A Couple of Delightful Americnas

The news usually brought "bad news", and I always hear people saying that America is going down the drain. In spite of the pessimistic atmosphere, a couple guys delighted my day yesterday.

I had a major deadline yesterday, and I had to delicate and rely on my co-workers to finish up the work. Daniel was exceptional. He stayed late the night before the deadline, and finished up the work with quality. The great part was not only the work, because many architects and drafts-persons do stay late to meet deadlines, which shouldn't be so special. When I know how the company compensate him, I think he has produced a lot. When I saw his work attitude, I thank God for America's future.

This same evening, I went to Awana. There is an 8-year-old boy, Mark, who made a great impression. First he knows the Bible, meaning had good memories of the Bible verses. Second, he is very humble and fun. In the group counseling time, the teacher asked what knowledge and wisdom was. He answered, "Knowledge was something that you can learn from a book, but wisdom is not something you can find in a book." Very wise. When I looked at him, I thank God for America's future.

The country is not going down the drain. There are still a lot of people who love the Lord, and a lot of people who contribute in great ways. There are challenging times, yet, I still believe that God bless America for those who love him in this country.

Why people suffer?

The real question is: why Jesus died?

Jesus is innocent and sinless. However, he suffered and die. Why? Because human is sinful, and Jesus has to die and save us from sin.

While an innocent man has already suffered without complaints, why do we ask "why sinful men suffer?" We age, ill and die because of our sin.

The good news is that Jesus has already died for us, and although we still suffer physically in the world, we won't eventually, and we shall have eternal lives, if we accept him as our personal savior.

How do we explain it to non-Christians? We can explain as how the Bible teaches us, but it is up to the Holy Spirit to open their heart to understand human being's sinful nature.

(class discussion with Dr. Robert Neff)

Zechariah class note

In Hebrew 7, the author is trying to describe how great Jesus is, so he uses anthropomorphic language*. At that time, people thought that the priest from the tribe of Levi had the highest authority over other tribes. When Jesus was described as the king and the priest, people rejected because Jesus was not from Levi.

The author explains that although Jesus is not from the tribe of Levi, he is a priest and higher that a priest from Levi. He refers back to Genesis 14, where Abram gave tithe to Melchizedek, who is not a priest. Levi is the great grandson of Abram. When Levi was not yet born, his ancestor Abram had already paid respect to higher authority, meaning that Levi was not the highest authority.

Jesus is the King and he is a High priest

(*language in the level of the receiver)

Zechariah chapter 2: the only place in the Bible that the term "holy land" is used to describe Israel.