"If your heart takes more pleasure in reading novels or watching television, or going to the movies, or talking to friends, rather than just sitting alone with God and embracing him, sharing his cares and burdens, weeping and rejoicing with him, then how are you going handle forever and ever in his presence? You'd be bored to tears in heaven, if you're not ecstatic about God now!"

Leonard Ravenhill

Maybe you think Song Leng is very preachy. Maybe you should skip over all the 'Christian' things that I have recently begun to say, and fast-forward to the flashy, cool, smart and witty things I normally would include in my ravings?

Maybe.

I feel something stir inside my chest, when I read and hear people talking about God.
I'm worried that they don't know the authentic God and instead are buying into the mainstream popular and liberal idea of a God who's ya-know, vaguely there but is letting the world run itself, and according to frail, varied human opinions of morality.

Take sex for instance. Our (moral) stand on it changes. 50 years ago, it was a taboo and could not be mentioned on television, drama and literature. Sex was disgusting, adult and immoral and most of all-private.

50 years later, sex is the best thing that sells.
Any novel, movie, television programme with no bed scene is passed over as boring, old and stale. We are now living in a society where sexuality and sensuality is pronounced okay and marketed widely.

'Sex and the City', 'Desperate Housewives', 'Cashmere Mafia'...
How about the sex industry,which transcends borders, international boundaries and bandwidths?

The media has undergone a phenomenal change of mind from being highly conservative in 1960 to grossly permissible in a span of 40 years.

Adultery is freely discussed and portrayed on all forms of media as acceptable.

Did you think that homosexuality is a recent farce? It was already noted in the Bible during Abraham's time, when God destroyed the city of Sodom, saving only Lot and his two daughters because of its decadence and immorality.

Greek culture in the archaic period(750 BC - 480 BC) condoned pederasty, which was a relationship and bond between an adolescent boy and a man that contained sexual aspects.

Do we call this social improvement, or backsliding?

A god of our own construct will agree and endorse whatever wild and immoral thing we want to do, whereas a real God will challenge and offend us.
And why can't He? He's God.

I've always been hearing people say that the Bible is not a perfect cultural fit because 2000 years ago was too far and detached, and society's moral standards are erratic.
But if man has not changed in essence in his wants and desires, and sin has not changed, why should Scripture not be relevant in talking and teaching about man?

When I said authentic God above, I meant the God of Scripture-God in Scripture is consistent and unchanging. Does He change His mind or the way He does things?

Malachi 3:6
I the LORD do not change.

God does not give suggestions on how to live your life, like what preachers make it seem like.
God gives commands; orders and decrees. Because He is the LORD, and not a liberal, head of a democratic system that men come up with so that their wants are always considered.

Why cannot God's commands contradict your suppositions and ideas?

Romans 9:20
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?" Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble uses and some for common use?

God helps those who helps themselves!?
So you're saying that there isn't a need for God's help, but you're fine on your own, thanks?
How many of this kinds of cliches are there around?
Christ came down to die for us precisely because we could not save ourselves.

To quote Jeff Noblit-"Why, if you're so darn good and desirable, did it take the death of God's Son to fix you?"

I'm beginning to specialize in making people feel lousy and low-spirited?
Well we all like to believe that there is something good inside of us, some inherent goodness in our nature. There is no such thing. On some level we know that we are rotten and we spend effort trying to package and bury our rot.

I've learned some things these days.

I found myself very hasty in casting judgement and discriminating against everybody.
I was pretty agitated and angry previously. But it's somewhat tempered out, thanks to close friends who tell you things you don't enjoy hearing but pretty much know is true.

I have a problem with people telling me I'm wrong; I have a problem with being wrong.

Yet Christians are works-in-progress and I want to quote a pastor I met who said this and it is so true. Christians will always disappoint you. Rather, put your hope and trust in God.

Isaiah 49:22
This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
"See, I will beckon to the Gentiles,
I will lift up my banner to the peoples;
they will bring your sons in their arms
and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
Kings will be your foster fathers,
and their queens your nursing mothers.
They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground;
they will lick the dust at your feet.
Then you will know that I am the LORD;
those who hope in me will not be disappointed."

To Christian friends and Preachers who are eager to tell the world,
Stop sugarcoating God and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Just present it entirely and God will do the rest.

I'm comforted that despite bad teaching, God has power over salvation.
But this is not a premise for us to teach inaccurately.
Rather, stay true to Scripture because it's accuracy and relevance is timeless.

If the gospel of Jesus Christ relied on human preaching, it would have died even before it took shape; before there would have been the first church.

But, God is in control.

God's way is best and most ideal. Our perspectives are fogged and we don't make decisions with discernment. We should tailor our plans so they are in accordance with God's will. What is God's will? In scripture of course!

*

Lastly, I have a small treatise on love and relationship.
It's very hard to love a person. Often we love their merits and appeal.
We should instead love them for their flaws also, which then adds up to the whole package.
Love the unloveable.

There's a fair amount of crazy in everyone of us, and we will have to be able to accomodate it.

finis

I'm pretty gleeful that I won't be a fashion disaster at prom.
But this verdict would be passed by the fashion police and not something I can award myself.

I've read somewhere, and its common knowledge, that shopping is repugnant to males. Yet Jem, Jay and I were out for 4 days at least roaming places to get outfits and ruining our feet.
The great thing was that us guys had some extent of fun, all credit to our respective virtues.
(Song Leng is electric.)

I cannot fathom why women love to shop.
Do they love their purchasing power or do they like the pain in the legs?

At the MRT, you might hear an announcement that asks you to move to areas that are less crowded. I thought this was common sense, but judging from our excursions to and fro City Hall, Bugis and Habourfront, a lot of Singaporeans are deficient in common sense.

In short, people are selfish and simply assholes on the public transport, in the elevator, on the escalator and in their nakedness.
There isn't any point in moving out of the train to let people get off, because the rest of the world would rush into the train at your expense.

If you still strive to be nice, you will lose out.
If you don't, you are also an asshole.
It's splendid that its so clear-cut.

Since we're on this topic, I would also like to add that my world, and I think naturally, the world is absolute and allows for no middle ground.

It is either yes or no; right or wrong, and any in-between is just a move to stall for more time before one finally chooses a side.

The Sovereignty of God:
Some people like to think that God has already determined how it would be at the very end, but is letting things progress freely for now.

If God has fine control over the very end, wouldn't He also be in control of the next minute, hour, days? Things that happen only happen because God allows it to, and only if it is within His will.

Very few things in the world that occur I care about.
The world loves its performers, promiscuous people and liars.
The world is eager to accept shabby excuses that exclude any sort of godliness and reins in the lawlessness they are swimming in.
The world shuns men who refuse to collude with them. Luckily there aren't any such men.

Beauty:



Were you expecting my pretty face in this section?
I'm sorry to disappoint you.

Parting Shot:

There is no such thing as atheism. It is just gross denial of divinity, which they want to keep underneath the carpet. Self-professed atheists are eager to reject the idea of a God that they would have to submit to, and subscribe to every other alternative in their escape.