Lighthouse. What About It?

I took this picture with my Olympus E520 of
one of many lighthouse on The Seaway Trail.
This is on Lighthouse St. in Erie, Pennsylvania.

When you were a child, you liked a lot of things. But sometimes, there was a thing that you just liked and you couldn't explain why. Even now that you are grown up, you still don't know why you liked that thing but you just did. What's more fascinating is that you continue to like that thing despite the unknown reasons. You try to look back in your childhood and remember some situations where you liked that thing; what caused that liking and what significant meaning it must had hold. But you just don't know and you know you just like that thing.

I'm in that setting. The thing for me is a lighthouse. A lighthouse is a tower that sits on the shore and lit the light onto the waters to guide the ships safely to the docks in the dark. Growing up ever since I can remember, I've always liked lighthouses even though I never lived near lighthouses nor knew anyone with connection to them. I remember drawing lighthouses at creative moments when I was younger. I usually draw in a specific way: a red & white diagonal striped lighthouse on a tall rocky shore, lighting up on a ship far away on the wavy sea. The last time I drew a lighthouse was on my 21st birthday when I painted it on a pre-heated mug with my friend in a pottery shop.

Few years ago on a mission trip, my friend led a discussion in a group and he assigned us to draw how we personally would picture God. After thinking about it for minutes, a lighthouse came in my mind. I used a spiritual parallel to explain that God is a lighthouse and He shines in the dark to lead people to the safe harbor. For a while, I used this spiritual parallel to explain why a lighthouse was significant in my life. Eventually, I came to realize it wasn't true. I thought it was a really good but it wasn't the reason why I would think so fondly of lighthouses.

It might have to do with a TV anime series called Galaxy Express 999 I watched when I was 6 or 7 years old. Whenever I would try to think of the reason to liking lighthouses so much, I had a vague connection to that series. I clearly remember the main characters and the flying train that travels throughout the galaxy but not so clearly of the contents. I wonder if if there was an episode that involved with a lighthouse and somehow it impressed on me. I used to watch this series religiously so it could had triggered my admiration for lighthouses. If I watch this series again, I may get the answer. But it's going to be difficult to find the full accessibility because this series is from late 1970's. (Edit: All seasons are available as Instant Watch on Amazon.com but not in DVDs which I want.)

Right now, I have come to accept the terms that I don't need a reason to like lighthouses. But I just can't help but think why. Why would a kid like an unexciting building so much? Maybe I thought it was pretty. But then again, why would it had a such significant meaning in my life as a young kid? Maybe I'm thinking too much. All in all as well as the mystery goes, the lighthouses are just plain awesome.

When I recently took a vacation with my friend in Erie, PA, I discovered Great Lakes Seaway Trail that features many lighthouses. They are all across the northern border of New York and a bit of Pennsylvania. There are 28 historic lighthouses. I would love to take a month to travel and visit each and every lighthouse. It would be very exciting trip for me and I hope I will someday with an interested traveling partner. It is going to be on my Bucket List. You can visit the site for more information about them at www.seawaytrail.com/lighthouses.

What about you? Do you have this kind of inhibiting fascination with a thing for no reason?

I Don't Remember Much About Thessalonians

Or I have not heard much about Thessalonians. I had been in a church (or another) for a long time and I rarely heard anything from two books of Thessalonians in New Testament. The predominant theme of the sermons preached at me is "God loves you, Jesus died for you, believe in Him, and you're forgiven." Even the talks at Christian campus group settings were pretty much the same. It was all about what God has done for you and you should come to Him for anything. The relationship they talked of was "God and I are like best friends and I should sing praises to Him because He made me special." The deepest talk I ever heard that I could best summarize was "faith in God gives purpose to life." The books that we often looked at were the Gospel books (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), Psalm 23 and a tiny bit of the rest. For 6 years, that was all I had known.

Evangelism is the biggest part of the Christianity. We have to spread the Gospel because God is so awesome. Oh yeah, Jesus commanded us to [Matthew 28:19-20]. But how? What is the attitude that we should have when we talk about Jesus Christ with non-believers? The churches offer programs as a conventional way of evangelism that is appealing to people. Some offer classes for church members to become like evangelists.  Once the "trained evangelists' speak gospel to a non-believer, they move onto the next like an assembly line. They hold debate as if they are hopeful that at least one person in the audience will be persuaded. They hold a funeral service to reach out to mourning people using the loved one's death as a tool. They have to be "on fire" in order to spread the gospel.

I wonder if they truly looked at the whole New Testaments at how the apostles speak gospel to bunch of strangers. Rather importantly, if they looked at how the apostles DID with the gospel; not just only SPEAK but ACT and LIVE the gospel. Although God gives talent of evangelism to some people [Ephesians 4:11], Apostle Paul said we all should do the work of an evangelist [2 Timothy 4:5]. So what does it look like when we evangelize like he did? If we look at 1 Thessalonians, we can see how Apostle Paul, Silas and Timothy together evangelized to people when they were in Thessalonica [1 Thessalonians 2].

"You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure. We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed–God is our witness.

We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else. As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.

Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children; encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.

For you, brothers, became imitators of God's churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews,who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last."

As you can see, Paul, Silas, and Timothy evangelized to some Thessalonians for a while; serving them, teaching them, loving them, praying for them, providing for them, helping them, encouraging them, thanking God for them and suffering for them. Not only together did Paul, Silas and Timothy share gospel, they shared their lives. They set examples of how they lived as Christ did as they depended on the power of the Holy Spirit. When Thessalonians were ready on their own, Paul and his disciples went to another city to do it all over again. Meanwhile in another city, they continually prayed to God for Thessalonian church to keep in faith and pass it along onto others within city by doing the same. The faith was going strong as ever. Why? They wanted to please God and they loved people so much. They knew how difficult it would be but they served anyway with God and for God.

This is a great passage to learn from about sharing the gospel and working as an evangelist. I wonder why nowadays the churches rely on their own set of wisdom or programs instead of the Bible. The biggest deceptive excuse they use is that people changed over the years and what apostles did wouldn't work on people today. Well, look at what this sorry excuse did to us today. If the Bible is all we need, then why there are so many deviated how-to books? If love ain't what we need in evangelism, then what is [1 Corinthians 13]?

I totally encourage you to read First and Second Thessalonians. Keep in mind that prayer is very important to this work.

Humble Walk

With what shall I come to the LORD
And bow myself before the God on high?
Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings,
With yearling calves?

Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams,
In ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:6-8 [NASB]

A brother of mine sent me an encouraging note:

I often ask this question:
What does God want from me?

The answer lies in Micah 6:6-8:
"do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God."

Agape

It's good to know I don't need to be big or do special things for Him. All I have to do is stand strong in Christ and love on others by walking humbly with Him.

My Love Language

Have you heard of the "The 5 Love Language" by Dr. Gary Chapman? It's a very popular book for married couples. This book is written by a marriage counselor over 30 years and he noticed the patterns of love that people speaks. His concept of "Five Love Languages" helps people speak and understand emotional love when it is expressed through one of five languages:

1. Words of Affirmation
2. Quality Time
3. Receiving Gifts
4. Acts of Service
5. Physical Touch

Chapman argues that while each of these languages is enjoyed to some degree by all people, a person will usually speak one primary language, but all are important and can be ranked after taking the love language profile that is included in the book for both husbands and wives.

In my circle of Christian friends, the 5 Love Language is a strong reference in any relationship. I personally never read the book but some of my friends told me what they were and what they retained. When I first heard the list, I couldn't figure out what my love language was. Even with description of each love language, I just couldn't pinpoint which resonated the strongest with myself. The probable reason could be that I wasn't in a romantic relationship when my friend first introduced this list to me. My friend at the time was in the relationship with her future husband and I thought the love languages were only in the romantic concept between a man and a woman. She and her future husband had premarital counseling and the 5 Love Language happened to be one of the tools. It gave insights to see who they were and how they received what it meant to love and be loved so that their marriage would last. So, it didn't apply to me but it is a fascinating theory for Christians to think about when they are in their relationship.

Now, I know what my love language is after the last few months discovering who I am.  Another friend of mine, who is studying psychology, has been helping me to learn why I do what I do. Looking into my past and my past relationships with significant figures in my life, I realized my love language. What speaks volume of love to me is physical touch. When I speak love to someone, I hug them. I may not know how to speak love to them or know their love language but they do know my hug is the best I can do for them when I don't know what to say or do. When I'm showing my deep love for them, I give long hugs. Really really long hugs.

I know I'm being loved on when they give me genuine long hugs or snuggling. I know by looking back into my childhood, my mom would snuggle with me every night. That's how I knew that my mom loved me. My grampa would let me sit or lie on his lap and he either put his arms around me or scratch my back. Those two significant figures, my mom and my grampa, spoke their love for me by their snuggling. Being snuggled was a very comforting place to be in; I felt secure and relaxed. The rest of the love languages don't speak strongly as physical touch. Why?

In my childhood:

1. Words of Affirmation: They rarely said anything of love to me, not even "I'm proud of you."
2. Quality Time: Though I enjoyed spending a lot of time with them, I also had spent a lot of time with my friends. 
3. Receiving Gifts: Though they doted on me, my other relatives also gave me many gifts.
4. Acts of Service: Though they made my meals or cleaned my clothes, I never asked anyone to do anything for me. I was too shy to talk to anyone and was too stubborn to ask for help.

The only significant difference between them (mom & grampa) and others (friends & relatives) is physical touch. They snuggled with me and others didn't hug me even slightly at all. Basically, figuring out your love language comes down to is how you received love when you were a child. It makes sense of why I hug my friends to let them know that I love them and why I seek hugs from them in return. I  know my friends have shown me their love through other love languages and yet I don't feel strongly loved. In her field of psychology, my friend explained that our childhoods are very influential in shaping us who we are now.

The 5 Love Language is a great tool in any relationship. You will know how to love significant people in your life by speaking their love language to them. It is also a good conversation piece because love is what drives us to live every day and interact with other people. From this conversation, you and your people can discover more about yourselves.

This Is It

I have had been writing blogs before. I used a blog as a journal and then as a common tool to share my pop-cultured interests. I had several and now I have none. I stopped writing for three years now because I lost interest. I wanted to have a purposeful blog so I could share my thoughts and help some readers to know that they were not alone. But writing a purposeful blog took too much time and effort. I had to think it through so I could be clear. I didn't want to leave readers confused but rather a something to chew on. I wanted to share my faith and glorify God.  I thought I was solid but then I realized I didn't have a foundation to stand on.

I didn't have a foundation because I didn't read the Bible from Genesis to Revelations. You guessed it. I wanted to write a blog about the Christian faith. It's a common theme (whether it is used for good or bad) on Internet, however there is none of One Mind, One Body, and One Spirit [Ephesian 4:1-16]. Instead, we bicker and argue, holding one doctrine above the others. We each has our own convictions and our own gifts but we fail to see that each of us is different and we must work together [1 Corinthians 12]. Whether our opinions or our experiences differ, we have to follow the Head (Jesus) as we are the Body (church) of Christ. We are not meant to follow some man's doctrine, theology or set of beliefs. We are the church and what laid before us to follow is Christ himself. In the New Testaments, he made his intentions and teachings very clear. He also said we should also follow His apostles' teachings in the New Testaments as well [Matthew 16:19].

Of course, we have different interpretations of the Bible. We have to question everything (doctrines or church's bullet points of belief and even lifestyles or motto) [1 John 4:1-2] but whatever conclusions we come to must be align with the Scriptures. But then again, our conclusions could be just another interpretation. That's why Jesus said we should receive His kingdom like a child [Matthew 18:1-5, Mark 10:13-16, Luke 18:15-17]. It means that we read the Scriptures as it is and simply take it. No need for decoding or look for special hidden meaning between the lines. No need to intellectualize or try to wrap our mind around it. The Bible makes itself referential to itself which is why it is important to read all of the words in the Bible. What has been revealed through the writers is by God Himself [2 Timothy 3:12] and He made it very clear not to add or subtract from the Bible [Revelations 22:18-19].

There are so many denominations today that would follow their own doctrines. We are no longer following the Bible as itself and as the final word. Instead we add ourselves to the Bible and we value what we thinks over what God thinks. We belong to a group because it agrees with us so easily. We subtract parts of the Bible because they are too hard to follow or we do not like the sound of it. We choose one verse over every other verse as an epitome of our faith such as the most famous verse, John 3:16 because it sounds beautiful. We pick parts and ignore the rest. We may not have evil intentions behind doing these things but God has the final say and holds the final judgment. That is why we have to be careful when we go to church. The question we must ask ourselves is "Do I follow Christ or do I follow church?" The Apostle Paul clearly understood this [1 Corinthians 1:10-17].

I encourage you with these verses as we should strive for unity as the Church (the Body of Christ):

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. - 2 Corinthians 10:5

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. - Proverbs 3: 5-8

If you want to know what doctrine or what "church" I follow, the answer is this: none. I follow the Scriptures as the whole Truth. Soon, I will live and breathe God's Word as I constantly surrender all to Him. I do not want to argue and I do not have the final say. If I am confused when I read the Word, the Holy Spirit will teach me as long as I am willing to learn. If God decides to withhold knowledge from me, then I shall not pursue it but wait patiently. If I need to make a case against such arguments, I will show you the Scriptures and let it convict you. Now that I have read the Bible from the beginning to the end (and I shall repeatedly), I can be confident in who I am as rooted in Christ therefore a servant of God and for His glory.

Well, this is it. I'm writing a blog now. More to come, of course.