Is the begging of men that innocent?
Is the praise of men too illusive to discern?
Is the reason of men so intrusive?
Is the friendship of men so blinding?
Oh Lord! Forgive me for I have sinned. For I rest not for your instructions, for I let the trouble of the world strike me so hard that I think I would strike for You first! Worse! I even make my unholy sword Yours!
I will do such thing no more. Grant me mercy, my Lord!
As the movie "Billy, the Early Years" is to be released this October 10th, perhaps it will bring those who have been disappointed by Billy Graham's later ministries motivation to preach instead of doing nothing but criticizing.
Although I have known by experience before, this time, I did a little test. Guess what, my package turned up in the PO BOX today! (It was shipped a whole month earlier).
What I did:
Last Thursday/Friday, I printed a little note saying something like "Please do not throw away my packages at PO BOX 545456, " with all my possible names.
And I taped it to the interior end of my P.O. Box where it is easily visible to the staffs.
Today the slip was removed and I got one of the 2 delayed packages.
Delighted, but a little troubled, because it is not guaranteeing me from future mishaps.
In response to the statement: If there is no life on other planets, it would be an awful waste of space.
I ask,
1. what is wasteful?
2. why is it wasteful?
3. to whom is it wasteful?
If I am not allowed to paint paintings all over the king's golden wall, can I say: what an awful waste of surface?
One of the greatest challenges in my life is to identify motives. In the Bible, Jesus was incredibly accurate about detecting people's motives. Some preachers were able to sense a person's righteousness or ulterior motives, Rev. Stephen Tong said he could usually tell a person's "4 seasons" by just looking at their faces.
No doubt, this is a very sensitive matter, because motives can easily be misinterpreted with damaging consequences. As a result, some believe that we should stay away from people's motives. I think, that it is not wrong to admit our limits, but to stop others from exceeding our limits, is rather selfish, it would only result in more ignorance or jealousy. It is better to admit it our individual limits, and be quiet.
More is required from those who are given more. Those who are given more cannot treat matters lightly. They must know whatever anger they control, it must be for the sake of God's glory.
Often times, I find myself too trusting people. However, it is also important that I remind myself not to later cast doubts on everyone else. So that I remain sober, marching forward for God.
Conclusion, it is important to be wise as serpents, however, in the end, it is better to be fooled once, than to accuse wrongly.
What's the easiest methods to differentiate filtered astrophotography?
I don't know what to make of them, whether I am singing lovesick 爱情失念 songs or plagiarism.
A lot of the so called Christian leadership trainings today are more focused on methods, following others' samples, blindly. And when speaking of humility of a leader, they go as far as to deny their leadership authority, especially when facing responsibility issues.
The worst kind of authority abuse is denial of authority. Our Lord never denied who he is nor his authority.
Christian leaders today are so convinced that they should humble themselves hypocritically that they could care less to see God's glory being seeped away by their specious action.
I think it is because of enthusiasm without knowledge, many rather blindly promote leaders and patiently learn the mystery of God's wisdom. And they say: See...Lord...See...so many wants to serve you!!! See Lord!!!
The western style is: Many call themselves servants being a caring hero. Hero, nothing less. And how great is this hero, if he denies his identity of Ubermensch.
A stubborn person is asking for either rebuke, or rejection.
It is with great comfort that I have read Gilbert Tennent's "The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry", also at the same time, with great disappointment. Great comfort because knowing that I am not alone, that I would say Amen to every paragraphs. Great disappointment because like Eratosthenes' Sieves of Prime, I am several hundreds of years behind, despite my focus, yet blindly. I'd rather read them, so that I have my time for new profound matters.
But I would add this, that an unconverted preacher would satisfy himself greatly with the multitude of hands that are ready in standby to be raised even before his evangelism meeting begins.
