Faith is not the focus -- Christ is

Christ must always be the focus. Unfortunately, the predominant focus even among Christians is faith, which is evident through sayings such as "My faith is important to me". On the surface, it seems like a good thing to say, considering how much the Bible talks about faith... The problem described is not new -- after all, Jesus' disciples had the same wrong mentality as narrated in Luke 17:

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" And the Lord said, "If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. -- Luke 17:5-6

The disciples came to Jesus asking for more faith because they realized that their problem was insufficient faith.  But, Jesus' reply is surprising but not in the way I've always thought.  I used to think that his reply was primarily that of affirmation to let the disciples know that they needed just a little bit more faith (and it's certainly true).  However, I'd always missed the main point: faith must be to me like a grain of mustard seed, that is, barely noticeable.  Why?  Because as soon as faith becomes my focus, the object of faith becomes faith itself, not God who moves mountains.  That type of faith drives men mad.

Instead, my eyes (i.e. my faith) must be fixed on Jesus:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. -- Hebrews 12:1-2 (emphasis mine)

It is better to lose the body than the soul...

Inspired by 1 Corinthians 11:30-32: ‎

Father, if I were to deny Your grace and make a shipwreck of my faith, may Your loving hands break my body for my soul's sake.

Farewell to Gateway Baptist Church

As I say “farewell” to you, I expect to be reunited with you at a later time – whether it be here on earth or in the glory of our Savior. As my “good bye”, I would like to remind you of a simple truth that is at the core of our faith. My intent is that you would be encouraged and that your faith in the completed work of Christ increase.

There are many passages in the Scriptures – both in the Old and the New Testaments – that testify to God’s faithfulness. For example:

Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments...

-- Deuteronomy 7:9

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

-- 1 John 1:9

As you read the Old Testament, you see that God’s faithfulness was met with unfaithfulness on the part of His people. As a result, instead of blessings, God bestowed the promised troubles upon His people. While God’s faithfulness is without question, since with Him there is no variation or shifting shadows, the faithfulness of God’s people has always been found lacking.

While the Old Covenant was made between God and men, the New Covenant is made between the Father and His Son, who represents mankind. God does not make a covenant with you or me – simply because we are not able to keep our part of it. Instead, the Father makes a covenant with His Son and the blessings of the covenant are then bestowed upon Him. We become one with the Son when we are united with Him in His death. He is raised from the dead and we are raised with Him. He is seated in the heavens with the Father and we are seated with Him. His very life now fills us. The Son’s faithfulness is now our assurance of the Father’s faithfulness to us because we are one with Christ.

As you grow in your faith, God’s many blessings will also be accompanied by many trials so that you will not become so enamored with the gifts that you miss out on the joy of knowing the Giver. All our needs are created by Him for the very reason that He might satisfy them and, in the process, bring joy to us and glory to Himself as we thank and praise Him. Now when we pray and ask anything of God according to His will, He answers us – not on the basis of our, but His Son’s, keeping of the covenant. When you read that God is faithful to do “such and such” and you have a need, you should thank Him – because Jesus has fulfilled the covenant and you can freely ask anything in His name. The next time you feel unworthy to ask something of God, recognize that you are unworthy but ask on the basis of Christ’s worth. We do not deserve a single good thing from God, but He made a way for us to ask and receive His blessings by approaching Him through His Son.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

-- John 14:12-14

Ultimately, Jesus Himself is our treasure and our all in all. Even when I am stripped of everything in this world, as long as I have Him, I am the richest and most blessed man in the world.

Therefore, above all, treasure the Son of God in your hearts. May God’s grace and His peace be with you until we are united in complete fellowship with our glorious Savior.

Jesus is not a moral teacher...

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."-- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

Today I went to see "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" movie. I thought it was well done -- at least considering the purpose for which it was made: to promote scientific inquiry. The movie is obviously very controversial and there has been a great outcry from the supporters of neo-Darwinism. Just googling "expelled the movie" shows several sites/blogs that have been set up to discredit the movie. One of the sites is ExpelledExposed.com, set up by the National Center for Science Education (which clearly states that its purpose is to defend the teaching of evolution in schools, etc.). So, it is good that the movie is creating a stir...

Something that I've been thinking about are the all-to-common responses from the neo-Darwinists. I'll note a few of them here with my comments...

Evolutionists claim...
ID (Intelligent Design) proponents have not put forth any credible evidence (i.e. peer-reviewed articles supported by research) and thus argue that there is no evidence for ID. They dismiss the notion of the Evolutionary Establishment (i.e. a dogmatic system that promotes evolution) by stating that new scientific ideas that challenge the mainstream scientific beliefs still make their way through after the ideas have been scrutinized by the scientific community...

However...
The fact is: ID challenges the very premise (i.e. there is no God, deity, intelligent designer, etc.) on which the entire particles-to-man evolution theory rests. The challenge is much more extreme than the claim half a millenium ago that the Earth is round and not flat. Because of this, it is practically impossible to get peer-reviewed because any premise other than the evolutionary one is rejected. Therefore, it's a catch 22: they argue that there are no peer-reviewed articles by ID proponents while articles that support ID are not peer-reviewed on the grounds that the premise contradicts the established evolutionary beliefs.

Evolutionists claim...
The theory of evolution is a scientific fact that has been proven.

However...
There is not a single evidence that supports that

1. natural selection has ever caused increase in the genetical information (as the term "selection" implies, it only selects from what's already available)
2. mutation has ever created new genetical information (not just recombination of already available information)

All in all, the evolutionary theory is a theory of origins and thus is not demonstrable. It is one thing to demonstrate gravity at work, it is completely different to hypothesize about what happened in the past.

Added a picture...

I just added a picture of me and my wife to make this blog a little more personal :-).

Every True Christian Is a Former Atheist...

This may sound surprising but every Christian is a former atheist... without exception (defining atheist as "one who denies the existence of deity"). You might say that there are those who are agnostics (i.e. those who do not accept or deny the existence of God). However, if we consider that "believing" means "following" (as in following with actions) as well, there are only two types of people: theists and atheists. What we commonly refer to as faith is just a set of religious or otherwise notions -- true faith is determined by what we do and the motives behind our actions. Every Christian had been a rebel before he/she was drawn by the saving grace of God. I suppose some would disagree that absolutely every Christian is a former rebel. You and I probably know someone who seems to always have been a good person. Do not be deceived: all have broken the greatest commandment to love God with all one's heart, with all one's mind, and with all one's strength. There is not a person in this world (apart from Jesus Christ, of course) who is not guilty of loving something or someone else more than loving God.

So if you are an atheist, do not suppose you can say that Christians just do not understand where you are coming from. However, I, by no means, imply that everyone who calls him/herself a Christian is indeed one: the tree is known by its fruit -- if he/she is nothing like Jesus Christ, there is nothing CHRISTian about him/her. However, there is hope for that person too -- to repent and believe. Such "nominal" Christian is actually worse off than an atheist: he/she will shove "the gospel" down your throat and will condemn you -- all in order to appear righteous. Ultimately, this is the worst form of rebellion as is confirmed by Jesus' reproof of the Pharisees.

If you are an atheist, true Christians are your best friends. They are humble and non-judgemental because they've been where you are and, though it might be hard to believe, the only reason they believe God is because He initiated the transformation -- they did not get to this point on their own apart from Jesus Christ.