Walk Care-fully.

I suspect atrophy in my literacy, owing to a long cessation from stringing out my thoughts in a clear line, and placing them in text form. I will need to be concise, to serve myself and others better.

This site is a record of how I've travelled through the course of this life, and there are both embarrassing moments that I retain, and shrines where I magnify myself, and project the outward spiritual health that I have not. It will be a forward movement to expel the pomp and the bad habits gathered over a careless walk.

1.  These days the Word is less fresh in my heart and mind, and it feels as if uphill to re-enter the track of a disciplined, measured life. It is known that the Christian life needs to be mindfully and prayerfully walked, for if we coast on, we will slide. There are motivating thoughts: that as with any form of training, treading the path of most resistance will help us grow.

The simple thing to do is to watch and pray and slowly hold on to the things the Lord hath said. But sometimes I feel as if I have not enough fingers or mind to do so.

So the best strategy is to cultivate an environment that provokes me to observe positive habits of prayer and reading, and follow it up with my hands, feet, lips. (James 1:22 - But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.)

2.  Where I mind less the things of the Spirit, the flesh and its trappings come into the foreground. There are legitimate desires of need, and also of substances that do not offend the righteousness of God. But there are also the resurgence of self-absorbed tendencies, where I put myself above God's Word, and the love of others. I also yield easily to laziness, unproductive computer distractions, and to unworthy thoughts, when I care little for my spiritual life. The solution is the same as (1), and needs to be applied all the time.

3.  In the 3rd Year of study, I still feel a frequent sense of inadequacy in my field, and inequity when I meet with my peers and sit through close-group sessions. Of course I am sure most persons either have the same sense, or a blinding sense of superiority. But I suppose I can really do more in my study outside of class, rather than seeking to scrape the epidermis off the subject/modules I do.
I'm also wondering how to regard past successes and failures, and to avert the inflated view of my abilities, whether in command and officership, or physicality at Karate.

4.  It still is a daily challenge, and necessary exercise to love and be gracious to others, because the sinful tendency to turn on others and withhold the kindness and forgiveness God has given to us is very deep seated.

5. Store of Theological thoughts and verses that I reaped today:

Knowledge does not save, neither does it give us spiritual capital over another person. Rather, the possession of knowledge indicts us, when we neglect to do what we know we should/must/can.

Psalm 139

King James Version (KJV)

3 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:

24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

a.  Both the inward and the outward must be acceptable to the Lord; both acceptable thought and desire, and acceptable action.

b. Daily deal with the fleshly lusts, that are a many-headed monster.

c.  It is time to start living like a faithful man.

d.  When we have offended God, we are reconciled to Him on His terms, not ours.

e.  How atonement for sin is made: a clean animal is killed, and its blood is offered (sprinkled on the altar of God), on behalf of the man who sinned. He must confess his sin and make right with the acceptable offering (Leviticus 16, Hebrews 9, 10).

f.  The emphasis is not the gore, but the great price of Redemption that God was willing to make.

g.  If we would not have the Lamb bear our transgressions, who else but ourselves will have to account for the unrighteousness of our lives? The wrath of God abideth (John 3:36).

h.  Daily secure audiences with the Lord.

My body resists the 3 day per week heavy lifting, and I am given to bouts of sneezing, colds and incapacitation from time to time. I suspect that careless bedtimes and poor quality sleep incurs a debt beyond what I can recover. Again, I need to demolish bad habits.

This place must not be a shrine to myself, but a faithful record of how God deigns to work with sinners, and lead them in His good and blessed way.

Another Exercise in Self-Reflexivity

We often have a false and very romantic view of ourselves, that downplays our defects which are actually glaring to others, even when we glaze over them. Social media gives me a space to control the outputs and sustaining a sanitized projection of myself.

I remember the intervals where I do well (by my own reckoning), splice out the parts where I stumble, default and go astray, and compile these intervals to make a linear transcript.

Thank God for lucid moments, which I am to remain in, so I may steer my life after Christ. Where I lead myself, I always go wrong eventually or immediately and plunge into some sin, whether in private spheres of the mind, or in speech and action. So it is wonderfully apt that my Shepherd comes to lead me. But at the same time, I need to willingly follow.

And so I do what I can with what I have, which is God's Word, and use it to frame my life.

CONDUCT, CHARACTER, DOCTRINE

Proverbs 23:7

King James Version (KJV)

⁷ For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

I falsely believe that the man I am is what I seem, but really: who I am is what goes on in my mind and heart. And thus God deals with truly who we are, and not what we make ourselves out to be. In the privacy of our mind, we may be politically incorrect, hateful, racist, vile and downright immoral. We consider it an intrusion when somebody minds what goes on inside our private space, but it is our true character, and it seeps out when we are not so careful with the mastery of our speech and actions.

So I put in these 3 segments how I need to mind myself, and to realign when I err: CONDUCT, CHARACTER, DOCTRINE

-My life is a witness to the work of God in me, and where I fail, I discredit Him, and it would be terribly shameful and sorrowful, though I don't know the feeling yet.
-I need to show forth God's love and kindness and win others to Christ.
-My life must be a pattern of good works so I may glorify God and lead men to Him.

Titus 2

King James Version (KJV)

⁶ Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.

⁷ In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity,

⁸ Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.

-I need to be sober minded, lucid and not influenced by any intoxicating substance or fancy.
-My life must consistently be a pattern of good works.
-Doctrine must be pure, serious, and honest.
-I must strive for sound speech that is love mixed with truth. I cannot be combative, but to discuss reasonably and compassionately with others. I must not be penalized for the spirit and the facts which I give. I must have integrity and sincerity.


It will be the holidays soon where I can choose my reading material, and I would like to be able to explore the following:

1. Bible's robustness, whether philosophically, archaeologically, scientifically, historically examined.
2. Against Moral Relativism that breaks down any objective poles of right and wrong.
3. Our reliability on Rationality (especially if we subscribe to the evolutionary model).
4. The slippery slope of sexual egalitarianism.
5. How to share the kindness and love of God to others quickly and meet spiritual, emotional needs of brethren and non-believers.

As I have said, don't swallow the projection, but use what is edifying, particularly God's Word. I know these things, but I need to perform them continually today, tomorrow and beyond.

Galatians 6: 3
For if a man thinketh himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

Today has been an exercise to cleanse my heart and to excise sinful self-importance, where I demand things to go my way, where I must be pre-eminent, and I get upset when conditions thwart my designs.


When there are things that do not line up for me, I am upset, distraught, and thoroughly dissuaded from doing things right.

I have been thinking of myself as more spiritual than I was, and over these months the contents of my heart - filled to the brim with things like sinful self-glory and self-love - have been more and more exposed.
It seems that in human relationships, there are particular instances where I just want the comforts from a person who is wholly devoted to pleasing ME, and acquiescing to my wants, my schedule, my preferences. 

This is not the love of Christ. He bore those He loves with patient longsuffering, and gave all for their eternal good. But me, I insist on my good(s).

It took an uncommon and unnatural strength to decide to deal with a cloudy head and heart first, rather than the Saturday activities I determined for myself.

1 Timothy 1: 5
Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

(Paul writes to Timothy that the outcome of the Law is love and faith towards the Lord and to all men.)

But my heart has been unyielding, impure, and idolatrous, seeking to maneuver myself into being the worship centre. 

1 John 2:1 ... And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

This verse in the same line while pointing to the hope of our advocate who is seated at the right hand of God who intercedes for us (no need for any other intermediate such as Mary), also states that sin is possible for Christians, and that sin should be more and more of a rarity.

Christ has provided the means for us both to be forgiven, and also, to be able to live the Spirit-filled, Spirit-led life. (Ephesians 1:3)

If I do not live as though I have the Spirit of God, I will be in the flesh, which goads me to sin.

To never stop beholding Christ, else I would His love, kindness, holiness and rush to please myself.

Not to be self-absorbed, but to shed away the love of the self, and to put on the mind of Christ and the peace of God, to live life in the way He's exampled and equipped us to.

Fatal Forgetting, and Gracious Guidance

Walking after a path requires all footsteps to line up continually in the same way, and when I look at my spiritual life, it seems so much that I stumble and stagger all through the routes I had been through.

I idealize the intimacy that I have had with the Lord, the sweet fellowship of being in His Word, being encouraged by His Word and so mindful of His sayings, but when I look back, there is so much pomp and pride and sin. I did well, I walked well, and it was because God had grace on ME.

There was very little fruit of love and gentleness in my intercourse with others, but a whole lot of flaunting my knowledge and my 'good standing in the Lord'. And forgetting that God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.

James 4: 6 (KJV) But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

Where I am not careful, I so easily switch into pleasing the flesh. The flesh is proud of itself, even though it doesn't gain but daily suffers irretrievable loss; we decay a little everyday until our time is up.

And neither can I blame others in my life for "causing me" to do poorly in my personal walk, whether by being inadequate examples of godliness, or by offering outlets for sin.

James 1: 14  (KJV) - "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed."

Sin is a personal decision and though others may goad us, we are the ones who make the footsteps.
And where we quench (starve) the Spirit by continually heading quickly to please our fleshly impulses (to look, to taste, to touch) without the daily accumulation of God's Word, we will empower the flesh, and weaken our strength to do right which is God's will.

These things I know, or rather "knew", because knowing is in the present tense. One fatal mistake is where we forget, and let go of the important things God has taught us. Previous lessons about overcoming sin, and addressing issues of pride, anger and even lust.

When I am silent, especially on declaring the things of God, it may very well be that it is an indication that I haven't been bearing much fruit, because the overflow of God's filling in our hearts and mind is thanksgiving and praise.

We can't be happy in petty things for long, like a meal, a temporary accomplishment, but we may be eternally happy and assured in the Lord. 

Being unable to overcome certain patterns of thinking led me to wonder, did I really crucify the old man with Christ?

I had been led to think:
-I am having no success in overcoming the fleshly impulses. (eating, watching, talking, thinking)
-Confession is no good or inadequate.
-Continually trapped in having to please what I feel like doing rather than what I must do. 
-I can't do God's will.

When we forget that we were spiritually insensible, and needed the Word and Spirit of the Lord for life in Christ, persisting only in the flesh is a downward spiral.

First step is to go back into the Word. There is comfort, and reminders in the Word, and also action sequences.

Psalm 119

9Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

10With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.

11Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Reminders from the Word:

-I am a son, and the Lord has set me free from the bondage of sin.
-The Truth will set us free, and we may be sanctified by God's Truth (Word) (John 17:17)
-Heed God's Word - hear and do
-I have the Spirit of adoption, sonship (Romans 8: 15-16)
-God my Father has put an excellent Spirit within me (Daniel 6:3)
-He has given me all "spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3)
-Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

Without the Word of God, we would walk continually in the flesh, because we would lose sense of flesh and spirit. How do we as 'subjective individuals' tell between the impulse of God, or from our wayward flesh that obstructs us and wars against the soul.

1 Peter 2:11 (KJV) Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

If we are to walk in the Spirit, we would walk like Christ, and after His example. However if we lose sense of what, who and how the Lord is, and stay away from the record of what He is like in the Scriptures, we would forget His zeal for the sanctity of the temple, His rebuke of the Pharisees who proffered a religion they did not live, His speaking of the enemy who seeks to ruin God's work, His speaking of a coming judgement where the righteous will go to life everlasting, and the wicked to eternal punishment.
We would be left with an indulgent, all-loving, unrighteous and unholy Christ who does not care how we live, in sin or not.

The Bible teaches us,
1. Not to wander from God's commandments, not neglect or lack of care.
2. We clean up our way by doing God's sayings. (there is a record of what God has said)
3. We store up what God has left us to remember and circulate in our hearts and minds.

Beloved children of God have the resources to overcome sin. By clinging to His Word, we may be cleansed, nourished, refreshed, dealt with under the conviction of the Spirit about our sinful thoughts, behaviours, attitudes, and increase in personal knowledge about who God is, and how He is like.
Thank God for comfort and reminders in His Word, even where human forgetfulness and the failures of the flesh does hinder us most times.

The joyful thing is that God loves and continually works to perfect us, and we have the spiritual resources to do so.

Philippians 1:6
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a very good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ;

2 Timothy 3: 15-17 (KJV) 
And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works

Now to hold on to these things, and not leak, and also not to be proud that God has brought me to renewed understanding of these. 

For God so loved the World

I think that it isn't good to have shelved John 3:16 aside, whether by not thinking on it often and thus being unable to recall the wording of this great verse, or to omit the implications of its great promise.

I am looking to study the Gospel of John again, in feebly small steps, conscious that I need to also be mindful of the person, life and sayings of Christ as recorded by the credible "eyewitnesses of His majesty" (2 Peter 1:16).

Pretty words make it appear as it my spiritual life is in good order, but the truth is that I beset myself often, by petty sin in private thought, in attitudes and action. But thankfully there is a means to be cleansed, by the provision of the Lord, although when we sin against others, there is reparation and reconciliation to be made.

In looking at John 3, I find it strangely familiar that Nicodemus, while affirming the Lord Jesus as a "teacher come from God" and God was indeed with Him, did not ask crucial questions for his own salvation.


Like Nicodemus, we acknowledge Christ as a great teacher come from God, but often we do not believe the things He said and taught, and we do not care for doing them.


-What must I do to be saved?
-How do I enter into the Kingdom of God?
-What must I do to be pleasing and acceptable by God's Holy standards?

But the Lord answered these anyway, in first teaching that the spiritual life cannot be lived by the flesh, and that "ye must be born again" (John 3: 7).
At this point, the question to ask would be: How can we be born again?
We, in order to behold the Kingdom of God, must be born of the Spirit (John 3:5).

Luke 19:10 - For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
The ministry of Christ is a form of salvaging, to recover that which was precious, but had been prised from Him.

Salvation can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has come from the Father.
Can we not consider His message?

1. He descended from heaven - John 3:13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

2. He knows and hath witnessed heavenly things - John 3:12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

3. John the Baptist (another eyewitness who pointed Israel to Christ) testified in John 3:27 - A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.

Jesus is the one who had come from heaven, knowing things pertaining to the Father and salvation, and made it available through preaching to all Israel.

The pivot/hinge is this: to believe on the Person, Word and Testimony of Jesus Christ, that He is indeed come from God, God's Son, who has taught us a way to be saved and to live an earthly life pleasing to Him, in view of the Blessed Hope of eternal fellowship with Him and His Father.
Because He is trustworthy, and we are convinced of the need now to live a life closely in line with the character of Christ, we obey His commandments on how to live our life in relation to God and to men. This obedience is a consequence of our genuine belief.

We are now labourers for the Lord, because we belong to Him, and we desire like Him, that others come to abundant life in Him also, and not miss His salvation.

John 3:16 -
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

Candidate: whosoever - anyone who would
"Believeth":take Him at His Word, are convinced that He is indeed who He claims to be, and then apply His teachings onto all our lives.

God's heart towards the world is seen in other Scriptures:

Ezekiel 18:32 - For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.

2 Peter 3:9 - The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 

Acts 2: 38 Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost:
"...Repent , and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the promise of the Holy Ghost"

God is not spiteful, but is broken-hearted and longsuffering usward.
God desires and provides for the salvation of all. 

Perish: complete decay and ruin, irreversible

Death is defeated, and we have victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, we do not stay dead, either physically or spiritually, but are raised up in power:

1 Corinthians 15: 42-58
raised in incorruption (v.42)
raised in power (v. 43)
raised a spiritual body (v.44)
bear the image of the heavenly (v. 49)

Death is liberation from the flesh; are we persuaded of better things?

God does not condemn people willingly, but that those persons who have rejected Him and His Son, and the clear way to be saved, He honours the decision that they do not want anything to do with His Son and what He offers. Eternal life is found only in Christ, and the two cannot be divorced from the other. We have life, because we have the love and the light of the Lord.

John 1:3 - All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing that was made.

Our life proceeded from Him.

John 1:4 - In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Why do we not want Christ and His great salvation? Christ Himself tells us:

John 3: 19 - And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
verse 20 - For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds be reproved.

Have we been doing good, or evil, and by whose standards? Our individual or societal perception, or the perfect justice and holiness of the God who made us. The Lord who made all things has the best and highest sense of what is truly good and what is evil.

But we have heard the words of life from the Lord Jesus, and He has told us how to be saved, and told us what is the abundant life, and the love of God for the souls of men. Why do we persist in unbelief?

And when we have believed, why do we not make good our profession of faith?  This, is a daily struggle, of conformity, and of overcoming the flesh and putting off the old man.

It has been start and stop, for me to give out a satisfactory piece of writing which will be preserved for posterity, and for me to see again the vainglory of the mental faculties I presently take pride in. It's been a quick year, and there weren't that many records of what I did and thought on this site.
So in case I forget, I may recall more acutely how I think and feel then(now).

In my walk with the Lord, I've grown in some ways, but regressed in some, and the Lord has seen fit in His chastening to bring my thoughts and my actions/ decisions back under submission.
I need to jettison unworthy thoughts that harm my spiritual life; thoughts that are selfish, malicious, rebellious against godly authorities, and slothful thoughts, and of course indecent thoughts.

I learnt again that winning over a person, and keeping the bonds of peace in a friendship is more important than pressing someone else to win an argument.
However, this is not a principle to skimp on truth and focus only on a tolerant "love" that can broadly permit error and sin. There are outstanding issues that we must all come under the submission of the Bible and deal with, because we love God and we love His Truth.

Paul is right in saying that charity (love) is the "most excellent way".

I should not always be so eager to bruise my fellows to show that I have the access to the best truth. If we be faithful students of the Word who abide in Christ, we may have this access to Him.

A few things I wanted to lay out here, so I may be assured that I have them on record/ archive at later times.

There are multiple enemies of the Word today, and anti-Biblical philosophies that many people and even some Christians have soaked up.

These "new perspectives" on the Word are really moves that undermine the authority of the Word of God. If the Bible is neither infallible, verbally and plenarily inspired, or inerrant, then we do not have to obey the Scriptures or the Words of Christ, which He did say, that our obedience was a response of our love and faith towards Him.

John 14:15 - "If ye love me, keep my commandments."

Where we cast doubt on the scriptures, and relegate it to reader subjectivity, obedience becomes the least of concerns. And the authority is shifted from God's meaning to the reader's perusal and preferential selection.

How we see the Old Testament and the Law

There is a growing Christian group that believes that the law is no longer applicable to us, and that we are fully under grace, and that the law is neither applicable to us.

My question to this teaching is that how come the laws and requirements for Israel are not important, but you may claim to have inherited the material blessings and prosperity for Israel that came from obedience toward God with the very same laws and obedience dismissed here.

1. The Law and the Scriptures are important because they testify of God's righteousness and holiness.

God's purpose for creation, and His election of the Jewish people, and His love, longsuffering towards them, and His consecration and sanctification of those who bears His Name.
His just punishment of sin and the later atonement were made an example in the Law, to do with moral behaviour and ceremonial worship.

God's standards are not flushed away by grace, but rather, because of the Spirit that dwells in every believer, we have means to overcome the flesh and follow Him in obedience. Rather than despising the law, we keep the commandments that God hath given to us.

As students of the Word, we are able then to distinguish which laws are meant for the Old covenant, and for Israel, and also which principles and commandments are for our consideration and obedience!

2. The Law and the Scriptures point towards God's Messiah.

Moses, Isaiah, Zechariah, Daniel and so many other prophets and writers wrote of Christ, they foretold of His virgin birth (Isaiah 7:14), His place of birth (Micah 5:2), His tribal identity, His Kingship (Isaiah 9:6-7), His ministry (Isaiah 61:1), His triumphant entry into Jerusalem (Zechariah 9:9), His manner of death (Psalm 22, Isaiah 53) and His glorious resurrection (Psalm 16:10).

3. The Law and the Scriptures are the New Testament church's basis for teaching.

Jesus and His apostles used the Scriptures and Law as reference for teaching, and the New Testament had not been written yet.

When Christ had risen, He met with the disciples and explained to them about Himself with reference to the Scriptures.

Moses wrote about Jesus -

John 5

King James Version (KJV)

⁴⁵ Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.

⁴⁶ For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me.

⁴⁷ But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

Luke 24

King James Version (KJV)

²⁵ Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:

²⁶ Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?

²⁷ And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

Peter, in his Pentecostal sermon, preached from Joel, the Psalms of David (Acts 2).
Paul in his epistles cited the Genesis account as historical, that Christ was indeed the Messiah, and the atonement for sin once and for all.


There are many factions that seek to devalue the reliability and authority of the Word, to declassify sins and to have it endorse their lifestyle and teaching.
A careful study of the Scriptures is absolutely important! Is this or that what the Bible teaches?


The Christian is never made more godly or spiritual by the accumulation of knowledge of the Word, but rather by his response to it. Does he skim over the text, or does he take it as the Word of the Lord, and thus for his serious consideration and faithful obedience?

Immutability

I cannot put my love for you in simple tones,

No words may do justice to the permanence of

My heart, mind and full person’s

Tendency towards thee.

I have locked eyes on you and thrown away the key;

You are my best and most complete fit,

I think of you when the moon is lit.

And when light replaces dark,

Your fair face I hope to quickly see!

I love to take in your scent, your sound and your smile;

I’ll adore you for a very long while.

My words are not in vain,

Not like our country’s faulty trains.

Quite the contrary really—this poem is thy guarantee,

That Song’s stout heart dances for, and mostly on account of thee.

I long for the day you and I will be,

The bestest picture of man and woman:

The one our Lord had in mind.