If I were God, I'd end all pain

A speaker from Australia, John Dickson conducted a seminar series entitled a Passion For Life. He presented Christianity using an unbiased historical and academic approach, dealing with difficult topics like atheism and suffering. I like the way his puts forth his defense of the faith by using historical and academic evidence, to tear down the attacks of supposed 'scholars' who published their arguments based on seriously flawed premises and laughable school-boy errors. The second seminar on suffering was conducted using a cross-sectional analysis from the points of view of the different religions: Hinduism views pain as part of the balance of reincarnation; Buddhism attributes it to the presence of desire, Islam sees it as the will of Allah, Atheism boils it down to pure coincidence, Christianity explains it as part of the physical disorder and decay of creation due to human evil.

The difference is this: the unique Biblical perspective allows us to bring our suffering to God, unlike the other religions. In categorical terms, the God of the Bible would himself completely fail the test of the Buddha, as passivity in the face of suffering and immunity to the experience of pain are concepts utterly foreign to the portrait of God revealed in the Bible. For God Himself knows pain. The story of the Bible unfolds like a tragedy - The Creator designs the world for independent relationship with him. Human beings take that independence, transform it to autonomy and say no to God. God sends prophet after prophet pleading people to return to Him. Prophets are refused and rejected. Finally God himself enters our world in the person of Jesus Christ only to be resisted, rejected, insulted and ultimately tortured and crucified by the very people He came to save.

The anguish of God in the person of Jesus is captured in Mark 15, consistent with the poet of Psalm 22, an uncanny connection made explicit when Jesus cried "My God, My God why have you forsaken me?" the opening line of Psalm 22. To clarify, these words were not a cry of self doubt questioning His identity as the embodiment of God, or questioning His mission as the Saviour of the world. His words, chosen carefully, are a deliberate and agonizing identification with the suffering of the famous poet of Psalm 22. And therefore with anyone who has ever felt like crying out "my God, why have you forsaken me, there on the cross God in flesh intentionally enters into the pain and misery of the world. This is God at His most wounded, and yet at His most glorious.

God is able to comfort those who suffer, because He knows it firsthand. That God himself knows and understands pain - what the Muslim defines as blasphemy, and for the Buddhist as unenlightened - is for the Christian, precious.

http://abmp3.com/mp3/john-dickson-if-i-were-god-i%27d-end-all-the-pain.html

Go Ape

It's 430am.

Some drunk blokes are making a ridiculous amount of noise in the kitchen and waking up the block. Alcohol.

Last week has been a thoroughly eventful one for me - quite a week of up & downs in fact! I had a bout of food poisoning upon coming back from London last weekend and had to bear the effects of it while going through an individual presentation on Monday. Thankfully I made it through by God's grace. I've submitted my two 1000+ word essays too, so I can breathe a bit easier as Easter draws near. I'm anticipating Silas's visit too!

I had a very enlightening time attending a series of night talks by John Dickson (see subsequent blog entry). I've also attempted to make new friends by breaking out of my circle of Asian friends. While the rest of my mates went to visit the Stonehenge, I went alone for a Go Ape trip at the Forest of Dean on Sat. Its basically a high-wire adventure course that takes you from tree to tree, 15metres above ground. It was a spectacular and thrilling experience - videos & more photos are on Facebook.


Finally on Sunday, I was invited by Andy Page to lead worship at his church, Christ Church, in Weston-super-mare. Its amazing how God works. The 3 songs I selected were entirely in line with the theme of the service and the preacher's sermon, to the extent that the preacher even quoted the last verse of Servant King - one of the songs which I led - as a challenge to the congregation. This is one of those "God is so good" moments that sends chills down your spine. Thank you Lord.

Mother's Day in London

After what I wrote in my blog post couple of weeks back, I decided to give it another go and pay a 2nd visit to Holy Trinity Brompton - this time bringing Bess & Siang Liang along for the 930am service. I begin to understand how HTB has multiple services on Sundays, and how every session is different! The first service is largely for families, with cute little children action songs for worship. It was Siang Liang's first visit to a church this morning, and he thought that the service was great! Do keep praying for my friends.

The UK celebrates Mother's Day today, so Nicky Lee's sermon (yes there was a sermon today!) Based on Matt 6:25-33, his sermon outlines how our mothers, in many ways, demonstrate attributes of God. It was quite a hilarious sermon as the HTB drama team role played scenarios for every attribute. They are really good. I like Nicky's closing statement - Mothers are Supermodels, for they model after God! Put the first letter of each word together :)

Teaches
Helps
Admonishes
Nurses
Kisses
Sacrifices

Makes Meals
Understands
Models

In the afternoon I went for yet another service at 5pm. This one's more targeted towards the youths, with worship led by Time Hughes. This particular service featured an interview with the pastor of the Church of Baghdad (amazing!). Apparently this pastor has to travel around with 30+ bodyguards wherever he goes in Iraq. Hearing stories of how his church got bombed last year, and how his Iraqi congregation is still going strong - despite many of them getting killed for their faith every month - does tug at the heartstrings. After witnessing such a testimony, I pray that the youths will be inspired to keep the church growing in the UK.

And yes, I had a chance to meet up with the Berry Family!

Weekend @ Weston super-Mare

It has been quite a busy week, some of my friends had gone over to 'colourful' Amsterdam to spend the weekend. I opted not to as I had quite a bit of work to do. So I decided to spend the weekend staying back in Bath, rather than travel around like I usually do. So you see it was indeed a timely and pleasant surprise when Andy called me and asked to spend Sunday with his family. He was so kind to pick me up from my hostel and let me stay a night at his place. Meet Andy, Helen, Laura, Tim & Natalie Page. Laura's 11, Tim's 9 and Natalie's 5.

Though it's only about 40mins away, the weather in Weston super-Mare is starkly different. It is such a sunny place, there was no cloud in the sky for the entire Sunday! The hospitality that the Pages showed made the welcome even warmer. Look at the duvet that they provided me for my one night's stay!

Like me, Tim is a massive Liverpool fan. We look forward to going up to catch a Premiership game together! He plays chess & the drums too. Indeed the Pages are a truly musical family. Andy is an established pianist and organist. Helen is a violin & flute teacher. Laura plays the French Horn. Little Natalie plays the violin. She's a really clever girl for a 5 year old!

Andy was playing the organ for his sister congregation, Emmanuel on Sunday morning, so I went along with him while the rest of the family went to their home church. Emmanuel has a largely elderly, Anglican congregation. Andy kindly asked me to minister a song on the guitar during the Holy Communion. With the theme of the service being obedience in God's word - Abide in You finally made its debut in the UK :) Andy doubled off as a soundman and organist, it was quite a sight to see him play a song, run to the back to adjust the volume, then hop over the communion rails to adjust the microphone for the preacher.

Do pray for this congregation that God will raise up the younger generation for this church. I think the youngest member was probably in his forties. Having said that, the members are very very welcoming and sincere. They really make visitors feel at home!

The afternoon was spent at the playground with the kids. Reminds me a lot of the times when I'm at Pasir Ris & East Coast Park with Raelene!