I think Kenneth Teo LiGuangYew's post is spot on and relevant to all of us.

Christianity is not a practice.
Not a story.
Not a habit.
Not a commitment.
Not a lifestyle.
Not a sum of experiences.

It is truth.

Truth that changes the way we live - And it is truth that shapes our lifestyle, causes us to form habits and commitments, gives us experiences. Not the other way round.

There's a danger of being "christianized" - being sugar coated - doing things Christians do, but not "seeing the light" as Kenneth said. You go to church, sing songs, go for events, listen to sermons, but you have not actually accepted Jesus into your life as your Lord and Saviour - though you may think you have!

If so, then you have followed a lifestyle, not Jesus.



Kenneth is right when he explained that it is difficult to know what is truth unless God tells it to you.

Because only when you take a step of faith and accept Jesus into your life as your Lord and Saviour, that you receive the Holy Spirit, who gives you the assurance.

Romans 8:16 "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God."

"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:31
You no longer doubt when you know the truth. The truth sets you free from your doubts about God. And this freedom is unmistakable. Experiences won't set you free. Knowledge won't set you free. But receiving the truth, which is Jesus (John 14:6), sets you free.



On whether the Holy Spirit leaves you anot, I've asked that question before and never got a consistent answer. Haha. I tend to agree with Junting that the Holy Spirit does not leave you, it is always in you to keep guiding you back to God when you have sinned. That's God heart for you, to bring you back to him when you have sinned. But because of our free will, we can deliberately keep on sinning.

"If we deliberately keep on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice of sins if left." Hebrews 10:26

This is what Junting means about we leaving the Holy Spirit. I'm not sure whether we can leave the Holy Spirit though. The Hebrews verse above seems to suggest that we can. But the Ephesians verse below suggests that we can't.

"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." Ephesians 4:30


I think we can go on debating about whether we can leave the Holy Spirit, there's still the rest of the Bible to quote. But I think the challenge to us from all this discussion is summed up in the question:

Looking at our lifestyle, have we been born again? Have we truly accepted Jesus into our life as our Lord and Saviour, meaning our whole lives now belong to him?
Haha YES IT'S THE JYM SERMON FROM A FEW MONTHS AGO!


Really encouraging to read all those entries. We should keep sharing our thoughts! It's a breath of fresh air, coming to this blog, and getting a dose of God's Word after a week in army, which can really be a godless place. But for some reason I can't seem to watch the youtube video below!

Anyway this week in camp I had to do this deployment in which we all wear some suit and deploy a medical post. You know I really dunno how much I'm allowed to say on a blog, after hearing about people getting arrested for posting about army. Haha. Like, ok, if you're from Army and you're reading this and wanna catch me, please give me a chance! Er I love army and I'm loyal to Singapore :) I'm the guy who just become a singaporean last week.

Haha anyway ya we were supposed to deploy this medical post, but after a while the suit got way too hot. And I seriously thought of just taking off the suit and falling out from the exercise, but I was scared to. Then suddenly my friend just took off his suit and walked away, leaving me and another friend. So seeing him do that I took off my suit also. Just then the commander turned and saw ME with the suit off, and had this shocked expression on his face. Hahaha. My friend still had his on, and the other friend had walked off behind a wall. So I thought like, oh no, do I look like I'm rebelling. So I signaled to him saying that I desperately need to drink water. Haha. Which was true. Then his shocked expression left and he suddenly had this really understanding look on his face. Phew.

Next time if I wanna take off my suit, I'll just take it off and hide behind a wall.


Ryan