Henry Tian's List: Christian

• I. THE MISSION OF HUMAN SELFISHNESS.
• It is inspired by self-advantage at the expense of others
• It is inspired by self-advantage at the expense of others
• It seeks self-advantage by cunningness and stealth. The thief attains his ends under the cover of darkness in the night, when his victims are asleep and off their guard. Before the public he studies to appear as an honest man, but behind their backs' he studies to rob them
• If the thief cannot steal and kill, he will destroy valuable property.
• If the thief cannot steal and kill, he will destroy valuable property.
• II. THE MISSION OF DIVINE LOVE. In contrast with the mission of selfishness, we have the mission of Divine love in Christ.
• 1) Christ came to give. "That they may have," etc. If we have, Christ must give. The mission of selfishness is to steal, to take away from men what they have, and deprive them of what they may have. But Christ came that men may have; he came to give, to benefit the human family. He came not for his own sake, but for the sake of others
• (2) He came to confer on men the greatest blessing. "That they may have life."
• (2) He came to confer on men the greatest blessing. "That they may have life."

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• Professor Morse, the renowned electric telegraph inventor, was once asked, "Professor, when you were making your experiments yonder in your rooms in the university, did you ever come to a stand, not knowing what to do next?" "Oh yes; mere than once." "And at such times, what did you do next? I may answer you in confidence, sir," said the professor, "but it is a matter of which the public knows nothing. Whenever I could not see my way clearly, I prayed for more light." "And the light generally came?" "Yes. And I may tell you that when flattering honours came to me from America and Europe on account of the invention which bears my name, I never felt that I deserved them. I had made a valuable application of electricity, not because I was superior to other men, but solely because God, who meant it for mankind, must reveal it to someone, and was pleased to reveal it to me."
• Professor Morse, the renowned electric telegraph inventor, was once asked, "Professor, when you were making your experiments yonder in your rooms in the university, did you ever come to a stand, not knowing what to do next?" "Oh yes; mere than once." "And at such times, what did you do next? I may answer you in confidence, sir," said the professor, "but it is a matter of which the public knows nothing. Whenever I could not see my way clearly, I prayed for more light." "And the light generally came?" "Yes. And I may tell you that when flattering honours came to me from America and Europe on account of the invention which bears my name, I never felt that I deserved them. I had made a valuable application of electricity, not because I was superior to other men, but solely because God, who meant it for mankind, must reveal it to someone, and was pleased to reveal it to me."

• Job had tried a mechanical life
• Job had tried a mechanical life
• Job had tried a mechanical life
• The meaning of "a mechanical life" is a life of regulation, penance, discipline; a life all marked out like a map; a kind of tabulated life, every hour having its duty
• The meaning of "a mechanical life" is a life of regulation, penance, discipline; a life all marked out like a map; a kind of tabulated life, every hour having its duty
• He kept himself well under contro
• He is claiming reward for this. Truly it would seem as if some reward were due. What can a man do more than write down upon plain paper what he will execute, or what he will forbear doing, during every day of the week? His first line tells what he will do, or not do, at the dawn; he will be up with the sun, and then he will perform such a duty, or crucify such and such a passion . he will live a kind of military life; he will be a very soldier. Is this the true way of living? Or is there a more excellent way? Can we live from the outside? Can we live by chart, and map, and schedule, and printed regulation

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• Vs 16 - Why is Jesus telling this parable about the rich man who had no greed to a greedy man?
• He defines it as hypocrisy. They placed all their emphasis on externals - on the physical - on the temporal. He condemns them elsewhere for being white-washed tombs (Mat 23:27) because their insides are rotten, but they have covered up the rottenness with nice looking rituals and rules. But, 12:2 says there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed...
• God is the judge. He thinks the man is a fool.

  Until verse 20 the rich man doesn’t appear to be too bad. Then we get God’s opinion of him.
• The problem is not that he has lots of riches. It is his attitude. He thinks this is all there is to life and he is content.
• His attitude is that more money will bring him life
• Vs 16 - Why is Jesus telling this parable about the rich man who had no greed to a greedy man?
• Jesus builds up the rich man as a good guy, a content man - something that is very rare. This guy is just the opposite of the greedy man. What do we learn? Both thought that life consisted in stuff.
• Jesus builds up the rich man as a good guy, a content man - something that is very rare. This guy is just the opposite of the greedy man. What do we learn? Both thought that life consisted in stuff.
• Selfishness and self-satisfaction are two opposite pulls that are both out of balance to God. They are opposite sides of the same coin.
• Don’t put your emphasis on material possessions because they don’t last. Like the guy who was walking back from the funeral and someone asked him, “How much did the guy leave behind?” And the man smartly replied, “Everything.”
• Greed is wrong, but at the opposite pole, so is self-sufficiency or self-satisfaction
• Having possessions is not wrong, it is putting your security in them that is wrong
• Vs 33 says we should store up treasure in heaven. How do we do that? by investing in people. People are the only things we can take with us to heaven. So, investing in people is what counts.
• So the question is, what do you choose? What do you treasure?
• I think one of the things that impressed me in this parable is the lack of love and relationship in the lives of the greedy brother and the rich man. They chose stuff instead of God or people
• He wasn’t longing for gifts. He was longing for the giver. It took an almost 6 year old to remind me that relationships are more important than things.

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• Men are prone to be guided, in the conclusions they form regarding human life, by their own personal experience, and by the observations they make in their own immediate circle of acquaintance.
• So judging, they are prone to be one-sided in their estimate
• I. MEN LOOKING UPON THEIR FELLOW-MEN ARE PRONE TO GIVE TOO LARGE A MEASURE OF ATTENTION TO THEIR OUTWARD CIRCUMSTANCES
• The first question that occurs to many minds, upon forming a new acquaintance, is - What has he? i.e. what property? or - What is he? i.e. what is his rank in society? A man to whom God has given riches, wealth, and honor, who lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, is counted fortunate. He is held in esteem; his friendship and favor are cultivated
• THERE ARE OTHER ELEMENTS IN HUMAN WELFARE. For instance, it cannot be questioned that health of body and a sound and vigorous mind are of far more importance than wealth
• Bodily affliction and domestic disappointment may cast a shadow over the lot which seems the fairest and most desirable.
• If we judge only by the facts
• Men come to doubt the rule of a benevolent Governor of the universe, simply because they cannot reconcile certain facts with such convictions as Christianity encourages
• 2. It should not be lost sight of that there are moral and spiritual purposes in our earthly existence
• Its end is not - as men too often suppose that it should be - enjoyment and pleasure; but character - conformity to the Divine character, and submission to the Divine will.
• to secure these it seems in many cases necessary that lower ends should be sacrificed. If temporal prosperity be marred by what seems misfortune, this may be in order that spiritual prosperity may be promoted
• It may not be well for society that great and powerful families should be built up, to gratify human pride and ambition. God's ways are not as our ways, but they are wiser and better than ours.

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• KNOWLEDGE IS THE PARENT OF SORROW FROM ITS VERY NATURE, as being the instrument and means by which the afflicting quality of the object is conveyed to the mind
• for as nothing delights, so nothing troubles till it is known
• The merchant is not troubled as soon as his ship is cast away, but as soon as he hears it is
• It is the open eye that weeps
• We are first taught our knowledge with the rod, and with the severities of discipline

  • Didn't I impose discipline and severity to Gaby in acquiring knowledge in expectation to be superior among her peers? Solomon says this is vanity. this pursuit is based on envy toward others.
• The world is full of objects of sorrow, and knowledge enlarges our capacities to take them in
• the certainty of the knowledge cannot be greater than the certainty of the faculty, or medium, by which it is acquired: now, all knowledge is conveyed through sense, and sense is subject to fallacy, to err
• of that which the world commonly calls and esteems knowledge. And that this is but a poor, worthless thing, and of no efficacy to advance the real concerns of human happiness

  • nullwhat are the goal of man laboriously searching for knowledge? happiness. but man receive sorrow as the result. So my quest for knowledge, my goal to homeschooling gaby so she will gain knowledge and be happy. she may get sorrow as result. from strict discipline, to know things that trouble her heart but she is powerless to solve them. there is no cessation for regret of many of our past mistakes once knowledge reveal and bring them into consciousness -- 2015-10-29
    increased knowledge # increased happiness or increased wealth. -- 2015-10-29
    
• What am I benefited whether the sun moves about the earth, or whether the sun is the centre of the world, and the earth is indeed a planet, and wheels about that? Whether it be one or the other, I see no change in the course of nature
• an inquiry into which men are so laborious
• that men's being so eager and industrious in the quest of it is like sweeping the house, raising the dust, and keeping a great do only to find pins.
• II. KNOWLEDGE IS THE CAUSE OF SORROW, IN RESPECT OF THE LABORIOUS AND TROUBLESOME ACQUISITION OF IT
• For is there any labour comparable to that of the brain? any toil like a continual digging in the mines of knowledge? any pursuit so dubious and difficult as that of truth? any attempt so sublime as to give a reason of things?
• He who labours in the field indeed wearies, but then he also helps and preserves his body. But study, it is a weariness without exercise, a laborious sitting still, that racks the inward, and destroys the outward man of the body
• But he that will increase knowledge, must be content not to enjoy
• He must be willing to be weak, sickly, and consumptive; even to forget when he is hungry, and to digest nothing but what he reads. He must read much, and perhaps meet with little; turn over much trash for one grain of truth
• III. KNOWLEDGE INCREASES SORROW, IN RESPECT OF ITS EFFECTS AND CONSEQUENTS.
• 1. The first effect of the increase of knowledge is an increase of the desire of knowledge
• In

  fine, happiness is fruition; but there is no fruition where there is a constant desire
• The bottomless appetite of knowledge will not be satisfied, and then we know that sorrow is the certain result and inseparable companion of dissatisfaction
• 2. The second unhappy effect of knowledge is that it rewards its followers with the miseries of poverty, and clothes them with rags. Reading of books consumes the body, and buying of them the estate
• As for instance, he that follows chemistry must have riches to throw away upon the study of it; whatever he gets by it, those furnaces must be fed with gold
• In short, I will not say that the study of knowledge always finds men poor, but sure it is that it is seldom or never but it leaves them so

  • Henrry, Be Wise. Don't make pursuit of great knowledge/wisdom untamed ambition for Me or Gaby. e.g. is it wise to spend $100-$200K to study knowledge at top 5 university?. While in fact Solomon reminded us that it is vain. it just increases sorrow.
• 3. The third fatal effect of knowledge is that it makes the person who has it the butt of envy

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• The mere widening of the horizon, whether of ethical or of physical knowledge, brought no satisfaction. In the former case men became more conscious of their distance from the true ideal.
• They ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the only result was that they knew that “they were naked” (Genesis 3:7)

  • Now I understand the connection between "Knowledge of good and evil" (world/human knowledge) that God doesn't want adam and eve to know. because this is the knowledge of the work of evil.
• ecause he gets his knowledge with hard and wearisome labour, both of mind and body
• the more they knew of the phenomena of nature or of human life the more they felt that the “most part of God’s works were hid
• he is often deceived with knowledge, falsely so called, and often mistakes error for truth, and is perplexed with manifold doubts, from which ignorant men are wholly free
• Add to this the brain-weariness, the laborious days, the sleepless nights, the frustrated ambitions of the student
• because his knowledge is very imperfect and unsatisfying, yet increasing his thirst after more knowledge; lastly, because his knowledge quickly fades and dies with him, and then leaves him in no better, and possibly in a much worse condition, than that of the meanest and most unlearned man in the world
• With added experience and more minute examination, the wise man becomes more conscious of his own ignorance and impotence

  • the more conscious we are, the more sorrowful we are. because that consciousness sorrow us from our incompetent, and powerless over things we knew and we will see to happen in the future.
• of the gigantic evils which he is powerless to remedy; this causes his sorrowful confession
• the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom discovered man's wickedness and misery; so that the more he knew, the more he saw cause to lament and mourn
• because he foresees, and consequently feels, the terror of many miseries which are or are likely to come to pass, which are unobserved by less knowing persons, and which possibly never happen
• the more he knows, the more he would know, and is more eager after it, and puts himself to more pains and trouble to acquire it; and hereby becomes more and more sensible of his own ignorance; and of the difficulty of attaining the knowledge he would come at; and of the insufficiency of it to make him easy and happy
• in short, this is the sum of all human knowledge and wisdom, attained to in the highest degree; instead of making men comfortable and happy, it is found to be mere vanity, to cause vexation and disquietude of mind, and to promote grief and sorrow
• There is indeed wisdom and knowledge opposite to this, and infinitely more excellent, and which, the more it is increased, the more joy and comfort it brings; and this is wisdom in the hidden part; a spiritual and experimental knowledge of Christ, and of God in Christ, and of divine and evangelical truths; but short of this knowledge there is no true peace, comfort, and happiness

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• Legalism is rules without relationship, emphasizing standards more than the Savior, and laws more than love. It is a system based on fear and characterized by joyless judgmentalism, producing futility instead of freedom
• the legalist preaches justification by works
• they are monitored by conformity to the particular group’s code of conduct. The result is external conformity rather than inward transformation—and that means either self-righteousness of self-condemnation (or both!).
• they try to change a person from the outside in, whereas God deals with us from the inside out.
• The idea of living strictly by what the Bible says has been branded as legalism.”

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• In many ways, discipline and legalism share many of the same characteristics: repetition, rules, accountability, and work (to name just a few). But there is one important difference: attitude
• Attitude often determines whether a discipline becomes legalistic. It’s the difference between having aRelationship and having a Religion. Are you praying because you have to, or because you're forced to, or because if you don't you'll get into trouble? Or are you praying because you love God, and because you want to know God better, and because you desire to?
• The reality of a relationship with Christ is somewhere in between — a mix of enjoyment and discipline. But in a post-legalistic society, whenever we interact with any sort of discipline, we’re tempted to immediately misinterpret it as legalism — even if it's not
• Legalism still exists, and unfortunately, in many spiritual communities, it thrives. Learn to identify its trademarks: fear, guilt, shame, abuse, manipulation, and oppression. If you’re experiencing this — get out!

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• These words may be compared with those attributed to the Lord Jesus, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."
• Though a man may have received much — a vigorous intellect, a commanding judgment, a rich imagination — he will be miserable if he can give nothing.
• A man is not satisfied with being rich, he must be in circumstances to give
• It is the giving which makes the receiving of any worth

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• Mr. Cooper said: "When I was twenty-one years old my employer offered to build me a shop and set me up in business, but as I always had a horror of being burdened with debt, and having no capital of my own, I declined his kind offer. He himself became a bankrupt
• I have made it a rule to pay for everything as I go.
• If, in the course of business, anything is due from me to any one and the money is not called for, I make it my duty on the last Saturday before Christmas to take it to his business place."

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• I. WHEN IT IS RIGHT AND WHEN WRONG TO DESIRE TO STAY.
  
  1. It is wrong —
  
  (1) When the Christian has grown worldly.
• (2) When he has a secret fear of dying
• 4) When it is because he has a large family dependent upon him
• II. WHEN IS IT RIGHT, AND WHEN WRONG FOR A BELIEVER TO WISH TO GO TO HEAVEN?
  
  1. It is wrong —
  
  (1) When he wants to get there to get away from his work
• (2) When it is because there is some little discouragement in labouring for Christ. Jonah thought he would rather go to Tarshish than to Nineveh.

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• By faith they learn the way in which they ought to go. At man's first creation, God inscribed upon his heart a law, sufficient to direct him in every part of his way. Some remains of this law continue upon the hearts of all Adam's posterity. But this knowledge is so imperfect that, though it may inform us that we go astray, it can never keep any person in the right way.

  • Revelation: God never intended to give Law when he created Adam & Eve. Therefore Jesus turn upside down Jewish (Moses) law e.g. Sabbath. He want us to return back to the origin (lawn in our heart) of creation.

• The greatest things, and those which have been the most salutary for humanity, are the work of those who walked by faith and not by sight

  • Martin Luther King. Just because I don't see the result of my labor doesn't mean that the seeds I planted won't grow and produce fruits for next generation. The seed of Discipline, seed of guiding principles, etc
• The more revelation advances, the less God shows Himself to sight, and the more He reveals Himself to faith. In the beginning, there were continual signs and wonders, a pillar of cloud or of fire marks His presence; the thunder roars on Sinai.
• He teaches us that there is a sign which attests better the presence of God than all the external miracles — it is love. When John, the man of the old covenant, asks Christ, "Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?" Christ answers him by enumerating the wonders which He has accomplished; but He finishes with those sublime words, "The poor have the gospel preached to them." God will not now open the heavens;
• Everything speaks to the sight; but, with the advent of Christ, everything changes!
• there will be no sign given to this unbelieving generation but that of the Cross;
• We walk by sight, and not by faith, when we wish Christianity to justify itself entirely in the eyes of reason
• Miracles speak to the senses, arguments speak to the intellect
• Therefore, while He assures us that all our prayers are heard, He seldom shows us beforehand how He will answer them
• How often, when we see the prayer of some saint manifestly answered long after his death, we say, "Oh, that he had lived to see this day, the day he so desired!" We must remember, though he saw not, he believed
• Pray, then, Christian mother, pray still for the conversion of your son, pray without doubting, and should your eyes only meet subjects of discouragement, remember that we walk by faith and not by sight
• It is a singular fact that the greatest progress in the kingdom of God has been attained by men who believed though they did not see
• What did Christ see in His ministry? What would He have done if He had walked by sight? And what shall we do if we want to see instead of believing, if we resemble those children who, after having cast a seed corn into the ground, return every instant to see whether it has sprung up?
• God only blesses those who have confidence enough in His faithfulness to commit to Him the care of results, and to say with Luther, "It is Thy work, not mine."
• They are wrong who want to describe beforehand, as it has been so often tried, the way which the Christian is to follow.
• The Christian life is like an immense region which thousands of pilgrims have already travelled through; each had followed the road which God had traced out for him; some have found it soft and light, others dark and difficult. Yet all these ways led to the fatherland
• and none has a right to say that the road he followed is that which all others must enter upon; for if this road were known, if it could be described, we should walk by sight, and no longer by faith.
• Let us then accept any unforeseen events; let us expect that God will destroy our plans and disappoint our expectations; whether He send us joy or sorrow, let us walk by faith, allowing Him to lead us.
  
  

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• II. WALK BY SIGHT AS DESCRIPTIVE OF THE WORLDLY LIFE. "Walk by sight" does not mean "in the power of our vision," but "under the influence and persuasion of things seen and temporal." It is the one essential characteristic of the worldly man that his judgments and decisions are made, his affections are ruled, and his conduct is ordered
• Sense condi-tions determine his place. Sense-requirements command his allegiance. Sense principles inspire his doings and decide his relations. He "walks" with a horizon no further off than yonder ridge of hills, and with no thought really bigger in his soul than "What shall we eat? what shall we drink? and what shall we enjoy?"

• 3. There is something exceedingly ignorant about believing only what I can see. Nine out of ten things in the world that are the most wonderful and potent cannot be seen, at least not by the eyes. A man who will not believe in electricity — well, what can you make of him in these days? And this is the case with regard to spiritual things. If you only walk by sight, and only believe what you see, what do you believe?
• 4. Walking by sight is deceptive. The eye does not see anything; it is the mind that sees through the eye. The eye needs to be educated before it tells the truth
• 5. The principle of sight is a very changeable one. It is well enough to talk of walking by sight in the light, but what will you do when the darkness comes on?
• But the principle of faith does best in the dark.
• he can walk in the dark as you cannot, for his light is still shining upon him
• 6. That those who walk by sight walk alone. Walking by sight is just this — "I believe in myself," whereas walking by faith is "I believe in God
• If I walk by sight I walk by myself; if I walk by faith then there are two of us
• Sight goes a warfare at its own charges, and is defeated. Faith goes a warfare at the charges of the King's Exchequer, and there is no fear that Faith's bank shall ever be broken.
• 1. You say, "I believe God loves me; I have prospered in business ever since I have been a Christian." The first part of that is faith; but the second part of it is sight.. Suppose you had not prospered in business, what then? Will you deny that God loves you because you have not prospered in business?
• Faith is not meant for sweet frames and feelings only, it is meant for dark frames and horrible feelings

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• It takes the metaphor of a building to suggest the slow, continuous, bit-by-bit effort. You do not rear the fabric of a noble character all at a moment. No man reaches the extremity, either of goodness or baseness, by a leap; you must be content with bit-by-bit work. The Christian character is like a mosaic formed of tiny squares in all but infinite numbers, each one of them separately set and bedded in its place.
• You have to build by a plan; you have to see to it that each day has its task, each day its growth
• You have to be content with one brick at a time. It is a lifelong task, till the whole be finished. And not until we pass from earth to heaven does our building work cease. Continuous effort is the condition of progress

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• Consider what are the chief characteristics of childhood. We see much that is pleasant and winning in them — openness, simplicity, a comparative innocence, and an absolute ignorance of many evil things
• I. SILLINESS
• II. SELFISHNESS. All young children show this more or less. Hence the greediness in children and their egotism, the frequent use in their mouth of the words "I" and "me."
• III. WANT OF SELF CONTROL. They only are to be accounted manly who are masters of themselves, who act from reason not from passion. Remember what St. Paul says, "Every one that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things" — in meat, drink, speech, pleasure, pursuit of earthly gains
• The way to self-mastery is to be on the watch against all excess,
• to look in all you do, not at what is most pleasant
• all inordinate affection;

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• Clear speech requires a clear head
• In sensuousness. A child's understanding is under the control of the senses. It judges by appearances. Is it not so with the Christian? He is prone to "mind earthly things," "to judge after the flesh."
  
• The child judges of all things by their relation to himself
• Their likings control their logic

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• I. THE ADVANCE FROM JUDAISM TO CHRISTIANITY. Judaism was the childhood of the Church. I do not say this to insinuate any doubt of its Divine origin.
• 1. Judaism was adapted to those who, in religious knowledge and experience, were children
• You teach the little ones chiefly through the eye: give them picture books, and assume pictorial attitudes.
• So the tabernacle was a picture-gallery, teaching precious truth — but to the senses mainly to reach the mind
• 2. How different are the institutions of the gospel! Here are no altars, no priests. The Church has got out of the nursery into the study; and Christians are treated not as children, but as men
• 3. But see the tendency of the present day. It is to crush the manhood of the Church of Christ, and bring us back to a religion of ceremonies again. Ritualism is a second Judaising of the Church — a coming back to the nursery and babyhood again.

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