The Righteous - Wisdom from Proverbs

In the post A Taxonomy for Proverbs I try to regroup and classify proverbs verses according to the main topics instead of by chapters. I have done that for 'Fool' and this time I look at "Righteousness" or more precisely, the 'Righteous' people. What do righteous people think, behave and more importantly what happen to them in the end? The answers are all provided in the Proverbs. Proverbs chapters 11 to 13 cover a major portion on righteousness. But there are more in other chapters. Lets find out.

Here is an outline in mind map format:

1. Basic - Being & Doing
Let me begin with a fundamental concept of "Being vs Doing". Being is of the nature and doing is the action. They are not the same. Man is a human being. Bird is a bird-being. Man can sing like a bird. Some birds can speak like a man. But singing like a bird does not make man a bird neither does a speaking bird make the bird a man.  Man is born with a nature of sin and is separated from God. Man having a sin nature does not means man is incapable for good. On the contrary, man is created in the image of God, and hence have much greater capacity to be good than evil. We have a conscience that condemns us when we sin. Nevertheless, the sin nature gives us a propensity to sin whenever there is opportunity especially when no one is watching or the probability for being caught is little. God has provided a way for us to be transformed and rebirth into the new life of God. Here is mind map that summarized this paragraph:

2. God is In-Charge and Keeping Justice
As believers, we must strongly believe that "God is In-Charge and Keeping Justice". We are told not to take revenge into our own hands. We are commanded to love our enemy(Rom 12:19)! How could this be possible unless we believe God is in-charge and will vindicate and uphold justices for us. "It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time ..." (Deuteronomy 32:35).  Prov 29:16 even assures us that we shall see the downfall of the wicked. Here is the summary:

3 The Behavior of the Righteous
The Righteous begins with a 'Fear of God'. The righteous believes in a God of creation, a God of love and order, and a God that watches over us (see last paragraph). The standards of Right and Wrong should be defined by God who created us and not by us the created. The righteous shall seek wisdom and obey God. Here are more things that the righteous do and the corresponding verses:

4. The Outcome of the Righteous
Upset by the apparent successes of the people who practices the short-cut seemingly worldly smartness? Wondering what happen to the God of Justice? Habakkuk was such a prophet. You can read his book. Proverbs here have a longer list of rewards and blessings. Righteousness is supposed to provide a smooth sailing in life. But in the world with the presence of evil, there is a battle of good vs evil. The righteous will at times be persecuted by the evil. But the Lord promises that the righteous will be delivered and protected and live to watch the destruction of the evils. The Righteous are promised a legacies that benefits their future generations. Below is the long list of blessings:

Hope you are encouraged and continue in your work of righteousness. Trust in the Lord and He promise that He is coming quickly with His rewards. May God bless you and deliver you. Amen.

Lim Liat copyrighted April 2011

36 Strategies and the Bible

After a study on Sun Zi Art of War, the natural follow-up is the study of the 36 Strategies. However, I have always considered the 36-Strategies, some say 36-Tactics, as a bag of dirty tricks that any good Christian should not waste their time on. (note: On deeper study, it is not and we can learn much from it).

However, if you are ever in counseling or are trying to correct a bad behavior of a friend, my previous direct approach of telling the truth does not lead to a good result. At best, it encounters a defensive wall and at worse, it changes a friend to an enemy! The direct, frank approach of good intention seldom achieves the desired change and frequently ends badly. The approach used should be dependent on the person receiving the input and the situation. Truth, while right, could hurt and hence it needs to be packaged properly. Paul specifically pointed out in Eph 4:15  'But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things ...'. The truth, in order to be received well, must be packaged in love. The hardness(yang) of truth must be covered on the outside with the softness(yin) of love. Otherwise, it will be too hurting.

Putting the hard(yang) within the soft(yin) is one of the main principle of 36-Strategies. (note: there are other principles as well)

Nathan & David
The Bible provides a good example of a 36-Strategies. King David committed grave sins of having adultery with Bathsheba and the murdering of her loyal husband. Who dares to confront the King and point out his sins? Even so, will the King repent or will he argue that he had the right to do as he pleased? Nathan instead told the King a story of a rich man taking away and killing the lamb of a poor farmer to feed his friend. Nathan asked David what should be done to the rich man? Then he pointed out that David was the rich man. This led David to discover for himself his horrible deeds (2Sa 12:1-7). Can you tell me which of the 36-Strategies that Nathan used? I think it is #26 指桑骂槐 Point at Mulberry but scold the Sophora Tree.

Is Strategies Morally Neutral?
On deeper thought then, strategies are like money, they are morally neutral and powerful. It is the use of it for good or bad, by the person that determine its right or wrong.

e.g. 'Strategy #05 趁火打窃 Looting when there is a fire' teaches us to exploit the opportunity. Even though the pictorial description uses it in a bad sense of looting, we can also see it as an opportunity to do good. The Japan March 11 9.0 Earthquake is a great opportunity to show love and give help to the Japanese. It is up to us to make good or bad use of the opportunity. This is also where a Christian can make a difference. When worldly wisdom teaches us to loot, Christians make a difference by doing the opposite, going there to give and to help.

Then, we get into an interesting moral issue of whether white-lie is a lie? I think the following have Biblical support:

1. Telling a lie, or a partial truth when knowing the truth, to distort and malice a person is wrong. It is a sin.
2. Telling a lie, or a partial truth, to over-project the goodness of a man is also wrong since it is not true.
3. A white lie is a lie no matter what the intention is since it not a truth. Telling a partial truth knowing the truth is different from the intended meaning of the message is a lie and is wrong.
4. Withholding information under obligation agreed to non-disclosure directly or indirectly is ok unless there is a higher order over-riding the non-disclosure commitment. Usually, it is best to get the source to disclose himself. We should be aware that our own story is not necessarily the whole truth but a point of view for others to judge but it is as true as we can see it. In Prov 11:12-13 Keeping secret is a virtue. (12 He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbor: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace.
   13 A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter ).
5. Putting up a bold front when the inside is panicky is not a lie but an exertion of effort, a self-control, to overcome our weakness, to maintain a sound mind, to do a good work. It is asking Christ to enable us to do the thing assigned and to bring us to greater capability. Having a vision and then acting to accomplish it is wise. It is not boasting or lying.
6. Furthermore, to the impure, everything is impure. At times, our doing the right things, especially of love, create suspicious for them and confuse them. 
7. Finally, we have to trust that God is the God of justice that is in charge. The sins of the evil will come to visit them and our righteous act, though at the time, seems foolish to the world, will vindicate us.
8. With the above understanding and established righteous and truth framework, we can apply the 36-strategies to make our hard truth more palatable, and be like David, received the revelation to do well. We can also, with the knowledge of such strategies, be as wise as the serpent to understand the evil tactics, and to take precautions against such.

Have a look at what the 36 Strategies are. I have re-organized them into Twelve Success Principles from the Chinese 36-Strategies and The Patterns of Chinese 36-Strategies.

May God give us wisdom and ability to extend His kingdom on earth.

Lim Liat copyrighted April 2011

Similar Verses in Bible and Chinese Classics 10 on Filial Piety

After I became a Christian, I tried to witness to my dad. I was trying to show him that Christianity is not a western religion. Rather, the Bible teaching is very similar to Chinese teaching. I cited the 4th(4th for the Catholic, 5th for the Protestants) commandment of the famous Ten Commandment, which is Exo 20:12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. In the Chinese Classics teaching of the Ru Jia, Confucius School, this is known as Xiao 孝 translated as Filial Piety.

In my study of the original 'Bible on Filial Piety', see Understanding the Bible of Filial Piety (Xiao Jing) in One Minute, I discovered that Xiao is not just one-way of children honoring their parents but also of parents loving their children. It extends beyond the relationship between parent and children, but to friends and to the kings and its subjects. Filial Piety is best, in the original Chinese Classic teaching, to translated as "Love and Respect". It teaches that the Elder should love the younger and at the same time, the younger should respect the elder. The teaching of Filial Piety has been distorted over time just as the Bible has been. Xiao, according to Confucius, is the basis of all virtue. It begins at home with the Elders loving and the Younger respecting.

This duality matches well with Paul's teaching in Eph 6:1-4:

 ¹Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. ²Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; ³That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
 ⁴And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Much has been said about Children obeying and honoring their parents. But in Confucius teaching, honoring involves taking good care of oneself, be faithful in work, excel and do well in life, leaving a legacy that brings glory to their parents. It also involves not showing angry faces at our parents or any act that may embarrass them. It involves taking good them of them when alive and giving them a good funeral when they die. It does not, as have been frequently misunderstood, that we must obey all the commands of our parents. It involves ensuring that our parents live the righteous life and if need be advises them. We must as children ensure our parent live rightly and well.

There is much less teaching on "Fathers provoke not your children". "Provoke" and "Nurture" come in the same verse and should be related together. To nurture our children well, we must not provoke them with our so called 'nurturing'. Let me quote a paragraph from my post Walk in the New Life Part 3 Roles.

The right way to bring up Children is given in 6:4, not provoke them to wrath (to anger and then rebellion later), but in nurturing and admonition of the Lord. 

There are two points:

• A DO NOT - provoke the children.
• A MUST DO - nurture them in the biblical values.

How do parents provoke their children?

Here are a few examples:

• Breaking promises made.
• Being a hypocrite. Not walking their talk. They say one thing and do another.
• Being a tyrant - must do exactly as I say or else. Not showing love and concern. Not explaining the reasons for demanding such behavior.
• Not showing care, giving respect to the children opinions and wishes. Not really listening to the children.
• Not showing love for one another. Quarrel and fight in front of children.
• ... can you add some more into the list?

[Update 27 June 2012]

There is similar verse in Col 3:21 

(ESV)  Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

The KJV version added anger which is not in the original manuscript. In this case, the provocation results in discouragement. How it is done? A modern Chinese Translation put it better as:

(JMSJ-T)  你們做父親的，不要嘮叨不停地挑剔、責罵兒女，惹他們生氣，免得他們心灰氣餒。

You fathers, do not keep nagging, finding faults and scolding your children, making them upset, so that they may not be discouraged.

So we can add the following to the list of DO NOT:

• nagging
• picking faults to criticize by being a perfectionist
• over demanding 
• comparing one against another

 Lim Liat copyrighted Apr 2011/12

For more, see Chinese Classics & The Bible

Handling Repentance - Finishing Discipling Well

Most of us, parents and bosses, do now and then, discipline our children and staff. But most, if like me, tend not to close-up well. We skip a vital part in the closing phase of discipline and therefore fail to reap the benefits that the discipline was supposed to achieve in the first place - a transformed heart to do the right things in the future and never to repeat the same mistake.  By not ending this well, the discipline may become just a punishment to be avoided (not to be caught) and not a true change of heart which believers call repentance.

How to do this closing well is shown by Samuel in 1Sam 12:19-25. There are four goodie all life time heroes in the Bible. They are Joseph, Samuel, Daniel and Job. Even Moses and Abraham failed God sometimes. David was a din-dong guy that could be very bad and the repented to be very good. He knew the heart of God and I think he sometimes exploited it. The four heroes are all great statesman of their time running great countries and had great influence on the people then. Here is the response from Samuel when the people repented for of their sin of rejecting God and Samuel by asking for a king and to be like their pagan nations (This is the deception of sin. We gave up what we have that is good to exchange for rubbish!).

The Seven Steps for Closing the Discipline - The Must Do follow-up on Repentance

1. Make Sure it is A True Repentance
2. Assurance of Acceptance
3. Point Out The Error
4. Point Out  The Right Way
5. Absolutely Guaranteed Love of God.
1. It is God that chose and love you.
2. You don't earn it. He is faithful to Himself to love you always.
6. My Promise to Support You
7. Summary:  Your Part Now is do this and not that.

Here is a mind-map that gives the details. Hope you find the mind-map form easier to understand.

 

You may want to read this for the earlier steps on disciplining Changing Behavior (3) - Changing Mindset.

To Transform a City According to Tim Keller

I am very touched by Tim Keller's message 

To Transform a City | LeadershipJournal.net

that I will post the link.

We are commissioned to transform cities and take nations. 

After reading it, we should hopefully be embarrassed by our narrow mindset - only my church where we should be Christ and His Church first and every thing else second. We are first a Christian and then a my church. Such 'MY CHURCH first and only" thinking is actually an abomination to Jesus Christ who is the head of the this (divided, infighting?) church.

I think all church leaders and members, especially those in my own country of Singapore, should read and apply.

It could serve a must read when we do our church planning retreat and be preached from the pulpit often that our narrow and petty mindset of my-church-only be broken free and that we may all work together, across denominations, para-church and other special groups to really transform our nations.

Similar Verses in Bible and Chinese Classics 9 on Money & Righteousness

The last verse of the Confucius School "The Book of Great Learning" ended with

此謂國不以利為利，以義為利也。
Hence, nation cannot see money as gains but righteousness as gains (true wealth)
Go after righteousness and not profits

The whole chapter is worth a read, click here.

For a short summary of the book, see Understanding The Great Learning DaXue in One Minute.


The Biblical Teachings:
Does not it read like 1 Timothy 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain?

Does it not tell us to do according to Mat 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you?

See The Golden Rule for Business Mat 6:33
& The Golden Rule for personal & business success

Here the summary mind-map on the last Chapter about how to govern a nation and then the world:

Lao Zi too:

Contentment is richness can also be found in Dao De Jing 33.

知人者智，自知者明。

Knowing the character of others is wisdom; Knowing oneself is enlightenment.

胜人者有力，自胜者强。

Mastering others is power and authority. Self-control is true strength.

知足者富。强行者有志。

Contentment is richness. Striving forward is commitment.

不失其所者久。死而不亡者寿

Not losing oneself will last. x  Died and yet one’s legacy continues is long life.

see The Principles for Greatness: #3 Contented Yet Be Better for more details.

Lim Liat copyrighted 2010-2011

Similar Verses in Bible and Chinese Classics 8 on Commission & Transformation

The Book of "Great Learning" of the Confucius School begins with "大学之道，在明明德，在亲民，在止于至善" can be translated as

The Great Commission:

"the way of the 'Great Learning' is 

1. to make know the glorious virtue of God that man may follow, 
2. on loving people to transform them to be new creation, 
3. and to reach the utmost goodness of abundance and harmony, the heavenly home for all to rest in. 

(note: See (see Understanding The Great Learning DaXue in One Minute for details. My translation added descriptions explained in the other part of the book). 

The intentions and virtues of God are discovered by the Confucius (and Lao Zi too).  The ideal state of heavenly home of abundance and harmony is the dream of man. To reach the ideal state, men need to be transformed into new men of creation. Confucius' approach is by education. It is a journey of man reaching up to God. 


The Bible tells us that Jesus came to show forth the grace, goodness and glory of God as the Heavenly Father. Jesus not only just tell us about the virtuous living but also give us the grace and empower us through the Holy Spirit by a rebirth as a new creation (2Cor 5:17) so that we may attain the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven!


The method and the ideal state are same for the Chinese Classical teachings and the Bible. The only difference is Jesus Christ. Man don't have to struggle to reach God. God send His son Jesus to reach out to us and to bring us up to Him and to be with Him in peace and rest. 

• Joh 6:29  Jesus told them, "This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the One He has sent."  
• 1Jn 4:9  God showed how much He loved us by sending His one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him.  
• 1Jn 5:1  Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves His children, too. 

For believers like us, we are to do, amazingly, the three things that the "Great Learning" tells us, like the Great Commission: (Mark 16:15-20, Mat 28:19-20)

1. Proclaim the goodness of God 
2. Loving people so that they may know Christ and be rebirthed and transformed
3. Play a role in establishing His Kingdom on earth as it is Heaven that bring blessings to all and glory to God.

For more, see Chinese Classics & The Bible




Lim Liat copyrighted 2011

Our Colored Eyes - 1 Tim 6:6 Godliness and Wealth

I wrote this blog to help people to discover the true teachings of the Bible and to help them to study and interpret the Bible correctly as much as I could since I myself could be biased and wrong.

Here is a verse that I think will illustrate our colored view well. We interpret the Bible verses according to our preconceived belief. Let's look at 1 Timothy 6:6.

(KJV, ASV,RV)  But godliness with contentment is great gain. 

There are at least two interpretations for this verse.

1. Godliness with Contentment IS the great gain.
2. Godliness with Contentment is the MEANS to great gain.

Word of faith and prosperity preaching tend to take the 2nd interpretation. I used to think this way too until I heard someone preached the 1st version. Godliness will brings forth great profits. This concept is not wrong. Mat 6:33 teaches that Righteousness will bring forth materials blessings. But in context, this is not what the verse means.

Here are the translations that support 2nd version:
 
(ISV)  Of course, godliness with contentment does bring a great profit.
(GW)  A godly life brings huge profits to people who are content with what they have.
(NASB)  But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.
(ERV)  Devotion to God is, in fact, a way for people to be very rich, but only if it makes them satisfied with what they have. 

Here are the translation that I think got it right: I think the New Living Translation (NLT) put it best:

(NLT)  Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. 

(WNT)  And godliness *is* gain, when associated with contentment;
(YLT)  but it is great gain--the piety with contentment;
(CEV)  And religion does make your life rich, by making you content with what you have.

1Tim 6:6 begins with a BUT, i.e. an opposite view of the one in verse 5 where corrupt man think that "gain is godliness", or in modern term, cash is king.
v7 reminded us that we cannot bring the money into the next world.
v8 tells us to be content with food and dwelling
v9 warns us that seeking money only will forth destruction and pains.
v10 is the famous one "the love of money is the root of all evil"
v11 tell us to flee from the love of money and go after righteousness, godliness, faith,love ....
v12 tells us to fight the good fight of faith (because the world will pressure us into love of money) and lay hold on the eternal life (things of eternal life, outlast this present life, hoarding money itself is not of eternal value).

The whole context warns us about pursuing money per se. It is telling us that the key things of life is not money or wealth, but godliness with contentment. One can be godly but not contented, wishing for more wealth. It is a bit of double mindedness. This is the danger of the 2nd version translation - we are godly only to gain wealth. The final objective is wealth and not God! God is a means to gain wealth. This is no different from the Chinese worshiping the Prosperity God (财神爷) to gain wealth.

The teaching is God, Godliness, should be our top priority and be contented with God provides for us. Jesus assured us in Mat 6:33 that God is a loving Father will not let neglect your needs. Our attitude towards money should be not to hoard it like the rich fool(Luke 12:16-20) but to spend it to extend the Kingdom of God. Some of us are called to be rich and powerful entrepreneurs and business man too. While some are sent to far away places to bring the people there to God. For me, I define wealth as the impact you created by your spending not by your accumulation. We work for a giving to bless others.

Money is temporary wealth on this earth. Money not spent is useless. Money cannot be bring over to the next world. The only way is to covet it by spending on God led projects in the working out of godliness. Godliness is of eternal value. Follow Jesus' advices:

Mat 6:19  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
Mat 6:20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

Take a Different View - Getting Rid of Grudges

A friend posted on FB:

Grudges are heavy burdens to carry in life. Time to give them up or put them down ... : )

It triggers some thought on how to get rid of grudges.

In life, we will encounter many events that we feel we are unjustly treated and even betrayed by people. Sometimes those people are our friends, or people we have helped in the past, people that should repay us with good deeds, but instead sabotaged and did us in! It is especially painful. We are really challenged to practice "love your enemy" when the "enemy is someone who had fed at your table". They, supposedly Christians, resorted to tactics and methods condemned as evil in the Bible while we had to respond with the love, righteous and the above board methods of the biblical values that we believed in.

What can we do to put down our grudges?

1. Get or See Your Blessings:

The way to put down our grudges is to see and receive a greater love and blessings. When we are contented, grateful and joy filled, we can let go of many things. 

2. See a Higher Purpose:

Another way is to see a higher purpose, a greater cause than ourselves. Compared to the greater cause, our grudges look like pettiness and we will be ashamed to hold on to them.
 

3. Focusing on Jesus:

When the bible teaches us to focus on Jesus. It is not about looking at Jesus' face only. But to see the love and the purpose that the face triggered. Recall that 

• He dies for our sins when we were yet His enemies;  
• when we did Him in with our behavior that bring shame to His name. 
• He love them til the end, even the Judas that betrayed Him.  

For our rebellious acts and hurts that we bring to Him, He adopted us to be His children, and to give us an inheritance of God. The inheritance will one day be fully revealed and received on earth. 

We are given the higher purpose of telling this extreme love story to others - to the ones that don't know Jesus yet and to our fellow brothers who has yet to learn to trust on God rather than self, that they all may come to receive and experience the true love of Christ. You may feel that Christ' love to too abstract and too distance in this time of suffering and betrayal, but meditating on it, and speaking to God through His Holy Spirit will help and give you the warm and peace that you need. Don't focus on the grudged and what they should have done, but know that your Heavenly Father know about your situations and will help you through and bring you to greater height.

4. Jesus is still the Lord and will vindicate you one day.

Finally, if we can't see anything, at least bite your teeth and hold on to the very basic truth that God is in charge and Jesus is Lord and He will uphold the justice for you and vindicate you.... just you wait! Read Malachi 3:16-18 and Mal 4:2.

See also Envious of Success through Short-cuts?

Freedom - From "Freedom From" to "Freedom For" & In

Tomorrow is our Friday Bible Study Group meeting and we shall be discussing Bible Study 1Peter Chapter 2 Life of A Believer. 

In going through the note, I found an interesting statement under section Believers' Conduct - We Do & We Do Not para 1.6

live as freed from sin and free to serve God v16

The original verse is 1 Pet 2:16 As free, and not using [your] liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

We have been over stressing the "freedom from sins" part and under-stressing the "Freedom to glorify God" part. We spent too much time seeing freedom from restrictions rather than freedom for worthwhile goals and things.

In the Chinese Classics, the teaching have been very positive oriented. It covers much much more on what the 'saints' or 'sages' should do and very little on what the "little man" or "inferior man" does. There is a constant call to excel in character development, to follow the Way of Heaven, and to live in Harmony with God, Earth and Man. See for example Understanding Chinese in One Minute.

The Bible actually has more to say on what we must do vs what we must not do as new believers in Christ. Just take this chapter 1Peter 2 as an example. There are 25 verses. I can count v1, 8, 11 and may be 25 as mentioning sins. 4 out of 25!

Or if you take my study note, the "we are" and "we do" have 19 points versus the "we do not" of 6 points (5 points comes from breaking up verse 1).

Freedom from sins, from restrictions has no forward movement unless that is a good cause for the freedom FOR. For gives us the motivational push.  FROM is just a release of loads. See Christian Transformation & Growth.

Hence, let us concentrate on telling fellow believers about who they are in Christ and the good behavior that they should exhibit. We have already been 'freed from' sins and hence let us move on to 'freedom for' and in the the fellowship of the Light and Love.

Related post on Freedom:

• Freedom - it is without limits?
• Freedom, Truth, Power - Getting the Order Right.
• Freedom and Its Myth of More Freedom is Better

Key Words of the Bible

Here is a list of the powerful key words of the Bible and their meaning. Meditating on them give you clarity of mind and power to live a victorious life.

• Faith
• Evidence Based Faith - Not Blind Faith
• What is better than "The Just Shall Live by Faith" ?
• The Wise Woman with Faith
• Where is Our Confidence?
• Bringing the Words from the Mind into the Heart 
• Reflections on Chinese New Year - Trust & fret not.
• Salvation
• Salvation Re-visited - Relational View & 
• Reconciliation- A Better Term for Salvation 
• Salvation of Tripartite Man - The Details 
• Love
• Know Your Father's Love
• True Love For Successful Marriage'
• History of Relationship - From 'God and Man' to 'Father and Son'
• Grace
• "Grace is Unmerited Favor" - This Definition is Wrong
• "Be-Do-Have" of Grace Based Doctrine
• Grace - God's Loving Power for You to become Your Very Best
• Grace Based Doctrines
• Generosity vs Fairness Mindset
• Peace
• Peace - Biblical View
• Joy
• Joy - Biblical View
• Joy in the Meantime- How to Really Wait
• Submit
• Submitting - Biblical vs Secular View
• Judging  
• Judge Not yet Correcting
• Others:
• The Meaning of "More than Conquerors"
• Surrender
• Unity & Harmony
• Secular vs Spiritual Jobs
• Our Calling of Life

Reflections on Chinese New Year - Trust & Fret Not

In the Chinese New Year, we clean up the house, clear past debts, have a new start, put on new clothes, visit relatives, say very nice wishes, and put up a good show.
Here are some good things about the New Year:

1. Bring a closure to all outstanding issues.
   In Chinese traditions, all debts are to be cleared. We don't want to start a new year with carried-over debts and burdens. For believers, let us also bring closures to spiritual and emotional issues besides the physical ones. Let go of our bitterness, make sure our forgiveness is complete, and break any strings attached to past bad behaviors by looking and focusing on the next thing - the New Hope. Only when an issue is closed, will it not affect us again.
    
2. New Hope or New Vision.
   Have a positive outlook for the year. Seriously consider the good wishes received. Internalize them. If man wishes to be that consider how your Heavenly Father wanted you to be. The most famous New Year wish among the Chinese is about Prosperity - fa cai 恭喜发财. But prosperity is just abundance in material possessions. Life is much more than material well-being. Another one that I preferred is "Everything according to your wish 万事如意" or simply "May your wishes come true".  Ps 37:4 shows us the secret. "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart". It is important to make sure our wishes are from or agree with God and that will surely bring forth the true blessings. (Prov 10:22) ​​​​​​​​The blessing of the LORD makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.
   
   
3. Physical Reinforcement of Inner Attitude.
   Cleaning the house, wearing new dresses and shoes are all a reflection of the inner newness of life. It could work the other way around as well. Putting on new things causes our spirit to be uplifted. You don't have to choose which is better. Do both. Let the newness of the spirit be shown and let the new things reinforce our inner joy and confidence.
    
4. Relationships.
   A great thing about Chinese New Year is the many visitations that re-connect relationships. In the busyness of daily work, we may neglect friends and relatives. It is a good time to take a break and put in the effort to visit them and renew relationships.
    
5. Respect.
   Visitations are done according to 'rank' or 'elderliness' in the family and/or relatives. It is a reminder for us to respect our elders and to appreciate their care and bringing-up of us. Even Elders who did nothing or were even bad to us in our growing up days, paying them respect is a reflection of our character and not of theirs. We are children of God and hence should behave like our Heavenly Father.
   
   
6. Trust and Fret Not - Psalm 37
   In our visits to one another, we will come across those who are of a higher social and economic status than us. There would be storytelling and perhaps gossip. There could be those who gain riches in some short-cut ways and even at our expense. The world tries to tempt us to take shortcuts, stepping on others if needed, to gain riches and success. Those of us who are God honoring in doing the right things seem to be left out in the cold in this big rush for riches. But God gave us Ps 37 to remind and encourage us.

Reflections on Psalm 37
I felt the need to share Psalm 37. It is a relatively long one of 40 verses. But we could just read the first 10 verses. The other are reinforcements.

Fret Not v1,7

We are to fret not or be envious of the apparent success and riches of the short-cut takers.

Why Not? 

1. Them: Because their sins will discover them and they will lose all and be gone. v2,
2. Us: Our anger or envy will cause us to do things that are evil, either to become like them in taking shortcuts, or just go into self-pity and an angry mode, and thereby stopping us from doing the useful and right things.

How to Handle It?

1. We are just to TRUST and continue to do Good (right).v3,5
2. If there be any bending to do, bend not our integrity but bend our desires so that we may just follow that of the Lord. v4
3. Wait patiently for Him to promote us.  v7. See Joy in the Meantime- How to Really Wait
4. We shall live to see their downfall v10

The Promise & Assurance

1. The Lord will truly fulfill these God pleasing desires of ours. v4,5
2. We shall dwell in the land and be fed v3
3. Our true righteous success will shine out brightly. v6
4. We shall inherit the earth v9

Don't be concerned about the seeming success and riches of others; rejoice with the truly successful, and just be concerned with the plan of God for you. Trust in the Lord, commit to Him, do things according to His commandments, focus with confidence on Him, wait wisely, and see the great outcome of God's true blessings in this coming year.

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.

----
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

Eat, Drink & Enjoy - A Reflection on Sunday's Chinese New Year Message

Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Our Mandarin Service Pastor Jack Ng gave a message on "Eat, Drink and Enjoy". Here is my learning and reflection on his message.

We are free to enjoy the Good things
As Believers of Jesus Christ, we are free to do all things. But not all things are profitable and not all things build others up 1 Corinthians 10:23. Devil is good at distorting a good appetite and tempting us to sin (See Christian Warfare and the Devil's Strategies for more). With this caution, we are free to eat, drink and enjoy to refresh and build oneself and others up.

1. Eating - Eat the Right Thing for Good Health
We must learn to eat the right thing for a healthy and victorious life. We are the outcome of what we eat.

We starts with eating vegetables and fruits at the creation. In Gen 9, God allowed us to eat meat. The first sin is about eating the wrong thing - eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of discernment of good and evil (see Christianity Knowledge Tree of Good and Evil, Knowledge Tree of Good and Evil - Looking from Tree of Life). 
The quarrel in Acts 6:1 was about the unfair distribution of food. Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of read bean soup. Isaac was fooled by mutton soup and Jacob's deception. We must learn to choose and eat the good things.

The Good Food - Source of Health and Healing
Chinese traditional medicine (TCM) teach about Biomimicry - the science of learning from the lives and behavior of animals. Typical of Chinese, we talk about food first. TCM teaches 以形补形；以脏补脏 Using the Form to benefit the Form, the organ to benefit organ. To strengthen the human heart, Chinese recommends eating the hearts of animals such as pigs. To strengthen the kidney, eats pig's kidney. If anyone lack intelligence, please eat pig's brain. The medical subject is actually more refined and deeper. TCM knew long ago (so did the Bible) about the production of blood comes from the bone marrow and hence uses goat's spine cooked in porridge with dates for strengthening blood production system. TCM believes in eating to bring healing and to have health. 唐代医学家孙思邈 《备急千金要方卷第二十六·食治》 安身之本,必须于食,不知食疗者,不足以全生”、“食能排邪而安脏腑，悦情爽志，以资气血”、

Healing by control of food intake have been discovered by western medicines only recently and were effective in the healing of cancers and other sicknesses.

To Be Like Jesus - Eat the Bread of Life -Jesus: God's Words

But what has this eating got to do with the Bible? The principle is we become what we eat. Hence to be like Jesus, we eat Jesus! In John 6:51, Jesus said He is the living bread from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever. The bread that he gives for life is his flesh! This concept is quite natural to Chinese. Eating Jesus means believing in Him and following Him and partaking of His character. It is fellowship with Jesus and abiding in Jesus. it is about receiving Jesus into us - Christ in Us. It comes by eating His Words. Matthew 4:4 teaches us the bread of God is the Word of God. Jer 15:16 tells us that God's words are sweet joy and a delight of the heart - notice, not body but heart, of soul and spirit. We are a tripartite person- body, soul and spirit. All must be fed to be a whole and healthy person. (see The Tripartite Man).


Drink the Water of Life - Be Filled with the Holy Spirit
The Story of the Woman at the Well John 4 tell us spiritual thirst cannot be cured by fleshy water but by the true life of the Spirit of God - the living water.  We are not to be drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit Eph 5:18. The rock, signifying Jesus, was broken (signifying the death on the cross) to give out the living water (signifying the Holy Spirit) to quench the thirsts of men. The cure of sinful lusts and temptations is not to think about the desires but seek after and yield to the Spirit and thereby producing the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self control etc. It is about focusing on, drinking from, the Spirit.

Enjoy the All things with Accountability
Ecc 8:15 commends us to eat, drink and be joyful all the days of our life that God has given us under the sun! There is only one consideration, be accountable to God Ecc 12:13. The good things to enjoy for us are

1. Joy of Relationships - with God and with one another. John 14:3
2. Joy of Serving Mat 25:21
3. Joy of Friendship Rom 15:24
4. Joy of Worship & Praise Ps 63:5

In this Chinese New Year season, eat, drink and be merry wisely and have a true prosperous(in body, soul and spirit and relationships) new year.

Know Your Father's Love - The Key for the Journey

Knowing our identity is a good start in our life journey. Our identity is defined in relationship to God and to others. We are children of God and hence we have God as our Father and others as our brothers and sisters in this big family of God.

It is vitally important that we know and have intimate relationship with our Father through Jesus and Holy Spirit. We need to discover and experience of the love of our Heavenly Father for us.  This is stressed by Paul in Eph 3:16-21. The concept map below gives the details for the importance of knowing the love of God.

In order for us to have the 'Fullness of God', our hearts must experience and know the love of God, its breath, length, height and deep inside depth.

Such knowledge comes first with meditating on God's words. Do a Google search on the "Love of the Heavenly Father" and read some of the articles there. Here is a good one "Father's Love Letter". Please go through the letter meditatively.

Know that our Heavenly Father love us unconditionally - true love. He loves us first. In fact, we are born out of His love. We are not evolved or created by accident. We are wonderfully made. Even science today continue to marvel at the life and working of our human body and mind. God loves us not because of or after we are good. You cannot do any thing to discount the love of God for you. You could not reject Him but He will never reject you. Even though we are unfaithful, he remains faithful always. Live this life, walk this journey, knowing that you are deeply love unconditionally by your Heavenly Father that created you out of His love for you.

Be blessed and rejoice now and forevermore.

Related post: History of Relationship - From God and Man to Father and Sons

Perspective - How You Start is A Key to Success

In Our Calling of Life - Destination or Journey? I say that life is a journey to a glorious destination. The vision of the destination, or the hope in Biblical literature, or the perspective, points the direction and gives one the encouragement. It gives meaning to the journey. The journey itself is a life long learning and adventure of growth associated with joy and sorrows.

The start, the journey and the arrival at the destination are all equally important. Errors come when we over emphasize one part and ignore the others. It is quite typical for churches to emphasize the how of the journey with good guidelines like the Ten Commandments laws and ignore the others resulting in legalism. It is equally bad for some churches to emphasize the start of new man of creation and grace and ignore the need for the journey and ending up producing babies and/or orphans. Focusing on the glorious destination causes one the ignore the present living and influence with just waiting for the great day.

Hence, it is important for us, now and then, to review and reflect on our lives and see the part we may have neglected. When we feel trapped in the journey, may be we should look at who we are again. When we feel depressed in the journey, may be we should look at the glorious ending that awaits us. When we do not know what to do, or think that we have lost our way, we need to get back to God and His word.

Begin the Journey by Knowing Our Identity

The journey is our present time and naturally occupies our attention. There are much teaching written about the how. I have shared much from the Ancient Chinese Classics on this as well see Chinese Classics & The Bible. So in this post, I want to talk about the starting point of the journey, our perspective of life, our identity in Christ.

Who we think we are determines how we behave.

Pro 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he 

You start your New Life - Complete in Christ. There is no lack.
As a believer,

• We are a new creation 2 Cor 5:17.
  We are taught that we are sinners saved by grace.  If you still thinking about the sinner part, then you are trapped in sins. Paul emphasized that we should focus on the saved part - the New Creation. I am a new creation and no longer a sinner. I am the following ....
• We are children of God Rom 8:16, Gal 3:26, 1 Jn 3:1. Since we are God's children, we are like God and have His character within us. 
• We are complete in Christ. Col 2:10  
• We have received all Christ's fullness, and grace for grace. Joh 1:16.
  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Joh 1:17. Christ gave us the grace to exceed the Laws.
• You are God's children. He sent Christ Jesus to save us and to make us wise, acceptable, and holy. 1Co 1:30 [CEV]
• We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God. It was all given to us by God's own power, when we learned that he had invited us to share in his wonderful goodness.  2Pe 1:3 [CEV]

The Journey is about Living Out this New Complete Life (in Christ)
The is the complete, righteous, wise, holy, empowered identity in Christ that we start to live out the journey of life. The Laws are no longer something that condemns us anymore because Christ had redeemed us from the curse of the Laws Gal 3:13 but something that we could easily exceeds because of our new identity. The Laws become guidelines, minimum standards actually, for us to show our light to the world and bring glory to God. See positive aspects of the Laws in Principles & Insights from the Ten Commandments. When we know we can make it and excel in it, we are not afraid of being measured. Measurement also shows out the ability inside us. This is the attitude of the champions. Remove the measurements, we could not tell. So, we our new identity of Christ in us, let are boldly move forward.

How we behave in the journey actually reflect our identity and character.

What happen when we fail?

• Hebrew tells us to approach merciful God receive the grace power. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.  Heb 4:16 ESV

• But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2Co 12:9-10 ESV

In the midst of the business of life, we tend to forget who we are. When that happens, it is easy for us to fall into temptations, depressed, do the short-cuts, do the things that are beneath who we really are. When we know who we are in Christ, we live out the champion within.

Remember who you are in Christ, be righteous & capable centric and live out with Christ within.

• And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Eph 4:24 KJV ... the putting on is about letting the external behavior to be seen like the internal Christ in us.
• Each of you is now a new person. You are becoming more and more like your Creator, and you will understand him better Col 3:10 CEV
  

See also: Bible for Business Seminar#4 Personal Mission & Journey
and Seven Easy Steps to Great Success According to LaoZi (You will find many quoting this "A Journey of a thousand miles begin with the first step - Lao Zi.  This is a better explanation on the complete text).

Lim Liat (C) 2011 updated 5 Dec 2011

Principles & Insights from the Ten Commandments

Most people think that Ten Commandments are the 'thou shall NOT' joy killers, or "Thou are Sinful' condemnation accuser and are best to be forgotten or ignored. Such are the lies of the devils. James called them the Laws of Liberty - James 1:25, and 2:12. They are for us to break free from bondage and to attain great success.
(Deu 26:18-19  18 ... so you may keep all his commandments. 19 Then  he will elevate you above all the nations he has made and you will receive praise, fame, and honor.)

Do you know that the Ten-commandments were given after the people are freed? (Learned from Tim Keller's message).  They are freed first without the Law. There is nothing for them to achieve to obtain freedom. It is purely by the grace of God.

What then are the Ten-commandments for?
Not to kill their joy and restrict them. No no...
But to give them an Identity - A Brand - A Community of God's people.
To differentiate themselves from the others. To be the light that attracts.

In modern business terms, the Ten Commandments are the MVV
The Mission, Vision, and Values of the community.
By following them and living them out, they will stand out as a powerful witness.
The powerful witness is about how good become and how good you can help others to become.
Ten-commandments are then the principles for success in life.

There are two keys to achieving success with Ten-Commandments.

1. Seeing from the Position or Perspective of Accomplishment or Ability - Our New Righteousness.
   
   In OT (Old Testament) times, the Laws was given to show the character of God and how to have a relationship with Him. God is holy and he who wants fellowship with God must be holy too. It is obvious that man fails to reach God's standards. It is men looking up and trying to reach up to God.
   
   In NT (New Testament) times, Jesus has redeemed us and the Holy Spirit has given us a new righteous life. We are to take the perspective of this new righteous character and to live it out with the ten-commandments as guidelines as shown in the second point below.
    
2. Understand the principles, the insights and rephrase in the positive light.

Ten Commandments in Positive Light
The ten commandments come from "I'm the Lord, thy God" Exo 20:1 and

Deu 6:4-5  Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with

1. all thine heart (pure single-minded commitment and passionate), and
2. with all thy soul (with wisdom and knowledge), and 
3. with all thy might (a living and obedient walk and work that are showing forth the glory of God).

The Ten Commandments give greater details on how to love God and others as follow:

1. No other gods - Focus and Give Top Priority to God our Lord. God is the one and only one.
2. No idols - No substitutes. Be not distracted.
3. No wrongful use of God's name - Glorify His Name in our behavior. Don't shame God's name.
4. Keep the Sabbath holy - Communion and Communication with God.
5. Honor your parents and live long on earth - Respecting Others especially our Elders in general (e.g. Bosses, Seniors, Government etc)
6. No murder - No hatred, bitterness against anyone. Instead, have compassion and care for them. Live harmoniously.
7. No adultery - No substitutes, be loyal, be faithful.
8. No stealing - Protect and Take good care of Others' resources. Give and return blessings to them.
9. No false witness - Be truthful, transparent and have no spins, no exaggerations, and no lies. Defending them against the lies that attack them. Tell others about how good they are.
10. No covet neighbor's - Take extra good care of our close-friends' possessions. Bless them by giving to them.

(Commandment 10 is a special subset of 7 and 8, emphasizing on closed friends - no adultery with neighbor's spouse and no stealing of his things)

The Insights on Love
The Ten Commandments teach us the following about loving - God, spouse, people,  company (the business and the stakeholders), church(not just the building, the congregation too), etc.

1. Focus- YES First. Highest priority over all others. Obeying or Seeking the best for them.
2. Focus - NO to others. No substitutes of any kind whatsoever.
3. Glorify His Name. In business, it is about delivering a good experience to establish the Brand Name.
4. Communicate for an intimate relationship.
5. Cascade to His people and things - from God to man, top to bottom, inside to outside.
6. Respect - treat with honor, appreciation, and acceptance. Don't show them black faces. Don't make them look bad.
7. Compassion, Concern and blessing them. Harmony and peace with them.
8. Loyalty and faithfulness.
9. Defending and Protecting & Expanding their reputation.
10. Defending and Protecting & Expanding their possessions.

If you study Eph 4-5, 1 Pet, Gal, Col, etc, the yielding to the Spirit, and abiding in Christ are all related to the above insights from Ten-Commandments.

The secret to success is to have a righteousness oriented mindset and then work out the ten commandments insights.

These are also principles for good management - focus (yes and no), branding, communication, cascading, respect, compassion, loyalty, protection of resources and brands.

See also:

1. Putting the Commandments in Order - From Ten Commandments to New Commandments
2. A Re-look at the Ten Commandments
3. Performance Management According to the Ten Commandments

Our Calling of Life - Destination or Journey?

The most important thing is our life is to find out our purpose and calling of life. It is the reason for our existence. But what is it? How can we find out?

What did God create us for?
We the created being must find our calling from our Creator God. So we must check the Bible. Please see You are a Masterpiece Created in Christ  and Christian Transformation & Growth

• The highest calling for all man is "we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us 1 Jn 3:23"
• To become children of God.  Eph 1:5
• To becoming more and more like Christ (Rom 8:29). In the process of growth, we don't rely on our own ability but depends on the new identity and the Christ within (Col 1:27, 2Co 4:7). We are to live out our salvation (Phi 2:12b).

Is it a Destination or a Journey?
Some believers think of the calling as a destination like becoming a lawyer, a pastor, or doctor. That is a vocational calling that may change with time. Early believers see it a pilgrimage or a journey in modern terms. I think the question is a trick question. Our calling is neither just a destination or a journey. It is both. It is not a journey without a destination. It is not just wandering about in the earth. It is a purposeful journey, to bring us and to develop us, through multiple stations of life, meeting and experience different events, influencing different people, and experiencing and knowing better through the journey to be fully growth up to the mature stature in Christ. The final destination of our glory (God's glory is revealed through us on earth) and crowns of life in heaven.

We Move Towards the Destination - The Hope of Our High Calling
With a destination in mind, this is what Paul tells to do ...

• Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Php 3:13-14

We Run this Race (The Journey) Well

• With Patience:
  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us Heb 12:1
• With Joy always no matter what
  Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1Th 5:16-18
  Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Php 4:4

God assured us of our final glorious destination but He did not tell us the detailed steps. The journey is life of trust and discovering of God's will and the building of relationship with God. While from our view point, we may think we are in the deserts, neglected by God,  living out of the will of God. But in God's viewpoint, there is precisely His will for us to go through this adversity and painful time.

Even when we made mistakes, God is able to save us from our mistakes. Making and learning from mistakes are part of our training. The key is always to go back and stay with God and seeking Him and following His guidance even though it may look silly from man's wisdom. Remember that is not our faithfulness that work but that God is faithful to His words.

The story of Abraham in Gen12-25 is a good example for us. He moved out on God's calling 12:1-4 with a blessing of a great nation and that's all. It was a journey of trust and discovery. Abraham built altars along the way to remind him of God.  He made mistake along the way but God saved him. For harmony, he let Lot chose the better and futile land while he went the other no-so-good land. Eventually, he was able to trust God enough to sacrifice his son Isaac. God works well with our weakness and vulnerability. Don't worry about our vulnerability because that is what love and trust is about.

Enjoy every part and time of your this journey of life once you get hold of God. It will bring you to closer and better relationship with God.

Enjoy this journey of life towards the glorious destination that God has uniquely set for you. Life is both - the journey towards and the glorious destination.

See also

1. Know Your Season of Life and  
2. You are a Masterpiece Created in Christ
3. Christian Transformation & Growth -The Unified Model
4. Where is Our Confidence? 
5. Five Habits for Effective Christian Living
6. Journey of Life
7. The Meaning of Life from the Wisest, Richest and Most Powerful King

Proverbs and LunYu of Confucius

It is interesting and useful to compare the wisdom literature of various cultures.  It no longer surprises me that there are many similarities in Chinese Wisdom Literature as represented by the Chinese Classics and the Bible. See Chinese Classics & The Bible - Table of Contents for a list of postings on it.

Proverb 1 Summary
Here is a mind map of Proverbs 1 ...

The key teachings of Proverbs 1 are:

1. Get Wisdom 1:2-6,20-22
2. Fear God 1:7
3. Listen to Parents 1:8-9
4. Stay Away from Evil 1:10-19
5. Learning is Self-motivating 1:23

The first 5 verses of Lun Yu of Confucius are:
Chapter 1 学而 Learning

1 子曰 Confucius says：

• 1a“学而时习之，不亦说乎？Learning and practicing, is it not a joy?
• 1b 有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎？Having friends from far away, is it not joyful?
• 1c 人不知而不愠，不亦君子乎？ Not feeling angry when others don't know about or acknowledge you, isn't this a gentleman (wise superior man)?

2 有子曰 YouZi says：

• 其为人也孝弟，而好犯上者，鲜矣；不好犯上，而好作乱者，未之有也。
  Those that respect parents and friends, they are seldom disrespectful to their superiors. Those that are not disrespectful to their superior and at the same time create troubles, cannot be found.
• 君子务本，本立而道生。孝弟也者，其为仁之本与！
  Wise men (frequently translated as Superior Men) focus on the development of the basics first. When the basic foundations are strong, moral, virtuous character is born. Respecting our elders and friends is the basis of love and compassion.

3 子曰 Confucius says：“巧言令色，鲜矣仁！” "smooth, flowery and tricky speech, tempting appearances, are seldom associated with true love and compassion.

4 曾子曰：“吾日三省吾身：为人谋而不忠乎？与朋友交而不信乎？传不习乎？”
Zeng Zi says: "I examine my life daily on three things. Am I faithful in my work? Am I trustworthy with my friends? Am I doing what I am teaching?

5 子曰：“道千乘之国：敬事而信，节用而爱人，使民以时。”
Confucius says: "The ways to govern a big country are: be faithful in work and trustworthy. Controlling my spending(be not wasteful) and loving the people, using the people at the right time (i.e., use them when they are free and not to disturb their farming or other productive activities)

The Similarities

1. The Joy of Learning. Both start with the call to learning and acquiring wisdom. Confucius stressed the Joy from learning and enjoying to learn more. This is reflected in Prov 1:23, point 5 above, that learning, once acquired, is self-motivating. Somehow, our society, schools, and churches have proclaimed and made learning a burden. People have acquired the attitude that learning is difficult, stressful, and boring. It is something you do as a last resort. So why do we wonder why people don't read the Bible or don't study? If you want to create a learning environment, an organization, or a family, we have to change the perception about learning. Learning is fun and joyful. Bring the joy and fun back into learning. There are many ways to make learning easy and fun. Even the tough part of problem solving can become an adventure to find the treasures. We must talk about making 'Quiet Time' a joyful time.

Confucius told us a secret of making learning joyful. It is in practicing what we have learned. By putting what we learned into practice, we discover its usefulness and are motivated to learn more. Hence, usefulness is a good motivator for making learning joyful. Students may not know the usefulness of certain topics. It is the teacher who must show and tell. Once we have the motivation to learn, learning is not difficult but fun.

Joy of learning comes from our relationships with friends, even from those who come from afar just to have fellowship with us.

To summarize, learning itself is fun. We can also make it fun by showing its usefulness, applying it, and learning together with friends of the same interests.

2. Respects for the Elders
Proverbs teaches us to 'fear' God and obey our parents. Confucius uses filial piety for our parents and respect towards our friends. It includes much more than being obedient. It includes taking good care of them and not bringing shame on them with our behavior. (Other parts of Proverbs talk about not shaming the family, too.) The basics of love are respect.

3. Stay Away from Evils
Confucius told us to be watchful of tempting speeches and appearances, reflecting the warning of Proverbs 1:10-15 not to participate in evil doing, though such evil acts seem attractive.

Confucius also stressed on love and the foundation of love, as described above, is respect. Within the family, respect should be shown for the elders, besides our parents. Outside of the family, respect should be given to our friends and our colleagues.  We should be faithful in our work, trustworthy to our friends, and to ourselves by making sure we practice what we teach.

4. Keeping of Quiet Time
1:4 Zeng Zi encouraged us to reflect on our lives daily. This is like encouragement for believers to have a quiet time daily.

The Differences

It is quite obvious that in the Confucius saying above, there is no mention of God. Did Confucius believe in a God? To answer this, we need to find out what he is saying in other parts of Lun Yu.  Here is one:

子曰：“天何言哉?四时行焉，百物生焉。天何言哉?”（《论语·阳货》）
Confucius says:" Did the Heaven talk? Four seasons move in cycles. Many things continue to live. Can you hear Heaven's speech? (For more, see https://mind-value.blogspot.com/2023/12/confucius-tien-and-god.html)

Hence, we can see that Confucius is like the typical ancient Chinese who believed in a God of creation, and you can see His work in the creation.

Other verses include:

• Respect the spiritual entities and stay away from them. 〈雍也第六〉：...敬鬼神而远之...
• We can't even serve people properly, why be concerned about serving the ghosts?〈先进第十一〉：...未能事人，焉能事鬼...

(Note: Some Chinese believe that after men die, some become ghosts. Ancestor worship, a form of showing respect,  in a way, becomes worshiping the ghosts of the ancestors.)

Confucius is like a typical Chinese, or maybe Chinese is a typical Confucius disciple, who believes in respecting and being fearful of God, and it is better to hold our distance from them just in case we may anger the God(or gods). They need to know a God who loves them and wants to be involved in the lives of His children. The respect for our elders should naturally be extended to our God, who created us.

I think the lack of mention of God is more likely due to Confucius' thinking that learning is a human thing that is natural to humans and must be done by humans.

Conclusions:

We can integrate both teachings and learn the following:

1. Get wisdom. Learning is joy.
2. Respect God, elders, and friends. Obey God and our parents.
3. Have a joyful time with God and our friends.
4. Stay Away from Tempting Talks and Appearances. Keep evil away - The Best is by the following love.
5. Build up on the foundation of love by respect and trustworthiness. Trustworthiness in work, relationships, and to ourselves by matching our talk with our walk.
6. Reflect Daily & continue to learn joyfully and become wiser with time.

Chinese Classics & The Bible - Table of Content

This is the content page for posts that relate Ancient Chinese Classical Literature to the Bible:

1. Chinese Classics and the Bible
2. i-Ching (YiJing) and the Bible
3. Sinology Philosophy & The Bible in One Sentence
4. Yin Yang and the Bible
5. Linking Ancient Chinese Wisdom & the Bible
6. Similar Verses in the Bible and Chinese Classics 1 Knowing a Person
7. Similar Verses in the Bible and Chinese Classics 2 On Creation
• The Creation & the Creator - Gen 1:1-4 The Bible & Chinese Tell the Same Story
8. Similar Verses in the Bible and Chinese Classics 3 On The Golden Rule of Love
9. Similar Verses in the Bible and Chinese Classics 4 On Giving to Abundance
10. Similar Verses in the Bible and Chinese Classics 5 On Christian Virtues
11. Similar Verses in Bible and Chinese Classics 6 On Wealth from ...
12. Similar Verses in the Bible and Chinese Classics 7 on Mouth and Heart
13. Similar Verses in the Bible and Chinese Classics 8 on the Great Commission 
14. Similar Verses in the Bible and Chinese Classics 9 on Money & Righteousness
15. Similar Verses in the Bible and Chinese Classics 10 on Filial Piety   
16. Similar Verses in the Bible and Chinese Classics 11 Contentment in Whatever Situations
17. Similar Verses in the Bible and Chinese Classics 12 Creation and Love from Lao Zi
18. Similar Verses in the Bible and Chinese Classics 13 Shame & Boldness
19. Similar Verses in the Bible and Chinese Classics 14 Law of Multiplication Returns from Giving
20. Proverbs and LunYu of Confucius
21. How to be King - From Within to Without  
22. Understanding and Answers for the Present Generation
23. Sinology Philosophy & The Bible in One Sentence
24. Right or Wrong - The Moral Standard According to Ancient Chinese
25. Let Your Light Shine & How with the Doctrine of Centrality
26. All Will Be Revealed - So How Shall We Live?
27. True Giving is Without Rewards - The Way of God
28. The Parable of the Sower - An Interpretation from Chinese Viewpoint
29. Confucius' Tien 天 and God

I-Ching and the Bible:

1. Christianity Rediscovered: If Adam knew I-Ching, he would not have sinned
2. How to Pass through Dangers?
3. Humility is Forceful Too
4. Joy in the Meantime- How to Really Wait
5. The joy of Waiting - improving the process in the meantime.
6. Building Successful Family & Organization according to I-Ching
7. Biblical and Chinese Philosophical Teachings on Giving

Sun Zi's Art of War and the Bible:

1. Sun Zi's Art of War and the Bible
2. Christian Warfare and the Devil's Strategies
3. 36 Strategies and the Bible