Numbers numbers numbers

I found something interesting (especially if you like Chemistry) about arranging the books of the bible in a visual way: https://s3.amazonaws.com/Challies_VisualTheology/BooksoftheBible-2560x1600.jpg

Actually there are a series of diagrams about other Christian topics here: http://www.challies.com/resources/visual-theology-the-books-of-the-bible

Something that I learned in Simply Church Sunday School (we are doing a Old Testament survey), and there  are numerical patterns in terms of events or book arrangements, like for example:

Pentateuch - 5 books
Historical - 12 books
Poetry - 5 books
Major Prophets - 5 books
Minor Prophets - 12 books

The numbers 12 and 5 tend to repeat themselves quite often. Perhaps it means something more, but there is always a danger of over-analyzing. But I think this pattern helps me remember better the order of the books =P.

different roles

Here Pastor Mark speaks about  the three "offices" that Jesus has throughout the bible:

• Priest: offer sacrifices to God on behalf of people's sins
• Prophet: communicates to people truths about God
• King: with authority to reign over a group of people

As we are getting sanctified by the Spirit we are given gifts that would allow us to serve God effectively. Each of us are very different, given different gifts (1 Cor. 12), which will make you more suitable to specific leadership roles, and often the leadership roles are "categorized" into one of these offices. For example:

• Priest: serve others by caring for them, encouraging and support them (e.g. Caring Ministry, one-on-one encouragements)
• Prophet: serve others by speaking God's word to them, and rebuking them if necessary (e.g. Bible study leaders)
• King: serve others by being stewards of the resources to run the fellowship, and executing and planning events (e.g. Program/Event Coordinator)

There is one year when I was in committee, and there were three brothers (the more vocal ones), and the discussion of this came out because each of them were very different. One of them was really organized at planning and running events (so he was the king type). Whenever the other brother spoke about God, one was always inspired by his zeal for the Word of God, and it always brought conviction (so he was the prophet type). The other brother was the person who cares for the people of the fellowship and often made effort to talk as much people as possible and meet up on one-on-one with some of them to encourage them (so he was the priest type). I thought that was cool.

I just wanted to share this (not because I think this is like very important to know since it is kind of technical), but cause of two things:

1. We are sinners, so since we are different it is easy to come to disagreements and hurt one another. So it is important to know how to listen and understand where the other person is coming from. And also to forgive and offer grace when one is offended (just as God forgives and offers grace to us).
2. In the Old Testament, there are great servants of God that fulfills one of the offices of Christ, and I want to dedicate a great portion of my next blog posts to speak about it because it is a way that Christ was foreshadowed in the Old Testament, which is really neat because it gives us a better understanding of the overarching themes of the bible.

More reference for the three offices: http://carm.org/prophet-priest-king

Another reference for Christian leadership: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12913395/Christian_leadership.pdf

by Faith

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." - Hebrews 11:1

This coming week is a very busy one for me at work, and I really feel uneasy. I usually can handle stressful situations ok, but somehow this time I feel very vulnerable. The nature of the work I am doing now is fairly new to me, and definitely I feel quite inadequate. I think it is probably not a big deal in the big picture of things, but my weak self is stumbling at it.

I have the intellectual understanding that having faith in God will give us hope and reassurance, but to actually live it out is harder than it sounds. But in this weakness, I know that God's grace will be better demonstrated, so I just have to step it up by faith.

In grad cell, a couple of weeks ago we did a bible study on Hebrews 11, and it starts with a brief definition of faith, and then it includes many small stores of great characters like Abraham, Enoch, Noah, Abel, etc. I learn in Sunday school that Jewish people likes to define things with stories (as opposed to facts), so this is an example of how faith is explained with stories. If you look carefully at each story, you get to learn more about what faith really is.

As always, I randomly mentioned some illustrations on how to explain faith in other disciplines.

Engineering:
Engineers are really lazy so we like to explain things with formula, and just plug in the number and get the results. To be even more lazier, we can re-use an existing formula that starts with "F" (for faith), like the second Newton law:

F = ma (Force equals to mass times acceleration)
Fc = mac (small modification to centripetal force equals to mass times centripetal acceleration)

This can also translates into "Faith in Christ is equal to much assurance in Christ".

Science:
There is a condition called myopia (or nearsightedness) where the individual cannot see well things from afar because the light rays converges too early like in the first picture:

In the second picture a double concave lens is used to correct the rays so that the rays converges at the right point.

When we do not see things, we are uncertain and feel stressed. But faith is like the corrective lens that allows us to see that God is control and we reassured.

 Accounting:
So accountants have to balance long list of assets and liabilities. It is an arduous jobs, and many work overtime.

Most of the times, we don't know how it works or how they do it. But we know they will get it done. So faith is like this kind of trust.

seek opportunities

I came across this article from Tim Keller about "Gifts and Talents" (http://theresurgence.com/2012/11/08/gifts-and-talents). It talks about discovering the spiritual gifts given to you.

Pretty interesting as it speaks about 3 ways to figure out what your spiritual gifts are:

• Affinity: in my limited understanding, "what makes your heart beat faster"
• Ability: what you are good at
• Opportunity: doors opened to you, or a need that you see

Tim Keller points that if you are unsure where to start, "opportunity" is a good place because an individual has to try out a few different ministries before really understanding what makes your heart beat faster or knowing what you're really good at, and also God can use that time to mature and mold you.

A good brother of mine has engraved in my mind this lesson: if you see a need in the fellowship, you probably are in the better position to do something about it. It is very easy to not want to step up because we think we might not like it, or we are not good it, etc. I think it is worthwhile to pray and think about the opportunities presented to us, and ask God how He can use us.

It is important though, not to always say yes to the opportunities presented to us. In the past in CCF, many people have the mentality of serving out of a need, and as a consequence we have many people burning out from serving (including myself). After, the leadership started pushing the fellowship to consider serving only when God has burdened with something to avoid this type of issue. But I think that it is easy to go to the other extreme, to the point that we almost ignore the needs that we see. So need to pray and biblically consider each situation.

The important thing is to always be seeking to please our Lord who loves us so much, and has given His Son Jesus to die for us, and that through this gospel we are made to serve for His Kingdom. Be available to God,  have faith in Him, and He use you powerfully.

SPF

I am part of cell group for graduate students (it includes optometry, masters in accounting, masters in Engineering, PHD), and our program consists of bible study every other week. And in the alternative week, we do SPF which is an acronym for "Sharing Prayer Fellowship". (I stole this acronym from the fellowship I attended when I was working in Ottawa). SPF consists of a time of sharing about our lives (our struggles, victories, defeats, how God is working in us) and prayer for one another. It could include worship, bible memorization, mutual encouraging through the Word. It is a free-flowing "program" where we want  to fellowship as brothers and sisters to share a God-glorifying, Christ-centered, Spirit-filled time. It benefits us because we are refreshed from the decay of every day's struggles, we can experience the love from our brotherhood and sisterhood (through encouragement, accountability, rebuke). It is not about relying on SPF to maintain a steadfast spiritual walk, but it is about pointing us back to our great God. SPF serves to bombard us more of the sweetness of Christ.

So very randomly, I created these illustrations for the weekly email. It was only intended for the grad cell people, but I guess it can provide some good laughs so why not put it here. Please keep in mind this is for illustration purpose only.

Why is SPF so good?

From an Engineering viewpoint:



where x = your normal self
         e = encouraged self
         y = soldier ready to do the will of God
         D = daily life
         s = struggles (sin, stress, suffering)
        SPF = fellowship of brotherhood/sisterhood that will pray/encourage/challenge you to fix your eyes on Christ


From a scientific viewpoint:

There are different types of cones on your eyes, that capture a wavelength for the color: red, green, and blue. So in our struggles, we might only see things from the 'red' perspective, but God can use our brother or sister to remind us of the big picture (in all colors) that God's will is the best for you, that His promises are good, that you are loved by Him.

From an accounting viewpoint:

SPF is one of your powerful assets that will help in your walk with Christ.

Assets			Liabilities
Current Assets			Current liabilities
Pastor's preaching	xxxx		Present struggle	xx
SPF (brothers and sisters!)	xxxx		Stress	x/2
desiringgod.org	xx	xxxxx	Laziness	x
Long-term Investments			Fear, lack of boldness	x
Daily date with God	xxxxxx		Potato chips	x/1000	xx
Bible memorization	xxxxx		Long-term liabilities
Sharing about Christ	xxxxx	xxxxxx	Sinful nature in me	xxx
Property and Equipment			Thorn on the flesh	xx
Bible	xxxxx	xxxxx	Cross to carry	xxx	xxx
Intangible Assets
Christ's example	over9000
Holy Spirit indwelling in you	over9000	over9000
Total Assets		***	Total liabilities		xxx
*** Error: out of bounds, no number can contain the grace and power of God (Ephesians 2:7, Ephesians 1:19)

conforming and comparing

This term there are 2 new housemates who joined, and one of them had a Mickey mouse mug. And it happens that I also own one. So we were joking around that the Mickey mouse mug should be the "sign" that makes us belong to this house. Not too long after, another housemate bought a Mickey mouse mug as well. So 3 out of 5 housemates have it:

So we continue "pressuring" the remaining two guys to get a mug. But they have been resisting. And just recently one of them fell to the peer-pressure, and got a nice mug:

We kind of joke around that the requirements of the mug has to be either blue or red color =P, so it does not count haha. Anyways, we were tolerant with it, so he is part of the gang now. So we are still waiting on the last housemate who is quite firm in his decision of not wanting to conform to our "standards". (I think he is just too lazy to get a new mug...).

There are two major things I want to talk with this silly illustration.

conforming

It is very easy to conform to the behavior of other people, because we are relational beings who wants to be loved and accepted by other relational beings. In conforming, we believe that we will find acceptance and approval from our peers, and this creates a sense of belonging. This can include things like fashion and trends, for example: getting a super nice smartphone. (I am not saying that getting a nice smartphone is bad, I am just giving an example. And me not having a smartphone does not make me a better person). So most people have a smartphone now, some have it because they do need its functionality, others have it because they just want to experiment with it, but there are also others who gets one because everyone else has one. I think it is important to question ourselves why we are purchasing it because we are called to do everything for God's glory (1 Cor. 10:31). There is nothing wrong with getting one, but ask yourself what is the reason behind getting one, is it because I feel cooler if I have one? or so that everyone else will not look down on my old Nokia phone?

Back to my point, human beings long for relationship (not specifically speaking about a romantic one) and I believe this is part of God's design, that we will live in community with others, and not live in isolation in a cave or in a monastery. So the pursuit of wanting to be loved and accepted is a valid one, but we tend to forget that we are already loved and accepted by our Heavenly Father even when we are sinners, and sent Christ to die for us (Romans 5:8). We have already been accepted by the Almighty Creator of the universe, so there is little point in striving to get acceptance from others.

comparing

The other danger is to compare ourselves with others (I posted something about this before: http://koinowarrior.blogspot.ca/2010/05/you-are-you.html). We are surrounded by many peers, and some of them excel in academics, some of them in sports, and some of them in ministry work, and some of them have a pretty good job, etc. When we don't perform as well as others, it is easy to feel inferior and then we strive very hard (like really hard) to become this better person. Aiming to becoming better is good, but the issue here is that we are valuing ourselves based on our achievements and performance, so it is all about me. It is about my own efforts, and this is self-defeating because we are not perfect so we will fail in many regards and we will never be satisfied. Also, there will always be someone who is better than you, that is just the reality of things.

We should value ourselves based on our identity with Christ. He had given his own life to die on the cross for us, so now that we are saved, we are also children of God, with so much love poured on us (1 John 3, Ephesians 1). Man, we are blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessings in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). We are referred as "dearly loved" (Ephesians 5:1, Colossians 3:12). So there is no need to prove yourself that you are loved by your own effort, because the Eternal God (from everlasting to everlasting) loves you already despite that we are sinful creatures. I feel like unable to really describe God's love, so gonna quote part of the hymn "love of God is greater far":


To write the love of God above
  Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
  Though stretched from sky to sky.

So we should strive to pursue excellency and become better not to find our worth on its achievements, but as a response to the great love of God, and be convinced that we can be fully satisfied in Him (when God is most  glorified according to John Piper) even if we cannot achieve anything.


So yeah, our last housemate is still our good brother even if the does not get the Mickey mouse mug. But he is missing out.