Valentine ..... Chap Goh Mei …Love.....Apa itu? A Real Love Connection

Chap Goh Mei (literally means the fifteenth night ) marks the end of the Lunar New Year Celebration and is also known as the Chinese Valentine’s Day. This year's Chap Goh Mei and Valentine's Day falls on the same day.  On occasions like this, there are a lot of expectations being set to demonstrate your love to that special someone. Flowers, chocolates, romantic candle light dinner and teddy bears caught on quickly and became a near requirement to express love.  Sometimes the gift is a hit and sometimes it’s a miss. In any case let us not confuse ourselves into thinking the gift is the sum of how much we love or are loved

But what gets lost in finding the perfect gift or flower is the very essence of what love is and how we can best share that with those around us. We often put so much faith in others to provide the kind of love we believe will make us whole, that we leave God out of the equation. People will fail you, but God never will. Instead of trusting in others to love you, try the God who has a track record of unfailing, unconditional love. He always follows through and will always provide what we need.

The Bible has a great deal to say about love especially on the topic of everlasting love – the love of God. 1 Corinthians 13 is one of the famous biblical love chapter that is quoted often. It is beautiful because it describes the kind of perfect love that God has for us and through Him we are able to love others the same way. It’s an active love; a love that is more committed to that person than our own feelings at the time. Gift giving isn’t even mentioned because this love, God’s perfect love, is worth so much more than anything money could ever buy.

Valentine's Day honors human love with all its frailties. The Bible reminds Christians every day that God's love is real, eternal, and unconditional. Jesus is indeed our True and Faithful Valentine.

Be Blessed.

Goodness make sense because God is good

After such a long silence, here is my first posting for 2014. I want to share the topic on the goodness of God.

One of the most famous and interesting passages is Luke 18:18,19. The rich young ruler calls Jesus good Teacher, or Master in some versions. “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good, except God alone” (NIV). We can talk about good people and good things in terms of human standards, and our expectations for them, but when it really comes down to it, who sets the ultimate standard and expectations for goodness except God?

The Bible makes it clear that each of us falls far short of God standard of goodness. What is that standard ? Perfection!  It’s impossible for you, me or anyone to make ourselves good as God defines goodness. Jesus said God alone is good. Jesus was challenging the young ruler to consider the truth that He was God come in the flesh, and that appreciating God’s holiness and the gift of His Son would end the thinking that there is anything one can do to earn salvation.The Bible is clear, by ourselves, we aren’t good – “...There is none who does good, no, not one” (Romans 3:12). From Adam to Moses to David to Peter to Paul to every one of us, all have sinned. But through the salvation that Christ offer to us, we can be transformed into the image of God as true goodness can only flow out of a life right with God and yielded to Him. Goodness make sense because God is good

Be Blessed.