My Journal

The need to serve is sinful, unbiblical, wrong.

It is not the same as serving the needy.

This is nothing new. Theologians like Tim Keller has noted this kind of sin. Yet, many, not limited within the Chinese American churches, fall prey to this problem.

The need to serve is a desire to be wanted, but a proud and selfish one. I want people to know that I am good at helping people. I need to show someone I am helpful. I need to show myself. All these place the self in the center.

Those who justify this, their excuses, are in this same pattern: As long as you do something, it is better than not doing anything. But is it really better? Sure it is, because as long as I do something to help, regardless of my pride, my wrong beliefs or the outcome, God cannot punish me. I have put in MY effort and MY time into it, if God not only does not reward me (even though I don't care about rewards), if God has to discredit my effort, then God is not a good God.

There you are, you have your rebellion against God. You judge God according to your standard, not God's.

This sums up the issue.

Serve the Lord with Fear, Rejoice with trembling. (Psalm 2)

I've just come across this article on ChristianToday by Patrick Regan. He wrote another pertaining to "is it ok to be angry with God". From the conclusion of the later, "it is ok to be angry [at] God", I can tell that Regan's very confused in faith. He's part of the category of those who is more about "me" rather than God.

So, predictably, he denies that 1 Corinthians 10:13 is a proof text for trusting and obeying God. In the two articles, all I can gather is that Regan's motto is "God loves you as you are". This view of love is classic heresy.

Regan concluded that if 1Cor 10:13 is true that God won't suffer us more than we can bear, then He must be a cruel God. He does seem to understand discipline and punishment from God in His love. We as sinners must recognize that we must seek after His righteousness, which is more of a revelation from the Bible than simply an emotional instinct that is often error-prone (which I think people like Regan depend more on).

Regan appears to be ignorant of the state of a sinner before God. He might be an example of those becoming Christians without going through honest repentance before God. Their foundation is more like: "Oh God is real and great and He loves me? Cool, I'll be a Christian! - Yea, I admit I'm a sinner, nobody is perfect, God's love will forgive me anyway!" What's missing? Repentance.

Repentance involves not just guilt, but shame as well. Today, there may be a new wave of emergent movement calling a repentance of only guilt, devoid of any embarrassment or shameful feeling. However, without shame, how can one repent humbly? This is why many compensations for mistakes are done pathetically merely in the form of statements like "we are sorry...", "I apologize for...". Nothing more. No wonder ChristianToday.Com often titles its articles in such form "the Pope condemns this", "the Church condemns that". As if there needs confirmation that rape is wrong or something. A cheapened pursuit of holiness.