We Forgive

It surprised me that when Jesus taught us to pray, He taught us to ask God to do 6 things (in blue below), but asked us to do only 2 things (in red below).  Lets  look at the Lord's Prayer. Matt 6:9-14.

Our Father who is in Heaven
We (and the angels) praise your name
You bring your kingdom come
You cause your will be done on Earth as in Heaven
You give us our daily bread please
You forgive us our sins as
We forgive those who sin against us
You lead us not into temptations
You deliver us from evil
For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory
For ever and ever. Amen

It goes to show how important it is for us to forgive those who have hurt us.  Here, Jesus did not ask us to give to charity or be grateful or be obedient.  Forgiving others is utmost important.

In our lives, someone may have bullied us, maligned us, raped us, unjustly and unfairly fired us, disfigured us, hurt our ego and dignity, cheated us.  Jesus said "Forgive."  Do not be trapped in bitterness.

Praising our God, and forgiving our fellow humans, make us whole.

2 Types of God's Plan

I am not a Bible scholar.  I am just a pragmatic Christian. From experience, I recognize 2 types of God's Plan.

Firstly is God's Intended Plan.  God intended Adam and Eve to live happily in the Garden of Eden.  But they disobeyed Him and sinned.  So God revised His plan.

So Secondly, is God's Revised Plan.  In response to what humans do, God constantly revised His plans.

Example: God did not intend the Israelites to have a king.  But the Israelites insisted on having one.  So God revised His plan and appointed King Saul, King David, and so on.

Example: God intended Jesus to return within one generation's time.  "Truly, I say to you, this generation/race will not pass away until all things take place...Be on guard..." Luke 21:27-36.  The people believed Jesus, and waited for His impending return, so much so that they slackened in their daily work.  Paul had to admonish them. 2 Thess 3:11-17. But God has revised His plan.  We do not know when Jesus will return physically.

So God is revising His plans all the time, depending on what humans do with their free-will.

So pray to God and ask Him to grant your dearest wishes.  He may just grant them, even though initially He did not intend to.

Below is another view on God's plan. http://www.crosswaychurchwa.com/images/PrayerHandout4.pdf

In his book, The Prayer of the Lord, RC Sproul lays out three different types of God’s will.  The first is what we call the sovereign, efficacious will of God. When the Bible speaks of the will of God in this sense, it is describing the will that causes whatever He decrees to come to pass. The sovereign, efficacious will of God is the will that brings to pass whatsoever He decrees.  Second, the Bible speaks of the will of God with respect to what we call His preceptive will. The preceptive will has to do with His law and commandments, the precepts He issues to regulate the behavior of His creation.  Please note that the preceptive will of God can be violated and is violated every day. Being sinners, we disobey the will of God.   Third, the Bible speaks of the will of God in terms of His basic disposition or inclination. In this sense, God’s will has to do with what is pleasing or displeasing to Him.

Who decided the books in the Bible?

Believing that the Bible is 'God-inspired' is not enough.  Christians should ask who decided that the Bible books are 'God-inspired'.

How come some Bibles have more books than others?

Although I am not convinced that this article is entirely correct, it is a good reference.
https://st-takla.org/pub_Deuterocanon/Deuterocanon-Apocrypha_El-Asfar_El-Kanoneya_El-Tanya__0-index.html

To summarize:

1) Jesus, in His time, used the Septuagint Version (Greek) of the Old Testament Scripture.  The Septuagint includes the 7 additional Old Testament books now found in the Orthodox/Catholic Bible.
2) The Jews, during Jesus' time, did not accept Jesus' ministry.  Hence the Jews avoided the Septuagint, and hence the 7 additional books too.
3) After Jesus' death, the apostolic church continued to use the Septuagint Version of Old
Testament.
4) Even in the late 4th Century AD, in the Apostolic church, the Councils of Rome, Hippo, and Carthage, were using the 7 additional Old Testament books.
5) Right up to 1546, the church had been using these 7 additional books in the Old Testament.
6) Then came Martin Luther.  He rejected the 7 additional books, purportedly because these books contained scriptural proofs of the doctrines of the Orthodox/Catholic churches.
7) The New Testament books were agreed upon at the Council at Carthage in 395AD.

I often wonder whether or not it was a right thing for Martin Luther and the Protestant Movement to remove some books from the Orthodox/Catholic/Apostolic churches' Old Testament.  On balance, I think it was not a good thing.

By the way, the 7 additional books in the Old Testament are (total 46 books):
a) Tobit
b) Judith
c) 1 Maccabees

d) 2 Maccabees

e) Wisdom of Solomon
f) Sirach
g) Baruch
(reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Testament)

The Second Book of Esdras

How the Bible was canonized is not clear.  Apparently it was canonized in several phases over several years.  Why 39 plus 27 books?  Why not 70 books or 76 books? See https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/who-decided-what-went-into-the-bible.html

In particular, which apocalyptic books to include was even harder to imagine.  Why the Book of Revelation was included in the New Testament?  Why the Second Book of Esdras was included only in the Apocrypha?

2 Esdras tells us many interesting things about the End of the Age.  It answers many questions which we ourselves would ask:

Here are some excerpts:

"Please tell me," I asked "do you think I will live until that time (the end of Age)? If not, who will be alive when it happens?"
He answered "I can tell you some of the signs of the end, if that is what you are asking;  but I am not here to tell you how long you will live, and in any case, I don't know.
"But these are the signs:  The time will come when all people on earth will be in the grip of great confusion.  The way of truth will be hidden, and no faith will be left in the land.  Wickedness will increase until it has become worse than you have ever known it to be.  The country that you now see ruling the world will lie in ruins with no inhabitant or traveler there...
I replied.  "But couldn't you have created all human beings, those of the past, the present, and the future, so that they would all live at the same time?...
He answered, "The creation cannot move faster than the Creator.  And besides, the world wouldn't have been able to hold all the people if everyone had been created at the same time."...

For more interesting conversations, read all the 7 visions of Esdras.

No, Prayers are not answered all the time.

Priests and pastors have been telling people why prayers are not answered.  So far, I have not heard a truly good explanation.

"All prayers will be answered if they are prayed according to God's will".  Are they?

I note 2 obvious scenarios where, even if the prayers are 'according to God's will', they are not answered.

1) Even if it is according to God's will, if sinful humans mess up, the prayers will not be answered. For example, at every weekly mass, devout Catholics pray for their pope, bishops, priests and religious.  Yet in some countries, the church is filled with some priests who are also paedophiles.  Yes, prayers by devout Catholics for God's blessings on their church leaders are according to God's will.  But God would not answer these prayers to bless the sinful ones.

2) Even if it is according to God's will, if Nature mess up, the prayers will not be answered.  For example, Christians pray for peace all the time.  They prayed for safety when a disaster, could be a hurricane or a typhoon, was expected.  The disaster did come, and many people perished.  Surely it is according to God's will for His people to live safety.  But God also allowed Nature to exercise its freewill.  God would not go against the fury of Nature most of the time. Hence the prayers of the devout were again not answered.

I must add that, God being all-mighty, could of course override the sinfulness of men or the fury of Nature, and answer all prayers for peace and for well-being.  But usually He allows the free-will of men and Nature to prevail.  However, once in a while, He may do otherwise.  We do not know when.  It is a mystery.

1 Samuel Chapter 1: Godly Assurance. Hannah's joy.

"Go in peace." Eli said, "and may the God of Israel give you what you have asked him for." 1Sam 1:17.

If we believe in God, and we pray to God, then why we are still anxious after we pray?

It's because we do not know whether God agree with our prayer.  We are not sure.

Once we are assured that we are praying according to God's will, we will not be anxious anymore.

That was what happened to Hannah.  She was deeply distressed and prayed for a son.  The priest Eli assured her that "God give you what you have asked Him for".  Assured, she went away, no longer sad.

If we are not assured, we will remain miserable and anxious.  So how and where to find God's assurance?

Well.  Know God.  Read the Bible.  The answer is there.  The Holy Spirit speaks through the written words.

Everyone did whatever he pleased

The last sentence in the Book of Judges summarized half the book, or even the whole book.

Judges chapter 14 to 16.  The story of Samson killing more people at his death than he killed during his life, was quite unbelievable.  (Really? Just by cracking 2 columns of a big building?)  But let's not interpret it literary.  Just glean the message of how Samson had failed God.

Judges chapter 17 to 21.  The episode of how Israelites went to war to wipe out one of her own tribe, the Benjaminites.  And then worried about the prospect that Israel would end up with eleven tribes instead of twelve, since the remaining Benjaminites had no women to procreate.  And how they devised a terrible plan of procuring women by war.

It was a total mess.  The conclusion:  "There was no king in Israel at that time. Everyone did whatever he pleased." Judges 21:25  As if, if there is a king, things could be much better.  LOL.

Now, look at the world today.  The trade war between US and China, the fire that burnt off the Amazon forest and the Indonesia forest and all the wild animals there.  The mess created by the protesters in Hong Kong, the miseries of climate change, the Brexit fury and hurt.  Basically the world is getting messier each day, and heading towards self-destruction.

But we have Kings and Presidents and Prime Ministers in the world in the present era.  Plenty of them.  Some even elected by the people themselves.

So may I add Judges 22 verse1:  "By and by, there were many kings and rulers, and they did whatever they pleased.  LOL.

Lets go back to the Lord.

Don't Believe Everything (Sirach / Ecclesiasticus)

Years ago, while in church, some passages were read from Ecclesiasticus.  I could not find the Book of Ecclesiasticus.

The Book of Sirach has many other names.  It is also called the Wisdom of Sirach, the Book of  Ben Sira and the Book of Ecclesiasticus.  I used to confuse this book with the Book of Ecclesiastes, which is one of the 66 books of the main bible.  Ecclesiasticus is written between 200 to 175 BCE, and is found in the inter-testament or deuterocanonical books section.

It's amazing how so many words of wisdom, written 2,200 years ago, are still applicable today.

Sir 18:17:  Kinds words are more effective than the best gifts.

Sir 19:6:    Avoid idle talk, and you will avoid a lot of trouble.

Sir 19:15:  DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR.

Sir 20:18:  A slip of the tongue is worse than a slip on the pavement.

Sir 21:25:  Presumptuous people talk about things that are none of their business.