Living for Jesus

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Living for Jesus is just like this blog, Only By Grace, an online journal of my personal journey and walk with the Lord. The only difference is that this one has just started and Living for Jesus is a record of my walk in the Lord in 2013 while I was in South Korea. 

Somehow, it is good to reminisce your past. You will gain insights that you have never seen before. It is good to write down your thoughts on what is happening around you at present. They will serve as insightful reference for you in the future. I am surprised for instance that I wrote something about fasting in 2013. Even the list that I came up with to fast from, I find it really surprising. There I included in the list things like lust, social media, computer, her, my kids, study, reading, research, and even blogging just like what I am doing now.  

As I review other articles in that blog, my mind is drawn to the past. I remember that Resurrection Sunday on 31 March 2013 where I wrote down that I was on my 177th day in South Korea and there were 153 remaining days for me to see my children again. I could not imagine that I was such a nerd even counting everyday of my stay in South Korea. My colleagues asked me why I was doing that. They asked me if I was bored. I told them that I was not. It was just my way of challenging myself particularly my patience.  

Then I remember also my experience in attending public worship in Yaksu Presbyterian Church. To stay awake for four years of attending a public worship that I do not understand due to language barrier would require a lot of discipline. What I did was to bring reading materials with me and I would start reading them once I feel sleepy listening to our Senior Pastor preaching in Korean language.

And then sometime on 06 April 2013, I stumbled with Ron Paul Curriculum. I wrote down there that I considered such curriculum a blessing to mankind. Gary North describes the four basic components of Ron Paul Curriculum: 

  • Biblical Principles of self-Government and Personal responsibility
  • Detailed study of the history of liberty and its rivals
  • Austrian School of Economics, and
  • Academically rigorous curriculum tied to primary source

And then the following day, 7 April, I could not believe reading the news about the death of Rick Warren's son. Though he is a great man of God, I was surprised knowing that he has been struggling with his son's illness for so long. Even though I do not know the Warren family personally, I feel affected by their misery. And then I wrote down my reflection on Pastor Warren's unfortunate experience: 

Their "misfortune" reminds me of reality of pain in this life. Life is really short and unstable. If there is one lesson I cannot forget from this sad event, I think it is the fact that no level of greatness in the ministry can make a person exempted from the ugly realities of life. This truth reminds me of the need for empathy and not to be judgmental of others. Somehow, it comforts me in my misery knowing that all of us are vulnerable to the pains of life. Such vulnerability leads us to appreciate more the beauty and richness of God's grace and to aspire for a better life with God where there is no pain and misery.

Finally, my article on the certainty of uncertainty. I was reading then Greg Bahnsen's critique of Bertrand Russell's intellectual position. While reading it, these questions came to my mind:

  • If nothing is certain, how can you be certain that God does not really exist? 
  • If nothing is certain, why are you arguing that Christianity is false and human autonomy is true? 
  • If nothing is certain, is there meaning in arguing against the belief of another? 
  • If nothing is certain, how can you say that Jesus is inferior to both Socrates and Buddha? 
  • If nothing is certain, how come you are so sure that Christianity is the primary obstacle to the moral progress of humanity? 
  • If nothing is certain, how can you say that progress is even possible? 
  • Does Russell have any objective moral standard to make his personal judgment of Christianity? 
The answer to the last question is obvious. If none, but his own, then anyone on the basis of his intellectual system has the right to dismiss his moral judgment as anything but certain.

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People of Wisdom (Proverbs 1)

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"Wisdom cries  aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks" (Proverbs 1:20-21).  Reading verses like the above tells us that the kind of faith taught in the Bible is not something private. This is contrary to what most people think today saying that when you talk about the things of God or matters of religion, you should keep it personally either in your home or in your local church, or you just talk about it during Sunday.  The introductory chapter of the book of Proverbs tells us that wisdom calls in public space. This teaches us that the whole of society cannot escape the call of God. To ignore such call will certainly reap disastrous consequences.  How about if the people of God Himself who supposed to live such wisdom are the ones undermining it? We do this either by disconnecting our faith from our public lives or by consenting to the ruling social norms thinking t
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The Special Duties of Husbands to their Wives

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Fulfill your duties to your wife in order to avoid the following unhappy results: Failure of your wife to fulfill her duties towards you Such will cause you much affliction She will be bitter towards you in the end Summary of your Duties as Christian Husbands: You are responsible to undertake the government of your family including your wife. This ability consists: In holiness and spiritual wisdom. An ungodly, irreligious man is both a stranger and an enemy to the most important part of family-government. In due acquaintance with the works of your calling. He that is utterly unacquainted with the members of his family, will be very unfit to govern them. He must be acquainted both with the common temper and infirmities of mankind, that he may know how much is to be borne with, and also with the particular temper, and faults, and virtues of those whom he is to govern. And he must have prudence to give them direction in accomplishing their tasks; and justice to deal with every one as they
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Ownership

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The first chapter is all about ownership. By discussing this topic, the author starts with the doctrine of creation. For him, this doctrine separates his approach from all other approaches by other economists. By insisting on the importance of the doctrine of creation to economics, he argues that the universe, man, economic laws, and economic growth are not autonomous. The doctrine of creation establishes the idea of original ownership , which belongs to God alone as explicitly stated in Psalm 24:1–2 and many other biblical passages. And since it is God who created the world, He is therefore the original and absolute Owner of everything. The idea therefore of ownership is basically theocentric. This tells us that the economic concept of ownership is ultimately a theological idea. The concept of ownership cannot be properly understood apart from God as the ultimate Owner of all things. Providence is another corollary doctrine that cannot be separated from the doctrine of creation. Thi
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