Fear of the Lord

I been asking God about how Fear of God and Love for God. How can the two go together.

This morning, God said while i was driving

"The fear of God keeps you from sinning. The love for God keeps you doing the right thing"

And that really hit me hard. I decided to do a study on the fear of God.

Firstly, it is not a OT issue (Matt 10:28, Luke 1:50). New testament talks about fear of God, a lot.

Secondly, the fear of God is far more then just reverence (Heb 4:28). It is really a fear of who God is, the fear of what God can do. Rev 21:8 warns us (pretty severely) for those who are basically sinners (of which we all are saved only by the grace of God), that they will suffer. If at all, it is a worthy fear. Jesus says in Matt 10:28 "fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." (emphasis added). I think it is safe to say that one reason we fear God is because of what He can do to us.

Heb 10:26 tells us that if we continue to sin, then what we have left is a fearful expectation of judgment. The reason we Fear God or why we should, is because ultimately, God will judge us. He will test us. He can destroy the soul and body in hell. God can do that, it is not just His prerogative, it is his ability. God is God, the maker of heaven and earth, where Earth is his footstool, the palm of his hand spans the stars, He is the Alpha and Omega, the Lord of Heaven and Earth, Angels cry Holy. The first and the last, the one who knows the measurements of the earth, who shut the sea with doors, commanded the morning,seen the doors of the shadow of death. Treasury of snow and hail is His. I mean, should we fear Him? YES.

I used to think that Fear of God is the wrong thing. Like i mean, why should we fear Him? He tore the veil, allowed us into the holy of holies. Yet God's nature does not change. He is STILL God! Fear is inherently selfish, it is self preserving. Because we fear God, we will keep from sin (prov 16:6)

Ultimately, the Fear of God is simply this: The revelation of who God is. If we come to realise who God really is, then we know that what keeps us from two deaths (the first which none escape from, the second which is reserved for those who reject the truth) then we will really FEAR Him who can destroy the soul and body. And God's mercy is only on those who Fear Him (luk 1:50).

But then, how about Love? Love the Lord your God, love your neighbour (Deut 6:5, Mat 22:37-40, Mrk 12:28-34) tells us that the whole law hangs on LOVE. Why?

Because if we love God, if we truly Love God fully, then we will do the things that will not hurt Him. I.e. we will do the things He wants us to do, not just not sin, but to do the right things.

Fear keeps us from straying away. Love drives us toward God. The law serves as a tutor to faith, to show us what it means to love and have faith in God, and also to show us what happens when we sin.

God, i need that fear of you. because without it, I am finished.

A walk to remember

Today was Yee Farn and Linda's wedding.

I think weddings are fantastic times. The union of two people, is something that i believe God ordained and more then that, made it one of the few things that are standard in our lives. I mean by default, marriage is what God wants us to enter in. Singlehood is something that you are called into. (I have talked a lot about that so i shall just leave it at that)

But anyway was a great day. Celebrating the union of two people. And Pastor shared something so true:

Joy is simply: Jesus, Others, You. When we put Jesus first, Others second, Ourselves third, then we have Joy. When we humble ourselves to take blame, to take a step back and allow another person to win, to submit and release our rights, then Joy can come in. Once more i am reminded, Joy comes from placing others before self, Jesus before all. At the end of the day, when we lay down our rights, (not our identities), we will be one step closer to Joy.

Lay down of rights is the hardest yet most essential thing to do. Many christians i know are struggling to. Even Jesus struggled to lay down His right, when He prayed hard for God to remove the cup, Yet NOT by His will but God's (the Father) be done. That prayer time was when He struggled, but Jesus chose to lay down His rights. When we have the option to, do we come to God to ask Him to help us lay down our rights? Or do we simply dump it? Or do we fight for it? We need to ask God to help us lay down. Because when we simply dump our rights, that is an act of disobedience. When we fight for them, that is when we think we know better.

So many lessons learnt will blog more next time.

Teaching

Today was a lesson in teaching.

Some sound advice came in and got me thinking. One of the other teachers said, "Sometimes, we teachers need to love more and teach less".

I think I agree with her. With some students, the issue is really they need attention. What happened was today one of my students had a bad day. I do not condone the students activities; to the fairsians who read this, please remember that this is NOT what you should be doing.

Shortly after, the student started to give me an attitude. To be fair, the student was obedient enough to sit down when told to do so. But when i tried to talk to the student, it started to get ugly and the student became all hard and aggressive. I decided to be patient and just leave it.

The issue here is really as teachers, sometimes we need to love them for who they are, and listen to their hearts. The student's cry was really, no adult understands me. No adult bothers about me, all they care is scold and scold and see my bad points. And sometimes we as teachers fail to see their good points and encourage them. This was for me a lesson, as I was reminded to love them first.

Later, at tennis with Evan, she said one of her senior teachers said" Some of these kids do not have any idea where they are going. Your job is not to teach them, but to help them find and get to their destination"

Too true. I assumed the students wanted to pass their exams and yes it is good for them, but some of them do not want to bother with the exams, because they have no goals nor direction. (At 16, what goals and direction would you have? And if you did have them, are they still the same today? If they were, i'd suggest a careful study of them to bring them back to reality. at 16, i'd say most if not all of us were too young for proper planning).

So our duty becomes (this is more so for the normal classes; express classes generally will head for JC/Poly) to help them find meaning and direction in life. Not merely to pass the exam, though that objective must be emphasized as a MEANS to and END, not an end in itself.

Why do students in 3a-e study? because they want to go to JC or poly, because they have a end view, though it may not be complete at least it helps them press on this sem. But there are some who do not have the next stage thought out, whether poly, ITE, private school, Shatec (all these are good, none better than the other), and these will find that they are studying for the sake of studying which is meaningless. And of course a chore that sucks. So we need to help them find their end, their purpose. To do so, we need to connect with the students.

Finally, the teacher who spoke to me reminded me of this "after a while, you will ask yourself, and God, where are the changes, why are the students the same or worse, getting bad? Then we need to remember the call of God, gird ourselves, and take one step at a time."

Miracles may happen, but God mostly works in steps. Are we patient enough to obey for EVERY little step?

Updating.

Been a long time since i blogged so here goes.

SIA called me up for interview last week (where i met chris) and this week they asked us to go for a written test. it took one day. One essay, one precis, GMA (maths, abstract and reasoning). Total time, 4 hours 30 min. Even NUS exams not so fierce.

MOE asked me to go for a medical checkup. Which i went (at raffles hospital). Turned out, i am fit for teaching.

Over this week, i been teaching 4i. People tell me "you teach 4i? Good luck." I realise that is so bull. I love the class. The students yes they may not be smart in terms of how MOE sees it, but they are brillant in their own ways. And so lovable. Is just that some of them don't bother to study. But talk to them one on one, you can connect. you can talk to them.

I think the important thing to be teacher, one must know firstly connect with them, but also remember, you are on their side, not their friend. The problem is when we think we want to be their friend; that option is not opened to us. Teaching is ultimately about being a older person whom the student respects and looks up to. Being a friend is one small role, it is the role on which the student wants to share to , but it is the teacher role that student wants advice from. The teacher whom the student can trust to share his story with as well as share troubles with, is one whom the child respects.

Students need to learn respect, but we as teachers need to learn to love them the way they want to be loved. Of course, this means if they go out of bounds, we warn them not to. We are ultimately their teachers and they may not like us, but they have to respect our office. Because of our office, being friends is too limited.

On a more jovial note, i found a few pictures of peole whom i know who come from fairfield. If you do come from fairfield, tell me so that i can search for your class.

UPDATE

Ok LONG time since i blog.

Update. This week has been pretty strange. Realising that God answered my prayer. MOE has called me up for an interview today. Pretty scared when i went.

Then Uncle David from my church smsed me, and he said this, Be yourself. Which is what i did. Basically, i think the interview went ok. So praying la. If God opens this door, then YEY!!!. Course if He opens the SIA door then i also blur already. Got interview tmr.

Anyway that is the big thing in my life. My Job search. Which i hope will be stopped soon. On a side note, been meeting up with my former students of fairfield. To teach them LOGs. After every lesson, become dead log. Hopefully they understand Log.

And since they know my blog...

REMEMBER: log (x/y) = log x - log y, NOT log x / log y. Consequently, log x / log y does NOT equal to log (x/y). Make sure you remember your logarithm rules.

Also, (sin x) x (sin x) = sin (squared) x, NOT sin 2x. Goes for ALL trigo.

And sin x + sin x = 2 sin x, NOT sin 2x.

AND MAKE SURE YOU MEMORISE YOUR SPECIAL ANGLES! 0, 30, 45, 60, 90, 180, 270, 360 for ALL sin, cos, tan.

Finally, R formulae NOT given in exam. MEMORISE.

Ok on more fun stuff, i met up with people this week, been taking opportunity to meet up with friends. Last night met a friend and went to changi (which turned out to be bad place to eat, though nice place to see plane). Then today met another friend in school.

Ok well, that is all this week. super tired. Tmr got tennis and interview at SIA. Cheers

Everything

This is a response to YOUTube, it is called GODTUBE

Sigh

My dad is one hard man to love.

I guess to him, I have failed him simply by not being who He wanted to be. He is a man who is safe, and wants to be self dependent.

I am a man who desires the relationship of others, who is unafraid to lose life, though more afraid of losing a chance at life. I too am hard to love, a sure sign of me being my father's son.

I dunno, it is just tiring i guess.

Disciplines

Out of love, you discipline yourself.
Out of discipline, you fall in love more.

I had this analogy from God. I love cars. That is why i 'discipline' myself to read up on as much about cars as i can. In essence, i am in training. Out of the training, you fall in love with cars more.

As with athletes, they train out of a love of the sport, and out of the training, they love the sport more.

As with God, we discipline our lives out of a love of God, and out of that discipline, we come to love God more.

At the root of it, it is really love, but at the surface, it is a series of discipline.

Thursday, i disciplined a class, and i said this "I will teach you discipline, if not in the heart at least in the actions". Out of the actions, i pray that the heart will also be moved.