Saturday, July 25, 2009

Heellllloooo!! I am the one and only Leonard! Welcome to my blog!! Phwoah!!! I know…you must be cannot wait to come to my blog ever since you saw me on ‘The Greatest Truth’, right??!!! I know…I have that effect. I cannot help it lah. This is what happens when I emcee and sing so well. I understand…many people have told me about it. Especially those of them who like my hairstyle! Like perm hair, right? But I tell you…it’s natural one ah! Steady, right?

Ha!…honest now…That was the character I was playing as one of the emcees in the youth event, ‘The Greatest Truth’, held in the Church of the Good Shepherd on 25th July 2009. I can assure you that I am definitely not like that in real life, but I certainly had lots of fun playing that character and entertaining everyone in the audience. If you were part of the audience and you are reading this right now, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did bringing all that fun to you. J

We have been preparing the event for a couple of months and it dawned on me that most of the time, we want to know the truth about things that happen to us. For example, if there is a 100 dollars missing in your bank account, you will want the bank to tell you the truth about it and nothing less. So, we want to know the truth about things that directly concern us, and I think it is because it affects us…because we want to protect ourselves. Ultimately, we think that we are the most important people in the world.

“…created by God and for God”?

The truth is that we are not the most important people in the world. There is Someone who is more important than us, more powerful than us and more valuable than us. That Person is God, our Creator. The Bible tells us that we have been created by God and for God. To say that we have been created for God means that we are to recognize that there is a Creator who designed life with rules – rules that protect.

It is true that some people design rules so that they themselves stand to gain, so that they themselves can advance their own agendas, so that they themselves can dictate what they want other people to do. But our Creator is not like that. The rules that God designed are meant to protect us, so that we can enjoy life thoroughly. Imagine playing a soccer game without any rules. Everyone will be doing what seems best to them. The goalkeeper can be the striker and the striker can be the mid-fielder. Everyone can use their hands to play. It will look more like rugby than soccer! Or imagine listening to a band playing without any rules. Trust me, you don’t want to listen to a band like that, all playing according to their feeling, beat and rhythm.

“…we choose to do what we want to do…”

However, instead of following God, we choose to do what we want to do without any regard for God and His instructions, without any care for the consequences we have to face in the end. You know, it is like you have a test coming up tomorrow, but it doesn’t matter whether you know it or not, you still go and play LAN or go sing K-Box with your friends until super late then go home. When you reach home, you think ‘never mind lah…go and sleep lah’, not caring that tomorrow, you have a test.

We always have a choice whether to study for it or not. The truth remains that there would be a test, and if we feel lazy, follow what our hearts tell us and make a choice by not studying for it, then we must live with the consequences, like failing the exam, or maybe even getting punished by our parents.

This is what sin is – when we choose to do what we want to do without any regard for God and His instructions, and we end up doing what we think is best for ourselves without thinking of the consequences.

And it is not just criminals who sin against God. Everyone in this world sins. Treating your mother well is a virtuous thing to do, right? When was the last time you promised yourself that you would not be angry with your mother, and by the following day, you were angry with her already?

“…the worst days of your life…”

Due to sin, we have made God angry. God is angry because God hates sin. He cannot tolerate sin at all. This is because He is a just God who will not leave the guilty unpunished. The punishment is death. After our life ends on earth, we will be eternally separated from God, and from everything that God represents such as happiness, joy and peace. Imagine the worst days of your life – the days that you wish you would never have to live through again – being replayed over and over again for eternity.

“…dying on the cross…”

We all deserve to suffer that fate because we have all sinned against God. But because God loved us so much, He sent His one and only Son Jesus Christ to come down to earth to save sinners. Jesus saved sinners by dying on the cross. In so doing, He paid for all the sins of His people. Since Jesus has paid for the sins of those who would believe, whoever believes in Jesus would be forgiven of his or her sins. That is what God did for the people He loves so much.

“…lives again…”

However, 3 days after Jesus died, He rose from the dead. He conquered death – something no man can do – and lives again. Through Jesus rising from the dead, Jesus proved what He said about Himself to be true, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life. Through His rising from the dead, He secured life after death for the people He died for.

“…here you have it…”

Jesus is a Person who walked and lived on the face of this earth. He died and rose from the dead to secure a hopeful future for the people He loves and He is alive today. This is the truth that cannot be ignored because it concerns us – you and me. If we want the truth – and nothing less – for matters concerning us, here you have it: the Truth. How would you respond to the Truth that has been shared?