Prosperity Gospel - an observation

Just out of curiosity, I decided to search wikipedia about prosperity gospel and above is a screen shot of a part of the article. Please click the picture to get a zoomed version.

Those of you who are supporters of those names I circled above (even the none circled ones) better watch out what spiritual food are you eating. Just because they attach the word 'Jesus' and 'Bible' and other Christian terms does NOT mean they are authentic Christian teachers.

The apostle Paul warned the Ephesians that savage wolves will emerge from among the flock and seek to destroy it. We best heed his warnings.

SDG (sorry Mike, borrow the acronym from you :p )

Ian

Formulas....

Was just thinking the other day: what should I post next? Then I thought why not I post the more long and complicated formulas I have seen so far? XD

The first two is from physics...the third one is from statistics.

1) Planck's Law for the spectral radiance. Used in calculating blackbody radiation, radiation emitted by objects at certain temperature.

2) Schrodinger Equation in one dimension. Used in Quantum Mechanics.

3) The probability density function for a Normal (Gaussian) Distribution.

lolx. XD probably see more complicated ones next study term. >.<

...and Good Days

In my previous post, I only mentioned about bad days, and not mentioning good days. Well…so here is the second half: what about days where everything seems to go so smoothly?

Again, there are two parts to this: the explainable and unexplainable. Like the post on bad days, the explainable parts can be explained as a consequence of your actions. For example:

“Woohoo! I aced this exam! Today is a good day!” (He/She probably did a lot of preparation)

“I had an enjoyable day hanging out with my friends today. What a great day.” (You chose to join your friends and made sure you enjoy every moment of it)

“Oh? I realized today I had more money in the back than expected!” (“Well…you did not keep close tabs on your cash so you misremembered)

There are probably infinitely many scenarios but you get the jist: something good happens as a result of your actions.

Of course, we have the unexplainable part. This part is probably more common when people exclaim: “Oh, what a lucky day!” and “That just made my day!” Something good has happened that was not a direct result of anything they did. I am pretty sure everyone has experienced this before.

One can attribute those situations to ‘luck’ and ‘chance’ but I still think God is very much in control of the good stuff as he is on the bad stuff. Not that God is the source of bad stuff but he allows it for reasons mentioned in the bad days post.

But I digress. I recall a verse in the bible that says that God causes the rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:43-48) Yeah. The passage talks about loving your enemies but it is applicable here. It shows that God gives general blessings to everyone, believer or unbeliever. So, to us it may seem by chance that good stuff happens to us but with God, it is not by chance.

Why does God allow good things to happen? Possibly because he is the source of all goodness.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17)

And he does it also because hopefully, men might turn to Him.

“Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy." (Acts 14:17)

According to the verse, it says he did it as a testimony to men. Testimony to what? Probably as a testimony to His goodness and providence, and maybe, men will seek after God. Notice that no matter what men can do, they can’t control the weather or the seasons. All is under God’s control.

So, when something good happens during your day, praise the Lord for allowing something good to happen.

As always, feel free to comment and share ideas. =)

Bad Days....

Yes, it has been awhile since I blogged. Things have been busy and finals is just around the corner. I just want to take a break from studying awhile and update this blog. XD

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I have been thinking quite a bit about the title. Why are there days when everything seems to go smoothly and some days where everything just crashes? I have experienced quite a bit of this and it caused me to step back and ask is there an explanation for this?

I concluded there are two parts: the explainable and unexplainable. (In statistics terms, the systematic part and random part). The explainable part can be attributed to the consequences of one's actions in the present or in the past. Here are some examples to illustrate:

- It has been a bad day...so stress...have to rush for assignments/projects. (Well...if one started the assignments/projects earlier and kept at it, this would not happen)

- yay! i did well in the test. Hard work paid off i guess. (self explanatory...hard/smart work resulted in results)

-sigh..today so bad la...found out not enough money..pokai liao. (If you had controlled your expenditure, this would not happen)

However, there are some situations which can't be explained, where even the simplest things go wrong or every simple thing happens correctly. If I were to list down the possible situations, it would take quite a bit of space. But I know as well as I do what I mean. These situations, no matter how far you trace back, are not related to anything you did or did not do.

I have days where everything goes well and some days where everything just crashes around me. I asked a couple of people for a biblical stand or explanation about this issue. The summary is that as Christians, we ought to see these things as troubles/trials. If you go through a trouble and it is related to your actions, it is a consequence of those actions and probably God is disciplining you. If it is unexplained, it is a trouble that God allows to build us up in terms of character.

Jesus said in John that in this world we will have many trouble but we are to take heart because Jesus has overcome the world. James also elaborated in the first chapter about how to view trials and temptations, i.e., to view it with joy.

So....yeah...just something i think about. Feel free to comment, as always. Still thinking about this issue. hehe

Ian