Okay, finally, there's feedback that the past entries are boring…. (Okay, okay, I should say: the feedback is I'm boring)... But why should I care? I'll blog what I want... ;)

Anyway, I went to watch a musical (?) with Kiat this evening. Serling invited us a few days back, but it was only when we received the synopsis distributed by the ushers, we started to wonder what role she was playing. We couldn't help it, 'cos when we saw the description/title of her role that says "Working Adult", we were kinda crossing our fingers she wasn't just a moving prop...

Phew! Turned out it wasn't that case, 'cos her role was quite a heavy one. And during the show, we were also kinda surprised to see Jiaying participating in the musical (?), playing another important role too...

Anyhow, after the staged performance, a brother, apparently from the church who put up the musical (?), went up and share the gospel (there is only ONE Gospel, not four! Those theologically challenged, go and check with your pastor!) It was only then did I totally agree with Willy that Methodists do tend to emphasize on the "Me" part of the good news. In his sharing, and especially pronounced during the call to altar, he kept emphasizing that Jesus wants to give us abundant life. Well, there's nothing theologically wrong with that, but this brother shared the good news with the undertone that we have to go to Christ in order to receive abundant life; #$%^&*, Christ has been constantly knocking at our "doors", seeking us even before we know Him! #$%^&* For those who are accepting Him, these new believers are receiving Christ into their hearts/lifes - not going to Him to seek Him to have Him accept them! #$%^&* Christ is actively seeking us, not passively waiting for us to go to Him! #$%^&* Hence, the moment he uttered "Who wants to receive this abundant life?", my mind was totally put off, and it switched off to conserve earth's precious, and depleting, resources. (By the way, #$%^&* is not vulgarity in mosaic; why type hex dollar percent caret ampersand asterisk when I could just type #$%^&*? Lame jokes aside, read the note at the end of the entry for explanation.)

Yes, Jesus does give us abundant life, but that should not be the reason why we accept Him. Accepting Him because of the abundant life He gives is such a selfish act, and may I say, wrong motive! I'm not too sure how trained this brother is, but usually, those who are doing the call to altar would say something along the line of "who wants to accept Christ as his/her personal savior/Lord?" Pardon me, but I think the "accepting Him as personal savior/Lord" would be better, especially to those who are non-believers, since that does not project the wrong perspective that "we accept Him 'cos we (mainly) could gain good things out of it." Becoming a Christian is all about re-establishing a relationship, broken by the first pair of humans, with God. Pardon me again; I believe being His children doesn't mean having a smooth sailing journey in life (which many of us already know and agree). "Selling" the gospel to the non-believer from the perspective of "gaining abundant life" is just plain wrong. #$%^&*, this relationship is not about us; it is about God! Accepting Christ as Lord means surrendering one's authority to Him, and be led by God in all things (I must admit I'm still learning how to submit to Him). Accepting Christ has never been about "oh, I accept Christ in order to receive good things!"

Yes, I admit that I'm quite an "extremist" with my views, with which someone has already labeled me as "radical", and even Serling agrees that I am. After the musical (?), Serling asked me whether I'm placing the relationship with Elena in God's hands, with which I answered yes. Following that, I told her, actually, no matter who God has prepared, no matter she's a Christian or not, I don't really care; since it's His will, even if she were to be a non-Christian, God would provide the way, and see that all will turn out fine (that is to say, prior matrimony (or even after), God would have somehow touched her heart and have her accept Christ as Lord; after all, it's His will...) That is why "she must be a Christian" is not in my criteria list (for a record, the list is actually a very short one.) Yes, I know that Paul said:

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?Paul to the Corinthians, 2 Cor 6:14

Based on face value, we could infer that Paul was discouraging marriage among the believers and the unbelievers. I'm sorry: I have to tell you that you don't know the context in which Paul said these words.

Paul wrote these 'cos the Corinthian church was associating her with pagans. I'm not too sure what pagan associations happened back then, but Paul's intent was to warn them of such associations and tell them to disassociate themselves from these. Don't agree with me? Read 1 Cor 7, and tell me in the face that Paul's contradicting himself, and he ought to be slapped. (And if you are still not convinced, go and get a few good commentaries and read up on it.)

I think the reason why churches nowadays "teach" the doctrine that believers should marry believers 'cos there would be one less thorny issue (i.e. religion/beliefs) to deal with in marriage; there would be a potential that conflicts due to the couple's different beliefs could result in divorce. I totally agree that this is a sound advice, but #$%^&*, this is not a command/law/dogma given by Paul! So please, please, don't ever tell people that the Bible tells us (Christians) not to marry non-Christians; it is okay to say it's advisable not to, but not "the Bible says 'cannot'".

And there you are, one of the longest entries I have ever written, and #$%^&*, label me an "extremist" if you want…. Unless you could prove it, don’t ever tell me that my beliefs are wrong…. (By the way, I don't accept the argument "Everyone in church preaches this/these" as valid, 'cos "by convention" is never, ever a good and valid reason; theologically researched reasons would be.)

PS: All the #$%^&* really aren’t vulgarities in mosaic; it’s merely an expression of my frustrations...