Joie de Vivre A Wretched Man’s Quest To Follow Jesus Christ

A local blogger recently posted an article calling Christians hypocrites because while many of us here in Asia choose not to consume food offered to idols, we have no qualms about consuming halal food, i.e. food that is slaughtered according to Islamic rites.

Now, for those who are unfamiliar with the Asian context, especially in Singapore and Malaysia, let me first lay out the premise for you.

In Singapore, most food sold in supermarkets are labeled halal (except for pork and some other food items for obvious reasons) to cater to a bigger number of consumers inclusive of Muslims. Barring any comment on whether it is right or wrong, or whether I agree or disagree with the practice, one must acknowledge that it makes economic sense for businesses to do so.

Back to the blog post in question: in response, I asked if he has any understanding of what Christianity is, my premise being that I think he has misunderstood the faith and, hopefully, present the Gospel if he should question what Christianity is.

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Resurrection Sunday is over; most of us have been soberly reminded of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ who came to bear upon Himself the suffering and death that we deserve for our sins so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16)!

Many Christian blogs I visit on a regular basis celebrate the Resurrection in their posts and on quite a few occasions, I have left comments in agreement.

One comment I usually left was “Hallelujah! Our LORD is risen!”, and the first time I wrote it I had a prompting that has been on my mind since then — I was asked “What do you do now, then?”

I answered, “Er, Lord, love you with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and to love my neighbor as myself?” (Matthew 22:37-40, Mark 12:30-31, Luke 10:27)

“Besides that,” the prompting came.

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I heard this over BBC Radio last evening and had a chuckle.

According to the scientist (I think) on the program, the reason why there are so many obese people in developed and even in developing counties is because humans have not evolved from our primal needs for food.

Where once our ancestors hunted animals for food, and therefore needed the high carbohydrates, salt and sugar levels to keep up a good level of energy to do so, we have not evolved from those dietary needs and are therefore getting fatter.

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I have been silent because I have been suffering from a really painful toothache that I suspect is caused by the last wisdom tooth on the lower-right row of teeth.

Painkillers have been my best friend, and sleep has not come easily at all. In fact, I haven’t had a meal nor any sleep till last night when the ache finally became more of an irritating throb.

I’m feeling much much better this morning and, with praise to God, the dentist (who is a friend of my wife) has been kind enough to move my appointment to first-thing Monday morning from the initial mid-afternoon session. Hopefully the treatment will see the tooth extracted and the problem fixed from then on.

You know how it’s funny that the breakdown of one of the key components of your organs for food intake can so throw your life into disarray and leave you very much weakened.

I got to thinking that in a way the toothache is like a lack of faith. Without the function of that tooth because of its sorry state, I could not ingest food and therefore be nourished. Without faith, it is impossible to be nourished by our spiritual food, the Word of God.

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Perhaps I have been confusing myself with the unnecessary.

Perhaps I was looking for more than what Yahweh has already prescribed through Christ Jesus as sufficient to justify salvation.

And in the process, added weight to my heart where it should have been light, and full of praise and worship unto Yahweh.

Why should I trouble much when Yeshua had already given us the commandments that we should all live by and observe as His followers?

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I have been reading chapters 10, 11 and 15 of Acts over and over again in relation to the debate on circumcision that has been going on in the follow-up to my post on the visit to Hephzibah Christian Fellowship just last Shabbat.

The reason for the repeated readings?

To ascertain for myself if indeed we need to observe the Kashrut, or Jewish dietary laws as Christians.

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In the Gospel of Matthew, our Lord Jesus Christ said:

“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”

– Matthew 5:13 (KJV)

Have you ever wondered what it means to be the “salt of the earth”?

In examining what being the “salt of the earth” means, we need to first examine what the primary uses of salt are during the time of our Lord’s earth ministry as well as what salt was used for through the ages.

I can think of three at this point in time.

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