I blame myself. Right now, I am paying dearly for my choices in the past five years.
Granted, I was unemployed for four to five months so I am very tight on my finances. My situation now is much different than my situation was before last year. Somehow, the transition didn't phase me as it should have had because I would have made much better choices in the past nine months. Financially.
My previous situation was that I did not have a car and I did not pay rent since I had grants/scholarship and student loan to pay the rent on-campus every year for 6 years. Even though I would make small money, my net income was much bigger. My situation now is that I do have a car and I am living off-campus, so I am paying car stuff and rent. What hasn't changed is that I have to pay for my own food and cellphone. I am still making small money, my net income is close to zero.
Because I was in my previous situation for so long, I splurged. I didn't manage my budget very well. I spent on stupid things. I would go out to eat almost every day. I was happily buying my friends gifts and food. I didn't save money as much as I should. I used credit card like it was nothing, thinking that I would pay off instantly if I stayed at school as long as I could.
And then I had a nervous breakdown this past November. I was laid off by choice. I couldn't register in school anymore because I failed to submit my capstone proposal in time. I did not know what I wanted to do with my life, let alone my capstone. My biggest struggle resurfaced: my identity. So I decided to take a three-month break, hoping to recuperate and refocus on my capstone project and my business project during that break. But instead, I moped. I was depressed. I did not want to do anything except going to church every Sunday.
When break was over, I knew I couldn't go back to school for a while so I had to look for a job to maintain my finances. Instead of looking for a job that is related to my studies, I went looking for a minimum wage simple job. Sounds inadequate, isn't it? I had no confidence in myself because I lost passion in everything. I was afraid. I finally got a part-time job three weeks ago. I am making less than I used to.
It is very unfortunate that I had to wake up from bliss of ignorance by being unemployed for months. My savings was dwindling as months went by to pay for rent, car stuff, and food. I could have applied for unemployment help when I was laid off but my pride would not let me accept help from the government. I didn't want it on my record. It would have been nice as to not having to see my money disappearing from month to month but I would betray my honor that was passed down from my mother and my grandfather. Especially from my mother who taught me that God values hard work.
I'm in much deeper debt now because I lived on credit cards for months. This situation is forcing me to budget wisely though very painfully. I am forcing myself not to spend money at all outside of living necessities. I have to look at how much those necessities cost. I have to calculate how many hours I need to cover those costs. I have to force myself not to live a lifestyle that I had before.
The reality is harsh, people. A very painful retribution. And then the student loans comes in...
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Self-Perpetuating White Noise
I hardly know what to say especially in public eyes. I rarely give my opinions though I have strong opinions to share with my friends. I usually give priority to learning everything I can because I love learning anything that I can get my hands on. I have interest in a very wide range of topics. There are some topics that I don't care for, such as finances and politics, but they are essential in living wisely.
No matter what the topic is, I always connect it to Biblical knowledge however relatively it may be. Science? Sure! Even Evolutionary Theory that some Christians deemed heresy. Computers? Yes! Psychology? Absolutely. LOLcats? Though it sounds ridiculous, then I would say, "Definitely."
In the social networking world, everyone has something to say. 99% of the time, it is opinionated. I do it, too. On Facebook, I write what's on my mind and sometimes, I think to myself, "Why am I doing this?" If I think of something that I think is worth sharing, I post it. Little bit of my feelings and a lot of pointless media products.
Thanks to social networking world, 99% of my friends and I are revealed egotistical in some way. We love to share a piece of ourselves. Whenever a friend post a heavy opinion or life situation, I click on it and read all the comments below. I love learning what people think and what people do. It's a fascinating topic I delve into most of the times. As I have said to my close friends many times, I love history. I love to research and formulate hypothesis on how and why events may happened. You can see that in my previous post, Mere Speculations on Riches and Taxes.
After a year of exposure to Christian blogging world, I have learned a lot. I have read about types of church, Christian celebrity pastors, religion-political movements, famous Christian authors, doctrines, Christian media, and Christians' opinions and actions. During the reading stage, I would get into uncomfortable field of emotions. I have felt anger, confusion, haughtiness, challenged, defeated, shame and delight, all at the same time. I wanted to say something and give a piece of my mind to retaliate or prove someone wrong. I wanted to share on Facebook a some blogger's opinion that I agree with. I wanted to show the world that my belief is right based on Biblical truth. It's an ugly thing. And I only shared two or three times.
After a year, with all the knowledge I obtained from the Christian blogging world, I have become a little wiser: how NOT to act or react. I learned not to give my own opinion. No matter what I say, I won't win. No matter how hard I try to back it up with Scriptures, I come off as a religious hard-headed nut. No matter how much I try to back up someone else's opinion that I agree with, I feel too one-sided. I learned that involving in these ugly matters won't win any lost souls that Jesus commanded me to Great Commission. Even blogging won't do a thing.
Well, as long as I'm honest and willing to be humbled to listen, I'm cool, right?
We love to give opinions. But do I wonder what Jesus would say amongst the self-perpetuating white noise?
No matter what the topic is, I always connect it to Biblical knowledge however relatively it may be. Science? Sure! Even Evolutionary Theory that some Christians deemed heresy. Computers? Yes! Psychology? Absolutely. LOLcats? Though it sounds ridiculous, then I would say, "Definitely."
In the social networking world, everyone has something to say. 99% of the time, it is opinionated. I do it, too. On Facebook, I write what's on my mind and sometimes, I think to myself, "Why am I doing this?" If I think of something that I think is worth sharing, I post it. Little bit of my feelings and a lot of pointless media products.
Thanks to social networking world, 99% of my friends and I are revealed egotistical in some way. We love to share a piece of ourselves. Whenever a friend post a heavy opinion or life situation, I click on it and read all the comments below. I love learning what people think and what people do. It's a fascinating topic I delve into most of the times. As I have said to my close friends many times, I love history. I love to research and formulate hypothesis on how and why events may happened. You can see that in my previous post, Mere Speculations on Riches and Taxes.
After a year of exposure to Christian blogging world, I have learned a lot. I have read about types of church, Christian celebrity pastors, religion-political movements, famous Christian authors, doctrines, Christian media, and Christians' opinions and actions. During the reading stage, I would get into uncomfortable field of emotions. I have felt anger, confusion, haughtiness, challenged, defeated, shame and delight, all at the same time. I wanted to say something and give a piece of my mind to retaliate or prove someone wrong. I wanted to share on Facebook a some blogger's opinion that I agree with. I wanted to show the world that my belief is right based on Biblical truth. It's an ugly thing. And I only shared two or three times.
After a year, with all the knowledge I obtained from the Christian blogging world, I have become a little wiser: how NOT to act or react. I learned not to give my own opinion. No matter what I say, I won't win. No matter how hard I try to back it up with Scriptures, I come off as a religious hard-headed nut. No matter how much I try to back up someone else's opinion that I agree with, I feel too one-sided. I learned that involving in these ugly matters won't win any lost souls that Jesus commanded me to Great Commission. Even blogging won't do a thing.
Well, as long as I'm honest and willing to be humbled to listen, I'm cool, right?
We love to give opinions. But do I wonder what Jesus would say amongst the self-perpetuating white noise?
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Just Saying To Myself.
I want to be a do-er when I am a hear-er.
I want to be a say-er when I am a do-er.
I want to be a pray-er when I am a say-er.
I want to be a hear-er when I am a pray-er.
I want to be a say-er when I am a do-er.
I want to be a pray-er when I am a say-er.
I want to be a hear-er when I am a pray-er.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Mere Speculations on Riches and Taxes
Earlier in the year, America had waves of "Occupy" protests. The biggest protest was "Occupy Wall Street" and the slogan was "We Are 99%" which would say that 1% of the American population hold a much greater percentage of wealth than the rest combined. Perhaps, this protest was a response to high unemployment rate or recession hits that we had in decades. Since the recessions, there was festering in congress about economy.
Today, I saw a status that my friend posted on her Facebook wall. It contained an infographic poster about how society view a "crazy" person. One of the comments had a link to Occupy Wall St Posters Tumblr site where this poster came from. It was indeed educational, in a sense that I learned the other views of the protests.
Today, I saw a status that my friend posted on her Facebook wall. It contained an infographic poster about how society view a "crazy" person. One of the comments had a link to Occupy Wall St Posters Tumblr site where this poster came from. It was indeed educational, in a sense that I learned the other views of the protests.
 |
| http://owsposters.tumblr.com/ |
I admit, when I heard about Occupy protests, I was confused. I read Wikipedia articles about them which I think was the reliable source for least biased information at the time. The media covered mostly on police brutality and the "One Percent" side of the story. After reading the articles, I didn't see how these protests would accomplish anything. Although the protesters' actions were admirable in my eyes, they lacked clear vision of their goals. Which is probably why these protests didn't make a considerable impact on America but they probably would make in history textbooks.
From looking at this Tumblr site, it seems that Occupy Wall St has deeper cause. It is a political issue about how the government we have today runs and its overtone is that our government rules favorably toward a group that can give a lot of money. This site argues that the government tend to oppresses the citizens with taxes and laws that ban some freedom in order for the rich to gain more money. Our government uses contrived reasoning that rich can empower economy when it has money to run its company, while taxing middle/lower class more to make up the loss. This site questions the government's fidelity to Constitution when money rules and people are no longer have the say.
I have had disillusions with the government recently. I also question the public as well. I can't blame one or the other but I certainly can feel how broken this country is. After reading many infographic posters, my mind stirred that led to my knowledge on American history in high school. I also watched Liberty's Kids on PBS along with it. If my memories are not mistaken, I just found United States as a great nation of regressive irony. If I have to compare to an example of world history in equivalence, I would say French Revolution in 1790s.
We all know on surface, that French Revolution happened because the poor got sick of being mistreated by the monarchs and nobles so they rebelled. They wanted freedom and ability to rule themselves in democratic fashion. However, after they killed the monarchs as a beginning point of democracy, they faced the Reign of Terror. The oppressed had become the oppressor. So they reverted back to monarchy with Napoleon who called himself king.
As such, the American Revolution happened because the people in colonies got sick of being taxed without any representation or consultation. The British Empire wanted to impose series of taxes on colonies to pay a larger portion of the costs of French-Indian War. After the colonies successfully gained independence from the British Empire, the colonies was facing economic depression as result of a costly war. So the newly formed government (with intent of representing the people), it imposed the heavy tax on people who could barely make a living to pay off their debt to the merchants. By merchants' demand, this government would jail those who couldn't pay tax or debt and take their lands. It led to Shays' Rebellion because the debtors were not being heard and most of them were veterans (they were mostly farmers as well) who fought for the colonies and did not get paid. They weren't represented in American government just like colonies weren't represented in British Empire.
Likewise, we today are facing the same problems. We are in debt to the companies and rich people. Taxes in some states and interests are high. The congressmen draft up bills with little regard to the public, but much regard to the lobbyists that represent the rich, for recent instance, SOPA. We are still taxed without representation. We can still see that rich get richer and poor gets poorer somewhere in America. I could see why the Occupy Wall St protests occurred because a similar thing happened 200 years ago.
The funny thing is that the history textbooks applaud George Washington's success in crushing the Shays' Rebellion while they minimize the reason or the irony presented in the rebellion in similar to applauding the government's expansion of the land while minimizing the Natives' sufferings at the hands of the government.
These mere speculations are convincing me to nod in agreement that history is doomed to repeat itself if we don't remember or don't learn from it.
From looking at this Tumblr site, it seems that Occupy Wall St has deeper cause. It is a political issue about how the government we have today runs and its overtone is that our government rules favorably toward a group that can give a lot of money. This site argues that the government tend to oppresses the citizens with taxes and laws that ban some freedom in order for the rich to gain more money. Our government uses contrived reasoning that rich can empower economy when it has money to run its company, while taxing middle/lower class more to make up the loss. This site questions the government's fidelity to Constitution when money rules and people are no longer have the say.
I have had disillusions with the government recently. I also question the public as well. I can't blame one or the other but I certainly can feel how broken this country is. After reading many infographic posters, my mind stirred that led to my knowledge on American history in high school. I also watched Liberty's Kids on PBS along with it. If my memories are not mistaken, I just found United States as a great nation of regressive irony. If I have to compare to an example of world history in equivalence, I would say French Revolution in 1790s.
We all know on surface, that French Revolution happened because the poor got sick of being mistreated by the monarchs and nobles so they rebelled. They wanted freedom and ability to rule themselves in democratic fashion. However, after they killed the monarchs as a beginning point of democracy, they faced the Reign of Terror. The oppressed had become the oppressor. So they reverted back to monarchy with Napoleon who called himself king.
As such, the American Revolution happened because the people in colonies got sick of being taxed without any representation or consultation. The British Empire wanted to impose series of taxes on colonies to pay a larger portion of the costs of French-Indian War. After the colonies successfully gained independence from the British Empire, the colonies was facing economic depression as result of a costly war. So the newly formed government (with intent of representing the people), it imposed the heavy tax on people who could barely make a living to pay off their debt to the merchants. By merchants' demand, this government would jail those who couldn't pay tax or debt and take their lands. It led to Shays' Rebellion because the debtors were not being heard and most of them were veterans (they were mostly farmers as well) who fought for the colonies and did not get paid. They weren't represented in American government just like colonies weren't represented in British Empire.
Likewise, we today are facing the same problems. We are in debt to the companies and rich people. Taxes in some states and interests are high. The congressmen draft up bills with little regard to the public, but much regard to the lobbyists that represent the rich, for recent instance, SOPA. We are still taxed without representation. We can still see that rich get richer and poor gets poorer somewhere in America. I could see why the Occupy Wall St protests occurred because a similar thing happened 200 years ago.
The funny thing is that the history textbooks applaud George Washington's success in crushing the Shays' Rebellion while they minimize the reason or the irony presented in the rebellion in similar to applauding the government's expansion of the land while minimizing the Natives' sufferings at the hands of the government.
These mere speculations are convincing me to nod in agreement that history is doomed to repeat itself if we don't remember or don't learn from it.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Something I Wrote: "What Could It Mean?"
Last night, I was hanging out with a friend. We were in the making of our illustrated epic poem based on a dream I had few months ago. Talking about my dream segued to my past blogs. I used to write in my private blog for six months about the dreams I had, only the dreams I could remember. Then there was another blog I had and looked over it. One of the posts I made was startling. I wrote this post a year before I began to know a fellowship I am now part of. Three years after this post, I saw the parallel between this fellowship's living examples and my belief. I was surprised because I knew I changed and learned a lot since I joined the fellowship this past summer but somehow, I had some wisdom hidden in my brain that made me see that this fellowship is what I had desired for a while. The fellowship that makes my hidden wisdom a reality.
Here is what I wrote on June 25th, 2009.
Here is what I wrote on June 25th, 2009.
- Being blessed doesn’t mean you got a car, a house, or more things. It means having someone to share with.
- Having courages doesn’t mean go risking your life but able to face the consequences no matter how difficult they may be.
- Being brave doesn’t mean facing the danger but going out of your way to help people.
- Being smart doesn’t mean you know everything but knowing how to make the right choices.
- Being successful doesn’t mean you make a lot of money but your accomplishment affect positively on people.
- Being right doesn’t mean you are right about things but right with others.
- Being humbled doesn’t mean you don’t get credit but you don’t boast.
- True love doesn’t mean spending lifetime with someone but rather love everyone unconditionally no matter who they are or where they from and that you would give up your life for them.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
From My Heart
I thought I would share a little something from my heart.
I cannot be grateful enough. When I see my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ striving and working for God, I see the reality of the Scriptures. The Scriptures ring true when someone is actually doing God's work. The Scriptures make so much sense when someone is disciplined in Christ. When I became a disciple of Christ in the past summer, my perception has changed completely. When I accepted the Scriptures as Truth and Authority into my heart, my faith grew.
I let go of my logic and my knowledge. I let go of what I've learned before and judgment. I let go of preconceived notion of what Christianity is. I let go of my struggle with living by the sermons at church. I let go of my mother's lessons. I let go of Christians' expectations. I let go of slogans and memorized verses. I let go of media's and famous pastors' and evangelists' discourse. I let go of everything I knew about God before the time when I started learning that there is something more than just believing in Jesus can save me from hell.
I relied on my "high" feelings to reinforce my belief that Jesus Christ is real. I relied on scientific evidences for God to continue to defend my belief. I relied on other people's anecdotes that I was not crazy. I relied on the flaws of other religion that Christianity was the only true thing. I relied on friendship with Christian friends that I could get through difficult times of loneliness and stresses from their prayers and encouragement. I relied on blessing verses that God would bring me relief to my financial burdens. I relied on music worship to get close to God. I relied on material blessings to know that I was loved. I relied on worldly humanistic wisdom that God was good. I relied on my weekly attending at Sunday church, Bible study and Tuesday lunch gathering to believe that I believed in Jesus Christ. For six years, I relied on easy ability to believe that Jesus saved my life and I could just do whatever I thought it was best for me. That was how I knew.
These reliance are not ways to follow God but these are great lessons to know that God is much, much bigger. I have gained awesome, good friends through these six years. Do I regret it? I don't because I have gained great gifts from God for I learned the errors of my ways.
I'm not saying the six years before this past summer were waste of my time. I genuinely believed in Christ as my Savior and my God. But I didn't know how I could resonate this belief into something real. I struggled a lot with my faith in God. I relied on things that were never of God's to keep my feeble faith going.
What was holding me back from knowing the true God was my past and my cynical view of the world. If God is so good, then why did I go through such traumatic experiences for a innocent little girl? When I learned of horrible events to people around the world, why is God not doing anything? When I saw people doing bad things, why is God not punishing them since God does not condone evil? Those questions were precedents in my view of Christianity. That view held me back although my heart was yearning for truth in the meanwhile.
I'm really glad that God has answered my prayer when I went to college. I really wanted a great group of Christian friends which ironically, a group of Christians in my past hurt me so much. I really wanted to go to a good church which ironically, the churches I went to in my past did not welcome me. I really wanted to know God which ironically, I used Him just to live a good life because I had a crappy past. I used "The Sinner's Prayer: Pray Jesus into My Heart" card so I could be a good person and get rewards. God answered my prayer with these six years but they weren't a complete package. These six years would have been enough. These six years would have kept me going with knowledge they had taught me. No, these six years were the beginning of God's answer to my faith.
There was something in my heart that flickered, something that had been wanting. I really want to say that this something is God's gift for me: humility. The gift of humility has taken me far. Despite my pride in my knowledge and blessings, God gave me humility because this wasn't it. It took me a while to get the memo. When I did, I let go. When I let go, God gave me a gift of joy in knowing the real truth through observation of the disciples of Christ living by the Scriptures.
The observation wasn't the only part of the gift; a girl, who wants to share the Truth and wanted to love because Christ loved her, came into my life. This girl, so compassionate that she saw how stuck I was in my darkness, teared up when I told her I hated my father. This girl, who never gives up trying to bring people to light, prayed for a year with other disciples so I could get out of my darkness. This girl, who never stands down when people reject her, was there for me when I needed her after I rejected her. This girl, who stands for Truth, showed me what Scriptures truly are about. She did it all in Christ for Christ because Christ did these actions, too. She had the love of Christ because she let go of her pride and let God teach her through the disciples of Christ. A hundred percent of her heart for Him went to me.
It was love of Christ that changed my heart. When I experienced the love of Christ through this girl, the flicker in my heart grew bigger. When I learned the Truth, I wanted to be baptized. Once I went under the water this past summer, I became her disciple and her sister. The disciples of Christ became my family. She continues to teach me about Christ and the Scriptures as Truth and Authority so I can become like Christ. I can change someone's heart with the love of Christ through me. All it takes is what she did for me, keep on loving and never give up. A hundred percent of my heart to someone.
If it wasn't for these six years, I wouldn't have met her. Who knows what would happen now if I had not met her?
I cannot be grateful enough. When I see my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ striving and working for God, I see the reality of the Scriptures. The Scriptures ring true when someone is actually doing God's work. The Scriptures make so much sense when someone is disciplined in Christ. When I became a disciple of Christ in the past summer, my perception has changed completely. When I accepted the Scriptures as Truth and Authority into my heart, my faith grew.
I let go of my logic and my knowledge. I let go of what I've learned before and judgment. I let go of preconceived notion of what Christianity is. I let go of my struggle with living by the sermons at church. I let go of my mother's lessons. I let go of Christians' expectations. I let go of slogans and memorized verses. I let go of media's and famous pastors' and evangelists' discourse. I let go of everything I knew about God before the time when I started learning that there is something more than just believing in Jesus can save me from hell.
I relied on my "high" feelings to reinforce my belief that Jesus Christ is real. I relied on scientific evidences for God to continue to defend my belief. I relied on other people's anecdotes that I was not crazy. I relied on the flaws of other religion that Christianity was the only true thing. I relied on friendship with Christian friends that I could get through difficult times of loneliness and stresses from their prayers and encouragement. I relied on blessing verses that God would bring me relief to my financial burdens. I relied on music worship to get close to God. I relied on material blessings to know that I was loved. I relied on worldly humanistic wisdom that God was good. I relied on my weekly attending at Sunday church, Bible study and Tuesday lunch gathering to believe that I believed in Jesus Christ. For six years, I relied on easy ability to believe that Jesus saved my life and I could just do whatever I thought it was best for me. That was how I knew.
These reliance are not ways to follow God but these are great lessons to know that God is much, much bigger. I have gained awesome, good friends through these six years. Do I regret it? I don't because I have gained great gifts from God for I learned the errors of my ways.
I'm not saying the six years before this past summer were waste of my time. I genuinely believed in Christ as my Savior and my God. But I didn't know how I could resonate this belief into something real. I struggled a lot with my faith in God. I relied on things that were never of God's to keep my feeble faith going.
What was holding me back from knowing the true God was my past and my cynical view of the world. If God is so good, then why did I go through such traumatic experiences for a innocent little girl? When I learned of horrible events to people around the world, why is God not doing anything? When I saw people doing bad things, why is God not punishing them since God does not condone evil? Those questions were precedents in my view of Christianity. That view held me back although my heart was yearning for truth in the meanwhile.
I'm really glad that God has answered my prayer when I went to college. I really wanted a great group of Christian friends which ironically, a group of Christians in my past hurt me so much. I really wanted to go to a good church which ironically, the churches I went to in my past did not welcome me. I really wanted to know God which ironically, I used Him just to live a good life because I had a crappy past. I used "The Sinner's Prayer: Pray Jesus into My Heart" card so I could be a good person and get rewards. God answered my prayer with these six years but they weren't a complete package. These six years would have been enough. These six years would have kept me going with knowledge they had taught me. No, these six years were the beginning of God's answer to my faith.
There was something in my heart that flickered, something that had been wanting. I really want to say that this something is God's gift for me: humility. The gift of humility has taken me far. Despite my pride in my knowledge and blessings, God gave me humility because this wasn't it. It took me a while to get the memo. When I did, I let go. When I let go, God gave me a gift of joy in knowing the real truth through observation of the disciples of Christ living by the Scriptures.
The observation wasn't the only part of the gift; a girl, who wants to share the Truth and wanted to love because Christ loved her, came into my life. This girl, so compassionate that she saw how stuck I was in my darkness, teared up when I told her I hated my father. This girl, who never gives up trying to bring people to light, prayed for a year with other disciples so I could get out of my darkness. This girl, who never stands down when people reject her, was there for me when I needed her after I rejected her. This girl, who stands for Truth, showed me what Scriptures truly are about. She did it all in Christ for Christ because Christ did these actions, too. She had the love of Christ because she let go of her pride and let God teach her through the disciples of Christ. A hundred percent of her heart for Him went to me.
It was love of Christ that changed my heart. When I experienced the love of Christ through this girl, the flicker in my heart grew bigger. When I learned the Truth, I wanted to be baptized. Once I went under the water this past summer, I became her disciple and her sister. The disciples of Christ became my family. She continues to teach me about Christ and the Scriptures as Truth and Authority so I can become like Christ. I can change someone's heart with the love of Christ through me. All it takes is what she did for me, keep on loving and never give up. A hundred percent of my heart to someone.
If it wasn't for these six years, I wouldn't have met her. Who knows what would happen now if I had not met her?
Monday, January 16, 2012
First Corinthians Thirteen Part Two
Read: First Corinthian Thirteen Part One
To explore the question "What happens if you do all first three verses but have love?" that I stated in the previous post, I want to look at each attribute extensively, if not thoroughly. The attributes of love written in the passage are in NIV 1984 in verses 4-8:
So what do they mean for us? Why did Paul write to Corinthians (and us) about love is about taking actions, why are they so important that in first three verses that contain the phrase "but have not love" and say that love is greatest, not faith and hope in verse 13?
As an Applied Mathematics major in my college days, I learned that substitution is a powerful method in solving complex integral equations. To apply this method to the Scriptures to get better understanding for myself, I want to use this verse [1 John 4:8] "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." And I want to use another verse for the purpose of showing examples [John 10:30] "I and the Father are one." To apply another method but same principle from Discrete Math (a=b and b=c, then a=c), if Love is God and God is Jesus then Love is Jesus. (Note: please forgive my math geekyness).
To rewrite this passage, "Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind. He does not envy, he does not boast, he is not proud. He is not rude, he is not self‑seeking, he is not easily angered, he keeps no record of wrongs. Jesus does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Jesus never fails."
It is not a new concept. We know that Jesus are these things. In the four Gospel books, he had shown and done them countless times even to certain groups that Jewish people condemned the "worst sinners". I want to show what love looks like when Jesus actively and lovingly displayed all of those actions. Then we can get a clear idea that Paul definitely knew what he was talking about and to disprove a common commentary that supposedly Paul couldn't know how to describe love.
For words themselves in the list, we know what they mean and we know that they're good. In practice, what do they look like?
To explore the question "What happens if you do all first three verses but have love?" that I stated in the previous post, I want to look at each attribute extensively, if not thoroughly. The attributes of love written in the passage are in NIV 1984 in verses 4-8:
- Patient
- Kind
- Does not Envy
- Does not Boast
- Not Proud
- Not Rude
- Not Self-seeking
- Not easily Angered
- Keeps NO record of Wrongs
- Does not delight in Evil
- Rejoices with the Truth
- Always Protects
- Always Trusts
- Always Hopes
- Always Perseveres
- Never Fails
So what do they mean for us? Why did Paul write to Corinthians (and us) about love is about taking actions, why are they so important that in first three verses that contain the phrase "but have not love" and say that love is greatest, not faith and hope in verse 13?
As an Applied Mathematics major in my college days, I learned that substitution is a powerful method in solving complex integral equations. To apply this method to the Scriptures to get better understanding for myself, I want to use this verse [1 John 4:8] "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." And I want to use another verse for the purpose of showing examples [John 10:30] "I and the Father are one." To apply another method but same principle from Discrete Math (a=b and b=c, then a=c), if Love is God and God is Jesus then Love is Jesus. (Note: please forgive my math geekyness).
To rewrite this passage, "Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind. He does not envy, he does not boast, he is not proud. He is not rude, he is not self‑seeking, he is not easily angered, he keeps no record of wrongs. Jesus does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Jesus never fails."
It is not a new concept. We know that Jesus are these things. In the four Gospel books, he had shown and done them countless times even to certain groups that Jewish people condemned the "worst sinners". I want to show what love looks like when Jesus actively and lovingly displayed all of those actions. Then we can get a clear idea that Paul definitely knew what he was talking about and to disprove a common commentary that supposedly Paul couldn't know how to describe love.
For words themselves in the list, we know what they mean and we know that they're good. In practice, what do they look like?
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