From My Heart

I thought I would share a little something from my heart.

I cannot be grateful enough.  When I see my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ striving and working for God, I see the reality of the Scriptures. The Scriptures ring true when someone is actually doing God's work. The Scriptures make so much sense when someone is disciplined in Christ. When I became a disciple of Christ in the past summer, my perception has changed completely. When I accepted the Scriptures as Truth and Authority into my heart, my faith grew.

I let go of my logic and my knowledge. I let go of what I've learned before and judgment. I let go of preconceived notion of what Christianity is. I let go of my struggle with living by the sermons at church. I let go of my mother's lessons. I let go of Christians' expectations. I let go of slogans and memorized verses. I let go of media's and famous pastors' and evangelists' discourse. I let go of everything I knew about God before the time when I started learning that there is something more than just believing in Jesus can save me from hell.

I relied on my "high" feelings to reinforce my belief that Jesus Christ is real. I relied on scientific evidences for God to continue to defend my belief. I relied on other people's anecdotes that I was not crazy. I relied on the flaws of other religion that Christianity was the only true thing. I relied on friendship with Christian friends that I could get through difficult times of loneliness and stresses from their prayers and encouragement. I relied on blessing verses that God would bring me relief to my financial burdens. I relied on music worship to get close to God. I relied on material blessings to know that I was loved. I relied on worldly humanistic wisdom that God was good. I relied on my weekly attending at Sunday church, Bible study and Tuesday lunch gathering to believe that I believed in Jesus Christ. For six years, I relied on easy ability to believe that Jesus saved my life and I could just do whatever I thought it was best for me. That was how I knew.

These reliance are not ways to follow God but these are great lessons to know that God is much, much bigger. I have gained awesome, good friends through these six years. Do I regret it? I don't because I have gained great gifts from God for I learned the errors of my ways.

I'm not saying the six years before this past summer were waste of my time. I genuinely believed in Christ as my Savior and my God. But I didn't know how I could resonate this belief into something real. I struggled a lot with my faith in God. I relied on things that were never of God's to keep my feeble faith going.

What was holding me back from knowing the true God was my past and my cynical view of the world. If God is so good, then why did I go through such traumatic experiences for a innocent little girl? When I learned of horrible events to people around the world, why is God not doing anything? When I saw people doing bad things, why is God not punishing them since God does not condone evil? Those questions were precedents in my view of Christianity. That view held me back although my heart was yearning for truth in the meanwhile.

I'm really glad that God has answered my prayer when I went to college. I really wanted a great group of Christian friends which ironically, a group of Christians in my past hurt me so much. I really wanted to go to a good church which ironically, the churches I went to in my past did not welcome me. I really wanted to know God which ironically, I used Him just to live a good life because I had a crappy past. I used "The Sinner's Prayer: Pray Jesus into My Heart" card so I could be a good person and get rewards. God answered my prayer with these six years but they weren't a complete package. These six years would have been enough. These six years would have kept me going with knowledge they had taught me. No, these six years were the beginning of God's answer to my faith.

There was something in my heart that flickered, something that had been wanting.  I really want to say that this something is God's gift for me: humility. The gift of humility has taken me far. Despite my pride in my knowledge and blessings, God gave me humility because this wasn't it. It took me a while to get the memo. When I did, I let go. When I let go, God gave me a gift of joy in knowing the real truth through observation of the disciples of Christ living by the Scriptures.

The observation wasn't the only part of the gift; a girl, who wants to share the Truth and wanted to love because Christ loved her, came into my life. This girl, so compassionate that she saw how stuck I was in my darkness, teared up when I told her I hated my father.  This girl, who never gives up trying to bring people to light, prayed for a year with other disciples so I could get out of my darkness. This girl, who never stands down when people reject her, was there for me when I needed her after I rejected her. This girl, who stands for Truth, showed me what Scriptures truly are about. She did it all in Christ for Christ because Christ did these actions, too. She had the love of Christ because she let go of her pride and let God teach her through the disciples of Christ. A hundred percent of her heart for Him went to me.

It was love of Christ that changed my heart. When I experienced the love of Christ through this girl, the flicker in my heart grew bigger. When I learned the Truth, I wanted to be baptized. Once I went under the water this past summer, I became her disciple and her sister. The disciples of Christ became my family. She continues to teach me about Christ and the Scriptures as Truth and Authority so I can become like Christ. I can change someone's heart with the love of Christ through me. All it takes is what she did for me, keep on loving and never give up.  A hundred percent of my heart to someone.

If it wasn't for these six years, I wouldn't have met her. Who knows what would happen now if I had not met her?

First Corinthians Thirteen Part Two

Read: First Corinthian Thirteen Part One

To explore the question "What happens if you do all first three verses but have love?" that I stated in the previous post, I want to look at each attribute extensively, if not thoroughly. The attributes of love written in the passage are in NIV 1984 in verses 4-8:

1. Patient
2. Kind
3. Does not Envy
4. Does not Boast
5. Not Proud
6. Not Rude
7. Not Self-seeking
8. Not easily Angered
9. Keeps NO record of Wrongs 
10. Does not delight in Evil
11. Rejoices with the Truth
12. Always Protects
13. Always Trusts
14. Always Hopes
15. Always Perseveres
16. Never Fails

Paul listed 16 attributes of love. It may not be the complete list but it is sufficient to see the true picture of love. So why did Paul list all these attributes above as if love does something or take actions? Paul could have said "love is beautiful" or "love is a like fragile glass" as if he were to describe love as an object. But rather, he implied that love is a verb, not a noun. With this implication, I should say "actions of love" instead of "attributes of love".

So what do they mean for us? Why did Paul write to Corinthians (and us) about love is about taking actions, why are they so important that in first three verses that contain the phrase "but have not love" and say that love is greatest, not faith and hope in verse 13?

As an Applied Mathematics major in my college days, I learned that substitution is a powerful method in solving complex integral equations. To apply this method to the Scriptures to get better understanding for myself, I want to use this verse [1 John 4:8] "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." And I want to use another verse for the purpose of showing examples [John 10:30] "I and the Father are one." To apply another method but same principle from Discrete Math (a=b and b=c, then a=c), if Love is God and God is Jesus then Love is Jesus. (Note: please forgive my math geekyness).

To rewrite this passage, "Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind. He does not envy, he does not boast, he is not proud. He is not rude, he is not self‑seeking, he is not easily angered, he keeps no record of wrongs. Jesus does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Jesus never fails."

It is not a new concept. We know that Jesus are these things. In the four Gospel books, he had shown and done them countless times even to certain groups that Jewish people condemned the "worst sinners". I want to show what love looks like when Jesus actively and lovingly displayed all of those actions. Then we can get a clear idea that Paul definitely knew what he was talking about and to disprove a common commentary that supposedly Paul couldn't know how to describe love.

For words themselves in the list, we know what they mean and we know that they're good. In practice, what do they look like?

First Corinthians Thirteen Part One

It is a famous passage about love. Paul wrote to Corinthians about what love is about. It is popular in Christian weddings when a pastor use to remind and encourage the groom and the bride how to love one another. The love between the groom and the bride is described how it should be expressed in action, equating to Jesus' love for his Church (bride).

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self‑seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a (NIV 1984)

By this passage, we know what love in our relationships supposed to look like. But if we take it outside of the romantic relationship, can we ever see this kind of love anywhere else? I would often hear this passage within context of romantic relationship so I would get frustrated that I wanted to express love but had no significant one to share with. It would be weird to love my friend like a wife to her husband. That is, until I began to see Paul's demonstration of love.

Let's expand on this passage by reading from first verse to last in chapter 13.

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self‑seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

A common commentary on this passage is that Paul didn't know how to describe love because love is too great to fully grasp. We know that Paul was a very committed missionary and a strong evangelist for Jesus. By evidences and testimonies of Paul in Acts and Epistles, we know that Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit as he was called to the Great Commission. By Holy Spirit working in him, he knew what he was talking about. He knew what love is truly about. He knew exactly how to describe it.

You see, you can't know what this passage truly means until you read the whole Bible. And if you read the whole Bible, you can see how Jesus and Paul demonstrated their love just as well as you can see how God's faithful people demonstrated their love in the Old Testaments. Most importantly, you can see how God demonstrated His love in both the Old Testaments and the New Testaments. What I am trying to say is that you can't just pick one passage out of the Bible and let that passage speaks the whole Truth. Not even a verse. We have to look at God's real intention when we read a passage like this one, otherwise it won't make sense with other passages.

To get back on track, let's look at first 3 verses. But before we do, let's keep in mind that Paul was not married and he was on the Great Commission. He was filled with the Holy Spirit when he wrote it. This is my understanding.

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels
I know the Scriptures and I can speak to you about God, Jesus, and the Gospel whether you are a man or an angel.
but have not love
I can talk about love but I do not walk the walk as in loving you like these examples: Matthew 25:35-45, Luke 10:25-37
I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
Then what I say to you about God or the Gospel is meaningless and all you hear is noise, not words.

 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,
Sure, I have a gift of knowing who God is and I totally understand all the mysteries and the Bible
and if I have a faith that can move mountains, 
Even if I have faith so strong that I believe God can move mountains for me right there and then
but have not love, I am nothing.
But I do not love you, then what's my faith to you? Nothing. It's not worth for you to bother to look at.

3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,
I can do charities, I can give all my possessions and even die for my faith
but have not love, I gain nothing.
But I do not love you. My sacrifice does not mean anything to you. All you see is that I'm a fool.

This is Paul's introduction to the subject of love. He began to share his experience on what it is like to have faith but not with love in his heart [Acts 8:1-3, Acts 9:1-4, Acts 22: 1-5]. He was a zealous Jew trained as a Pharisee who knew the Laws of the Prophets (God's Law) but he did not follow the spirit of the Law (the intention of God's Law) which loving is a part of it.  He went far to defend his Jewish faith by going to house to house to weed out Christians and even more further by traveling 150 miles to Damascus just to do the same. He was strong in his faith but he did not love anyone. By look of his past identity, you'd say that he was a crazy, dangerous murderer and he self-justified his actions in his faith. You wouldn't want anything to do with him because he is out there killing people and you wouldn't want anything to do with his God, either, because his God is endorsing his madness.

The next 5 verses describe "what happens if you do all first three verses but have love?" Let's explore this question later. In the meantime, please read Psalm 1. I think Psalm 1 is a great passage to dwell on. It talks about a life of a faithful versus faithless person.

Thanks for reading First Corinthians Thirteen Part One.

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.