Humility and obedience

These two words have been floating around in my head for some time now.  Reading Phil. 2 always brings me to these two words. 

Obedience comes from faith and leads to righteousness

Humility comes with wisdom and leads honor.

In ancient china men were required to shave their heads and wear their hair in the fashion of a queue.  It was  sign of submission to the Manchu who invaded China in the 17th century.  剃发令

  If you did not comply to this you lost your head.  In fact there was a saying "shave your hair save your head, keep your hair lose your head." 

When it comes to obeying the Lord we do it out of our love for Him.  Our faith in Him and His word drives us to obedience which leads to righteousness. 

When it comes to humility the Lord challenges us by His own life to be humble, He came to serve not to be served.  Humility is a mental exercise.  Decide today to be humble and obey the Lord!

Tramsformer

Walking through a flea-market style antique show I came across this man molding and sculpting a bust of a lady.  He was doing an excellent job, the bust truly looked like the lady who was sitting patiently waiting for him to finish.  There were lots of on-lookers who were also quietly watching the lump of clay become a representation of the lady. 

But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. - Is. 64:8

There are three words that we need to remember as God our Potter molds us and makes us more like His Son. 

Time - we are not transformed immediately, the sin nature is so endemic in our flesh/soul that time is needed to transform us, sanctify us and mold us into what He wants us to be.

Humility - we need to humble ourselves before Him.  If we are unwilling the Potter cannot complete the shaping and molding of our hearts and minds.  We remain incomplete and unfinished.  Before God there are two positions, on our knees and on our face, fi you are not there is only one direction to go, down. 

On-lookers - there are always people watching you as you are being transformed/molded into His likeness.  But, what if you are not being transformed or molded?  There are still on-lookers and they wonder why you are no different than they are. 

The Bells are ringing, can you hear them?

100,000 workers in the fields, 3% work in unreached areas

Standing among the castrated

Through out history eunuchs have played a role in governments, wars, religions and cultures (had their own class in society).  Some of the greatest men of all time were eunuchs. 

One of them being Zheng He (1371-1433), the greatest Chinese explorer ever.  Not only was he an explorer but a diplomat, a mariner and a fleet admiral.  On seven different occasions Zheng He lead large expeditions of Chinese junks as far as Africa.  His accomplishments are extraordinary!

Today, there is a different kind of "Castrated Class".  Men who you share a cubicle with, play on a softball team with, sit next to in the pew.  Men who are married with kids, successful jobs and are all smiles when you meet for coffee.  They are everywhere, they go about their lives like nothing is wrong and fail daily to achieve the greatest tasks put before them. 

 They are not physically castrated, but they are indeed castrated.  Castrated by the porn they are enslaved to.  Castrated in a way that they can no longer lead their sons into manhood, their daughters into womanhood and love their wives as Christ loves the church. 

Titus 2:11-12 tells us that b/c of God's grace salvation has come, it has appeared to all men and it teaches us to say "NO" to things that are ungodly, passions that are worldly, it also gives us the ability to live a life that is upright, holy and self-controlled. 

Stop being daily castrated, stand tall like a Cedar of Lebanon (92:12) and flourish like the righteous

Smashing idols not pumpkins

This is a small idol that a brother recently gave up

it is set on top of a part of a bigger idol that was smashed earlier

(the bigger idol was estimated at about $4,500)

 the other part of the bigger idol was

used to smash the littler one

Exciting times!

gua zi ya

I love Chinese culture, well, most of it anyway.  Gua zi ya is a condition caused by a cultural habit in China.  It is a most strange yet interesting condition caused by a seed!  Yes, a seed! 

Chinese people (not all of course) love to eat sunflower and watermelon seeds.  They buy them by the pound on the street, in the super markets and at the bus stops when there is a seed vendor.  They will sit for hours upon hours cracking open the seeds with their front teeth, extracting the "meat" and tossing the shell on the ground.  You can always tell where older men sit and chat or play Chinese chess or cards, just look for the pile of seed shells. 

After many hours and many years of cracking open the seeds with their front teeth they have a condition I call gua zi ya, seed tooth.  Over and over as the tooth is applied to the seed for opening it wears down that part of the tooth.  This cultural habit creates a niche in the top and bottom tooth as you can see in the picture posted above. 

Why call my blog gua zi ya?  Good question, I am really not sure except that is it strange to say the least!