Biblical Theology

Found this in Billy Graham's "Peace with God":

The message of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, is the story of the Bible - it is the story of salvation. Profound students of the Bible have traced the story of Jesus Christ from the beginning of the New Testament, for He is the true theme of the Old as well as the New Testament.

• In Genesis He is the Seed of the Woman.
• In Exodus He is the Passover Lamb.
• In Leviticus He is the Atoning Sacrifice.
• In Numbers He is the Smitten Rock.
• In Deuteronomy He is the Prophet.
• In Joshua He is the Captain of the Lord’s Hosts.
• In Judges He is the Deliverer.
• In Ruth He is the Heavenly Kinsman.
• In the six books of Kings He is the Promised King.
• In Nehemiah He is the Restorer of the Nation.
• In Esther He is the Advocate.
• In Job He is My Redeemer.
• In Psalms He is my All and in All.
• In Proverbs He is my Pattern.
• In Ecclesiastes He is My Goal.
• In the Song of Solomon He is My Satisfier.
• In the prophets He is the coming Prince of Peace.
• In the Gospels He is Christ coming to seek and to save.
• In Acts He is Christ risen.
• In the Epistles He is Christ at the Father’s right hand.
• In Revelation He is Christ returning and reigning.

An alternative version had:

• In Psalms He is My Song.
• In Proverbs He is Wisdom.
• In the Gospels He is God in Christ Jesus, come to redeem.
• In Acts He is alive in the Church.
• In Revelation He is the Mighty Conqueror.

I think that its pretty profound and its an awesome way to express the centrality of Christ in the Bible. Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon are two that I'm a bit uncertain about. (To say that Jesus is my "goal", is he saying that he is the one who deals with meaninglessness/vanity? And sure Christ is our bridegroom, but isnt calling him our satisfier reading Song of Solomon too allegorically? I have no idea!)

I pray that as we read our Bibles, from Genesis to Revelation, we can say:
In my heart, He is my Saviour and my Lord.

More from the Red Tree...

Sometimes you wait .. and wait .. and wait .. and wait .. and wait .. and wait .. and wait .. but nothing ever happens

Then all your troubles come out at once

Wonderful things are passing you by

Terrible fates are inevitable..

Camp Timothy

Got back from Camp Timothy today, and I'm just hoping that I'll remember a lot of things I learnt from the talk and from the many important conversations that I had. I was feeling a bit dead all the way through it because I haven't had a proper sleep since last Tuesday, but I definitely had a good time. It just feels a bit too short. The accomodation was the best ever at a conference; I had a double bed and room all to myself! The highlight of the camp was the music videos at the end; I hope I get to see the tape of it.

The 2 Corinthians talks spoke to me about the power of the gospel, the joy of suffering, and God's strength in our weakness. I had good conversations with several people about some of the things I've been struggle with both godliness wise and theology wise. I wish the camp was longer because I still don't feel like I really know that much about the other ministries and the unique struggles that they have.

I hope that post-camp I'll be able to keep building on those relationships and also take God more seriously (and less academically).

Relationships - I recently said to someone, everytime you see a Christian, you should either be (a) building your friendship and/or (b) building the person up as a Christian. (I dont know if thats exactly true but it sounds true..) So I hope I can know how to do both.

When I was doing Mission Minded, one thing I wasnt sure about was the place of relationships between Christians, because in the "Edification" section, they just had Follow Up, Nurture, and Training in Ministry. I guess if I'm playing basketball with a guy, I'm not exactly edifying them, but it seems bad to try an analyse every activity you do in life based on those categories. Its a bit mechanical to think that you can edify someone without doing non "Word" stuff together.

Anyway, I need to learn how to build those friendships, because I always want to have deep 1 to 1 conversations but don't really know how to just have superficial group conversations; especially since most of my interests seem different to other people at church. Or maybe that's just my perception.


Taking God more serious, and just taking things more personally. What is your reaction if I said.. I have a friend who is struggling with his faith and said to me recently that he hates God?

If you're like me, you'd ask why they hate God, then try to analyse the situation, diagnose the problem, and come up with a solution. When I told a girl last night about this guy who hates God, her initial reaction was just .. sadness? I thought it was so godly of her to empathise with real people rather than just treating people like projects. I want to be more like her :)

Its just hard for some guys to feel things and its easy to live the Christian life in an overly intellectual way, and have a facade of godliness with all this knowledge. Then its easy to stop relating to God personally.

untitled hymn

I quite like this song..

sometimes...

sometimes you just don't know what you are suppose to do..

or who you are meant to be

or where you are

(from The Red Tree)

the danger of music as ‘worship’

By PETER JENSEN

At the moment there seems to be a lot of emphasis on experiencing God through music. I am all in favour of music and I particularly love congregational singing. Sometimes I am caught up in the expression of our faith and my emotions are heightened to the point of tears of joy.

But what I need to remember is that music and singing in themselves may be of no spiritual value and indeed may be harmful if they lead me off in the wrong direction. I am sure that the prophets of Baal were pretty good at singing songs to their fierce and false lord. They may even have been beautiful and appealing songs.

So far I have not heard the equivalent of Baal worship in any of our churches and I am not expecting to! But I have heard singing which, while addressed to Jesus, falls very far short of a piety which is shaped by the Bible. In particular there is a sentimentality which poses no challenge to us at a spiritual level, and seems to serve only to give the singers a private emotional high.

That is why we must remain Bible people. Our minds need to be captured by the word of God and our spiritual lives need to be understood through the teaching of the word if we are to grasp what God is doing, and save ourselves from counterfeit experience.

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

stupidest assignment ever

so depressing.