Thoughts

It sounds right

in Thoughts  by Bronwyn 0 comments

I think this sounds right

Have you ever sat a multiple choice test where you weren’t sure of the correct answer? You re-read all the options and then thought, I think ‘C’ sounds most correct.

When I taught English to Cambodian high schoolers I was trying to explain why their sentences were incorrect. Since English is my first language, I speak it fluently but do not always understand why I say things in a certain way. So the best I explanation I could come up with at the time was: ‘it just sounds wrong when you write it this way. This way sounds better.’

Or perhaps you are going somewhere you have been before but you aren’t entirely sure of the way. And as you walk or drive along you think, ‘hmm this way feels right.’

What is it that gives us this impression of ‘right’? And how do we ensure that our impressions actually are correct? So often we put the wrong answer down on a test or we give incorrect grammatical advice or end up lost because our inner sense of right is misplaced.

In the case of the test, if we didn’t learn the material correctly then incorrect options will sound correct to our minds. If I learned to speak English incorrectly then I will likely teach others to speak incorrectly. And depending on how well I know the route to a destination will determine how easily I get there! In each case it is a matter of knowing the right way. To add complexity to this, there are degrees of knowing and with each degree of knowing comes increasing chances of getting it right.

And so it would seem with our life choices – which way seems right? What path feels right to you?

These are often questions we pose to ourselves and to others who are at a crossroads. Should I make this purchase or that? Should I go abroad to gain more experience or stay in my company to gain a promotion? Should I marry this person or keep looking? Should we have children? How should we raise them? The problem is if we don’t have any concept of ‘right’ then really anything could seem or feel right at any given point in time. And we may be faced with the question: ‘do I trust my feelings?’

God provides us with an avenue to know the right way. He illustrates a purpose for our existence through the Bible and in it are visions, mission statements, directions, examples to follow (and not to follow), descriptions, pictures and in some cases, explicit instructions. Just as the textbook and the test questions are not duplicates of each other, so with life the text and the choices given demand an applicable knowledge of one to answer the other. And so the more familiar we are with God and His way, the more correct our feelings about what is the right way will be.

Some people call it ‘feeding on God’s word’, others may call it ‘quiet time’, ‘devotion’ or ‘Bible study’. It doesn’t matter what name you give it, becoming familiar with the Bible is the best way to know God and His thoughts. As Albert Einstein said, ‘I want to know His [God’s] thoughts. The rest are details.’

Carrying Another

in Thoughts  by Bronwyn 0 comments

I am one of the extremely blessed ones who didn’t have the struggle of becoming pregnant. I don’t have any angsty stories of months or years of trying or going to fertility clinics. For some reason God just made it happen. I know that this child is a gift from heaven.

And I knew when I had received the gift. One day I just felt different. It was an odd awareness that there was something inside me that was new.

We didn’t test until about week 8-9. I had been procrastinating since the pharmacist wasn’t on my way to anywhere and it would mean a special trip to pick up a test – besides.. I already knew I was pregnant! But after my supervisor at work asked me if I was I decided it was time to know definitively and actually do something about it.

So what is it like for me?

I felt nauseous and vomited about 6 times. One time I remember just lying on the floor against the wall to keep my head up because it felt worse when I lay flat. I couldn’t vomit and I couldn’t eat. I just felt this feeling of wanting to throw up but not quite. Then when I finally did throw up I didn’t feel a whole lot better. It was dreadful and I felt a deep sympathy for those who experience this day in and day out for months. I also threw up on the way home in the car. I managed to hold it in with one hand while the other hand steered into a pub’s carpark. I threw the door open and let it all out all over the ground.

There is one thing about vomiting that does ‘release the valve’ on the nausea somewhat but it does leave you feeling exhausted and the awful taste in your throat takes a long time to go away.

Since this was not a big issue for me I think the most noticeable thing early on was the fatigue and low mood. I have been anaemic and that fatigue does not compare to this. You wake up, feel tired. Go to work and want to sleep. Come home and want to sleep. Then sleep all night and want to sleep some more. And then I read on the net that I should sleep at work. I am not sure who actually wrote those articles but they definitely don’t work in most ordinary work places. It was really quite incredible. I went to gym classes and couldn’t keep up. Normally I could be there for 1-2hrs. But half an hour was really killing me.

And then I got sick and couldn’t shake it. My nose was blocked and runny and I had become a first class mucous producing machine. Then my nose kept bleeding and I kept blowing blood out of my nose. (Don’t worry, all of these symptoms were mentioned in the book What to Expect When You’re Expecting – a good read for those in my category)

But if you asked me what was I suffering with the pregnancy now? The main thing is ITCHINESS. I have almost scratched my skin off. And its not always polite to say where! Apparently when the skin stretches it gets itchy and some of it is just down to hormones.

Moodiness is another awful factor to deal with. It is really easy to get mad these days. Doesn’t take much to trip the wire! Poor Darrell.. he has really taken a beating.

But apart from all this ‘sufferance’ that I (and other expecting mothers) endure. I cannot believe that inside me there is a real live person growing. And when we first saw our little one on the screen at the ultrasound appointment I started crying. It was dancing and waving its little arm and leg buds. I have an actual person inside. It is so incredible and makes me feel so blessed and amazed. I don’t feel like I deserve this but nevertheless here we are: parents in the making.

Never so humbled. Never so blessed.

So I had a bad day

in Thoughts  by Jinha Kim 1 comments

Oh, it really wasn’t so bad.  But it was one of those days – woke up groggy, made brekky for the family, watched anxiously as my father-in-law frantically re-packed for the airport, choked up as he broke down in tears kissing Micah goodbye, and then felt this pang of emptiness as I cleaned up his room and laundered his sheets.

Dropped Micah off at childcare and then drove to Melton to do some visitations.  After a few visits, there was one more person I really wanted to see, and I wanted to take her a framed picture of Micah I had promised her, so I dropped by the Woodgrove shopping center.  Having purchased the frame, I assembled it in the boot and then shut the boot –  only to realise with a sinking heart that the car keys were inside.

I called the various people I now disappointed (the member I was going to visit, another member I was supposed to drive to a Leadership Meeting in Tullamarine, the senior pastor of Northpoint, Sam, who I had made go to my place only to have to walk back home, and my husband, who had to cancel a bible study and miss a meeting to come and bail me out).

Roy suggested I call the locksmith, but they quoted me $150 and said “we’ll give it our best go, but no guarantees.”  Horror stories of locksmiths damaging the wiring of the car, etc. came to haunt me and I could not bring myself to secure their services.

So I refused to call the locksmith and insisted Roy come pick me up.  I emphatically stated, “I’m not paying a locksmith.  I’m staying here until you come, even if I have to wait all night.”  I hung up without waiting for a reply, as if to prove my point.

So Roy picked up Micah from childcare and came an hour out of his way to drop off the spare key.  I thought the least I could do was take Micah back, so I took our hungry, tired boy and noticed he was barefoot.  “He didn’t have any shoes on when I picked him up,” Roy said.

I had forgotten to put them on this morning when I had dropped him off!  Oops.

My poor hungry, tired, and barefoot boy wailed all the way home (all 50 minutes) and by the time I got home, I felt like crying myself.

My day was not really a bad day, compared to so many people out there who struggled with real pain today, but it was not a day I was proud of . . . not only for my forgetfulness, but for my reactions and attitude throughout the evening.

I had been angry at myself, angry at the exorbitant cost of a locksmith, angry at Roy for suggesting a locksmith, angry at the Schnitz employee for giving me chicken in my veggie wrap, angry at the tailgaters on my drive home…

Where did all this anger come from?

I don’t know, but I knew I didn’t want it to linger in my spirit.

The wise king said, “Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools” (Ecclesiastes 7:9).  Anger is counter-productive; it keeps us from making rational choices.

Paul counselled, “In your anger do not sin; do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold” (Ephesians 4:26,27).  I think I gave the devil a welcome mat today.

James also advised, “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires” (James 1:19,20).

As I reflect on my day, I realise that I should have prayed more and fumed less.  Instead of spending so much time being upset, I should have been grateful for having been “stuck” at a mall, with bathrooms, restaurants, and cell phone chargers so accessible.  I should have been gracious to others and myself, for how can I love my neighbours if I can’t even love myself?

So as the sun sets and the day folds, I pray to the God who is slow to anger and abounding in mercy, Father, forgive me, for I have sinned…

And I can almost hear His soothing voice say, “So you had a bad day…”

Transforming Your Life God’s Way Part 1

in Thoughts  by Kuda 0 comments

When you are seeking a transformation in your life it often helps to sit back and reflect on where you want to go and why you cant get there. Often we have plans and ideas of what our lives should be like but ultimately suffer disappointment time and time again. The story of Jacob is a wonderful example to help you understand the journey of true transformation and God’s plan for you.

 

There is a tension that characterises most of Jacob’s life. On the one hand, God made promises to Jacob that he would provide for every important issue in his life. On the other hand, Jacob wished to deal with those same issues through his own means. This is the tension in which Jacob lived most of his life; the same tension that we go through in our own lives.

 

In Part 1 we will look at how the story of Jacob is a journey of unnecessary pain. We will also look at how God throughout the story relates to Jacob and begin to understand the truth about the journey of transformation. For the purpose of the article I will write the story as an overview. If you wish to read the whole story in detail read Genesis 25 – 33.

 

Knowing is not enough.

 

God promised even before Jacob was born that he would inherit the Promise (read 25:23). Jacob undoubtedly knew about this promise from his mother, as she would have told him all through his life. He was after all her favourite. This is a very interesting point to look at. How many times do we say to ourselves,

 

“If only God would just tell me what he wants for my life i would know what to do”. 

 

Jacob knew what God wanted for him and yet he still chose to do things his own way. Much like how we know that our parents have a plan for us and yet we still insist on making our own way. Although we may not always know the details of God’s plan for us like Jacob, we do understand enough that he wants to see us prosper, be loved, be fulfilled, and delight in his ways. However, the truth is that knowing the plan is not enough; you have to be willing to follow it.

 

Look at it this way. If your boss told you were going to get a promotion in two years if you just followed steps A, B, and C, what would you do. Probably the same thing everyone else would do which is to look at steps A, B, and C and judge whether they were “right” for you. Why, because we have to be in control. The plan can be laid out before us plain as day but unless we are willing to make ourselves vulnerable and have the obedience required to follow it, we wont. So what happens when we are not obedient to follow the plan?

 

God waits patiently for you to “get it”.

 

Jacob knew that he that he would inherit the Promise from God and yet relied on his own tricks to overstep his older brother Esau. He took advantage of Esau’s and resorted to gross deception to trick Isaac into passing the inheritance to him (27:1-40).

 

RESULT: Jacob got what he wanted, but at what cost! Esau was so enraged that he decided to kill Jacob, so he had to flee for his life to his uncle Laban’s (read 27:41-45). That was not God’s plan. It doesn’t just end there.

 

When Jacob got to Laban’s land, he met his match in the deceiver and opportunist business. Jacob fell in love with Laban’s daughter Rachel, so he hung around a month instead of the few days as he had planned. Laban noticed this, and took advantage of it to extract seven years of forced servitude for her hand. When the seven years were over, Laban took advantage of Jacob’s excessive partying at the wedding feast to smuggle his older daughter Leah into bed with Jacob. When Jacob woke up the next morning, “behold, it was Leah!” Jacob was furious: “What is this you have done to me?  . . . Why then have you deceived me?” (What irony after his dealings with Esau!) Laban insisted on seven more years labour for Rachel. After those seven years, Jacob and Laban then spent six more years trying to get one over the other over who would get the biggest portion of their flocks.

 

So because of his own scheming, Jacob successfully turned a few weeks into twenty years. He wound up fleeing for his life from his father-in-law and God had to intervene to prevent Laban from killing him. Jacob then decides he has to go back home but realises that this meant he had to face his brother. God sends angels to remind him of his promise and assure him of his safety, but Jacob in typical fashion ignores God and makes his own plan. The plan backfires and Esau sends word that he will meet Jacob with 400 men to kill him. For the first recorded time in the text, Jacob prayed to God for protection (32:9-12). But then he hatched an elaborate and self-protective plan to buy Esau off (32:13-20).

 

NOTE: FROM AS EARLY AS BIRTH, RIGHT UP TO THIS POINT WHERE 400 MEN ARE ON THEIR WAY TO KILL HIM JACOB HAS KNOWN GOD, SPOKEN TO GOD AND EVEN KNEW GODS PROMISE FOR HIM; AND YET STILL DOES NOT OBEY.

 

The journey Jacob was on was not part of God’s Plan, but he waited patiently for Jacob to understand that he was not going to get what he wanted through his own means. What does this tell us about God.

 

God teaches through consequence.

 

Many times when we are waiting on a transformation we question God’s presence. “I mean seriously does he care that I’m suffering.” However, before you question God’s love for you, question whether you are living by his plan or you’re pulling a Jacob.

 

Often (like Jacob), God lets us reap the consequences of our poor choices. Jacob lost his relationship with his brother, fled his hometown, got tricked by his uncle into wasting 20 years of his life, and on his way home manages to get his brother to send an army of 400 men to kill him. Where was God during all this; he was present the whole time reminding Jacob of his promise.

 

Even then, he had a choice, just like we do in our lives today. God won’t make you submit to him, but he will always try and reach out to you. Either you harden in your commitment to control your own life, and deepen your suspicion about God’s goodness–or you admit your inadequacy and submit yourself to God, and experience his goodness and wisdom. Jacob so far has led a life of unnecessary pain. His need to control his destiny led him to make choices that delayed God’s plan for him( a plan that he knew).

 

THIS ENDS PART 1.

 

Are you stuck in a predicament like Jacob is? Have you asked yourself time and time again Why God “lets” bad things happen to you. Have you ever said things like:

 

“Why do I keep getting stuck in dead end jobs?”

“Why can’t I have the life I want?”

“Why do things happen for others and not me”

 

If you are asking those questions, you my friend are pulling a Jacob. You’re on a journey of unnecessary pain because you won’t let the transformation God wants you to have happen.

 

In Part 2 we will reveal the transformation of Jacob  and see how God’s plan finally came together for Jacob. We will see how obedience eventually gave Jacob the transformation he needed; the transformation we all need.

 

Tell me in the comment section what you look forward to seeing about God’s plan to transform you.

 

 

 

Broken Cisterns

in Thoughts  by Jinha Kim 1 comments

Where do you go to de-stress?

Maybe you exercise, eat, watch TV, play games, call a friend, or listen to music.  At the end of the activity, do you feel refreshed?  Do you feel re-energised for the rest of the day/week?

I don’t know about you, but I often find myself feeling drained rather than rested in my efforts to unwind.  It isn’t until I come to God and His principles of re-creation that I find satiation for my thirsty soul and weary body.

But why is that so hard to do, despite our knowledge of its worth?

Jeremiah records the heartbroken lament of a God abandoned by His people.  One particular imagery really hit home for me:

“My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
    the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
    broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13, NIV).

Broken Cisterns.  Hand-made containers that are supposed to retain water but are leaking.  Drip.  Drip.  Drip.

A leaky faucet can drive one crazy.  The so-called Chinese water torture works just one drip at a time.

Perhaps it is time to come to the Spring of Living Water and spend a quiet, reflective time counting our blessings…. or bursting into song and praise, making joyful noise…. or sharing the Word with others.

“Come, all you who are thirsty,
    come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
    and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
    and you will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me;
    listen, that you may live….

6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
    call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake their ways
    and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
    and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
    without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
12 You will go out in joy
    and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
    will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
    will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
    and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
    for an everlasting sign,
    that will endure forever.”

Isaiah 55

I’m tired of broken cisterns.  I long for wholeness that only comes from the Master Potter.

 

Selah – Thoughts of a Cute Mute

in Thoughts  by Jinha Kim 0 comments

I have laryngitis; for several days, I could barely whisper.

I remember losing my voice once before during my last year at Uni.  A friend of mine cheekily called me a “cute mute.”

While I am hardly “cute” anymore, after 10 years and a baby, I have definitely been mute for the past two days.

It has made me a lot more reflective about the power of speech.

Being a literary person as well as a leisurely talker, I enjoy my words.  I like making conversation and sharing my thoughts freely.  It’s quite satisfying to be able to express myself.

So while I have been frustrated at my inability to talk, I have been surprisingly aware of my ability to listen.  It turns out that it simply takes being silent a bit longer than usual to hear a whole lot more.

As I shared in my sermon on Saturday (Mercy and Truth Kiss: The Meaning of Moses’ Mistake), I was quite reckless with my words a week ago, when we were having a miserable time in New Zealand.

This week, because each word has been quite painful to pronounce, I have been a lot more careful.  As a result, I have chosen my words more wisely.  My silence has also given the men of my house (my husband, my son, my father-in-law), occasion to talk more about what’s on their minds.  My muteness has given me insight into their needs and concerns.

The Bible has wise words to live by – James says, “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.  Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can sae you.  Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says. . . Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless” (James 1:19-22, 26).

I may not be a cute mute, or even an acute mute, but I have experienced the power of silence in communication.  Just as the rest notes in a musical score provide the harmony and balance needed for a great song, pauses in life to truly listen to the other person are necessary for a good relationship.

Perhaps that’s what God, too, desires from us at this moment – to pause, to listen, to be silent.

Selah is a Hebrew word used 74 times, mainly in Psalms.  No one knows precisely what it means, but some believe it is either a liturgico-musical mark meaning “stop and listen,” or an indication of a musical interlude.

Perhaps it’s a good time to be mute – Selah.

Good News for Marriage

in Thoughts  by Jinha Kim 0 comments

Have you heard that 50 percent of all marriages end in divorce, and that Christians are just as likely to divorce as non-believers?  Talk about discouraging statistics.

The good news for marriage this week is that Shaunti Feldhahn, a Harvard-trained researcher and author, has discovered that those statistics were based on projections of divorce rates in the 1970s and not based on actual numbers.

In her recently released book, “The Good News About Marriage: Debunking Discouraging Myths about Marriage and Divorce,” Feldhahn shares results from an extensive eight-year study on marriage and divorce. Among other things, her research found:

  • The actual divorce rate has never gotten close to 50 percent.
  • Those who attend church regularly have a significantly lower divorce rate than those who don’t.
  • Most marriages are happy.
  • Simple changes make a big difference in most marriage problems.
  • Most remarriages succeed.

It’s time to stop the rumours and commit to a renewed look at the meaning of marriage as found in the Bible and in the lives of the couples we admire around us.

“But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” Mark 10:7-9, NKJV.

 

5 Games to Make your Bible Study More Fun!

in Thoughts  by Kuda 2 comments

Bible study is the perfect time to open the word of God and create memories with family and friends. When you have a care group you also have a family, and families that play together grow together. Games are not just great ice breakers, but they’re also great for identifying hidden talents in others, breaking in the newbies to how “awesome” your group is, or just learning how to be more comfortable around each other. Here are five games that can help make any Bible study more fun.

1. Heads Up

For any one with a smart phone Heads Up is a game you can download on your phone that works exactly like charades except that you work in teams and one player has to guess the words by watching his teammates act out the word in front of them. The game comes with a lot of categories some free and some which you can buy for $0.99. You have to keep an eye on the clock with this one because next thing you know you’ll be rushing your lesson with 5 minutes left for you to run the study. You can downlod the app here.

2. Camera Hot Potato

Play hot potato with a camera. This camera game is a huge hit at parties. You set the camera’s self-timer, and pass it around the room (or table).Whoever has the camera must do a quick ‘selfie’ pose while holding the camera before passing it on to the next person. The result: lots of exciting and candid photos from one fun night. Great for Facebook Albums.

3. Honey I Love You

Honey I Love You, is another icebreaker that’s fun to play. Your group should be sitting in a circle again with one person in the middle. The person in the middle can go to anyone in the circle and say “Honey I love you, won’t you give me a smile?” The person who was asked the question has to answer back “Honey I love you, but I just can’t smile” (without smiling.) The person in the middle can do anything to the other person to make them smile except touch them. You have to be the judge as to what you call smiling.

4. Wink’Um

Have your group sit in a circle. With a deck of cards, have each player take a card until everyone has one. If there are seven players, take seven cards from the deck then pass those around. Make sure one of the cards is an ace of spades. The person who receives that secretly winks at the other players. If you are winked at, you say, “I’m dead” and throw your card in the middle. The object is to guess who has the ace of spades. If you think you know, state that you want to guess. If you’re wrong, you forfeit and die – if you are right, you win.

5. Fizz Bang!

This is one of my favorite games from primary school. Fizz Bang! is a counting game, in which players start at one and aim for 100. Instead of 3, or multiples of 3, say ‘fizz’; for 5 or multiples thereof, say ‘bang’. For multiples of 3 and 5, it’s ‘fizz bang’. So: I, 2, fizz, 4, bang, fizz, 7, 8, fizz, bang, 10, 11, fizz, 13, 14, fizz bang, etc. Make sure you split the teams evenly and play a few rounds before determining whether 100 is an achievable goal.

W ll there you have it; 5 games to make any Bible study more fun. Try not to play them all at once but do rather at your own pace. Have fun and God Bless!

The Meaning of Misery

in Thoughts  by Jinha Kim 0 comments

I have always loved Les Misérables – after all, I did study French literature.  But I first read it in English long before I could sing “Alouette.”  It was one of my mom’s favourite books so I read it partly out of curiosity, partly out of an ambitious desire to conquer the tome (the unabridged version is 1488 pages long – 202 pages longer than the complete Gutenberg Bible), and partly to understand the meaning of the title.

Les Misérables – a literal translation would be, “The Miserable Ones,” or the “The Wretched Ones.”  Who is Victor Hugo referring to?  Who are the miserable ones?

The most obvious answer is – the poor.  The masses in France that were driven to hunger and poverty during that time lived in a truly wretched reality that unfortunately still plays out in many parts of the world.

But are the rich exempt from misery?  No – heartless, they may be, but happy they are not.

How did Hugo define happiness? “The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves–say rather, loved in spite of ourselves (p. 167).”

Misery, then, is living without that conviction that we are loved just as we are.  It’s the state of constant insecurity, of wanting approval and affirmation from others around us, even those we don’t particularly like or even know.  A mistake, a disappointment, a heartache can make our worlds come crashing down.

The poor and the disenfranchised know what misery feels like.  But so does anyone who has felt truly rejected, betrayed or abandoned.  Or anyone in soul turmoil wondering who we truly are, what we’re all about (like Javert).

It is to us wretched individuals that God says,

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:9-13, NIV).

“Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.  So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.  In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name” (John 16:20-23, NIV).

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, NIV).

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Isaiah 61:1-3)

To all of us Les Misérables, Jesus offers the supreme happiness of being loved in spite of ourselves, a love tried and true, a love that overcomes the world and turns our mourning into dancing.

A True Man

in Thoughts  by Jinha Kim 0 comments

As a girl I had the wrong ideas of what an ideal man should say or do.  Blame it on the romantic comedies or misguided naiveté, I thought a true guy fought for the girl to the end, even if she pushed him away.

But as I grew into a woman, I realised that a true man is someone who respects the woman’s wishes, even if they are contrary to his desires.  If she says no, he should not push back.  If she is undecided about the relationship, he should step back and give her space to come to her own conclusions without pressure or invasion of boundaries.

That kind of respect requires strength of character – security in himself and God, that whatever happens is not going to be unbearable or unacceptable, but a stepping stone in the bigger picture.  It requires unselfishness and discipline, that he can limit himself from exerting his influence or strength manipulatively to coerce the woman into doing what he wants.

This is what true love looks like.

And the greater the love, the greater the respect – and the greater strength of character, unselfishness, and self-discipline needed to sustain that submission to the other person’s will.

So it is truly amazing that God, who we typically think of submitting to, submits to us and our decisions – even if they’re against His desires.  As much as He yearns for us to love Him back, He constrains Himself from doing too much – for example, I bet He wishes He could answer all our prayer requests – wouldn’t that wow us into worship?  Yet He does not want to manipulate us into wanting Him out of indebtedness alone.  What about if He manifested His glory, visibly and audibly?  Wouldn’t a herald of angels win us over?  But then would our response be infatuation or commitment?

We must seriously consider the fact that God, while being all-powerful, limits Himself and His powers for our sake – so that we can make our decisions without pressure and coercion.  He constrained His powers into the form of a human babe.  He constrained Himself into the life of an itinerant preacher. He constrained Himself on the cross, naked and burdened with the guilt of the world.  It wasn’t the nails that held Him there – it was His great love for us.  He won back our ability to choose.

So once again I fall in love with this True Man – who dies for His bride and submits to her.  And in love, I willingly submit in return.