Chinese Year of the Rabbit and Biomimicry

Learning Values from the Animals and Start Making Changes for a God Blessed New Year 2011

I mentioned Biomimicry in my last post, Eat, Drink & Enjoy - A Reflection on Sunday's Chinese New Year Message. It was an extreme way of looking at Biomimicry in medicines and health. It was about eating the right animal organs to supplement the corresponding human organ's function. The generally accepted meaning of Biomimicry is learning and adopting the behavior of the living things into the human world for creating innovations that brings value, and especially in the area of creating a sustainable eco-systems.

The Chinese has, a long time ago, practiced this kind of Biomimicry - learning from the animal. It was wisely and widely diffused in the Chinese culture through of use Chinese Zodiac sign. Instead of teaching the less educated to learn to read, it is much easier to use signs, of animals, to tell about the year and time. 12 Animals are used with one for each year. Starting with rat, then ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, roster, dog and pig.  ( I recently got to know that the Vietnamese uses Cat in place of Rabbit). The behavior of the animal is used to characterize the fortune for the year (part of a more complex system of 5 elements, 10 heaven trunks and 12 earth branches and others) and also about the character of the person born in the year. The strengths and weaknesses of animal is an exhortation for the people. I think it is a pretty smart. It is a low-cost yet highly effective way of teaching moral values to the mass of people. Let me add that I don't believe in Zodiac signs, neither character based on Zodiac signs, nor any form of fortune telling. This post is about Biomimicry.

Learning from Rabbits - Watchfulness, Carefulness & Agility
What can we learn from Rabbits? I think it is their watchfulness(alertness), carefulness and agility. They are always scanning the environment (blessed with long large ears, far distance eye-sight, sensitive sense of smell, day and night vision), extremely cautious (a nice way of saying they are timid) , and agile with powerful hind legs for speed. When encountering attackers, they also warn others by stamping on the ground.

There are more in the Animal Signs. They are about balanced values, see my post on Complementary Values from Chinese Zodiac Signs.

Eagle - Vision
Our Bible also uses animals to teach us about behavior. The famous one that is preached frequently is about the Eagle*1. We are to learn from the Eagle about having higher vision, soaring higher, effortless flight through the air by riding on the air currents, rejuvenation of youth by breaking their peaks and pulling out their feathers, and the training of the young by dropping them from great height and enabling them to try to fly by themselves etc.

Other AnimalsThere are other animals covered in Prov 30:25-31 [There are some differences among the translations]

1. The ants [are] a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer;
   Teaching: plans for the future. hardworkingness.
2. The conies [are but] a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks;
   Teaching: audacity in overcoming adversity.
3. The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands;
   Teaching: unity, communication, self-directed management
4. The spider/lizard taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.
   Teaching: survivability, viral diffusion, globalization.
5. A lion [which is] strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any;
   Teaching: courage, strength, stately appearance,
6. A greyhound/strutting rooster; hunting and strength for the hound and Leadership and consistency from the rooster.
7. he-goat also;courageous executions
   (The lion, rooster, he-goat are named together with the King for their stateliness in v29 and I think that they stand for leadership)

Putting Them to Work
What can we learn from the above set of values from the animals? For the vision that you set for this coming new year, which values are most relevant to realizing the vision?

Knowing the relevant key values is just the first step. We must convert the values into policies and practices. We must refer to them when we make our decisions.

Let say we pick the Rabbit's agility, a very important value in today's rapid changing world, then we must put in place a system to scan the environment for changes in trends that are of importance to us. Furthermore, we must re-examine our ability to react to the change our situation. Are we assets light? Are our assets mobile or liquidable and be readily redeployable? Are there things in business, or emotional baggage in our private life, bad habits that tied us down and make us unresponsive?

Have a good reflection and start making changes for having a God blessed new year.

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Note *1 We are encouraged to be like the Eagle and not the Hen. It is typical of common preachers to overstress the strength or usefulness of a particular thing. The truth is that we need to have both and the strength or weakness is dependent on the situation.

Lim Liat Copyrighted 2011

The Most Famous Unknown Lady & Her Most Memorable Service - The True Worship

In Mar 14:9, we find "Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. ".

We are to remember her act of service (of worship) and her. Yet, Mark and the same incidence recorded in Mat 26:6-13, did not give her name. Some people consider a similar story told in John 12:1-8 to the same one. They both happened in Bethany, in roughly the same time, 6 day and 2 day before the passover. Same perfume used but differed in where it was apply, head vs feet. But if we just consider the anointing is to prepare for Jesus' body, then anointing from the head to the feet was a complete picture. If this is the case, then we can perhaps infer that the lady was Mary of Bethany.

There is a similar anointing by yet another unknown lady recorded in Luke 7:36-38 in the house of Pharisee with a name called Simon too! But this one occurred at an earlier time and in a different location, Galilee instead. She received a commendation and acceptance from Jesus. "Thy sins are forgiven; Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace".

I personally think that missing out the name of the lady is a double emphasis on importance of the act. So we must discover what the key lessons for us here.

Most of us will agree that she has done a service to Jesus. It was an act of worship to Jesus out of her depth of heart expressed in real economic terms of 1 year of wages for a useful purpose of preparing Jesus' burial.

Let look at this act from what Jesus said and learn about the true form of worship service.

Mar 14:6-8  And Jesus said,

1. Let her alone; why trouble ye her? 
2. she hath wrought a good work on me; she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.
3. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.
4. She hath done what she could

Firstly, true worship service will invite criticisms and attacks.
The true worshiper has a different value system than the world. True worshiper values God, Jesus our Lord, more than anything else in the world. For worldly minded people do not understand our actions. They don't value Jesus that highly. They think we are wasting resources. Why do you tithe 10% to your church? Why do you spend so much time in serving and giving to others. Keep them for your ourselves to enjoy. Give to the those in needs. The Church are so rich that they are wasteful (Could be true consider the misuse, abuse, and lavish living of the leaders that even got some into jails that are happening worldwide). Giving is our responsibility. Keeping the leaders accountable to the church members, a duty often neglected by members, is an important responsibility and need a separate discussion. Nevertheless, the way we live and give to God and subsequently to others show how we value God and how we truly worship God. We are to worship God in spirit, in truth, with all our might and mind and that also means with all our substance and wealth. The all to God include God providing some for us. In fact, God set a simple standard of 10% for Him and 90% for us! But most, like the unknown lady, give much more than the 10% and we don't even think about it. When God speak to us about a need, we will give even though we have already done above the 10%.


Secondly, worship has a purpose - glorify Jesus.
In this particular case, she was preparing for Jesus' burial. Now we worship to lift up the Name of Jesus; to draw people unto Jesus. How do we do that? By the way we live - our behavior, our giving, our care, our kindness, our speech. We have covered one form of giving in point 1 above. The difference from the world draws the attention. They think we are stupid to give but they also recognize that we are serious about our Jesus. Jesus must be so real to us for us to do such 'silly' things.

Thirdly, Doing Good Things need to be Done at the Right Time, Manner and Place and to the Right People for the Right Cause.
Notice Jesus did not say don't give to the poor. Jesus said it is good to give to them. There are right time for doing those good things. The right thing for the unknown lady to do with her precious perfume kept for wedding, was actually to pour it out on Jesus.

Fourthly, Do what you Could & Have and not what you Couldn't or Have Not.
She done what she can to her best to serve Jesus. God does not want us to over extend ourselves. God is please whenever we use what we have to give and to serve Him. The fact is that God does not need our gifts or serving but rather it is the relationship and the loving heart expressed in our giving. The highest form of giving, as Jesus said, is our lives. We have started giving our lives to God the day we accepted Jesus as our Savior and Lord. We are in the process of learning to give more of ourselves to Him.


So we can summarize worship as

1. Right Cause - Glorify Jesus
2. Right Manner - With our hearts, expressed in acts of our service and giving of things that are valuable.
3. Right Time 
4. Right Place
5. To Right People

Worship is how we behavior in this world towards God and others. Our work is worship too.

Don't be Blackmailed by Prosperity Preachers
Sadly, there are preachers who use this touching story to emotionally and spiritually 'blackmail' people to give much, if not all of their wealth, to the church building and other projects. Some even want them to pledge future earnings & wealth now to the church !

Don't be forced into such giving by the preachers or such people in the church. Leave such churches if you cannot stand the pressure.

Worship is More than Just Singing & Dancing.
Singing and dancing are some forms of worship. They are not the only forms. Singing is something that most people like. Look at the popularity of Karaoke. Just singing with out meditation and reflection on the worship songs could be just the same as singing Karaoke songs.


Worship is About Spending Time with Him too.
The Bible did not relate how the unknown lady was able to do such a sacrificial(to use outsider, not to her) act of worship. If we say the lady is Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha, then we could relate better to her relationship with Jesus and the spending of her time with Jesus as top priority.

Luke 10:42  But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.


Worship is Obedience.
John 14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments. Spending time with Jesus will lead us to understand Him and His will. We can be so charged up so as to be able to act out and to keep the things he tell us to do. By our acting on His commandments, we get to know Him better.

Eph 3:17-19
17  That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18  May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19  And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.


Seek God first. Taste His Goodness and Do the Right Things. Good things must be done at the Right Time in the Right Manner at the Right Place and for the Right Cause.

Salvation is Devotion to Christ

It is good now and then to relook and reflect on the meaning of salvation.

Past postings include

• Reconciliation- A Better Term for Salvation
• Salvation Re-visited - Relational View

Last Sunday, Pastor preached such a topic. My reflection is to look at it as "devotion" to Christ as Mary towards to Jesus (Luke 10:42). Jesus defining purpose of eternal life as knowing God the Father (John 17:3) and a warning by Paul in 2 Cor 11:3 that devil wants to prevent us from such a pure devotion to Christ.

The details are in the mind-map:

Connecting to the Singapore's Dream

In our home group discussion on "Pre-Evangelism" (see Pre-Evangelism or Conversational Evangelism and Pre-Evangelism BT Version, a member said that present Singapore generation are not interested in spiritual matter but are more interested in career advancement and accumulating wealth.

The Singapore's dream, is easily remembered as 5Cs. Even foreigners when describing Singaporeans, use the term too. There are various forms of 5Cs, generally, they refer to Cash, Car, Condominium, Credit-card, Country-Club. In the past, Credit-Card is not easy to get and is considered a status symbol but now it is not so. It is better to be replaced by Career. Country Club, a symbol of success, could possibly be replaced by Clubbing that the young people do. There is also a variant form of 1-2-3-4-5: 1 wife, 2 children, 3 bed-room condominium, 4 wheel-car, and 5 figure salary. Whatever the form, the pursuit can be summarized as material success and enjoyment.

There is another part of the Singaporean dream that is not always highlighted but are nevertheless real and important. That is Singaporeans are also very family centred and law abiding. The family value may be eroding at the expense of material pursuit as evidenced by the rising trend of divorces.

How can we then connect to such material and enjoyment mindset? How will they be interested in Spiritual Matter? (I'm not advocating that Spiritual Pursuit means denouncing material wealth and making poverty a virtue. I believe wealth is part of the blessings that God provides for man. I am advocating that man understands the reality of life and be connected to a very real God through Jesus Christ.)

Connections
I propose that we connect to the material pursuit by sharing the following

1. Be Really Successful - Have Higher Goals
2. Have Better Methods to Success
3. Imaging
4. Stress Reduction

Be Really Successful - Have Higher Goals
While we know from the Bible the true need of man, we can't use it to argue with pre-believers as they don't accept the Bible as relevant. We can use the widely available business and sociology references. We have the famous Maslow's hierarchy of needs that show the real needs of every man, from physiological, safety, social (relational), self-esteem and self-actualization. We need to consider what are of greater values than materials wealth and enjoyment. What are the significance and meaning of life? What are man truly worth?

Have Better Methods to Success
All of us want to be successful in the quickest and surest way. Where can we learn the secrets of success? The Bible provides the tested answers for thousands of years. The Church, whether Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox etc are establishment with life span of thousands of years. No business corporations can boast of similar life-span. The golden rule of success is wealth comes from right pursuit. Mat 6:33. Someone put it as "Economic development follows Spiritual Revival". We have seen from history on the development of Europe and US were closely tied with the reformation. We can introduce the wisdom of the Bible for business success to them. A simple way to start is to read Proverbs or follow the Business by Jesus series in the blog.

Imaging
Another way to stretch the thinking is to imaging if ....

• If you die, what do you want others to say about you? What do you want other to put on your tombstone? Is it only "19xx - 20xx". What is in the '-' of your life on earth?
• If a crisis strike, like a lost of job, disability due to accident, death of a loved one, an earth-quake like the China Sichuan, a terrorist attack like the US 9/11, what would you feel and do?

Stress Reduction
All of our stress can be traced to our belief on a Satan's Lie, known as "The Performance Trap"

• We must perform in order to have worth and value.

You must prove first before you can become. This is the Satan's temptation of Jesus that Jesus should turn the rock into bread to prove that He is the Son of God. See The Temptations of Jesus, "Be-Do-Have" of Grace Based Doctrine.

In Robert McGee's book of "In Search of Significance", he put the lie as

• Self-Esteem = Performance + Others' Opinions

Because of such a belief, we work from fear, fear of failure, shame and guilt. We either stressed out to achieve or be depressed and give-up when things don't work to expectation. We try to control and manipulate, to cover up, to put up a bold front, to hide our weaknesses, etc. We seek approvals from man instead of from God. This is an important topic that we will spend more time on in future posting.

I hope the above proposals can help us connect to the present generation and bring them towards a search of greater reality and of God.

• Pro 20:5 The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.

We need all the wisdom to connect to the real needs inside.

Appreciate your additional comments.

Kingdom Mindset towards Work

In the previous posts, Satisfying & God Glorifying Work, and Joyful vs Painful Work we discussed about the "Worldly Work" vs "God's Kingdom Work", and the mindset towards Kingdom's work can be summarized in the mind-map below:
The next posting will be on Kingdom's Principles for Work.

When I am weak then I am strong

I think this verse have been mis-understood, and misused to glorify weakness or at least to excuse for weakness. Just like grace, which have been misused as a license to sin.

Let's go back to the context where this verse appear, 2 Cor 12:10

• 2Co 12:10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

The context is in the persecutions that Paul suffered. For most people, any persecutions or disappointments in life will cause us to give up and be angry with God. (The Stony Ground of Parable of Sowing). The seeming hardships of Paul's life, e.g. beatings, ship wrecks, imprisonments, etc will cause people to think that Paul must have been going against the Will of God or Paul must be having some sins to had God's punishment. In all these seemingly, outward weaknesses, Paul, through the grace empowerment of God, were not defeated. Pual did not give up, depressed or blame God. On the contrary, through Christ, he overcome all. The persecutions made Paul a better and stronger man. He had, through Christ, learned to face up to the challenges and obstacles and trials in his Christian living. He was able, just like James, to tell to give thanks in all circumstances, for it is the Will of God in Christ Jesus. He can testify that all things work for good to those that love God and those that are called according to His purpose.

This verse is the encouragement that we can accomplish all things, against all odds, in spite of our weaknesses and inabilities, because of Christ's empowerment, to glorify God. It is the victory of seemingly weaklings due to Christ's power inside. It remove the excuse that we cannot because we are weak. We can be confident that God who call us to will also empower us to His accomplish will with Christ that is already given to us. Praise be to God and our Lord Jesus Christ, we are strong and we are more than conqueror. I can accept my weakness and limitations and know that they are not limiting me as long as Christ is calling me to do His will. After the experience, I am sure we have the weaknesses.

Many famous preachers suffered from speech deficiency in all sorts but they nevertheless through Christ become great preachers.

I think the best interpretation for this verse is in the Message Bible. "It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become."

The verse is not an excuse for our lack of doing but should be an encouragement and confidence for us to act. Ps 27 has a passive form of saying this, because of Christ, I have no fear of evil, danger, what man or army may do to me. I am assured of His protection and I shall dwell with Him.

Hear - Obey - Glorify

Following from We can do Nothing apart from Jesus, the most important principle in Christian Living is then

• Hear from God
• Obey with doing
• Accomplishing God's plan and glorify God.

Or is simpler form

• Hear -> Obey -> Glorify or Hear -> Do -> Get

Someone says that the greatest asset that we have is the ability to hear God. Anything that is of value comes first from listening to God's desire and plan. The basic issue of life is then to learn how to listen to God. We need to sharpen our skill in this key area.

We all know how to listen to God when we receive Christ as our Saviour. While our encounter with Jesus may comes from external means like attending a Christian Rally, talking with Christians, reading a book, we know and have the sense of God speaking to us directly. God speaks to us inwardly, the small inner voice, a kind of sense and feeling, a hutch and so forth. The other common way is through reading the Bible and Prayer. God can also speak to us through friends, books, seminars etc. God can also speak to us through dream and vision.

But there are other voices speaking to us as well - our own thoughts and desires, our friends and also the devil. We need to learn how to differentiate them and follow the right voice of God. A reliable way is to check with the Bible - God does not violate His revealed and spoken Word the Bible.

Where is faith? Faith is in believing, receiving Jesus Christ and hearing Him. Faith is in hearing Him and doing His will. Faith is in continued obedience when we face difficulties and knowing that all things will work for good to those that love God.

Let's begin by listening to God and then follow by corresponding action. The action will bring the outcome, i.e. the fruit, that glorify God through you.

Joyful vs Painful Work

In the last posting, Satisfying & God Glorifying Work, we discuss the purpose of work for redeemed people. Whether we are saved or not, we all have to work. Born again Christians works for his God's calling while others work for a living.

There is a big difference between in the way work is carried out. For the pre-Christians, the work is a work of pains, stress, struggle and sorrow. For the Christian, since Christ has redeemed us from the curse Col 1:9, our work will be joyful, stress-free, and productive. The work could be hard, but we are satisfied in doing and completing the work. Paul in 2 Co 12:10 said he is content (i.e. satisfied!) with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities for when he was weak then he was strong!

In the world economy (world kingdom), work is a struggle and is very stressful.

 In God's Kingdom or the God's economy, work is joyful and productive. In world economy, there are pressures for people to perform. They are to do whatever within legal restrictions to produce a desired outcome. But due to man's sin nature, man can legalize morally wrong thing e.g. abortion.What is legal may not be morally right in God's view. Competitive forces can cause people to go beyond the limits of ethics. Men and women can become work-a-holics to meet business targets. How can this struggle and burnt-out be prevented ? By innovation and creativity given by God. By the productivity of the resources used that are blessed by God such as in the land, weather and seeds.


God's Kingdom operates differently from World Economy. We must understand Kingdom's operating principles and apply them to lives here on earth to get the benefits. The 1st principle of Kingdom Operation is Mat 6:33 and later stated again by Paul in Rom 14:17. This is best shown below:

To gain better understanding, we need to reverse Gen 3:17-19. There are other verses like Ps 127:2 and Mark 4:27 that shows us it is God who will provide for us as we obey Him, as follows:

Conclusions:

• Do NOT follow the Worldly System of stressful work - working for a living; working for a promotion; be involved in the office politics.
• Trust God's providence and His Kingdom Principles - work for a giving and blessings to others in God's ways glorifying God. God will reward you.

Satisfying & God Glorifying Work

Work is Ordained by God to be a Blessing
Is there any difference between Christians and to-be-Christians attitudes toward work? There is a common misunderstanding that work is the curse and result of Adam's sin. Work is actually ordained by God before Adam's sin. Below is the mind-map giving additional details:

Purpose of Our Work
The main difference then for Christians: work is fulfilling the calling God has for us. We do not work for a living but for glorifying God with our life. Work is our worship to God. Our work is work of faith and obedience to God. The details are shown in the mind-map below:

How Should We Work
If our work is to glorify God and fulfilled our unique calling, then how shall we work? The Bible gives us very clear teaching including the things that we should do. See the map below:

In summary, we work to glorify God and leave it to God to reward us. It is God's responsibility as Father to provide for us and it is us as children to obey our Father in doing excellent work to glorify Him.

Please see next posting Joyful vs Painful Work