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| It's quite long, but there's a joke at the end
Brooke Fraser
'Shadowfeet' from 'Albertine'
Courtesy of Sony BMG Music Entertainment (New Zealand) Ltd.
I know i'm 'illegally broadcasting' but please don't sue me...please..(at least i bought the album!)
Do get it if you get the chance to, it's incredible.
So many people think you've got to have it all going, that you've got to be all disciplined, pure, holy and nice before or right after you come to God, before or right after you decide to become a 'christian'.
What a disillusion. What a lie. What i would say is that the reality is nothing like that. Yeap, the reality.
I think the beautiful thing is that we can go, through God's own sacrifice - Christ, to God at whatever our state. Poor, bitter, angry, hurting, desperate, broken, barely breathing, sad, downcast, hopeless, meaningless, vulnerable, searching, sinful, unworthy, cut, violated, unloved, rejected, screwed-up, messed-up, unbelieving, skeptical.
Because you see God is real. Not some figment, not some feeling, not some theory, not some religion, not some belief. You can fight for all your life, push it aside for all your life, but He'll be calling out to you everywhere you run, where ever you escape to. Till you reach your dead end, and then you'll turn around, you'll see the love in His hands, the love in His eyes, and you'll realise why He's never stopped. Not because He needs you, but because He wants you, because you need Him.
He chases you to rescue you. He loves you because you reflect His glory, because you were personally knitted by Him, to be the only creation made in His image.
This is Christianity at it's core -
'For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.' John 3:16
God loved.
God gave His son.
We believe on the work of Jesus.
We have the gift of eternal life.
Not some arguments full of theology, or questions of how suffering, pain and injustice can still exist (we'll see why one day, but till then we do something about it), not a thousand and one explanations of how the dinosaurs entered the ark, not a million and one things you should or should not do, or whether or not God exists in 3 forms. Yes there are proper times and places for these, but it's not what it's about.
Everybody lives on after death, it's just where.
You don't die like just die and it all stops, and you've always felt that.
After all the questioning, all the fighting and debating, you sit in your room at the end of the day, at the end of it all, and then you ponder...but what happens after i die? You may have stumped everyone with your questions, made your point and won the argument. But there's no escaping the 'sit in your room alone' moments. This isn't an excuse for a God to believe in so you don't have that 'don't talk about it, i hate that question' question anymore. But it's the very reason why you, of all the questions you could think of, bother most about asking this 'dreaded' question that honestly bothers you most in the very first place.
Ok that so sounds like me trying to fight...but oh well.
You don't suddenly become disciplined/perfect after becoming a christian. But you get eternal life, a new perspective to everything, a new-found way to handle temptation and sin. It's a process and journey of change over time as you unravel what was once mysteries of the heart of God, and how your only response is to change and be changed, slowly by slowly, and beautifully, into the likeness of Jesus Christ. It's in that place that you find all the whys to your questions. Not necessarily the answers, but the whys.
The peace of knowing we can be who we were created to be, and just as we really are, in the presence of the one and only God who gave His one and only son to show 'I love you'.
It's incredibly simple, but it's incredibly immense.
Because at the end of it all, God will get the glory He deserves.
We are the church, the bride of Jesus Christ.
Love Jesus with everything, love People with everything.
So these are my thoughts after learning abit today.
Bless God for Andy Stanley.
Alright so here's the joke (don't read luke, sam, john, yelin, karen, chloe)
What has four wheels and flies?
A garbage truck.
(10/10)
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| Mac's back!But it's not all perfect...yet.
Gonna have to wait till next wed for Leopard to be installed back, cuz they didn't do it there, and then i'll start using it proper.
Until then, no pictures (i know the funfair ones are long, long overdue), no fun, and i'll be on windowwwwssss..... :S
I'll try as much as possible to come up with some things good, fun, and, interesting in the meantime.
But don't blame me if it's all lame, problematic, and boring. (cuz i'm on windows).
But there's alot to be thankful for,
So be thankful Caleb Lim.
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