The truth shall make you free.

“The truth will set you free” is a dictum espoused by ardent folks, in academia and the professional community, as they want to champion academic freedom, professional independence and the dynamic power of learning.  Many universities and colleges do embrace the aforesaid declarative statement as their motto too.

It was Jesus who originally said:

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

In the context of:

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.” John‬ ‭8:32-35‬ ‭

Jesus’ other statement 

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.” ‭‭John‬ ‭14:6-7‬

Jesus said He is the Truth .

Jesus came to proclaim liberty to the captives; as whoever committed sin is a slave to sin, as unrepentant sin is the eventual bondage that leads to death. Knowing the Truth will set one at liberty—free from the bondage of sin which leads to eternal damnation, and one instead, will enter into eternal life with God in heaven as the ultimate glorious destination, and it will be forever and ever – with no more death, tears, sorrow nor crying.

Revelation 21:3-8

 “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.  He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Jesus said in John 8:31 “…if you continue (those who believed on Him) in My Word then are my disciples indeed;”

 “Now a slave has no perpetual place (abide not) in the family, but a son belongs to it forever” – Jesus’ audience  understood  that to mean that they were not members of God’s family, despite their biological relationship to Abraham,  as they were still slaves to sin.

Jesus would set them free.  Jesus said those who believed on Him , knowing the Truth would be freed from their bondage and brought into the family of God.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. ”

Perish means:

“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:” Matthew 25:41

 “The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. ” Revelation 14:10-11

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:10-15

Take time to admire the beauty of nature and remember God who created them for our enjoyment too.

We are blessed on planet earth,  with the fingerprint of the Creator all around us.  The beauty may be observed anywhere on this beautiful blue planet,  the only inhabited planet of the 9 planets in the Solar System and beyond.

Small miracles are all around us if we care to notice, like for instance a seed germinating when it touches the soil . We simply need to go outside and take a look around with intellectual  and conscious cognition of all the great and wonderful creations of God which we see daily. We may then unearth  the plenteous creative comeliness of nature which may bring about (if we allow it) a spiritual heightening deep in our soul of our Creator’s matchless creativity.

For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver. -Martin Luther King Jr.

It is profitable when we put knowledge into practice. ~ Cheong Kok Weng

Man is what he believes. –  Anton Chekhov

Things We may Learn from a tree.

Good thoughts for reflection – from the trees that God has created for this World…

“Stand tall and have dignity.

Stay grounded .

Reach upwards and outwards.

Be adaptable.

Get rid of dead branches; unproductive things and activity

Continue to grow  – continue to learn new things.

Turn over a new leaf – regeneration.

Enjoy the view – take time to be grateful.”

 

Life is a matter of Choice & Decision. It drives you to your destination on planet earth and life beyond. ~ Cheong Kok Weng

Time and tide wait for no man. it goes on inexorably.

Life is made up of an “infinite” amount of choices and decisions within the framework of the time dimension.

There are the big decisions – the ones which can change our life – forever.  Daily small decisions can also change our destiny.

There is a “force embedded” in decisions and we are primarily responsible for our choices, and the rewards or consequences will follow the decision made.  Every decision we choose will make us who we are, in the final analysis – we are what we decide to be.

May we decide to choose to do what is right and good daily.

Implicit in decision making is the FREEWILL to CHOOSE  which is a birthright given to mankind by our CREATOR right from the beginning in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 2:16-17

“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

The first parents of mankind in Eden chose to sin, unfortunately and the consequences of sin fell on mankind thereafter.

Yesterday is Done, Today We Can Redo or Restart. ~ Cheong Kok Weng

We take courage and use our yesterday’s disappointments and ‘non fulfilment’ as rungs of the ladder to reach our desired intent or goals.

Today is the day to take action, that ‘s to step up, redo or start over. We thank our Creator for TODAY.

BEGINNING  today, we would have crossed the mental threshold of inertial as the friction in an endeavour is the beginning. The starting in small ways do produce the momentum and it is easier to continue moving forward thereafter.

 

The “planting” of passion and persistence will result in a bountiful harvest in time to come.

The results of the human resolve to persevere, to strive for improvement and be innovative (you can “reinvent” the wheel! ).

 

 

Make good choices, persevere and try again; and we will succeed, by God’s grace. ~ Cheong Kok Weng

An account about “perseverance” from our fellow human on planet

earth. ->https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/08/worlds-richest-self-made-woman-zhou-qunfei-shares-the-key-to-success.html

Make good choices, persevere and try again; and we will succeed, by God’s grace.

Patient efforts and concentration, properly directed each day; bouncing back and keep moving forward will lead to conquering difficulties, resolutions and success.

Perseverance means determined continuation in something with a steady and continued action of belief that occurs over a period of time amongst and despite difficulty, with little or no indication of success. It is to hold on and stay the course.

 

The time for correct action is now, as doing it now is better than not doing it at all. ~ Cheong Kok Weng

The time for correct action is now, as doing it now is better than not doing it at all.  It is not too late; better late than never. God gives us the awesome power of the present – NOW.

At the backdrop of correct ACTION  – it is good for us to be mindful that many a times, less is more as simplicity is key. 

Simplicity while preserving the essentials and without decreasing its value, makes things easy to grasp & use, effectual, dependable and delightful. Two illustrations of simplicity. Placing your hand under the water faucet and the water flows out and walking towards an automatic door and it opens.

Connected to taking correct actions, is the aphorism from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who’s an aircraft designer.  He said It seems that perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.” As such, design is perfect when nothing more can be taken away – this is a fine definition of engineering elegance indeed.

At times, adding-on improves things. At other times, removing enhances things. Sometimes by changing, it ameliorates things. “Perfection is attained” when nothing can be improved.

Last word on “perfection” on planet earth – from a fellow human’s perspective. 

“Perfection is not attainable , but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”  – Vince Lombardi

 

Amazing Fine Tuning of the Universe – Necessity, Chance or Design?

A morally perfect God would value life, especially embodied human beings with free will, and so ensure the physical laws,  with finely -tuned constants in a  universe and initial conditions allowed for our existence.

Refuting the Anthropic argument

The Teleological Argument  https://youtu.be/3Yt7hvgFuNg

The Case for the Resurrection of Christ . The Apostle Paul tells us that if Jesus is not risen from the dead, our faith is in vain. Yet, many professing Christians deny the physical resurrection of Christ. In this message, Dr. Ravi Zacharias will give a defense of the bodily resurrection of Jesus against modernist skeptics inside and outside the church and against postmoderns who don’t think it matters. He will explain that if Jesus is risen, nothing else matters, and that if Jesus is not risen, nothing else matters. See the two links below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbkKFEpUQTw

https://youtu.be/EfZb3HvV9Ew

 

 

 

Reflections