Love Truth Blog

Lent 2017 is well underway and for this post I thought sharing briefly on the foulness of sin. Recently, I came across these words from the nineteenth century Anglican bishop J.C. Ryle: "The very animals whose smell is most offensive to us have no idea that they are offensive, and are not offensive to one another. And man, fallen man, I believe can have just no idea what a vile thing sin is in the sight of God whose handiwork is absolutely perfect." Ryle was writing on the subject of holiness, and the quote above comes from a section grappling with the matter of sin. What struck was the way he killed it on the true foulness or vileness of sin before a holy and righteous God contrasted to the way that fallen people more often than none go nose blind to our wretchedness. Sure, it is very easy to pray, “God, I thank You that I am not like other people” (Luke 18:11, NASB), but that somebody else. What we fail to see is the way our sin no matter how small is an offense to th...

“If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Matt. 19:21) [1]. These are extreme words from the Messiah which the rich man could hardly stomach. Matthew tells us is that the rich man walked away with sorrow. Rather than calling people to take vows of poverty, the Jesus sought to leave the young man and the disciples overhearing the conversation with the understanding that if there ever was going to be salvation for Israel, it would be on God’s terms, and that Messiah’s ministry was intricately woven together with that salvation. The rich young man got into a discussion with Jesus on the matter of eternal life. Ancient Israelites would have connected everlasting life with Judgment Day. Daniel was told, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2). Jesus then takes the rich man to the place wh...

1 Chronicles 12 tell us that Rehoboam along with the people of the southern kingdom of Judah were established and strong, but they forsook the law of the Lord. Yahweh then appointed the prophet Shemaiah to tell the people that since they left God, God left them alone to face the invading army of Shishak, an Egyptian Pharaoh. Rehoboam and the nation’s leaders humbled themselves, and declared the “Lord is righteous.” Yahweh saw their humility, and spoke through the prophet saying, “They have humbled themselves. I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless, they shall be servants to him, that they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries” (vv. 7-8, ESV). God forgave the people of Rehoboam’s kingdom, but the people still experienced the effect of their sin of their unfaithfulness. Shishak spared the city of Jerusalem from destruction, and “he took aw...

Recently I got reacquainted with Watchman Nee, particularly his book Sit, Walk, Stand . I still recall attending Gardena Valle Baptist Church and hearing Pastor Ron believer’s position in Christ and condition in the world, which was something he gleaned from Nee’s Sit, Walk, Stand . It has really been a blessing to revisit some old lessons. Nee’s reflection on Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians is truly profound. The Apostle Paul writes of the Christian being seated in the heavenlies in Christ (Eph. 1-3), walking worthy of the calling which the believer has been called (Eph. 4-5), and standing against the powers of darkness (Eph. 6). Sit, Walk, Stand, the words appear to be out of order, counterintuitive to life, and truly paradoxical. Some of us think about living a good life then going to heaven, but Ephesians 2 indicates the Christian is already seated in heaven (albeit still traversing the earthly sojourn). Nevertheless, this is the unique rhythmic drumbeat of the dance ...

Suppose for a moment one could actually dangle a person over hell fire and brimstone. The body secured with just a thin chord, which could easily be severed, sending the poor soul into the unquenchable flames. Would that put the fear of God in anyone? No way. I doubt God would use any kind of scare tactic just to bring a person into relationship with Him. This is never to say hell is irrelevant or even non-existent, but scaring someone would never work, at least for the person who sincerely wants to be changed and rearranged to be fit for heavenly life. The scoundrel in the midst of a raging battle may call out to God for deliverance inside the foxhole; however, once the danger has passed, he simply carries without giving thought to the Creator and how his very life rests in His hands. No, scaring in never enough to bring wayward souls into the temple of the Lord to learn at the feet of the Messiah. What God does is He sends the Son into this world to be incarnated as a man, ...

July 14, 2013, I was kicking back at home when the news flash came on that George Zimmerman was found not guilty for the second degree murder of Trayvon Martin. Backtrack to February 26, 2012, when George was on the neighborhood watch, saw Trayvon, perceived the lad was acting suspiciously, through a course of events the two got into a scuffle, with Trayvon dying of a fatal gunshot to the chest. Befuddlement is what I felt after hearing the verdict, as I was certain the accused was facing a guilty verdict. Yet, it is still surreal that this incident has sparked a national debate, with two sides calling the greater populace being defined by a story. Truth is really secondary to the whole debate. What the debaters are speaking about never really touches upon cardinal issues of American jurisprudence, such as a speedy trial by jury of one’s own peers, the principle of being innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt, and the like. These ideas are important, but the nationa...

In Gethsemane the Christos prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will…My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done” (Matt. 26:39, 42). Here the Lord in His humanity expresses the overwhelming distress of the sufferings to come. He knew he betrayer had left to do his deed, the disciples would be scattered, and Peter would deny Him thrice. He moreover knew the agony of the cross would be His destiny. This was the cup of judgment set before Him. This is an epic moment as one witnesses the grandeur of the interpersonal relations within the Godhead. The subject/object distinctions of God the Son praying to and declaring His own will to be in submission to God the Heavenly Father. Jesus forsakes His own life in humble submission to do the will of the Father. What magnificence! Truly a fathomable mystery of the Almighty! It would be the cross that would secure the salvation of a great multitude of sinn...

“And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God (Ezek. 11:19-20). Ezekiel spoke these words from a Babylonian refugee camp far away from his homeland. Late sixth-century B.C. prophet anticipated a time when the Yahweh would bring back the exiles to the land of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The people had broken their covenant with Yahweh. They had compromised their worship, and defiled their holy temple. The temple that David had conceived and Solomon built. The very temple the very Glory of the Lord had indwelt. When Solomon brought the Ark of the Covenant into the temple, the glory of the Lord filled the place, like a thick cloud, and the priests were unable to stand ministering (1 Kings 8). It was the very same temple that Ezekiel sees in a vision, and in...

Jesus lived in difficult times among people who were spiritually blind and deaf. He preached about the kingdom of heaven, He performed miracles, but the people failed to perceive Him to be Israel’s long awaited Messiah. This sin would bring upon them certain divine judgment. Jesus then confronts them on this matter with the following story of a wedding banquet: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘ Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.” ’ But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them. But the king was enraged, and he sent his arm...

The Dark Knight Rises is one well-done action adventure movie to cap off Christopher Nolan’s rebooted Batman trilogy. I certainly anticipated seeing the movie, and after seeing it, I can say that my expectations were sated. *** Spoiler Alert *** The movie presents an apocalyptic like battle in Gotham City between Batman (Christian Bale) and nemesis Bane (Tom Hardy), the presumed leader of the League of Shadows, and successor to Ra’s al Ghul. I find that one of the resounding themes in The Dark Knight Rises , which makes the movie work, is the redemption of people. It is about being rescued out of darkness into the light. The very idea is a yearning within the depths of a person’s soul, it is something that connects and engages viewers in the story. In Dark Knight Rises Bane initially battles and breaks the Batman’s back, and imprisons the injured Bruce Wayne in a pit far away from Gotham. From inside the pit, the only contact with the external world is a video monitor displ...

Self-righteousness has a way of making a person blind to the truth of their own circumstances. The self-righteous are unable to see they have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The religious establishment of Jesus’ day suffered from this spiritual blindness. They could easily see the faults of the tax collectors and prostitutes, but failed to see their own faults. Jesus even tried to bring this to light in the act of clearing the temple of money changers, since they were making God’s house a “robbers den” (Matt. 21:13). Yet, the self-righteous leaders still could not see their error. To help the self-righteous realize their situation, Jesus tells this story: But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, “Son, go work today in the vineyard.” And he answered, “I will not.” But afterward he regretted it and went. The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, “I will , sir.” But he did not go” (Matt. 21:28-30). ...

The first will be last and the last will be first. That is the paradox of God’s kingdom, which makes it like no other. It is a kingdom worth giving up everything for, yet all its wealth and glory is received by grace. It is a pearl of great price. On the other hand, it is often misunderstood by those whose values and ways come from another world. We, therefore, must abandon the ways of this world in other to find the other. The qualification to all these blessings is “many who are first will be last; and the last, first” (19:30). This is the great reversal of all. It is not about who becomes the greatest, but how God looks upon the least, lost, and lowly. It is a paradox founded upon the graciousness of God. Jesus illustrates with this parable: For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about t...

And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me (Mark 8:34 NASB) The Son of Man came to earth with the mission of going to the cross. He would suffer. He would be rejected. He would die. But…after three days, He would rise again. A simple message, but some had a hard time coming to grips with it. Peter objected. He even dared to rebuke Jesus for the very notion. He did not want to Messiah’s life to end in suffering, rejection, and death. But this was not God’s plan. “Get behind Me, Satan,” said Jesus, “for you are not setting your mind on God’s interest, but man’s.” The way of Christ was not about satisfying one’s own self-interest. Christ demands something far different. Deny self. Take Up the Cross. Follow Me. Christ’s followers must put away their own interest and by faith follow Him. It not simply joining a church, it also meant being conformed to the ...

Someone wondered if Jesus Christ’s resurrection is patterned after our own resurrection, would we retain our scares just as the Lord did? Appearing to the apostle Thomas, the resurrected Lord said, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing” (John 20:27). The Lord revealed His scares to demonstrate that He did die upon the cross, was buried, and rose again on the third day. This was a divine manifestation to help build faith in His disciple. Whether or not the scares disappeared at Christ’s ascension is not mentioned in the Bible. To the question of what the resurrected body would be like, Paul wrote, “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there ...

We are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. What is faith? Simply put, faith is knowledge, agreement, and trust. Faith involves the knowledge of certain facts about the Gospel in order to be saved. Paul writes, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). So it is necessary for a person to have a basic understanding of the Gospel. The Gospel is simply this: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4). The knowledge of the Gospel must also be coupled with an agreement that it is true. One cannot become a Christian if they believe the teaching about Christ death, burial, and resurrection is pure myth, or a copycat of other pagan mythologies. It is more than just a feeling, but the resurrection of Jesus Christ is something that occurred in history and out of this event stems all of Christian doctrine. However, saving fa...

“Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come” (Matt. 12:31-32). These words of Jesus can tighten up one’s stomach with heaps of uneasiness. Many believers who have stumbled in thought, word, and deed often wrongly worry with fears of having committed this sin. The blasphemy of the Spirit is really a serious sin committed in unbelief. The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is really not about a Christian losing their salvation. Jesus is not speaking to His followers; rather, He is addressing those Pharisees who attributed His works to Beelzebub (Matt. 12:22-29). These were not followers of Jesus who apostatized; rather, they were the antagonist to His ministry. They grumbled about the disciples picking grain of wheat plants...

There are many instances where the church loses sense of her ethos and follows after the vanities of a sinful and fallen world. Even the very sacred message of salvation is not immune to corruption of self-righteousness. Some get caught up into the game of “we” vs. “they” or the “in” vs. the “out” group. They imagine a list of “dos” and “don’ts,” and they keep to that imaginary list. Like “don’t smoke,” “don’t chew,” and “do go with girls that do.” They even convince themselves that is what the “Christian” life is all about. Yet, God has something else in mind. Many in first century Israel yearned for God to send a Messiah who would lead them into an end time battle that would destroy all their enemies, namely the Romans, and establish the eschatological kingdom they envisaged. God had something better in mind, and the everlasting kingdom that He intended would begin with His Son upon the cross. The eternal life Jesus Christ offered would be on nobody else’s terms save God’s alone....

10 years ago I was living in Tustin, California. I just woke up, turned on the television to footage of smoke billowing out of the World Trade Center twin towers in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. More news flashes came only to reveal another plane had crashed into the Pentagon. It was certainly an unspeakable shocking and mystifying moments when you just do not have words to describe what is going on in your head. As the day went on, subsequent news reports revealed the crashing planes were part of an attack by radical militant Islamic extremist. The world had changed overnight, and nothing was the same ever since. It seems that the entire world spent the entire first decade of the twenty first century coming to grips with that event one way or another. Some mourned the loss of loved ones who were actual victims of the attack. Others found relief in hearing how a loved one escaped harm’s way on that dreadful morning. Wars came, governments toppled, and r...

The “golden rule” is something familiar to a great many people. Jesus Christ put it this way: “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 7:12). There ubiquitousness to this principle, as it can even be found outside the Canon of Scripture in the Jewish Apocrypha, which presents it in its negative form: “And what you hate, do not do to anyone” (Tobit 4:15). Certainly many people hold to this as a truism, and the principle mutual giving and receive of goodness resonates well with the multitudes. Jesus Christ even points out that this principle of reciprocity is foundational to “the Law and the Prophets.” The very Yahweh who entered into history, who rescued the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery, giving them a national identity, reminded them of the promises made to the great patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and created the universe, the very idea of doing unto others what one would have done to ones...

Independence Day has always been a special occasion for me. More than just memories of fireworks and BBQs as a kid—and even an extended childhood with some “creative” pyrotechnics as an adult—it is also a time to be a little patriotic in commemoration of my country’s beginnings, and its formation out of a struggle against tyranny. Being “created equal” and “endowed with unalienable Rights,” such as “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” are cherished among Americans, whether understood or misunderstood. Yet, are these ideas really “self evident.” Maybe for the founders of this nation, but what seems to be the most self-evident truth is inequality. Distinctions between one ethnicity and another, slave and free, men and women is the perennial struggles of all history. Eastern Religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism rightly accepted the reality these inequalities, albeit they stumbled in concluding people are fatalistically consigned to their lot in life based upon karmic law wor...