BS!

Those two letters tend to be associated with a word that does not tend to be used in polite company. But when you hear someone like Josh Robinson or Andrew Mackenzie use it, it actually stands for something else. Alas, it is not bull shit, but it is biblical speculation.

But I present the following idea: there is no difference between the two.

Before going further, I would like to define biblical speculation for those of you that do not know what that means. Have you ever been in a situation where you were trying to think of a particular reference, or something that Jesus said, or some verse that backs up a particular spiritual concept that you are explaining, but you can not remember for the life of you where that refernce is. So you say something like "I think it says in Ephesians that...." Or "You know, those fruits of the Spirit in one of Paul's letters." Few are innocent of this particular crime.

And yes, I call it a crime. BS is a crime because it weakens our witness as Christians; after all, this is the book by which we are supposed to be living our life. But fundamentally, BS, one might argue, was a part of the first act of disobedience in the creation of this world. The following idea was inspired by a sermon that my pastor, Chang Cho, gave yesterday.

In Genesis 3, Satan first presents the question, "Did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden." Eve responds, "We may eat from any tree in the garden, but God did say we must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. (Emphasis added). This is the first recorded instance of biblical speculation, and Adam and Eve got smoked by it as Satan plied on their lack of full understanding of God's commands. They gave into the temptation to be as wise as God, and here we are today.

Contrast that to when Jesus was in the desert for forty days and forty nights, as recounted in Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13, and being tempted by Satan. What did Jesus do? He responded to all the temptations of the devil by quoting exact passages of Scripture. No wishy washy, "I think the Bible says this, or maybe God said that..." but a clear Scripture verse to respond to the temptation that Satan was dangling in his face.

I therefore recant of the position that I was starting to hold that quoting Scripture is not enough to fight temptation. I revise that, however, to say that one needs to know the right Scripture to be relevant in the battle. One hardly goes to war with a dull sword (or to modernize the example, takes a gun to battle without ammunition). In the same way, I have come to the conviction that Bible memorization is a key part of that mind transformation mentioned in Romans 12:2.

Matthew Hughes and myself are currently in a race to see who can memorize Romans first. If anyone would like to join us, you are more than glad to. I know that Lydia Low is already well on the way. It's a great book, if you want to give it a shot, but if you feel less confident of that, try just memorizing favourite verses instead. Once you've got the hang of that, memorizing whole chapters is just one step away.

It's an ambitious goal, but I want to try and memorize the whole New Testament by the end of my life. If the priests, and teachers of the law could memorize all of the Mosaic law, surely I can memorize the good news of God.

On temptation

The other day, I was sitting in my room, when a sudden urge overcame me. Before the urge could get too powerful, I just began to quote 1 Timothy 4:16: "Watch your life and your doctrine closely. Perservere in them, because if you do you will save both yourself and your hearers." After that I just started going over a bunch of Scripture in my mind (i've recently memorized chapter 4 of 1 Timothy) and eventually the temptation dulled and disappeared. That was one battle won, Praise the Lord.

But then the very next day (i.e. yesterday), the same sudden urge attacked me. I tried to do the same thing, but even as I was trying to fight the temptation, the moment came and went. I'm not going to lie to myself and say before I knew it happened or something silly like that.

Obviously fighting temptation is more than just quoting Scriptures at times... there's other tactis (another great one being fleeing). But the realization that the only true way to fight temptation is to do what it says in Romans 12:2 - to be transformed by the renewing of your mind - is becoming more and more firm in my mind. The only REAL way to fight any temptation or addiction, whether it be something detrimental to your health like excessive drinking, smoking, or overeating, or whether it be something detrimental to your spiritual life like sexual sin, is to completely give yourself up to the LORD and submit to the power of the Holy Spirit to transform your attitudes and your minds.

And yet, another thought about that popped into my head as I was considering that... theoretically, doesn't that all transform when we become Christians? Why is it that it is a constant process (i.e. being Spirit-filled) instead of a one-time shot like salvation? Obviously we're human, obviously we struggle ("I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.") As I try to do the good I want to do, sin is right there beside me. The sin within me is manifesting itself. And yet Paul doesn't leave it at that, he continues on in chapter 8 to say that those who are controlled by the Spirit do what that Spirit desires and are dead in sin, but alive in righteousness. Paul also says elsewhere that we are crucified in Christ, and dead to sin. But if I'm dead to sin, why is it that it keeps coming back to haunt and taunt me? Did sin not get the memo?

You know, it's oftentimes internal struggles like this that cause me to wonder whether it's really worth it. Obviously it is... but in the short term it's so... *flamboozlingly*... hard. You know, the questions come. Is it better to sin and not have this gigantic internal struggle about whether we are really saved or not and why it's so annoyingly difficult to remain pure and righteous, or is it better to be repentent? Clearly, that's a no brainer considering the eternal perspective. But when one loses sight of that eternal perspective... that is Jesus... those of us that have stepped out of the boat start to see the storm around us and sink.

Praise the LORD that Jesus does not let us sink but comes over, grabs us, pulls us up, gently chastises us, and then gives us strength to go again.

Praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade - kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last times... now for a little while you may suffer griefs in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith... may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1 Peter 1:3-7

On a HILARIOUS note

Josh Robinson got into York's newspaper, The Excalibur, in the "fashion runway" section. Picture's above.

Man, they really should have done something with Red eye reduction.

You know what's a good book?

Spiritual leadership, that's what.

Written by J. Oswald Sanders (aka transcribed from a bunch of sermons he did for OMF) he talks about the charecteristics, habits, and developped traits of a good spiritual leader.

personally, I've only gotten through about 8 chapters of the book, but it's also because I keep stop reading because it's so convicting, chapter by chapter. The chapter that I just read was about the "essential characters of Leadership", and one of the things that he says in the chapter is that God gave everyone different talents to be used in different situations and circumstances... what makes great men like Hudson Taylor and Martin Luther stand out is their willingness to be devoted and disciplined in developping and comitting themselves to their gifts in seeing God's work done.

Now, I'm really lazy. I have no discipline. It's small wonder that I get anything done at all. The only reason that I did what I did so well in high school was because I was a keener with an enormous amount of external pressure forcing discipline upon me. But upon entering university, as those external pressures evaporated, so did my sense of discipline. I KNOW that i need to be disciplined... I know that I need to do my work... but for some reason there is no inner sense of discipline and drive to make me do what I need to do (so that I can enjoy what I want to do.) To borrow a Stephen Covey analogy, I put in the pebbles before the rocks, and so can't fit in the important things in my life.

Truth to tell, I don't know what to do. I don't really want to go back to relying on external pressures, although I'm sure that would help immensely. But at the same time, internal pressure seems to be weak or non-existant.

Well... I find that the best way to do something is to just get started and let the momentum of the work continue along the way. So that's what I'm going to go do right now. If y'all could pray for me that God would be that internal discipline that drives me to do the things that I have to do (and there is SO many things that I have to do at this point. Man....)

Bye bye life...

To begin on a completely random note: I finally realized why it feels so good to swear at times. Apparently, making the f and sh sounds releases tension. Now I need to just stop swearing, and substitute with funnier sounding words... like flamboozle. Or shazam. Heeheehee...

But to actually relate to the title of this post, I finally sat down and planned out what it's going to take to properly review everything in my classes. Because I'm so behind on my readings for all my classes (i've even given up trying to be current with my class.. I'm just worried about playing catch up now) I sat down and made a timetable of daily readings and note takings that I need to do. I officially have no life but school... No longer can I go out with people or do any of those things that people do on a relational level until December 15th (the date of my last exam). This thought depresses me slightly, but at the same time, it's my own dumb fault for putting off my work for so long.

To add on to that the fact that it takes me absolutely stinking forever to read some of these things that I have to read, it's not going to be a fun month. If you fail to see me much anymore... well I suppose I've just told you why. I'll, as another friend put it, see you on the other side.