Reformed Blogging

The Lord's prayer is recorded in Matthew 6:5-13 and Luke 11:1-13. As a former Catholic, I grew up reciting this prayer without understanding what it meant. The prayer was said many times before classes started, said five times in a Rosary, said a number of times after a confessional, and it has become a vain repetition. Jesus said not to make vain repetitions (or translated as "meaningless words" in the GNT) when you pray. The "Our Father" is a pattern of how to pray and not what to pray. The "Our Father" gave us the pattern of confidence to glorify God, to ask for our needs, to forgive us and others, and not to be led into temptation.  I was taught the idea of the universal brotherhood of man. It said that we're all brothers and sisters and God is our Father. Yet, that very idea was shot down when I read John 8:44 which Jesus calls the unsaved Jews as children of the Devil . Wait, aren't we all children of God? that idea really got shot down w...

There are times I just feel too mad to pray. I got into an argument and I just feel like I'm too mad to pray. I know God knows my anger but I'm too mad to even talk to Him. That's why I can say that Satan isn't my worst enemy - it's me! Satan isn't omnipresent so he always isn't beside me. However, my old man is always beside me which makes my old self more dangerous than Satan himself. Satan won't be so much of a threat if I wasn't my own worst enemy.  Why did I get too angry to pray? I would say that the issue is pride and bitterness. I want to pray for the ill-being of someone when I'm told to love my enemies. I just feel like I'm too mad to directly talk to God. I know He doesn't want to hear me if I'm going to utter words of hate in prayer. Then I realize that I need to let God calm me down first in prayer. The truth is if I don't pray when I'm angry or I feel too angry to pray - the anger can get worse. Sure, the...

It's no secret that the stance of the Vatican (except for some rabid Roman Catholic fanatics) is that those they label Protestants are now "separated brethren". One movement that came out during the 1970s was the popular Evangelicals and Catholics Together or ECT for short. It's so ironic at how some of Rome's amateur "apologists" have used Jim Bakker and Joel Osteen as an example to refute Protestantism or born again Christians. Many of the members of the ECT movement were quack pastors too. I remembered getting saved and I was told, "Well Roman Catholics are still Christians!" Many times, I get guilt-induced to the point of saying, "Well, it doesn't matter if you're Catholic or Protestant as long as you receive Jesus as your Savior." However, a Catholic said, "If you are still bad, you will still go to Hell." I answered, "If you're still bad, you never had Christ." It nearly became a heated debate. T...

God answers all prayers and no is still an answer. If God says no then He has answered my prayer not according my will but to His will. I was thinking about the beautiful Lord's Prayer which addresses this fact that prayers must be, "Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven." (Matthew 6:10, Luke 11:2) - that is every time I pray, I must pray according to God's will.  The very rule of prayer is found in 1 John 5:14-15 that there is the confidence I can claim. But what is this confidence? It doesn't mean God is a genie. No, Jesus is both my Lord and Savior. He's my Lord. Prayers to Him must conform to His will that His Father's will be done. One must ask but only according to His will and not our will. I can only get a yes for an answer only if it's for His own honor and glory. The prayer of Jesus said, "Not my will but thy will be done." in Matthew 26:39, Mark 14:36 and Luke 22:42. Jesus was asking His Father to remove the cup but...

I remembered the time I thought it's crazy to thank God all the time. I couldn't comprehend at it especially when I first read Psalm 34. The first verse made me think that it must be madness to thank God all the time even in times of trouble. The first verse struck me and it made me hate the Bible all the more before I got saved: Psalm 34:1 - I will bless the LORD at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth. I even thought it once to be lunacy. Nothing was more offensive for my sinful, unsaved self-reading that I should thank God for the bad times. Worse, I was reading the Book of Job and found out this verse: Job 2:10 - But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.  I soon embraced these verses when I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. But there are times I just find myself sinning by com...

Make no mistake that Christians are called to hate sin. Sin must be hated because God hates sin. But there's one thing that we fail to see that God hates sin, He will punish both sin and the sinner, He's angry with the wicked every day but Christians are called to love the lost. It's one thing to hate sin and it's another to love the sinner. That is loving lost sinners enough to tell them the truth about their being lost. What's the commandment of God? I'm called to love my enemies (Matthew 56:43-48, Luke 6:27-35). I'm called to love them enough to tell them the truth. I'm called to pray for their salvation even if they do all sorts of bad things. It hurts to be persecuted for the wrong reasons. It hurts to be falsely accused. Forgiveness doesn't mean condoning to the evil they do. Rather, it's all about not holding a grudge and letting God's justice take its course. So how am I to love my enemies? I'm called to rebuke the works of...

Just because a person becomes a Christian doesn't mean they're sinless. True that they can't live like the rest of the world but they're not immune from failures. I always thought of this horrible truth that it's easier for me to pray when I'm in trouble than when's not in trouble. It's a real problem when I end up praying as the last resort than the first resort.  When I reread Psalm 34:1 it says, "I will bless the  L ORD at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth." Job acknowledged that his trials in life were from God. Although he had some degree of self-righteousness that needed to be purged out, he still humbled himself. I can't even say I don't have any degree of self-righteousness and my painful experiences make me more aware of how much self-righteousness I have to get rid of as part of sanctification. What trials teach me is also this is that. Pray, pray and pray regardless of circumstances. For me to pray w...

I remembered back when I still thought about why does God allow difficult times and why doesn't he promise an easy life? The whole reality can be summarized as this, "He never promised an easy life." Then I remember Psalm 34:1 saying, "I will bless the L ORD at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth." It does sound tough. It seems to make sense murmuring when times are hard. But if there weren't hard times, I don't think anybody can appreciate God's blessings. I always felt like giving up because God seems unfair. But salvation hasn't always been about fairness but mercy. While God will eventually judge sin but raw justice will save no one and damn everyone. God's standard of holiness has always been whether you sinned or not in contrast to what I used to think that His standard was other people vs. me. What does it mean to bless the L ORD at all times? It's not to be stupid or to be a glutton for punishment. Ins...

It's very easy to forget at times that when I got saved that I'm left on my own. No, I'm not left on my own to produce fruit on my own. The Christian growth has always been God working in the believer and the believer working out in godly fear and trembling (Philippians 2:13-14). There's always the issue that when I fail, it's because I didn't really pray hard for guidance. Stuff that I find hard to do is like not losing my temper when things go wrong and dealing with mean people here and there. There's always mean people to deal with and it's no surprise. I really want to get even. I want to really say, "Lord what's the use of praying for that person? That person's always hurting me! I can't take it!"  True I can't take it but God can take it. God gives the Christian the grace to do what they can't do. I felt that the more I spent time with God, the more I find myself able to do what I normally wouldn't do becau...