Who Are You?

Who Am I? There’re only three possible answers: a believer; an unbeliever; an atheist.

A Believer

A believer believes in the existence of one true God.

Only three religions are monotheistic (believing in the existence of one God): Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. 

In Judaism, the Jews believe that Abraham was the father of the Jewish people in the first two chapters of Genesis in the Old Testament. The Jews believe that Jesus was only a teacher, not a god, who opposed the Jewish teachings and who was subsequently sentenced to death by crucifixion.

In Christianity, Jesus was the Son of God who was born of the Virgin Mary and who died on the Cross to save mankind from sin. Christians believe in the Old Testament about God’s teachings and His prophets predicting the coming of the Savior, as well as in the New Testament about the teachings of the early Christian churches regarding Jesus’ resurrection and the spread of the Gospel. 

In Islam, Prophet Muhammad grew up in a pagan environment. One day an angel revealed to him his duty to reject idol worship and to serve only one true God. Unlike the Christians who believe in the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit), Muslims believe in only one God. Jesus was no more than a prophet, although the Virgin Mary was a miracle. Islam is not a redemptive religion.

Other religions don’t involve one God. In Buddhism, Buddha was not a god, but a prince who left the palace after witnessing the sufferings of mankind. In Hinduism, there’re many gods and they didn’t create the world. Other religions are only moral practices to improve human behaviors for better life and living in this material world.

An Unbeliever

One of the qualifications of being a believer is “accountability” to God. Given that humans are prone to “rationalization”, there’re many unbelievers who rationalize why they should not be held accountable for their doings: God, if He does exist, is neither fair nor just with so much discrepancy between the good who suffer and the bad who seem to prosper; the church is not to be trusted because of the prevalence of sexual crimes committed by pastors and priests; the police are not to be obeyed because of their corruption and racial prejudice; the laws are made to be broken because many lawmakers also break the laws they’ve created.   

However, there’re many who’re spiritual but not religious, believing that there might be a Higher Being who oversees the world. But it’s also their belief that if they’re “decent” human beings, doing no evils, they will survive and thrive in this material world without their accountability to God. 

An Atheist

There’re many who don’t believe in the existence of god or gods. They simply detach themselves from any faith or religion. Why are there so many religions if there’s only one true God?  Many religions don’t involve God; they’re only systems of beliefs with moral codes and righteous behaviors to attain better understanding of the true meaning of human existence.

Buddhism comes from Buddha who wasn’t a god, but a prince who became enlightened when he witnessed human miseries and sufferings.

Hinduism involves many gods.

Judaism believes in one true God, who promised Abraham, who was childless in his old age, that he would have a nation with millions of descendants. God had overseen the nation with instructions and messages from prophets. His people had disobeyed and rejected Him. God used Moses to deliver His people from slavery in Egypt, and ultimately gave them the nation of Israels as He had promised.

Christianity comes from one true God, whose Son Jesus Christ was born of the Virgine Mary to teach and save the world through His death on the Cross and His Resurrection.

Islam believes in worshipping Mohammad, a prophet just like Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Quran is made up of many events with moral teachings of Islam.

According to believers, God comes from nothing. God created the world and the universe, and everything in them. God is a timeless uncreated Creator with eternal existence and no origin. God gets everything from nothing.

According to atheists, the universe comes not from God, but from nothing too, due to its complexity and its presence over millions of years. There’re many theories, including the Big Bang Theory, that explain how the universe came into existence without creation.

WHO AM I?         

There’re only three possible answers: a believer; an unbeliever; an atheist.

A Believer

A believer believes in the existence of one true God.

Only three religions are monotheistic (believing in the existence of one God): Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

WHO AM I?

You are a believer.

Stephen Lau

Ways of Living Your Life

 There’re different ways of living life in this forever-changing world. They all come from the thinking mind, which may change positively or negatively with different life experiences in different phases of life.

1. Living by Wants

Many live according to what they want in life. Wants can come from basic needs, such as food, clothing, and shelter, or from other things desired in life, such as comfort, health, love, pleasures, success, wealth, and many others.

First, living by wants requires the means, that is, the money or the earnings to make a living, without which it’s impossible to get the wants. Unfortunately, many without the means yet demand their wants, and thus end up in crimes, such as stealing and robbing.

In life and living, there’re many wants, including the following: wanting alcohol may result in AUD (Alcohol Use Disorder); wanting gambling can happen to anyone from any walk of life, due to the fun that often turns into an unhealthy obsession with serious financial and relationship consequences; wanting sex can lead to pornography, adultery, infidelity, and extra-marital affairs; wanting money can cause greed and attachments to material things; wanting hobbies can make life more interesting, such as dancing, singing, and music; wanting sports can increase physical and mental skills in competitive sports, such as football and soccer, while wanting non-competitive sports, such as running and swimming, can be exercises for physical health; wanting success in any endeavor, such as careers and businesses, love and relationships, health and healing, can set goals and objectives in life and living.

2. Living by Personality

An ego is self-identity. Many may have an inflated ego that gives them a distinguished personality to live by. They believe they’re not only much better but also totally different from others. Accordingly, others must succumb to their demands and desires. They’ve become so self-centered that they continuously inflate their own ego with higher expectations while controlling and demanding others to do what they want them to do.

On the other side of the inflated ego are those who’re living by deflated ego. They often feel inadequate, incompetent, and unloved. Their low self-esteem often originates from an unhappy childhood with extremely critical and demanding parents, as well as from ongoing life events, such as career and relationship failures and problems.

3. Living by Examples

Humans are all born to parents. While growing up, some live with their parents, while some live with their stepparents or foster parents.

Children learn to live by examples—the examples of those they’ve been living with while growing up. Positive parental love, characterized by affection, care, comfort, and concern, can be experienced by children in hugging, kissing, praising, and saying nice things to and about them.

But, instead of parental love, some children may experience only abuse, aggression, control, demand, hostility, and rejection from their parents throughout their development phases. They then learn to live by the examples of their parents in developing their low self-esteem and self-worth, academic and social incompetence, as well as mental and physical health problems. According to a study by Harward University, those who didn’t experience parent-child love were more than twice as likely to develop physical illnesses 35 years later.

4. Living by Conscience

Everybody has a conscience, which not only provides the ability to determine between right and wrong, but also the restraint to keep away from some basic urges and desires in the flesh. Conscience can make an individual feeling guilty when doing something bad, or joy when doing something gracious.

Conscience comes from beliefs and core values, as well as from perceptions of past life experiences and upbringing. But conscience not only changes over time but may also compromise. For example, in everyday life, those in authority may require others to do something in conflict with human conscience. Living in a world of compromise, many do consciously or subconsciously compromise their conscience.

According to the Bible, the human conscience is a gift from God, who has placed His standards of right and wrong in the mind of every person. So, when the person is on the right path, a good conscience will be at peace (Colossians 3:15). But when the person is tempted to go down the wrong path, that person will then hear the warning, but still has the freedom of choice to choose the right or the wrong.

The problem of living by conscience is that conscience can easily be contaminated by sin in the flesh.

5. Living by Faith

Living by faith is living according to the will of God. Living by faith is a tall order even for a true believer in God. The explanation is that everybody wants to do certain things his or her own way, instead of following God’s way.

First, becoming a believer in God is usually a long journey. Why? It’s because humans are now living in a secular society where science is the dominant religion. As a result, many don’t believe in the existence of God. However, despite the absence of God in their lives, spirituality may still be present in the hearts of many. It’s because they may believe they’ve an unfathomable spirit that can still provide their minds with direction, guidance, inspiration, and understanding. In other words, many are still spiritual without the presence of God in their hearts.

So, living by faith, you must first become a believer in God. To do that, you must have your intent to believe, which begins with your thinking mind to believe the unbelievable—that is, understanding the many paradoxes of life and existence.

Living by faith: Ask God to give you your "freedom of choice" to choose how to live your life that He has destined for you.

Stephen Lau

What Next?

There're many questions of how, what, when, where, and why that you may want to ask regarding what is happening in your daily life. 

Charles Proteus Steinmetz, a German-born American mathematician and electrical engineer, once said: "There are no foolish questions, and no one becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions."

So, seeking relevant answers to the questions asked will sharpen the thinking mind over the long haul. It's also important to live in the presence of every question asked and to be patient with all those questions that can't be answered right away. True enlightenment may one day come when you're asking fewer or even no more questions because by then you may have already got all the answers--that may be the ultimate "self-enlightenment" of your thinking mind through asking questions and seeking answers.

"From knowing to not knowing

This is superior.

From not knowing to knowing

This is sickness.

It is by being sick of sickness

that one is not sick.

The sage is not sick.

Because he is sick of sickness

Therefore, he is not sick."

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 71

Living by faith: God is infinite, and humans are finite. That explains "why" we should obey and trust the "inexplicable" from God.

Stephen Lau

Who Is God?

WHO IS GOD?

God is the "salvation" that He brings to everyone in this world according to His perfect plan and purpose. God desires that all people not only know what Jesus did on earth but also have the forgiveness Christ earned on the Cross.

The Redemption

    “Redemption” refers to undoing the effects of sin for all mankind. The word itself means to “buy back.” Redemption centers on God, who saves His chosen ones from sin, evil, trouble, bondage, and even death. Redemption is an act of God's grace, by which He rescues and restores His people. Redemption is all-inclusive.

 “¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17

Christianity is different from other religions in the world—Christians can be good and forgiven; their salvation is a free gift from God.

On the Cross, the world, the flesh, and the devil did their worst, and Jesus was apparently defeated. But God raised His Son from death. The love and justice of God not only had been satisfied but also reconciled by the perfect sacrifice of Jesus.

Jesus’ death on the Cross and His resurrection guarantee that sin can be forgiven, and death defeated. Yes, the war between good and evil will go on, but humans are already given the Helper to fight in the war to gain their salvation and redemption.

The Helper

 Given that faith, trust, and obedience are difficult to come by, they’re often unsustainable. So, how can humans detach themselves from their flesh?

God has provided the Helper. Before His departure, Jesus said He would let the Holy Spirit take over.

“But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” John 16:7

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8

So, who’s the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is a Person—as Personal as God the Father and God the Son. The Holy Spirit has been there since the beginning of creation “moving over the water.”

In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit inspired all the prophets of Israel. In the New Testament, Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary to become a human living on earth for several years. Throughout Jesus’ ministry on earth, the Holy Spirit was with Him.

The Helper can help humans in different ways throughout their lifespans, including the following:

He’ll convict but not condemn humans of all their wrongdoings. In other words, the Holy Spirit will restore them, but He’ll not defeat them. “When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment.” John 16:8

He’ll guide humans along their life journeys, always giving humans the wisdom to do what’s right and to avoid what’s wrong. “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” John 16:13

He’ll teach humans about what they can learn from God, and not from others. “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” John 14:26

He’ll make humans obey God. “But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” Romans 7:6 

Stephen Lau

Paradoxes of Life

In life, there're many paradoxes due to inadequate and imperfect human understand. That may be a reason why God wants to give humans spiritual wisdom.

A paradox is a statement with two totally “opposite” meanings that may seem contradictory to each other and yet together they not only are true but also make some sense.

The paradox of knowing God

Knowing God has many paradoxes: the Creator becomes a human; the Infinite becomes finite; the Eternal One enters time; and death is the way to life. These are some of the paradoxes expressed in the Holy Bible.

The paradox of God’s Presence

God’s Presence is another hard-to-explain paradox. Indeed, sometimes we see God’s love, mercy, and justice, but there’re also times we see only His indifference, condemnation, and even injustice. In fact, there're many times humans are prone to asking the pivotal question: “Where is God?”

The paradox of two-in-one person

You’re a two-in-one person. As a matter of fact, we all are, to a certain extent. Yes, there’re two persons living inside you: one is your ego-self; the other is your spirit. They co-exist: your ego-self is living in the physical or material world, while your spirit is living in a totally different environment with a different dimension. There’s constant and continual contact and interaction between these two personalities.

Your ego-self is assertive, and even aggressive, always telling you that you’re separated from everyone else. Your ego-self wants more of everything in your life, not only to define who you’re but also to separate you from others, making you more special. Your ego-self is judgmental, not only self-evaluating but also assessing others through comparison and contrast with yourself. Your ego-self is constantly shifting and shuffling back and forth between the past and the future, instrumental in improving the ego-self in the past, as well as in enhancing the ego-self projected into the future. 

Your spirit is the other person living inside you. Your spirit, on the other hand, is gentle and submissive in nature, always nudging you to do what is right and to avoid doing what is wrong.

The paradox is that both your ego-self and your spirit co-exist, and that each strives to dominate and influence the other.

The classic illustration of the two-in-one person is Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous story of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” In the story, both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have a dark side within them, where evil is always lurking underneath and ready to surface anytime. In the end, it turns out that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are actually “one and the same person.” 

Given that the ego-self and the spirit co-exist, and that one can never totally get rid of the other, the reality is that the more control the ego-self has over the spirit, the more difficult it is to understand God’s Presence, not to mention to attain and appreciate His spiritual wisdom. Your belief is your way to unravel the paradox of two-in-one person.

The paradox of moralism

Moralism is a two-way street: people look at others from their own perspectives, while others may also look at themselves from totally different perspectives too. Moralism can drive people away from God because they cannot or are unwilling to change their own behaviors, and thus they somehow feel rejected by God. 

Moralism can also make people become inactive in their religious life because they may believe that they can still be “moral” even outside of the church. Moralism, an important aspect of most religions, can, ironically enough, drivee people away from God. 

The paradox of understanding

Belief begins with understanding. Man is a “rational” being, always demanding an explanation for anything and everything in life. So, understanding is vital to believing. The paradox is that believing first may enhance subsequent understanding.

According to St. Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo (354-430 A.D.), in life there’re certain things we don’t believe unless we understand them, and there’re also other things that we don’t understand unless we believe them first. So, faith is not opposed to understanding, nor is it independent of understanding. St. Augustine’s famous statement “faith seeking understanding” is an act of believing first, without which unbelief closes the door to further understanding. In other words, we must always believe first, and our understanding will then follow. It’s just that simple.

St. Anselm of Canterbury, a well-known Christian philosopher and theologian of the eleventh century, also echoed St. Augustine’s statement in his famous motto: “I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand.”

So, you must believe first so that you may see and understand your belief, which is your faith in God.

Living by faith: Only God can make you "understand" what He wants you to understand. So, ask and it will be given to you.

Stephen Lau