Rid of my little kingdom

Paul David Tripp's A Quest for More: Living for Something Bigger Than You has arrived.  It's a very easy read, and yet the author is able to convey important things in very simple terms.

Here're a few quotes of what speak to me: 

"God has given you the gift of his Son, not to make your little kingdom successful, but to welcome you to a much better kingdom" (Preface).

"Are You Trying to Build Your Own Kingdom?  ... Let me take you back to the garden one more time.  In that devious conversation with Eve, the Serpent was selling her a 'better' kingdom.  In this kingdom she would be the one on the throne.  This kingdom would be about her will and her way.  What Satan said he was offering Eve was something bigger and better, but what he really offered her was much less and infinitely smaller.  ... The problem is that most of us don't think in kingdom terms.  You know, you just rather thoughtlessly get up in the morning and go to work, or get the kids ready for school, or take the dog for a walk, or read the morning paper.  You and I don't live with a ready sense of our intentions or allegiances.  And this is precisely how we get ourselves into trouble.  Without knowing it, we can reduce the promises of Scripture down to a hope that God's grace will ensure the success of our little kingdoms.  Instead, the promises of the Bible are an invitation to active participation in a bigger and better kingdom, the kingdom of God.  And where do you pursue the interests of the big kingdom?  In exactly the same place where you are tempted to pursue the little kingdom, right where you live and work each day" (pp.50-51).

Am I trying to make my little kingdom successful? I'm afraid so. Is my life shaped by a confusing mix of big kingdom rules and little kingdom rules? Yes, yes, yes. I'm settling for LESS. Scary.  Below I quote from the last chapter to explain what living for the big kingdom may be like:

"Zack believes in the importance of place.  He believes that the sovereign King of the universe has put him exactly where he wants him. And that means he should love the people in it and do everything he can to make it a better place.

Zack believes in ministry as a lifestyle.  Most Christians make the mistake of thinking about ministry in a formal sense. They think of ministry as a program that is scheduled. In this model, you step out of your life into ministry, and then out of ministry back into your life. Zack believes that life is ministry, that every dimension of human life is at once a forum for ministry.

Zack believes in the redemptive power of relationships.  Zack believes the Bible's teaching that redemptive activity always takes place in the context of relationships. This is how God works in our lives. Through Christ, he accepts us into loving relationship with him, and then he goes to work to radically change us. So Zack looks for every opening he can find to build relationships with the people around him.

Zack believes in the importance of hospitality.  Just as God opens the doors of his family to him, Zack believes he makes a very powerful statement when he opens the doors of his private world to the people that God has placed near him.

Zack believes that he is called to live with patience and perseverance.  Ministry is always a process and not an event. Ministry is the willingness to make long-term investments in the lives of others, with the hope that God will do what he alone can do as we are making those investments. As Zack commits himself to a long-term investment in loving others, he reminds himself of the patience with which he has been treated by his heavenly Father."

I pray that the focus of our life's energies and intentions is on Something Big everyday.  Let's NOT settle for less.  God bless you.

My package of gifts

I was listening to the last part of C S Lewis's Mere Christianity, read by Jeffrey Howard. What got to me is: God will judge us in the end, by subtracting the gifts, talents, nice personalities that are actually given by Him to us in the first place.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above" (James 1:17). God not only created me from nothingness, he also formed me (Isaiah 43:1). If I got a nice personality, that's gift from Him. God designs my body shape, decides the initial states of my IQ, EQ and the output power of my left, right brain. He designates the family I was born into, the events and people I encounter at different stages of my life. Here's the truth: I didn't earn any of these things. They're GIFTS.

What does that leave me? Nothing to boast except possibly that I’ve finally come to my senses not to continuously mistake that I am giving God some of the "good me."

Things then start to make sense. No wonder I shouldn't get impatient with people who either received a different package or received less (if there's such a thing) than I did. In the parable of talents (Matthew 25:14-30) the three servants are given 5k, 2k, and 1k respectively. Those talents don't only mean spiritual gifts"; the talents include all the good things I am given.

"From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked" (Luke 12:48). In the past, I was sometimes asked to do more than other people even under the same posts. Maybe that's why.

鼓手 • C.S. Lewis

很久未有這樣 stimulating 的 experience， 這個禮拜竟有兩次之多: 一次是被個女percussionist (*) 在rehearsal的鼓聲撩起, 另外一次是聽 C.S. Lewis 的 Mere Christianity audio book:

Among the Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He says He has always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time...

... Christ says that He is "humble and meek" and we believe Him; not noticing that, if He were merely a man, humility and meekness are the very last characteristics we could attribute to some of His sayings.

I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

* 特意註明是女的，免得被誤會為醉瓮之意不在酒。

Ensor's Doing Things Right in Matters of the Heart

It's about time to jot down my thought after reading this book.

As I shared in my small group last Friday, we all assume different roles as we relate to different people, and it's so important to know and act one's role. For example, in my small group, I'm a group member, and part of the role as a group member would be to support the decision of our group leader (and I mean when it's not too outrageous.) It would be chaotic if I assume the role of a leader when I'm not one! In my fellowship, I'm the "Service" officer. Although not many people outside my fellowship realize what the job responsibility entail, suffice to say if I assume the role of the President or of other posts while being "Service," I'll risk stepping on other people's toes. Of course, these are the general principle and there should be room for exceptional circumstances.

John Ensor states (in my opinion) his Christian, yet somewhat conservative, view of the roles of manhood and womanhood, something that I didn't pay too much attention in the past but find interesting now.

The chapter titles describe his view:

6. He Initiates ... She Responds
7. He Leads ... She Guides
8. He Works ... She Waits
9. He Protects ... She Welcomes Protection
10. He Abstains to Protect ... She, to Test
12. He Displays Integrity ... She, Inner Beauty
13. He Loves by Sacrificing ... She, by Submitting
14. He Seeks His Happiness in Hers ... She Seeks Hers in His
15. He is the Primary Provider for the Family ... She, the Primary Nurturer.

Whether I agree with Ensor's definition of biblical masculinity and femninity, the book makes me realize that the Creator makes distinction between the roles of man & of woman.

Something obvious to you? It takes me a book to get that!

book-shopping spree

My summer break is officially inaugurated as I begin my book-shopping spree. Just exaggerating. I only purchased John Ensor's Doing Things Right in Matters of the Heart online 15 minutes ago, after reading this quote:

"Brothers, it falls to us to be the initial risk takers in matters of the heart. Headship means being the one to go ahead and ask. It is ours as men to suffer the embarrassment of rejection if need be. It is our role to initiate. Get to it right merrily. We are the hunters. They are the quarry. It is for men to strike out into the forest and look. It is for women to crack the twigs and stir the leaves so we know where to find them."

Will share more if it's good.

To Empower

(Leon Kossoff's painting - from http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/)

Empowering is the process of helping another person recognize strengths and potentials within, as well as encouraging and guiding the development of these qualities. It is the affirmation of another's ability to learn and grow and become all that s/he can be. Sometimes the empowerer may need to step back, as s/he must respect the uniqueness of those being empowered and see strength in their individual ways to be competent.

To be continued...

Balswick & Balswick, The Family: A Christian Perspective on the Contemporary Home (Grand Rapids: Baker Book, 1991), 28.

Dare to be intimate?

I am reading The Family - A Christian Perspective on the Contemporary Home by Balswick & Balswick, which I bought last year when studying a related topic. To my delight, the Christian perspective on the home/family can also be applied in relationship building within church/fellowship groups.

From chapter one:

One of the major themes which run throughout the Bible is that God wants to know us and to be known by us. We are encouraged to share our deepest thoughts and feelings through prayer.

Adam and Eve stood completely open and transparent before God. It was only after their disobedience that they tried to hide from God out of a feeling of nakedness and shame. In their perfect creatureliness, Adam and Eve had been naked before each other and had felt no shame. The intimacy which Adam and Eve felt was an ability to be themselves without any pretense. They had no need to play deceptive games. Today, however, shame is born out of the fear of being known intimately; and when shame is present, family members put on masks and begin to play deceptive roles before each other. By contrast, as we examine how Genesis describes the nature of the prefall human family, we find an emphasis on intimacy--on the knowing of the other.

Members of a family that is based on covenant and lives in an atmosphere of grace and empowering will be able to so communicate and express themselves that they intimately know and are known by one another. A concerted effort will be made to listen, understand, and want what is best for the other. Not only will differences be accepted, but valuing and respecting uniqueness will be a way of confirming the other person.

When family members come to each other with this kind of attitude and perspective, they will find a common ground of joy, satisfaction, and mutual benefit. The capacity for these members to communicate feelings freely and openly with each other is contingent upon trust and commitment. Then they are not afraid to share and be intimate with one another."

What will happen if we Christians work towards constructing "this atmosphere of grace and empowering" among us?

How do we respect the uniqueness of another person? How do we empower bro/sis so that they communicate their feelings freely?

And back to my old topic - can we tell others that we're offended or hurt when we are? Can we try to share our feelings openly?

I become vulnerable before you, when I admit that I'm offended or hurt because of what you did. Granted that this is an imperfect world, even family/church/fellowship are not risk-free settings. But if we don't dare to risk in these relatively safe places, where else can we turn to get a taste of heaven?

Dare to be intimate.