Posts by Alvin Lin (Page 3)
Do You Know How to Love Your…Enemies? (Part 1)
Have you thought which verse in the Bible is the most difficult to you? I don’t mean to say which verse is the most difficult to understand, but which verse is the most difficult for you to obey and do. You will say to me there are so many of them in the Bible, and I will agree with you. For me, I don’t know if I can definitively say I have one verse that is the most difficult to…
Cornerstone
Can you explain what is a cornerstone? Has anyone ever shown you one before? If you happen to be someone who has a background in construction, you may know much more about it. As for me, I am thinking that the cornerstone represents the stone that is set down on the foundation of a structure before any other stone. In addition, it is set down at what would be the corner of the structure, and thus the name, “cornerstone”. Perhaps?…
We Shall Be Holy
On Sunday, Billy introduced us to the third wall of the church, the ekklesia. In the most general form, the word means, “gathering”. But when the word is used in the Bible, it almost always refers to a “called out” gathering, a “holy” gathering, or a gathering that is “set apart”. The Bible has much to say about being holy. In the middle of 1 Peter, the Apostle Peter wrote that we must be holy in all our behavior. 1…
Ambassadors Are We
I am nowhere near a news junkie, as Billy would sometimes call himself. But from time to time, I like to keep up with the news and get informed about what is going on in our world. This week I learned that our president nominated Caroline Kennedy and Michelle Kwan to be U.S. ambassadors to Australia and Belize, respectively. The Kennedy nomination caught my eye because she formerly served as U.S. ambassador from 2013 to 2017 to Japan, a country…
The Image of God
In my devotional time with my 12-year-old son this past week, we talked about what it meant for God to say that we were created in his image. Genesis 1:26 says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’” After our sovereign God created the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the cattle and every living thing that creeps on the earth, he created the man and woman in his image. What…
To Whom Shall We Pray?
In your daily quiet moments with God, to whom do you pray? What I meant to ask is do you pray to God the Father? Or do you pray to God the Son? Or neither? Or simply, God? Somewhere, sometime, I must have learned to pray to God the Father whenever I prayed. Ever since I was a little boy, I have mainly prayed to God the Father. I say mainly because sometimes I prayed to God the Son. And if I…
Thanksgiving in the Bible
Some of you may know this, but I didn’t grow up in America. In Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan where I grew up, as in America, people celebrate holidays. But there were no holidays I can remember where families and friends came together purposefully to give thanks in those countries. This is why it is most interesting to me there is Thanksgiving in America. The most important holiday in both Taiwan and Hong Kong is the Chinese New Year. The…
The Doctrine of Prayer, Lost
Recently, Billy and I attended the Puget Sound Baptist Association Leadership Conference and Annual Meeting. There were the usual things to cover at a meeting like this. The Executive Director gave a report. Ministry teams also gave reports. New leaders for the coming year were announced, and the new budget was decided. But in the middle of the order of events, a representative from the International Mission Board came up to encourage us and remind us the importance of prayer.…
Bondservant
Of the designations Jude gave himself in Jude 1, he first and foremost said he was a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Jude 1 says, “Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James.” Many New Testament writers also called themselves bondservants. It happened in Romans 1:1, Galatians 1:10, Titus 1:1, James 1:1, 2 Peter 1:1, Revelation 1:1. The Greek word for bondservant is douvloß, or doulos. What is a bondservant? Is bondservant the same as slave? What do you…
Who is Jude?
Did you know there are some books in the Bible that receive less attention than others? We all know the Gospel of John and the Book of Romans. But have you heard of the Book of Jude? Did you even know there was a book in the Bible named Jude? There sure is. It is a short book so you might have missed it. Only 1 chapter, 25 verses. That’s all. Who is Jude? What kind of name is Jude?…
Clean and Unclean
Recently, I went hiking with two friends at Dash Point State Park. The weather was absolutely Northwest gorgeous. We had planned to hike together for a long time, and finally, I found the time to join them. I looked forward to having conversations with them during the hike about each of our favorite foods and vacation destinations. They, on the other hand, had something totally different in mind. They wanted to talk about God, and faith, and the Bible (they…
What to Do With Proverbs?
As we continue in our study of the Book of Proverbs together this Sunday, I wish to teach you a new word: Paremiologist. You and I are not Proverbians or Proverbers. You and I are paremiologists. Paremiology is the study of proverbs and a paremiologist is someone who dedicates himself to the study of proverbs. There, my work is done here. Please don’t be impressed. I just learned it recently myself. What would you say about the Book of Proverbs?…
A Theology About Tithes
What if I were to tell you that you don’t need to tithe when you come to church, ever? There, I said it. It’s true. But allow me to explain. If you guessed that tithing is a teaching from God in the Old Testament, you have guessed correctly. God commanded the Israelites, through the requirement of the Mosaic Law, to give ten percent of the crops they grew and the livestock they raised to the tabernacle/temple. Leviticus 27:30 Thus all…
Who is the Angel of the Lord?
Have you heard of the name, “Angel of the Lord,” in the Bible? I think you have. It appears a total of 64 times. It is always mentioned in the singular. You will not find the name mentioned in the plural anywhere. There are not “angels of the Lord” in the Bible. Written with the definite article before the name, “the angel of the Lord” appears a total of 53 times. That leaves “angel of the Lord,” without the definite…
Talking in the Proverbs
There are more than 7.7 billion people living on this planet, but as you know, there is not one culture. There are many different cultures, and this makes our planet a most interesting place to live. Because there are many different cultures, we do many things differently, of which one is how we talk to each other. Did you know that not everyone talks in the same way Americans do? People from different parts of the world talk with each…
Gossip
In a 2019 study published in a journal named Social Psychological and Personality Science, 467 adults were asked to wear electronic devices on their bodies that recorded their verbal conversations over the course of several days. The researchers listened to the recorded audio files and hunted for conversations or anything that could be identified as gossip. The results were very interesting. Practically everyone engaged in some form of gossip. Only 34 individuals showed no evidence of gossip at all. Seventy-five…
Integrity in the Proverbs
One day, a mother brought her young boy to an old man, and asked him to tell her boy how he was never to eat sugar again because of its harmful effects on his teeth and overall health. The old man didn’t say anything to the little boy that day. However, he asked the mother to bring the boy back again to him one month later. When she returned with her boy, the old man did what he was asked…
We are Never Alone
One hot summer day, a friend gave me four free tickets to a New York Yankees baseball game. The year was 2008 and the Yankees were playing one of their very last games at the original Yankee Stadium, and I wanted to take one last look at the stadium, and to say goodbye. In addition, I wanted our three very young daughters to see this historic stadium in the Bronx. I planned out the trip in great detail so we…
Jubilee
Allow me to ask you a strange question. Do you know how to say the Hebrew word for “ram’s horn”? And you will tell me that you didn’t know Hebrew. But I will bet you know more Hebrew than you think. Because the Hebrew word for ram’s horn is where we get our word, “Jubilee”. For a long time, I heard pastors and Sunday School teachers make references to the Jubilee, but I am even embarrassed to say I didn’t…
Omnipresent
The Bible says God can see us in our inner room when we pray to him secretly. Matthew 6:6 says, “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” I have a secret room. Ask my wife or children about my secret room in the house, and they would know what you are asking…
Omniscient
Last week, our 11-year old son made a presentation for his homeschool co-op. Of all the famous people on whom he could have chosen to present, he chose Neil Armstrong, the first man who walked on the moon. We will never forget that moment. July 20, 1969, was a day that made us proud as Americans. Astronauts are some of the brightest people in our country. Already very bright, they sit through hours and hours of in-class learning, followed by…
Omnipotent
You probably know this already but there are some people in the world who can lift way more than their own body weight. Amazing. Are you one of them? In this world, there are those who can lift. Then there are those who can really lift. In the World’s Strongest Man competition, competitors lift five round stones in excess of over 350 pounds, onto high platforms. They pull buses, train cars, fire trucks, even airplanes, across a 100-foot course. A…
Let’s Talk About Biblical Inerrancy (Part 2)
Let’s Talk About Biblical Inerrancy (Part 1) Which brings me to my question: Must one uphold the Doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy in order to be saved? What do you think? This may surprise you but in my humble opinion, the answer is No. The Bible clearly says that salvation is through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior from our sin (Romans 4). Therefore, it is not necessary for one to uphold the Doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy for…
Let’s Talk About Biblical Inerrancy (Part 1)
Have you heard of the Doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy before? The word, “inerrancy” simply means without error. Therefore, the basic idea of biblical inerrancy says that the Bible is without error. But this definition doesn’t quite help us very much because it still can mean so many different things to so many people. One says it means the Bible is pure. The Bible contains no impurities. Psalm 12:6 The words of the LORD are pure words; As silver tried in…
Christmas or Easter?
Have you ever heard anyone say, “How many shopping days are there till Easter?” Do you buy gifts for your spouse, your family, or your siblings for Easter? Do you install lights on the roof of your house for Easter? Do you book your flight months ahead to be home for Easter? Does your workplace have an annual Easter party? How many Easter parties will you go to this year? Let’s be honest. To people of this world, Easter just…