Job 34:10-11 Hear me, you men of understanding: far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong. For according to the work of a man he will repay him, and according to his ways he will make it befall him.

The article today is reminding us that it is not about our good works, it is not about us being blameless, or being completely righteous. God is not finding a perfect Christian. As Pastor Peter Tanchi always say, Christianity is impossible for human. It should come from God.

In the case of Job, He followed God, and God himself said in the Bible that Job is righteous and blameless. He lived by the equation of living good = being blessed; be bad = receive punishment. This equation worked perfect for Job until God took away what mattered to Him. Job lose everything that he cares for. He suffered, but that's the time Job saw God.

Job had 3 "stunning" realizations about the image of God.

• In Job 9:33, he realized that He needs someone who could stand between himself and God and "lay his hand on us both.". Until that time, Job thought that he only needed his righteousness.
• If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both, someone to remove God's rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more. (Job 9:33)
• In Job 16:19, he reaches out to an unseen person he calls his witness. Without even knowing about the throne room scene, he senses that someone needs to advocate on his behalf before the throne of God.
• Even now my witness in heaven; my advocate is on high. (Job 16:19)
• In Job 19:25, Job cries out to his "Redeemer." Before his suffering, he believed that he can work harder, and do better by himself. Now that he lose everything a person can lose, Job sees that he doesn't simply need God's help -- he needs to be redeemed.
• I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.

God does not need us to be perfect, he wants us to come as is, where is -- with a broken spirit and a contrite heart.

The journey is from works-righteousness to a righteousness that comes only from God; from law to grace; from obedience to praise.

People might sometimes argue about the difference with Christianity and other religions. Come to think of it, it's the same, all religions goal is to make man live a good life. It is about doing good works for others and to have an eternity of peace. However, what most people don't notice is that all the other religions relies on people's action. In Christianity, it is emphasized that we are saved not by good works so no one can boast. There are a lot of example showing people failing and suffering even when they do every thing in the law. The reason is that, in Christianity, God saved us by grace. We are sinners no matter what we do and we are only saved because of Jesus Christ dying on the cross and taking our place. It is by grace that we are saved not by following the law. This is why instead of being completely righteousness in our works, pray to God that He gives you righteousness that you may live the way He wants you, and go where ever He leads. The difference of Christianity to other religion is because of who Jesus is. Jesus is the son of God who came to earth to reveal God, the father. He is our savior, our mediator, our redeemer. There is no way that we can go to God if not through Him.

I really like this article because just yesterday, I was talking about religions. I was explaining who Jesus is. Christianity is not about righteousness, it is not about being good, and good works. It is about Jesus Christ. Remove Jesus and Christianity becomes just -ity.

Genesis 50:19-20 But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today."

God allows hard times as He molds us and grows us.

Why does God allow suffering? Christians do suffer as non-believers do, but what Christians have that non-believers don't is the assurance that there's someone bigger that is in control. No matter what nuisance you have, it doesn't matter how big or how impossible your problem is... if you believe in Christ, you should know that He has a grand great plan for you. In our painful moments, God is preparing us for our good.

2 Corinthians 5:6-7 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are of home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.

Keep walking by faith -- God is at work.

Yesterday, my team went to Su Zhou a city of China just an hour away from Shanghai by bus. The team building was quite good because I was able to do some things that I would have never done. I think that my experience here is an example of how sight can confuse your mind even about your abilities. Also during that day, I was able to prove how much we rely on our eyes and less on our other senses. The first activity was to climb up a very high pole. On top of the pole, there was a plan maybe a meter wide. We have to walk across that plank and there was another plank on another pole across the pole we climb. It's dead scary, even if the gap between 2 poles is just a meter and I can actually hop and get across, the fact that I can see that it's high, and there's a gap, I lose faith on my ability to jump and believed in what my eyes is telling me -- it's high, it's dangerous, and there's a GAP! But of course, seeing my colleagues being able to do it without a problem, I did it as well. I climbed up slowly and when I was up, I felt afraid, I hear people shouting from below that I should enjoy the view but how can I enjoy something when I am completely afraid and my knees are trembling, I can't even jump across. So I just prayed for courage, just for 1 second so I can jump across the gap and jump right back. The first jump was very scary but the jump back was only half as scary as the first.

Today, Paul is telling me that in today's world where seeing is believing, we should live by faith in God. God is working, there are invisible hands planning and fixing our lives. Trust that He's working and we will see that sooner or later God's plan is the perfect plan. In previous articles, I was told to look at the bigger picture because nothing can happen without connection. I think, whatever it is good or bad that's happening to you right now, it's all part of His grand plan. If our goal is to go to heaven, and spend the rest of our lives with God. I am sure, God is completely working on everything in your life to go forward that goal. Just trust in Him by faith and not by sight on what's happening on your life.

Matthew 5:43-45 You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

Are you distressed because of an enemy? Try applying a mixture of love and prayer to your relationship. It's a sure way for both of you to experience God's healing power.

God's love should be extended to all people -- even enemies.

It's impossible to be a true Christian...so we need the Holy Spirit. This is what I always remember from Pastor Peter Tanchi. Why would anyone care about their enemies? We hate these people! We love to see them fall, but the true God says otherwise. We should love them and pray for them so we'll be pleasing children in His eyes.

Whenever I read about these impossible situations, I pray for the Holy Spirit guidance that I may choose to do what's right and what's good for people I love and people who are against me. I know that if I stay on God's way nothing can actually wrong.

Loving your enemies... easier said than done. So, tonight, I pray for guidance, and wisdom. So I'll always remember God's commands and what He wants for me.

It has been pretty difficult lately to keep up with life. I realized that I have been bargaining with God recently. I committed myself to read and reflect on God's word every day, but over the past month, I have been reading and reflecting but I don't have enough time to write about it anymore. I have been asking God to help me feel comfortable in Shanghai, to do well in my job, and other things. So, why would I let my time for Him go, when he answered my prayers? It's just unfair to Him.

As you have notice, my blog is not updated everyday anymore as before. I have filled up my schedule badly, and it's pathetic for me to shake off God time instead of my work time, sleep time, cooking time, and gym time. I don't know but it has been very difficult lately. I've been growing used to Shanghai, gained some friends, and some activities to do. It's really good that God is not like me. He is consistently listening, waiting, and wanting me.

I'll try to blog again. It is a reflection about my spiritual journey with God and I should not let it go. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize!

Thanks July for waking me up! :D

1 Peter 1:3,6 Praise be to the God...In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead... In this you greatly rejoice, though for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials

Jesus accepted suffering as part of God's perfect plan.

Peter said, "In this you greatly rejoice, though for now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith -- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire -- may proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." (1 Peter 1:6-7)

Jesus' suffering and resurrection should be relevant to our present situation.

How much do we really love Jesus? How much do we really trust that He is in control? How much do we lean on Him on the most impossible situations? The message of today's article touched me... because it is about who we are and who God is in our lives after we put down our shields down, and give up from trials. When we're happy and everything is perfect in our lives, it's easy to trust in the Lord. What if, the Lord takes away everything and make you feel more pain after you believed in Him? Would you still believe? I learned from today's verse that I should because it is a test of faith! How far would you go for God? Take each trial as a challenge to know how far you would.

Hebrews 7:22 - 25 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save us to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

This article is explaining that Christianity is not a religion but a relationship. If we try to reach God through the definition of religion, we will definitely fail.

Religion is always defined as a person attempting to reach up to God.

Religion makes us failures, but a relationship with Jesus leads to real joy and hope. Religion is like someone on tiptoe stretching to reach God. It's futile. Relationship is God reaching down to man. I love that picture! We can "draw near" to God through Jesus. With open arms, God welcomes us to Himself, saying, "Come on! I love you! I'll forgive you! I'll receive you!" Relationship gives us the hope that religion never can.

I think the author has painted a perfect picture of what our connection with God should be. It is not be a pure religion -- we trying to reach God. Christianity is a relationship with God.  Religion can be a one-way street, it is purely base on our effort to reach God. That's the difference in Christianity, we try to find God, and God welcomes us with open arms through Jesus Christ. Christianity is not a one-way communication, it is two-way between God and man. We should build a relationship with God, believe in Jesus Christ, and make him important part of our life, trying to be Christ-like in situations that are given to us -- good or bad.

Genesis 32:24,31, 33:4 Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day... The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip... But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.

Sometimes God causes us to limp to improve our walk.

Have I ever wrestled with God? Did I received a wound the proved I had been with Him? How has my wound caused me to grow in my faith?

Please understand that -- for us -- wounds and hurts are only temporal, yet they carry great eternal benefits; "For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. So let the Esaus of this life run. This is the only chance they'll get! And, yes, let the Jacobs limp. We have been with God. Though our humanity may be wounded, our souls are made whole by the One with whom we wrestle.

This world may seem unfair that unbelievers may seem to be winning today. Corrupt government officials becomes richer without getting caught, while the poor people become poorer no matter how hard they work in life. These poor people might be Christians, people who whole-heartedly believed in the Lord, and putting their hopes on the day He'll come back. Maybe you can give me more injustices in the world, or maybe even in your daily experience, and daily life. God assures us that He will reward our commitment to Him, we may be limp now, but when He comes back, we'll be running eternally with Him.

For applications that uses ASP.NET Session it is better if you create a SessionManager that maintains the variables in session and expose these variables as the SessionManager's properties.

The obvious advantage of this is that you don't have to type and re-type the key of your object in Session (which is error-prone). Instead, you can just go ahead and look at the available properties. You can also put additional logic when adding values to the Session or retrieving values from Session.

This is an example of a SessionManager.

public static class SessionManager
    {       

        public static string Alias
        {
            get
            {
                if (HttpContext.Current.Session[Constants.LOGIN_ALIAS] == null)
                {
                    //do something to get the values

                }

                return HttpContext.Current.Session[Constants.LOGIN_ALIAS].ToString();
            }
        }

        public static string Domain
        {
            get
            {
                if (HttpContext.Current.Session[Constants.LOGIN_DOMAIN] == null)
                {
                    //do something to get the values

                }

                return HttpContext.Current.Session[Constants.LOGIN_DOMAIN].ToString();
            }           
        }

}

Notice that all the keys in my SessionManager are stored in one place (Constants class which just contains a list of CONST strings) and the SessionManager always try to do something if the Session is currently null. This ensures that the Session will be initialized only on first use and will always return a value assuming there is no exception.

I think this is a better way of using and accessing Session in ASP.NET.

1 Samuel 17:32,36 David said to Saul, "Let no man's heart fail because of him".... "Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and his uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.

The article today says that according to scholars, in order for a person to be happy, he must know his purpose in life. He must be able to answer the question, Why am I here?

For Christians, we know why we are here. Our purpose is to live for God's glory and to display the reality and advantages of a life lived in Him. In a Christian's life, we should look at every trial as a chance to show God's presence and power. Every relationship we have and we will be creating with other people is an opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus.

We are reminded today that as we grow our faith, we should surrender more of our life to Jesus. We should realign our goals, and our dreams to God's plan. We should live our life in God's reputation.

Seize every opportunity to show how great God is. Live life with God in the center of it.

Today, I listened to Pastor Peter Tanchi's message last March 23. I am always a week late when listening to CCF's messages to make sure that I can listen to a message every week.

It feels really weird when God immediately answer your prayer. I feel like God revealed Himself to me through this message.

Last week, I am talking with Theresa while I was helping her move houses. We came to a topic that involved our faith. We both believe in God, we both have faith in Jesus Christ, and His death on the cross to ensure our salvation, but we also have our doubts. She shared to me an experience she had when she was sharing her faith with her students and her student begun questioning the claim of Jesus that He is the Son of God. In Christianity, everything we do is anchored on the validity that Jesus is the Son of God. We believe in Him because we have our own experiences, we have our prayers answered, and we have heard our friends and other people's testimonials. As we went on talking, we agreed that it is much more difficult for Chinese children to understand what the experience of having Jesus means because they don't have the culture. It is like when you study a foreign language in school, and you don't have the environment to apply it. These children are like that, they listen to what we tell them, and apply logic to it, but people around them all does not believe in Jesus, and even the existence of God.

So, I felt that I have doubts in my mind. When I came home, the first person to ask about this was Peter Liao. I think he has been going to CCF for a long time, and he might have already have the answer to this kind of doubts. What he told me was quite basic -- read the Bible, read about Jesus, pray about it, but I agree that it's really what I needed. He said that the next time you want to talk about the Bible, the Gospel, pray about it first. Don't go to a battle without your weapons. He said that it will also help me if I share my experiences with the other people, so that they will be able to relate to me, and at the same time the Holy Bible.

God answered my prayers here. But that night, I continued praying about it because I still have doubts about the same question.

Today, I watched the CCF video and all my questions were answered.

1. How do you prove that the Bible is real, most especially the New Testament?

Peter Tanchi showed on that message that the Bible is a reliable source because when you compare it to the other historical accounts, the Bible has the least number of years gap between the event and the actual transcription. Also, in terms of number of copies to confirm that it is accurate and reliable, most books like Aristotle's, and Homer's have only a few original copies left, the Bible has an amazing 24,000 copies! The Bible is reliable transcription of the history.

2. Is Jesus just a man that can do miracles?

Because the Bible is a reliable source, we can now say that the resurrection of Jesus actually happened. This answers the questions if Jesus is just a great prophet, or teacher, who can do miracles or the Son of God. Obviously, no prophet can die and rise from death. Other religions might have the same teachings, the same ethics, the same idea as Christianity where we should be good and do good things, Christianity is anchored on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ to prove that He is the Son of God, and to save us from eternal death.

Jesus is not a prophet, He is not just a teacher. He is the Son of God, who died on the cross to save us from the punishment of our sins. The only thing we have to do is to surrender our sins, confess them to Him, believe and accept Jesus as your Savior, and you will be saved.

Yes, maybe some people can still argue that  some of the miracles of Jesus can be possibly done by a a mere prophet. But Jesus resurrection sets Him apart and different from the rest of the religions.

Pastor Peter also showed us the list of the disciples and their unfortunate fate when they stood up for Jesus. These Apostles continued preaching God's word and testifying that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins and rose again on the third day. They are willing and sure about their testimony that they are willing to die for it. No one crazy is willing to die for a lie. The disciples are fighting for a truth and they are sure that they will be rewarded after they die, so they stood up brave, and held on to their faith until the very end.

The resurrection of Jesus validates who He is and what He has promised.

1. He is the Son of God.
2. He is the coming Judge.
3. He guarantees forgiveness.
4. He guarantees eternal life.
5. He guarantees victory.

We are sure that we'll have a glorious future. We have eternal life because Jesus died in our place, and rose again on the third day. When Jesus comes back, He will take all who believes in Him and there will be no more sickness, no more pain, no more suffering.

When you look at the Bible, it seems that everything is so difficult, and everything is too good to be true. God is great, and He is good. Nothing is too good for God, and nothing is impossible for Him. People think that we are just imaging heaven, that maybe it is just created by other people to escape sadness, and unbearable pain. But what's history telling us? All the proofs are pointing to the fact that Jesus existed, and He died on the cross, and rose up again after 3 days. If we doubt the existence of God, we should also doubt the validity of our history books because both of them are just written accounts of what happened.

As an end, I thank God for revealing Himself to me again. He showed me that I am not believing in something that cannot be proved. God showed me some of the facts that confirms His existence and His love for me. I feel really guilty that despite all the blessings, I still doubt Him.

I pray tonight, that God will continue to enlighten me, and change me into something more favorable in His eyes. I pray that He will make me feel guilty whenever I sin by reminding me the pain and suffering He went through on the cross to pay for my sins. I hope I will never hurt my Savior again.

Pastor Peter Tanchi finally said, "I don't want to sin because I know Jesus loves me." I hope I'll be able to keep this thought inside my mind before I do anything. I hope God will make me a better person. I pray that He will take control of my life and make me feel... the same feeling as Pastor Tanchi has described.

Philippians 1:2-6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Is your story God's book?

A Crisis called Conversion

Conversion includes two things: repentance and faith. Repentance is changing your mind about your life. "I used to think I was a good person then I realized that God's standard was perfection. I couldn't make it on my own, so I repented of my sin. I told God how sorry I was and that I didn't meet His standard, and I placed my faith, and I placed my faith in Christ for my forgiveness.

A Process called Sanctification

But that's just the beginning. Next starts a process called sanctification. The apostle Paul described this process in 2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come." That kind of ongoing change takes place for the rest of our lives.

God didn't drop into your life, forgive you, and then move on to something else. He came to stay. The day you converted, God started something. He's not stopping it until the very last day you're on this earth. This process of transformation produces holiness.

My relocation to Shanghai has changed me a lot. God allowed me to come here because He knows it will make me a better person, a better Christian. I prayed to God that I want a better job, I wanted to learn Mandarin as well, and I think this is an answered prayer. He put me in  a place where I can do what I want and at the same time get closer to Him. Isn't God wonderful?