The God Who Wounds

From today’s devo:

“He wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal.”
-Job 5:18

“We want a god who will always give us what we want and will never teach us hard lessons…..But God’s hand, though always good, isn’t always easy. He takes through not only joys and comfort, but also pain….The godly life is joyful but painful.

…Did you think the Christian life was going to be without pain? No. Look at Jesus, Look at His disciples..Or, closer to home, look at the headlines…No, the Christian life is by no means without pain. It can’t be, not if it’s real and if it exists in a hostile world, and not if we’re going to be like Jesus. But neither is it without comfort and healing. That’s why we can worship the God who wounds as well as the God who restores. He knows what He is doing; He is preparing us for glory.”

Two points that really jump out at me today:

1) God gives and takes
This is kinda in relation to my last devo a few days ago about the “Artist’s Integrity.” God is a being who gives and takes, and we are nothing but dust (quite literally). God is also a just God who won’t hesitate on walking you through painful things in our lives. But I sincerely believe that he will never push you too far because he is just, and he is always good to us. God gives and takes, he wounds and heals. We can’t learn, we can’t grow unless we make mistakes, nor can we learn from our mistakes unless they are pointed out to us.

2) The misconception of the ‘perfect’ Christian life
I think all too often (among both Christian and non-Christians) we believe that living a Christian life will mean as long as we believe in Christ we will life a happy life filled with flowers and rainbows (or something of that sort), void of anything painful. I think I find this even more common among those who are new believers or the recently baptized (I’m guilty of such thoughts too btw). But as the passage above shows, and as various accounts in the bible show. The Christian life was never meant to be easy. It’s simply impossible in a fallen world like ours where nothing is perfect. And I really do mean nothing (even more so in the era we live in where it seems our lives are more dysfunctional than ever), though we as humans are very good at making it seem like things are better than they really are.

Our lives aren’t perfect, far from it. But I believe what does make our lives different from others is that we (as Christians) have this weird (kinda? haha) ability to live joyously through pain because well…to put it simply:

“GOD IS GOOD! ALL THE TIME!”

But this ability isn’t usually something that we gain overnight or at the moment we decide Christ is real. Rather, it’s something we’ve grown to realize in our walks with God. For some sooner than others, but I believe it can happen. To live a joyous life (I say ‘joyous’ and not ‘happy’), knowing that there’s a big guy (God) up there looking out for me, even through the really hard times.

I pray that I never forget his love and goodness when rough times come.

The Artist’s Workshop

From today’s devo:

“…the world will not be changed by Christians who speak a lot of words (though the gospel in the form of words is important). Words won’t mean much without a picture…”

I think this concept in particular is important for us to understand as modern day Christian’s. We live in a world where knowledge is so accessible to us in so many forms, every day our knowledge is challenged by society and media. Really it’s no wonder why words alone are hard to sell.

As mentioned in my previous post, faith cannot be lived without action. And I believe that people respond best when they see how YOUR life has been so wonderfully changed by faith :]

Or as this anonymous quote from today’s devo puts it:

“Witnessing is not [just] something we do; it is something we are.”

When it comes to evangelizing and spreading the gospel. I don’t believe I’ve ever been the kind of person who was good at it vocally (?). When it comes to talking I’m not very charismatic, and I tend to be on the more timid side, though writing is a bit of a different story 😛 That’s why I guess I like to…. subtlety evangelize through my experiences by sharing them with others. I’m not the kind of person who will pin and try to sell you the religious facts (though if it comes up, I will happily talk about them), but I do like inviting others to chill with Christian friends. Sometimes you’d be surprised to see how…….’normal-looking’ we are.

The Artist’s Mercy

From today’s devo:

“Repentance is a much-maligned word. It sounds so hard and painful, even condemning. Those connotations don’t go over well in a laid-back, life’s-a-beach culture of tolerance like ours. Repentance implies that something is wrong with us and we’re going to have to deny ourselves something we treasure in order to change.

….Our Potter’s grand design depends on the malleability of His clay (us). If we are too stiff and unyielding. God has no compassionate alternative to informing us of our impending uselessness-the disaster the prophets proclaimed. If we accept the warning, however, we become soft and easy to reshape, and the Potter enjoys us again. He always has a good plan for clay that bends.

Are there any areas in which your heart needs to bend? Yes, it sounds painful, but the alternative is for worse. Softening the substance of your life makes the Potter delightfully willing to make something beautiful. His blessings come to those who bend.”

As I like to say it:

It’s easy to say “I’m a Christian”, but it’s not easy to show “I’m a Christian”

I wonder, how many of us can show we’re Christian’s without us telling people we are?
Change is never easy, that I think we can all agree on, but as I’ve said before, if we understand where God is coming from here, and actually take it to heart, then something should change, even if it’s small.

Change doesn’t happen overnight, and each of us grow at different rates.

I pray I can yield to God’s will when he asks.

The Artist’s Design

From today’s devo:

…What does the Potter dream of doing in my life? and What is He actually doing right now? Don’t answer too quickly. Consider the heart of the Potter–His ultimate goal, His tender care, and His exquisite artistry. And then apply His heart to your present circumstances…

I think a lot of us Christians, often think more about how God can help us achieve what we want to do in life rather than what God wants to achieve in our life. When challenges come our way and hinder us from achieving what we desire, sometimes we are quick to blame it on God, or sometimes we’ll just keep nagging him about it. We live in a world of convenience (in many ways), but God is perfect in His will and timing. Some things will happen overnight, in the next few hours, others in days, weeks, months or years, who knows. Sometimes we just need to stop and think about what God is really trying to do in our lives instead of jumping to conclusions based on our present (immediate) situations.

Take your time, just stop and think. Because God wants you to live your life to the fullest.

In all honesty, I dream of the day I can stand in front of God and hear him say: “Well done, my good and faithful servant”

uhh, though I also don’t believe I am worthy of that statement at all (ehehe), but I’d like to try.
No idea how though harhar.

The Artist

From today’s devo, illustrating the relationship between God (the Artist) and us (the clay):

We are reluctant to relax in the hands of the Potter for one main reason: We forget why we exist. We assume that clay exists for the sake of its own feelings or dreams. We focus on “clay esteem,” “clay actualization,” or “clay fulfillment,” oblivious to the infinitely larger purpose of our formation. Clay really exists for the Potter alone. When the Artist is allowed to do His work, the clay displays the creativity of His heart and mind.

I can say, without a doubt, that it’s in our human nature to always try to be in control of things in our lives. We want to plan out things for the future, what high school we go to, which university to go to, our future careers, whether we want to be married, have children etc. (sometimes I say even more so in the Asian, or rather any stereotypical modern culture). But I can also say that:

1) our view of the future to be honest isn’t as far as you might think. Our minds are limited, whether that be 3 years, 5 years or 10 years into the future. But God has already has a grand plan for our lives, he knows it all already. And between my near-sighted vision and his far-sighted one. I think I’ll trust his

2) Living a Christian life means that some things you thought you were going to do won’t happen. BUT at the same time, in my own spiritual walk, I find that God always provides, and also likes to surprise us by opening doors of opportunity to do things we may have wanted to do, but thought we couldn’t. Allow me to give you two brief examples from my life:

(1) Since I was 12 year old, I had (for one reason or another, mostly parents I guess) decided that I wanted to do Life Sciences, go to the University of Toronto, get a job in some health/medical related field, and do art on the side as a hobby. That vision lasted until my last year of high school when I got accepted into Design school (something I never dreamed of happening but it did) and ditched my security/planned out life to follow a passion I had had for years. (I will be writing a separate post with more regarding this sort of…epiphany in life)

(2) I had always dreamed of going to Japan. I had planned to treat myself by going there as a grad trip after I finished university. I didn’t end up going after university because of the earthquake and nuclear crisis, but I’m happy to have been able to go earlier in my first year of university (that on top of making a number of friends along the way since it was like an exchange trip)

God provides and will surprise you sometimes if you simply give him space to work in your lives. In the words of a friend (who tweeted this quote, and I’m paraphrasing a bit):

Faith (in Him) is the bridge between ” I can’t…” and “I can’t believe it!”

Glorified in Need

Today’s devo focused on the parable of the prodigal son

“…The good older brother who complained about the favour given to his younger, more rebellious sibling actually turned out to be the greater problem for the father. That son’s self-sufficiency made him harder to reach and caused him to question the father’s mercy…”

Kinda ironically, this somewhat relates to my inspiration post today about how (paraphrasing here), our belief that we are self-sustainable is what will destroy the gospel.

To be self-sufficient (as in the ability to live/survive without help) that would probably mean, we’re all well off getting everything that we want, yes? From one person’s perspective, I think that sounds great. But if you apply that to every person living on earth…..I don’t think we could all live with each other if we were self-sufficient. We’d all be so apathetic and selfish, and I mean, we’re already bad enough as it is now.

This is why in many ways, I admire the needy and poor. Especially when they find God and discover his love. Because they know how to value small things when they get it, despite whatever disastrous situation they’re in they are able to find joy, they are able to keep singing. It’s beautiful.

Are you aware that your neediness honours God? Well, in our experience it isn’t always an occasion for His glory; but it can be–if you present it to Him humbly and without using your own devices to supersede His. Don’t catch yourself lamenting that you are a high-maintenance disciple….We need to realize that we can’t maintain ourselves on our own…He is glorified in the way that He keeps us, heals us, restores us and builds us up.

It’s important to note though that God also knows everything that you need to live and grow spiritually. So while you should appreciate that you, as a human are naturally needy/dependant on God, you should also realize that this doesn’t mean God will say ‘yes’ to all of what you think are your needs. We all know the what would be wrong if God always said yes to us:

Bruce Almighty.

If you’ve never seen the movie, watch it. Although it’s pop-culture, I think it paints a fairly accurate picture as to specifically, why God wouldn’t always say ‘yes’