My Journal

On James 5:15-20 on the connection between sin and physical sickness.

Pro 17:22 A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
喜乐的心乃是良药；忧伤的灵使骨枯乾。

Hebrews 11:

1. natural faith (天然的) - on Existence of God
2. 信道從聽到來的信心
3. 主托福做主工的信心恩賜
4. 每天依靠上帝義人必因信得生的信心

I started this, even though I'm yet to seriously begin the study on this, because of issues such as head coverings (Chapter 11), etc.

On John 4:19-26

Suddenly I was given from the sermon clarity about last Friday's Bible study on Rev. 11:5-6. That the power/authority given to the two witnesses, was the kind that grants us opportunity to see God at work. Not men at work, but through men of God. Therefore, one must refer to Elijah and Moses when context of those two verses are considered. The context must never be of independent interpretation as John MacArthur did it as well as his fellow dispensationalists. I will copy this to my Bible study note in Revelation.

I told Nadia that it was great that the pastor mentioned Mary vs. Martha in his sermon. For what Mary did was not only worship but the best kind: Listening to preaching.

However, when praise music was brought up, true that the Bible has not specified the style of music, at least not directly, but it is more of a general revelation concern than special one. The science of music is important. I therefore would push the analogy of English, English literature, like music, is a form of art and therefore must abide by some principles. The English aficionados would understand: We must strive for grammatical accuracy, the right style of English literary skills for the right kind of context, I would even stress proper pronunciation and even accent! They all matter. Likewise music. To say that musical style doesn't matter, is like saying one should not study the genres in English literature. And to turn a major piece into a minor piece, is like in the sermon, the pastor inserted the phrase "you dig?" for no contextual reason at all, and call that okay.

In fact, if I must, I would ask those who often times claim that they see all styles of music equally, to tell me how they rate these music, what points they would give for each, what are the pieces they don't like (I would stress that I am not interested in music they like), etc. To provoke, to force them out of disingenuity, And no matter how they respond, it would be so telling of them, they cannot avoid nor escape it. Should they choose not to answer, that's obvious too what they are, the rebellious soul deep down, there is no way out. Here I am not referring to this pastor, but many others who have claimed a kind of neutrality while they should know better given their background and surrounding.