The ABC

heh
Nope..ABC is not equal to American Born Chinese.
But it was smthing I learnt from Counseling Psych lecture today.
Activating event --> Belief --> Consequence

So everytime there is an event, because of our beliefs (perceptions), it will affect how we view the event, and hence determine whether that event becomes a problem. ;)
Actually got lotsa things to say, but quite tired now...just wanted to blog a few stuffs.

Well, mainly on the sermon that I heard yesterday by Bishop Samuel Doctorian. Actually I don't really know his background, but from the sermon that he preached, he has really a lot of experiences. :) He's 74 this year.
But one of the things that caught my attention was his analogy on what it means to be a christian- what is mine is yours, even if I don't have. Or smething along that lines.
And he shared on how he had his last pound left, and he gave it to a family who had many kids and hadn't eaten for days. And after that when he came back home, his wife said there was a letter for him, to ask him to go to the bank to collect a cheque, cos there was money for him. And wow I was amazed. This sounds like the concept of the "prosperity" gospel. But nope.. I think that it is part of the gospel, that when we give in faith, God will provide for us back. Tho..smtimes even if He may not, we still give in faith.
I know that a lot of my thoughts on christianity has changed. That is like what I learnt from the lecture today- that once yr beliefs changes, it affects the way u perceive things/think about them...and results in how u feel about them. And I can't get back to my old perspective. No matter what. Tho, I can now see more clearly both points, everyone will have a stand which they believe in.
So anyway, in his sermon, he talked abt his 2 uncles, who were armenians, and they were caught by the turks. And the turks wanted them to deny their faith. So the two brothers decided they will never deny their faith.
And what happened was the turk soldiers started torturing younger bro in front of older bro, by putting a hot iron on the eyes of the younger bro. After that, they took out out the skull of the younger bro. And eventually he died. Before he died, he said, I am coming home to You, Jesus.
They decided not to kill the older bro, cos he was a doctor, and they wanted him to heal the injured turk soldiers. And one day, the soldier who tortured his younger bro was badly ill, and he took special care to heal him. When the soldier recovered, the doctor confronted him, and the soldier said-don't harm me...and the doct said, if I wanted to, I would have done it long ago. And then he said- Go tell people this is what Jesus's love is about.

If u ask me... right now if there were persecution, and someone were to pierce my eyes or take my skull, how I would react, that will be so hard to answer. With all my heart, I love Christ. But when the crux comes, who will u believe in? And it doesn't take a serious challenge like death to question our faith. Would u sacrifice the comfort of your home, to go to places where there are no missionaries? To go to places like Northern Thailand, inner Mongolia and preach the gospel? I would seriously say that I am scared.
Lets narrow it down a bit, are u even sharing the gospel with someone in yr office? Yr close fren? Yr neighbour? For fear of ridicule!! Somehow think that if we haven't even acheived this part...then wat makes us think we can happily sing that God, I will live my life for You?
But GOd is so gracious. And I think He also grants us the gift of faith. To do things we will never do in our own minds.

If ple are really going to hell, and we truly believe in the gospel...then what are we doing about it! Are we just letting ple perish w/o and lead our lives- toward prosperity and success. How do we view earth? And how do we view eternity? Why we hoard up wealth here, is because we have no confidence in eternity?

My non believer fren had an accident on 2 weeks ago and I just found out about it yest! His car slammed into a tree, and I asked him what he was thinking of few seconds before the knock. He said that he thot he was gonna die, and he asked God, Why me? And I said, hmm..thot most ple before they think they gonna die will say a prayer to God.

Heh. I dunno.

Please read the above post with the right perspective. WHich is not a condemning one. Cos...I have not attained anything myself. Secondly..
I am sure that God calls us to obedience. And it is impt for us to question our lives, and what our time/value/money means to us.
Tho. I am also sure that...anything bore out of carnal nature...even if it is a good work, is disobedience.