Love Truth Blog

One of the beautiful things about the Book of Job is that its wisdom puts us humans in our place in never giving an answer to all the “why” questions. Hubris drives us to formulate platitudes, slogans, and memes to answer some of the world’s most pressing issues, or to settle some deep theological, philosophical, or political debate. But these never really work. As for Job’s case, certain extenuating circumstances remain hidden, i.e. the dialogue between Yahweh and Satan in chapters 1-2, and the reason why the God of the universe permits the righteous man to lose children and property is left to mystery. Much of the Book of Job is poetic dialogue four men—Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu—who want to convince Job all the calamities were some sort of divine retribution. Eliphaz, for example, says, “As I have seen, those who plow iniquity | and sow trouble reap the same. | By the breath of God they perish, | and by the blast of his anger they are consumed (Job 4:8-9). 1 Bildad cont...

I am really left aghast in the wake of the June 17, 2015 mass shooting of the nine worshipers in the Emmanuel African Episcopal Methodist Church in Charleston, South Carolina. It is heinousness of such an unspeakable act of evil which leaves me speechless. The names of those lives taken can never be forgotten: Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd Susie Jackson Ethel Lee Lance Dr. Depayne Middleton Clementa Pinckney Tywanza Sanders Daniel Simmons Sharonda Coleman-Singleton Myra Thompson Who could imagine the 21 year old lad, Dylan Storm Roof, could commit such a devilish atrocity, for what, but to start a race war. Just what would make one child of Adam and Eve’s soul so corrupt that he would destroy the lives of other children of Adam and Eve, with the intent that other descendants of Adam and Eve would be spurred on to kill off one another? Such an evil is unspeakable. Can anyone every answer the “why” question? The Apostle John, without giving a simple “why” answer, ...

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...

Coming to Grips with Newtown Deadly Shooting. December 14, 2012 is a day very few would forget. The senseless violent murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, 26 victims, 20 of them children, how do we come to grips with that? We must certainly never forget the names all those in Newtown we lost—Charlotte Bacon; Daniel Barden; Rachel Davino; Olivia Engel; Josephine Gay; Dylan Hockley; Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung; Madeleine F. Hsu; Catherine V. Hubbard; Chase Kowalski; Nancy Lanza; Jesse Lewis; Ana Marquez-Greene; James Mattioli; Grace McDonnell; Anne Marie Murphy; Emilie Parker; Jack Pinto; Noah Pozner; Caroline Previdi; Jessica Rekos; Avielle Richman; Lauren Rousseau; Mary Sherlach; Victoria Soto; Benjamin Wheeler; Allison N. Wyatt. May our memories of them never fade! When I got news of the initial reports of the incident, I was speechless. One might invent words to describe great injustices and tragedies, like “genocide,” but they never really come clo...

I thought these are some quite profound words penned from the confines of a Chinese prison by Watchman Nee: Oh, to be wasted! It is a blessed thing to be wasted for the Lord. So many who have been prominent in the Christian world know nothing of this. Many of us have been used to the full—have been used, I would say, too much—but we do not know what it means to be wasted on God. We like to be always ‘on the go’: the Lord would sometimes prefer to have us in prison. We think in terms of apostolic journeys: God dares to put his greatest ambassadors in chains. “But thanks be unto God, which always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savour of his knowledge in every place” (2 Cor. 2:14). “And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment (John 12:3). The Lord grant us grace that we may learn how to please Him. When, like Paul, we make this our supreme aim (2 Cor. 5:9), the Gospel will have achieved its end. ( The Normal Christian Life ) All...

The following is a well done op ed piece from CT on the recent arrest of the Christians who were attempting to take some Haitian children into the Dominican Republic (see text below). The American Christians may have erred in ignoring certain protocols, but they are not the only relief teams that have made mistakes in providing foreign aid to children. Medefind also observes that other Christian organizations were in Haiti long before the earthquake providing relief service, and these groups have become crucial in addressing the current situation. Moreover, he rightly finds that once all the hype about the Haitian quake is over, the cameras turned to the next "big story," the poverty shall still remain, and this reality must not be forgotten. "Strong on Zeal, Thin in Knowledge: Lessons from Haiti's arrest of American Christians trying to take children out of the country." Jedd Medefind Newswires buzzed recently with reports that a group of ten Americans from an ...

It seems as if these are the days were many are living with heightened fear, and an uneasiness about the worst-case scenario actually coming about. This is certainly true for every generation, and in these days it has been on issues like war, terrorism, injustice, bankruptcy, unemployment, moral collapse and myriads of other things. In all this, I am reminded of the following words of Paul: But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you. But having the same spirit of f...

Last Sunday as I was getting my groceries totaled up, the checker asked if I would like to make a donation to Haiti, which I did. The amount was practically nothing, but it did remind me that for the entirety of the previous week, it seemed as if the entire world zeroed in on what was going on that half of the Island of Hispaniola, which was devastated by a massive earthquake on January 12, 2010. News sources consider this the largest earthquake that country had experienced in the last 200 years, and many report an estimated 50,000 lives perished. Events like this always remind me that human life is so precious, yet at the same time, one can never know when life’s flame shall be extinguished. There were lots of voices chiming in on the Haiti situation, and many of them were quite helpful, instructing people on what they could do to help survivors. I even had an acquaintance share his intention to travel to the island to do some aid work. I say Godspeed! I also heard a few disheartening...