rick's tweets ii

Sharing some of Pastor Rick's tweets I collected in the past few months with you:

Love people. Use things. If you love things, you'll end up using people to get more of them. 

When I’m tempted to be prideful I just remind myself that I cannot even guarantee my next breath.

The fact that someone LOVES TO LEAD never impresses me. I want to know, Do you love THE PEOPLE you lead? 

Leadership without love quickly becomes manipulation.

  

If you insist that anyone who disagrees with you is intolerant, judgmental, or has a phobia, you're really revealing yourself.

Genuine love is unself-conscious--the opposite of how people act in dating when they're worried about making an impression.  

One of the big lies of our culture is that sex is only physical & has no spiritual, emotional & relational consequences.   

Nothing unmasks our innate self-centered sinfulness as a long-term marriage. Many would rather divorce than admit it & change.

If you spend more time defending the truth than actually sharing it, you'll missed the point of the Gospel.

My daily time alone with God doesn't unclutter my schedule. It unclutters my mind & calms my heart even on my busiest days.

"God plunged me into darkness"--Job19:8. In darkness the picture develops & negatives turn positive as the Light shines thru.

The teacher is always silent when the test is given. When God is silent in your life, you are being tested.

It takes no faith to trust God when He is obviously moving. Real faith is holding on & believing when God SEEMS absent. 

So much stress comes from our inability to be still. The greatest faith is often revealed by waiting & watching in silence.

"Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn't really know very much." 1 Cor. 8:2 (NLT)

“While knowledge may make us feel important, it is love that really builds up the church.” 1 Cor. 8:1b (NLT)

Any effort to create heaven on earth will fail. God calls us to get people into the real heaven, not to build our own.

Life is cheap to those who think they're god. Mao,Stalin & Hitler (God-deniers) caused 110 million deaths without remorse.

How you treat others exposes your view of God. The higher you view God, the more respect you show TO EVERYONE! 1 Pet.2:17

Jesus didn't shed his blood on the Cross for programs, property, or principles. It was his RADICAL love for people.

Leaders take the blame & give away the credit. To lead you must often do the opposite of what you FEEL like doing. Pr.14:12

Never fear criticism. Fear conformity, which stunts the soul. You can't have everyone’s approval & God’s anointing at same time.

God gives you just enough time to do His Will. If you always feel behind, you're trying to do more than he intended. 

ken's exchange

The following is an email with an attachment that tabulates the dialogues between brother Ken and his friend and my response to it some time ago. Hopefully you'd find them interesting or thought arousing if you could patiently finish reading them :) 

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Ken Hsu <keyeeh@gmail.com>

Date: Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 2:55 AM

Subject: If you got time, I like your input on this exchange I have with a friend...

To: David Liao <dsliao888@cox.net>, David Wong <cdwong@gmail.com>, Edmond Liou <lioued@gmail.com>

Guys, last week I got caught up with a friend in a discussion that started from media bias in United States but ended up in God, bible, and Christian belief in general.  It's a long email discussion back and forth for about 2, 3 days.  I put the entire exchange in MS Word document in a tabular form.  I was just wondering, what would your answer be?  I know this is a lot to ask.  Take the time you need.  Also I certainly understand it if you don't have the time to do so.  I just simply like to know your answer for future reference.  Seems like I'm having these conversations more and more these days, I would like to be prepared for them.

In Him,

Ken

from: David Wong <cdwong@gmail.com>
to: Ken Hsu <keyeeh@gmail.com>

cc: David Liao <dsliao888@cox.net>,
Edmond Liou <lioued@gmail.com>

dateFri, Apr 2, 2010 at 4:19 PM
subject: Re: If you got time, I like your input on this exchange I have with a friend... 

Ken,

Your friend brought up lots of issues, and each of them can take thousands of words to respond, but overall I think his value/belief system is, in my hunch, many middle-class secular intellectuals', i.e., live-and-let-live, do-what-I-think-is-the-right-thing, and "tolerate" or supposedly keep an open and fair mind about things they don't understand, such as God and human nature.

To me this smacks of settling on "second best" instead of "the best," but this would be my "religious" mind talking, from your friend's perspective, since I already accept there is an absolute truth while I assume your friend does not.

Though not exactly his words, but I agree with your friend that religion probably started because humans want to have meaning for their life, and here's the crux of the issue: without meaning or purpose, or more specifically, recognizing and embracing the Lord of the universe, in a very personal way, how can one do good--Camus' existentialist novels have some brave humanists trying to do so in disastrous situations, but the stories usually end up in confusion or helplessness, as I can recall. Again this circles back to the "best" vs "second best" issue: without a supreme but very intimate power with you, how does one "enjoy it as best as I can, at no expense to other people, and trying my best to be a positive in the lives of any people I deal with," quoting from your friend's.

This is still of course my "religious" mind talking, your friend would say. I think if you really ask hard the humanists what they base their work or optimism on, they mgiht ultimately say it's "humanity" itself, or something like "I believe human beings are basically good." You may also see some people who seem to truly live an active and happy life as if their genes are just programmed that way, without need of any official belief... Then these are people I would really like to approach and get real close with, to try to find out what's the real story behind it--are they really as anchored by their humanist belief as they claim, are those instinctive, good-natured behavior really good enough for these lucky-gene people, does God give out blessings to some people without needing them to respond back, etc..

Some not-so-intellectual responses to the highly intellectual exchanges between you and your friend :)

Have a nice weekend,

DW