Sunday, October 3, 2010

Im glad i went for the Q&A session.

1) Why did God creat Man when He already knew that Man will sin?

God created Man out of LOVE.according to His love. Love itself is a kind of risk.it's like when you give birth to your child, you won't know if your child will be good or bad when he/she grows up.

God won't create a 100% good man as well. He gave Man free will. We can choose to love or not to love God. If we choose to love God, we manifest His love even more, then love becomes more meaningful. If we were forced to love God then it's meaningless as it does not come from the heart.

We had free will to choose between sin and life before we were created. But Man chose sin. Due to sin and our fallen nature, we cannot find God/do not search for Him. So God actively came to find us, He's the one who seek us out and deliver us from the evil one.

Instead of being trapped in the past, we should reflect on the future - How can we live more fervently for God? We can't choose not to be born to this earth, but we can choose to live a more fulfilling life.

Always remember that God is love, it's inherently so. Hence everything He does is out of love(:

2) Our God is a 3-in-1 God. How can we explain this?

First, it's really hard to explain. Even Augustine (great philosopher and theologian) can't really full comprehend it. It can't be understood using rationale because it's not mathematics - how can 1 + 1 + 1 = 1?!

Hence it required faith to understand. Understanding of this issue grows with time with being a christian. By faith, we bring our friends to church such that they may believe. By faith, they will understand better after believing.

You can explain the basics - God the Father prepares salvation, God the Son accomplishes salvation, God the Holy Spirit implements salvation. Each role plays a different part in the covenant of salvation, all of which are focused on completing the will of God because of His love for us.(more on their roles in convenant of salvation: http://einquisitive.com/blog/the-covenant-of-salvation-according-to-god-the-father-god-the-son-and-god-the-holy-spirit/)

So when do we use rationales and when do we use faith?

It's difficult to draw a distinction, but if God wants us to understand something, He'll find some means to allow us to understand or for someone to enlighten us. Because we are limited beings while God is unlimited, we require faith for some aspects. Everyday we live in faith. Small things like whether the taxi driver really has a licence or whether your food is really poison-free requires faith. We wouldn't question unnecessarily.

What's important is that we know that the object of our faith is God the creator and the basis is the bible(:

3)Why does the Just God allow sin to be present?

There's always a start and end to sin. For christians it's salvation. Non-christians - judgement comes. 罪是产生的,不是创造的。Sin occurred, it is not a creation. Humans are created for them to realise their good potential, not to abuse their potential.

God allowed sin to be present because when there's sin (and consequentially suffering), will humans then start to think why is their plight so? why is life so bitter and hopeless? Only then will they seek for ways to escape from all these. This is how religions are formed. All these sin and suffering will manifest God's love even more.

Every descriptor requires a contrast. If there isn't ugliness, who knows what is beauty? No darkness, what is light? Similarly if there isn't sin, who knows what is goodness? Ethics are inherently bestowed upon us by God, which is why we would even think about this question in the 1st place.

By faith we believe that everything that occurred is according to God's GOOD will. We with our limited minds are confined in time and space, but God knows better(:

4) How to share the gospel with those who are living in extremely poor conditions?

The key is to have a 怜悯的心. A heart of empathy. NOT sympathy. Be charitable with wisdom. To teach them how to fish is better than giving them fish. You can't do it forever.

and if it's God's will for you to go, just go and share the gospel! help them with their needs in love and good will. We may not meet their current needs but the greatest help is to give them the comfort of eternal hope and life. The nature of the gospel is inherently good, and it applies to everyone.

5) Challenges that teenagers face and how they can face them

1. moral standards declined.
2. increasing needs.

Main method: GOD'S WORDS, no other way. if not church will start to secularize. Require an all-rounded education.

Should also cut down on the number of ministries. if not the energy will be dispersed, won't be optimal. Necessary ministries - the ones that there's a calling for us. main ones are to evangelise and to teach. There should be a balance between the two. To evangelise and not teach, would result in many believers who don't know what they're truly believing in.

If there isn't a calling, we're mainly doing the ministries because of tradition and other reasons. We may be bound by history, and do things without passion and truly feeling for it.

Satan makes use of human ambitions for fame and pride to tweek the gospel, misleading many. As we walk along the truth, the path gets lonelier but never give up! Proper nurturing is important.

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