No More.

'The wild animals honour Me, the jackal and the owls,
because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to My People, My chosen,
the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim My praise.

Yet You have not called upon Me, O Jacob,
you have not wearied yourselves for Me, O Israel.
You have not brought Me sheep for burnt offerings,
nor honoured Me with your sacrifices.

I have not burdened you with grain offerings nor wearied you with demands for incense.
You have not brought any fragrant calamus for Me,
or lavished on Me the fat of your sacrifices.

But you have burdened Me with your sins
and wearied Me with your offenses.
I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for My own sake,
and remembers your sins no more.'

Isaiah 43:20-25

In Christ Alone

In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev'ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine—
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death—
This is the pow'r of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand.

Words and Music by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend

Psalm 100

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before Him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is He who made us, and we are His;
We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and His courts with praise;
give thanks to Him and praise His Name.

For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations.

My Paunchy Ragbag

If I were to ever make something to represent my current state, I'd make something like this.
(I googled 'swollen head' and I got this picture titled 'toothache', but never mind.)

So I shall unload some of my grey matter here:

In His Time, and the Beauty of Free Will
Sometimes our hearts get so ached from mourning for the sin of the world, backslid or lukewarm Christians, proud hearts that refuse the Gospel, and we ask, 'God, why wouldn't You show them that You are the Sovereign God whom all are to fear and to repent to?'. From here, we may have an inclination to go and help solve these problems, forgetting that we are but tools for God's use, who furthers His Will in His own time. As the Teacher says, 'God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed' (Ecclesiastes 3:17). In God's time, He will save those whom He has chosen to be His sons. In His time too, will He revive the tepid love of His children, leading them back with the ties of love (Hosea 11:4), which He has been holding onto all along. In rushing God's Will, we pride in our own judgment and we become too arrogant to have faith that God will does His Will best in His own time. And so, amidst the urgency for resolution for the things and people we mourn over, we need to pray for wisdom - to know how to respond and how to interact with these people - and humility, that we might not put our own judgment higher than God's. Our God is Sovereign, surely He can bring this people back to Him instantaneously. But He loves us so much He wants us to return to Him willingly, convinced of our Father's love and the sin of our going astray from the narrow gate to Heaven. How beautiful is that!

Abstract Art can be used for God's sake too.
I just finished reading this book called 'Art For God's Sake' by Philip Graham Ryken, which offers a brief introduction to the biblical theology on arts. (I'm reminded of something I wrote in January this year, Greek Masterpieces from the Louvre Museum.) It helped clear some doubts I had about abstract art, which especially bugs me because I am involved in a choir who experiments greatly with aleatory and structure and sings aleatoric music annually in a church. Abstract art glorifies God too, because (1) God blesses all art forms just as He blessed Bezalel with the 'skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts' to make His tabernacle in Exodus 31, (2) it is capable of expressing Christian truths (not to say that all God-glorifying art have to be directly linked to Christianity in content). Such realisation has brought me to appreciate my conductor, Mrs Valarie Wilson, even more. The juxtaposition of singing On suuri sun rantas autius in aleatory with God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen interposed in unison shows structure among chaos, that Christ coming to earth brings 'tidings of comfort and joy' to the desolate, dystopian world modern and postmodern art portray. And also, that art is to be beautiful, good and true, just like how the dissonance in John Rutter's Hymn to the Creator of Light opens up to a meditative, quiet singing of the German hymn Deck Thyself, My Soul, With Gladness. Dante Alighieri sees abstract art is the highest level of excellence that an artist can attain, and these examples lead me to see that often, abstract art is a way for especially these artists, especially Christian ones, to glorify God, giving Him their best.

Every One is Equally Ugly, and thus Equally Justified before God

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:22-24

What do we do with the ugly histories we discovered about others? And even, the present ugly things that they are doing? There are two ways to go from here, one of which is to pray for them in love and mourning, the other is to gossip and share more information in groups of people, making this distinction of the Other. Looking at what Christ did in His earthy ministry, we know what the 'model answer' is. Internalising this 'model answer', not just knowing, would be a proof of the Holy Spirit giving life to our mortal bodies which are dead in sin (Romans 8:11). When responding to things that suddenly disfigure my impression of people around me, I need to be careful to not slant myself towards judging, only concentrating on criticising the speck of sawdust in the eye of that person, paying no attention to the plank in my own eye. We are all sinners. The wonderful thing is that it doesn't stop there: we have been justified by grace through faith in our Redeemer, and we are all Christians who are exposed to the temptation of sin, who can stumble.