Meditations

Posted by: thaishin | April 25, 2011

His clothes were divided

After good friday and easter Sunday, it is timely to remind ourselves of prophecy fulfilled in

Psalms 22:18

¹⁸ They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment. -niv 2011

Psalms is found in the old testament and was written many years before the gospel was written.

Fulfilled in the four gospels. All from niv 2011.

Matthew 27:35

³⁵ When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots

Mark 15:24

²⁴ And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.

Luke 23:34

³⁴ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

John 19:23-24

²³When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. ²⁴“Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said, “They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment. So this is what the soldiers did.

2 Comments

Posted in Prophecy | Tags: Easter Sunday, Good Friday, John, Luke, Mark, Matthew, Prophecy, Psalms

Posted by: thaishin | April 13, 2011

Ghost and spirituality

There was once at a get together when a few of my friends were discussing about the spiritual aspects of their lives. One of my friends shared about his encounter of the ghostly kind. He was out at sea fishing with friends when he said he saw a ghost. When he recalled his encounter, he said he just left it alone.

I never had that ghostly spiritual experience before. But we can experience spirituality as stated in this verse in John 5:24 (niv):

²⁴ “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

We can experience eternal life the moment we believe in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Life will be very different after that because we will have a renewed mind. With a renewed mind, we will have very different perspective of things.

But first, you will have to seek. Read the gospel of John in the bible and let the journey begin.

Follow Him

As a former navigator, I was taught that it was imperative for christians to disciple others and materialize the great commission.

The closest that I came was the encounter with a former colleague of mine. I got to know him when I was on job assignment to Taiwan. As we got a bit closer, he expressed an interest to attend church. After I left the company, we still kept in touch. Later on, I even got him to do a bible study with me and he accepted Christ during the session.

As I followed up with him at a distance, there was a time when he attended life church with me in Singapore. Later on, he went to attend a mega church and eventually left that church. There was a time when I wanted to pass mentoring him to other navigator friends of mine but my colleague declined.

The latest I heard from him: He married a chinese girl and his father came to know the Lord through his relatives. At that time, he was already not attending church.

As much as I lament my lack of skills in discipling him, the one thing that I should have done is to emphasize to him the need to follow Jesus, not me or any body on this earth.

3 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Church, colleague, Discipling, Jesus

Posted by: thaishin | February 1, 2011

The deceitful heart

Jeremiah 17:9:

⁹The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? -kjv

⁹ The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? -niv

Meditations:

1) The heart is the place where our thoughts arise and dwell, the place where we make our decisions. The heart is also the place where our feelings arise and dwell. It is also the place where our thoughts and feelings interact.

2) The heart is described as deceitful. This means that sometimes we lie to ourselves. Even when we are able to justify our actions with reasons, the actual reason might not be what we think it is.

3) The heart is also described as desperately wicked. This means evil/bad thoughts are natural to it.

4) Who can know it? It means sometimes we don’t even understand ourselves.

4 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Deceitful, Feelings, Jeremiah, rational, thoughts, understanding, Wicked

Posted by: thaishin | January 21, 2011

First sub zero of the winter of 2010/11

A deep freeze has taken over Chicago/Joliet area this Thursday night/Friday morning.

As I started my car on Friday morning, the thermometer in my car read 1 degree Fahrenheit. I believe the temperature went negative last night and I read from the news that wind chill were nearly 20 below on Friday morning. When I walked to the school building to send my son to his classroom and walk back to the car, I can feel the freezing cold on my laps and on my fingers when I am in the car already even though I am wearing long johns, jeans and gloves.

It is dangerous to be outdoors for long under this condition or one might suffer frost bite and hypothermia. Frost bite happens when blood circulation is impaired by frigid temperatures, meaning the skin/tissue gets frozen. A hat and gloves are necessary to lessen the risk of frost bite.

Thank God it’s going to be a bit warmer on Saturday.

Sanctification and sin

I used to think that the motivation to try not to sin again is because we don’t want to crucify Jesus at the cross again with our sinful thought, speech and action. But, in my experience, sin occurs naturally within us because of our sinful nature. Even if we are able to control our speech and action, sinful thoughts still occur. Our love for Jesus is not vast enough to prevent us from sinning or else we will be trying to be God. So, I guess we have to acknowledge the reality of our fallen nature, not to think that Jesus is not able to withstand our sins again and again, not because we want it but we cannot help it. And finally, we have to repent again and again once we sin again and again. Don’t get me wrong, we should exercise self control in speech and action but my point is we cannot exercise self control in thoughts because they occur naturally.

4 Comments

Posted in Sin | Tags: Action, love for jesus, motivation, natural, repent, Sin, speech, thoughts

Posted by: thaishin | December 25, 2010

Euphrates River Drying up

Rev 16:12

12And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. -kjv

Article from the new york times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/world/middleeast/14euphrates.html

Blog on Euphrates River drying up:

http://www.1913intel.com/2009/07/14/the-euphrates-river-is-drying-up/

Spiritual health of my son

God has given me the opportunity to take care of my son. One of the responsibilities as a christian father is to nurture the spiritual side of my son. I don’t think I have done a good job.

At five, he is old enough to verbalise his needs, his wants and his thoughts. He prays before bedtime to Jesus. He is attending a christian school. I used to ask him to memorize scripture, I used to read bed time bible stories but have stopped for some time. Our family goes to church on alternate weekends and because it is not a main service, there is no sunday worship for children. I am not sure if he is able to grasp the concept of God. I can do more. I am willing to do more.

I guess some of my action speaks for my christian values. But that is not enough. I am a quiet person, I am not a very sensitive person. That is a drawback in evangelism to my son.

I need to be more sensitive to start with. Need to identity a need in him and make use of that need to drive him to Jesus. I had a need when I was a non christian – I had a tremendous inferiortiy complex. That complex drove me to Jesus. Matthew 5:3 says “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” – niv Indeed Matthew 5:3 is true and my inferiority complex drove me to Jesus. Of course, faith comes from hearing and constant church going drilled me with christian teachings.

1 Cor 9:22: “To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” – niv . I need to be more patient towards my son and speak his language and try to understand his thinking and become his friend.

I need to be held accountable for this important task of nurturing my son’s spiritual needs. My friends, if you are able, please check on me.

If you are able to provide more suggestions on how to or biblical principles in child evangelism, please do.

5 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Action, Belief, Child Evangelism, God, Jesus, Language, Quiet, Responsibility, Sensitivity

Posted by: thaishin | December 1, 2010

Rain, umbrella and faith

I used to think that after saying a prayer for clear skies and to have faith that the sky will not rain on an overcast horizon, one should not bring along an umbrella. It’s like it’s great faith to expect God to answer our prayers of not sending the rain.

Now, I beg to differ. After we say a prayer for a clear day and if the sky is overcast, we should bring along an umbrella. We should not demand God to answer our prayer by not bringing an umbrella but rather submit ourselves to His will and quietly hope that God will answer our prayers. Maybe some other christian needs the rain on that day in that particular area, who knows? Faith is accepting the sovereignty of God and submitting our will to His will and not about God answering our prayers.

5 Comments

Posted in Faith | Tags: Faith, His will, Prayer, Submit

Posted by: thaishin | October 28, 2010

Magnesium in my son’s diet

Magnesium is a vital element in maintaining good health. It is needed to perform various bodily functions like maintaining heart rate, metabolism rate and normal blood pressure, preserving a healthy immune system, regulating blood sugar levels, keeping bones strong and production of proteins.

I am including the following food that is rich in magnesium in my son’s diet:

1) Fish ( I dip the tilapia fillet in egg beat and bread crumbs and fry it)

2) Banana

3) Milk

4) Milk chocolate and candy bars

The above are the food that my son will eat. If you ask him to eat leafy vegetables or beans, he will probably not eat it. If you have ideas of incorporating food rich in magnesium in a kid’s diet in a simple way, please share.

The daily dose comes from milk. He drinks at least a cup of milk each day. Now, I am thinking of giving him at least two cups regularly. Also thinking of serving him chocolate everyday.