的知识却不粗俗
I would prefer the KJV's translation in this case as it does fit in organically in the context. Paul is certainly not "unskilled" in speaking, 2co11:5, Acts 26:24, etc. Luke's account of Paul certain was not what people today interpreting "unskilled in speaking" would think. What then, did Paul lied? Nay, but this is relative knowledge, relative truth, it depends who you are comparing to (and so obviously not to God - those who jump at "God" as the answer do not see the clear distinction between Creator and creation). However, it would seem that Paul was a very straightforward and rude person, similar to Martin Luther. And we know, no one would say Luther had speech impediment. After further digging into this, I would say Paul was not the kind of polished speaker in such a way that he's not like Joel Osteen or some slick speaker like the lawyers, motivational speakers especially trained in rhetorics (1Cor 1:17 "not with words of eloquent wisdom"), which have nothing to do with being having trouble speaking or stutter. As far as critics of his time goes: ἐξουθενέω (exoutheneo)
2Cor10:10 "...his speech contemptible" KJV
"...his speech of no account" ESV
"言语粗俗" CUV
Given the fact that Paul's often comparing himself relatively tiny, 1Cor 4:4 "I know nothing by myself" even though we all know Paul knew a lot. It is always better to be good at rhetoric, but that should not be something the members of church should be fooled by.
I had also during the sermon thought about this all of the sudden: God allows liberalism to increase in the West perhaps to deal with balancing the antithesis of the East and vice versa. This pondering I think is crucial in evaluating the future outcome of the world before God.
On our church's first (...perhaps in a long time) outreach ministry regarding praying for challenges. I explained to Eleni a couple of weeks ago that the reason I won't be joining the outreach ministry was because I do not want to see this as the only one time evangelical event, to which she concurred. I elaborated to her because she seemed curious enough to know why even though she did not take the initiative to ask. Something Americans are more and more into, opposite to what I once thought of Americans the bold, the straightforward. I continued that I may ask for permission to participate after several such outreach activities have been done. She gladly replied "oh you don't need permission". I thought to myself, I do. I believe one must own one's ministry, or else, you let wolves in, you let the charismatics type in with all the wrong doctrines, and that is not good because this is not some ecumenical ministry where we could consider working with the like of the charismatics or evangelicals. As for prayer, I added: I will pray for even more challenge to the ministry. I believe I said it in response to her asking me to pray for the ministry to be a smooth going one. She said "Oh...no..." at first, but as I explained, she immediately agreed. However, after she told me the following week (last Sunday praise rehearsal) that she announced it on Tuesday prayer meeting (that I would pray for opposition to the ministry, or something like that), I immediately questioned if she got any push back, to which she said they just chuckled. However, after our fellowship meal that day, where the pastor met up with the outreach team, which I joined, to give us some pointers. I agreed with most parts: Let God work, don't fight, you're in someone's house (private property), etc. until he talked about walking away when tough questions are asked (i.e. is your church LGBT friendly, etc.) with the idea that these folks usually aren't interested in the Gospel, and eventually remarking what Eleni publicly shared on Tuesday indirectly by saying: "Do not pray for opposition, opposition is against God, praying for opposition is to be in opposition to God, it's not good to be against God" I thought to myself - ah...hah, I knew someone would not like it. Almost like a "I told you so" to Eleni. She texted me about it later. Even Rob just looked at me in silent after that as he had brought it up to me that day just before the fellowship meal in that both Rob and Eleni already understood what I meant about praying for challenges. I prefer the word challenge to opposition, which I doubt was the word I used. Of course, I've wondered about the pastor's principle of life and evangelism: The walk away from challenges, escapism, run away from politics, relax, hard work but don't look for more, and justifying it with God's blessing/providence instead is just a big problem with modern people in the West these days. As Stephen Tong would say: 沒做錯事因爲再來不做事。They would call this not indolence but wisdom. This would also be something I look to push back against Alex Tseng's anti-squeezism of Stephen Tong. True, overworking is always wrong, but the question is where is the borderline towards overworking? We were pushed pass imaginary limits all the time in school, at least the schools we used to have, and we never regret it today with gratitude. But today, this would come back as abuse, workaholic, etc.
Now I kind of figure that when pastor Chris mentioned about talking on PRAYER for next week's Sunday School, it must be because of what I told Eleni. I guess he could add on top of "we are not to go against God", with "we are not to pray to God for temptations, but lead us not into temptation instead". Of course, all these, if it solidify, not only shows a serious misunderstanding of what I said and the lack of basic mature fellowship quality (though better than most others who keep their homes closed to others) not to mention pastoral care to reach out to me to discuss this after all these time of fellowship (we've started attending this church since April 2021), but also the shallow fundamentalist take on any debate: when you cannot defeat your opponent, you go for the strawman. Equating praying for challenges to grow in apologetics to opposition to ministries.... to opposition to God. Not to mention using the "pulpit" to do this, even though technically it's not a pulpit but similar nonetheless when others don't get the convenient chance to rebut. But it is fine, this pastor loves the Lord in serving Him, just that the Bob Jones background got to him perhaps. I don't know. His uncle as well, whom I do not know but figure must be some fundamentalist Baptist minister. It's as if I am dealing with someone who doesn't believe in God exercising men via burdensome tasks (Ecc 1:13), baptizing us with FIRE! (Mat 3:11, Luk 3:16), "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Matthew 10:34-36). The keyword that is better than suffering would be "refinement", "refining", to refine us. It's a challenge, a good one from the Lord for me to deal with this in love and to better my argument, sharpening my doctrine on things. I even learned from the classic show Beverly Hills 90210 which I just started to watch with Nadia at times: "Even though I'm not perfect, but I'm not a jerk". This is my text response to Eleni:
Hi brother, I had no idea Pastor was going to mention the prayer for opposition. I understand your intent is the goal to grow our faith; Much like a missionary we heard about that prays for persecution here in the US so the church will grow. In any case, I do agree with Pastor that we should pray for God to work and we should pray that he will bless the means used to share the gospel. If there is opposition, May the Lord give us wisdom and discernment and May He protect us. Please pray for that as well. God bless you and Nadia!!🙏
Howdy sister! Haha, I was thinking then I should pray for even 10 times the challenge.
I figured there would be opposition had you brought it up to others. This stuff needs time to unpack, or it would be taken out of context. But since it's done through 3rd party and such I'll just assume the benefit of the doubt, that something got lost in communication LOL.
I'm with John Wesley when he reacted to St. Patrick's ministry (if memory serves) being so well received in Ireland, by saying: If the preaching brought no attack, either there's no devil in this world or he did not preach the Gospel of Christ.
But of course, you got my point. The key is to see God at work, so the more challenge (perhaps better than 'opposition') the greater we could praise and glorify God and less of ourselves, while at the same time, we LEARN to witness Christian love/wisdom and not combative hatred/ignorance which is what natural men expect to others. So I agree with the rest of what Pastor said 😉 Perhaps there are better words for me to choose, maybe I'm just not that good of a poet 🙂 Bottom line, We don't celebrate hardship but do need it in this world especially in our fallen state, that's just natural. Even the Greeks knew when they say: The unexamined life is not worth living.
Amen!
[I made reference to "not that good of a poet" as a sarcasm to what the pastor said of no one studies poetry today when they took English phrases like "cut off your arm" literally in the Bible]
So yea, I treat it as a good "OPPOSITION" what happened today at the meeting 🙂 Something for me to think about, choice of words use, etc. 🙂
Here's one of my favorite prayer by General Douglas MacArthur, the fundamentalist[s] might push back on this as well, but I believe it's a good prayer:
Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.
Build me a son whose wishes will not take the place of deeds; a son who will know Thee—and that to know himself is the foundation-stone of knowledge.
Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail.
Build me a son whose heart will be clean, whose goal will be high, a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men, one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.
And after all these things are his, give him, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, and the meekness of true strength.
Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, ‘I have not lived in vain.’ ~ Douglas MacArthur
Excellent! I love that!! So sorry I mentioned your prayer to the Pastor. Something did get lost in the translation. I knew what you meant.
This is worth memorizing, especially for this coming Sunday: "Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm." But of course, I would add, more importantly, as we put up the good fight, let us remember, it is God at work and not us, we are but witnesses in God's Spirit. The greater the challenge I wish, to see the greater God's glory and honor.