Asking Anything

Peng: I am praying that Team A wins tonight's Cup Final.

Yong: I support Team B, and I have been praying from the beginning that they win!

Chia: Well there will only be one winner tonight. How is God going to answer both your prayers?

Peng: Well I have faith in my prayers.

Chia: Really?! So how much have you betted on Team A?

Peng: Nah, I don’t bet!

Yong: So much for faith. I have betted $500 at 7:3 odds that Team B is the Cup Champions.

Chia: Only $500? And not all your money and more? And also what makes you so sure God hears you and not Peng?

Yong: I am not sure about Peng, but I am just taking Jesus' word simply and at face value, and claiming what He had promised. He said if we asked anything in his name, He will do it.*

*[John 14:14].

Peng: I sincerely believed that God hears me too, and I have certainly also prayed in Jesus' name. But I see what Chia is driving at. Surely one of our prayers will not happen, and one of us will be taking God's name in vain. But Chia, didn’t Jesus said that you can ask anything we want? How then do we have this contradiction?

** [John 14:14; 15:7; 15:16; 16:23,24]

Chia: Well Jesus did indeed say we can ask anything, but did Jesus say that anyone can ask anything, and He will do it.

Also remember the story in Acts? In that story some Jews tried to cast out demons in Jesus name, but the demon said, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?"*** and jumped on them and beat them.

So it is clear that it is not the thing asked that matter but the one who asked that makes the difference.

In the gospel of John some of these things that marked the person whom God will grant anything are those that have faith in and loves Jesus, remaining and abiding in Jesus, possesses the Holy Spirit, and asking in Jesus' name.

*** [Acts 19:13-16]

Yong: So then in this light, how, or rather, who should pray for the outcome of tonight's Cup Final? And do we not all conclude our prayers in Jesus name? Are we not asking in Jesus name?

Chia: Well if you are then how come one of your prayers will certainly not be answered. Asking in Jesus name is not saying the words, "In Jesus name", like some mantra or magic word. Asking in Jesus' name is asking as if Jesus would have asked himself, or asking in the authority and representation as Christ's servant on earth.

So when the demons are commanded to leave in Jesus' name, it is the same as if Jesus himself had commanded the demons. So if you do not have the authority from God to be his servant, you are in no position to represent Jesus and to ask anything in his name.

Yong: So how then do we pray?

Peng: Thy will be done, thy kingdom come ...?

Chia: Do you not think that this might be an inappropriate thing to pray at all? There may be things that we should not pray for. For example what good will it brings to anyone if either Team A or Team B wins? Will God be glorified?

And the people that win their bets tonight will glorify whatever god or gods they have prayed too. And God's name indeed will have been used in vain, debased to be made equal with any other gods'.

We will then have prostituted the promises of God for our earthy lusts for money and wealth. And we have abused God's gift of prayer, intended for God's work, bearing fruit and for our equipping, strengthening and sustainment, for something base and worthless.

Anger

God gets angry, and so did Jesus when he walked the earth.

Anger is not inherently evil nor bad in and of itself.

Just as love is not necessarily always pure without question. Love corrupted is lust and possessiveness, and things not to be loved are loved too. So as love is corruptible and corrupted, so is anger.

There is not a word to distinguish the two kinds of anger, perhaps only righteous and unrighteous anger.

Anger, righteous anger, is the appropriate response to injustice and unrighteousness. It is the sense of violation of the natural good, the inherent integrity of things, and the marring of beauty.

It is the reaction to an apparently senseless and meaningless tragedy, something which is totally avoidable and unnecessary. It is what we feel in our gut when we see the weak and poor discriminated, abused, and robbed. It is the natural and complete response to evil.

Unrighteous anger is the abuse and use of anger for other than a reaction to evil, and of course evil uses anger against good itself, attacking good as if it is evil.

Contradiction

What is the probability that the human species evolved from raw material like ammonia and carbon, that existed in the primial soup that was hypothesized to be earth when it was created?

Probably a very small number.

But since we are here, evolution must be a fact.

So what's improbable is not necessarily an impossibility.

What is the probability that God exists?

Maybe 1 preceeded by a millon million zeroes?

So God don't exist, or at least it is of no practical consequence whether he existed or not, since he is so improbable.

For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged,
and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

[Matthew 7:2]

"Mama is now the successful owner of a spa"

This story is repeatedly broadcasted on the radio.

But it is only one story.

The broadcaster is asking for more similar stories.

It is sickenening.

Mama was once with the military. Quitted and tried other jobs. Got retrenched. Did some courses and so on. And now Mama is a "successful owner of a spa".

Oh c'mon!

Doth one swallow a summer maketh?

There are ten red balls in a bin of ten thousand black ones. You keep and count only the red balls you draw. And then you tell the world that you can get red balls as long as you keep dipping into the bin.

That's not the story.

That's not the whole truth.

And that makes it a lie.

How much does it cost to dip into the bin? How many times must you dip before you get a red ball?

For every Mama that becomes a successful owner of a spa, how many didnt make it? What happened to them?

It is not those like Mama who succeeded that is the concern, but those that did not. What are their stories?

Selling false hope is worst then telling people that there is no hope.

But people have become immuned to this.

They have gotten used to the 'lottery' mind set. As long as there is chance, no matter how miniscule, it is still better than none, and they will live on. As long they make past one day to the next, they are OK.

They rather be deluded and come into the light.

Kinds of Knowledge

Head Knowledge. This is the knowledge you learn in schools. With it you can answer questions and regurgitate facts, theories and arguments perfectly. But to me this knowledge is only good for debates and passing examinations. They are without life.

Heart Knowledge. This is knowledge that have been experienced. What was once theory is now real. You have accessed the fact or knowledge with your senses, and not merely as abstract mental entities. And you then understand what these things really meant. So now when you speak it can be discerned that it is tainted with realit, and stained with the dirt and dust from walking the word in life. Usually there is a certain humility in proclaiming the knowledge, and an awareness of knowing what works and what dont, and that the more you know the more you really dont know.

Living Knowledge. This is is the ultimate in knowledge, namely it becomes alive, living in you, and your life speaks this knowledge constantly, wordlessly and without speech. It becomes fully integrated with you and who you are. You breathe, think, walk and speak the knowledge without being conscious of it altogether. For example the word, loving your neighbour. Most of us have to struggle consciously against ourself to put that word to use, to practice it, to exercise it - ie we are at the heart knowledge stage only. To be integrated with the word, to attained living knowledge, means we now do it instinctively, unconsciously and unthinkingly. The word have become us and vice versa. For then indeed the word becomes flesh.

In the Beginning was the Word ...
the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us.

[John 1:1, 1:14]