My Notes on "How to Be a Real Christian"

#2016-0801

Yesterday afternoon 40 or more people gathered on the 6th floor of Jiaoyu Lou, or Education Building, to listen to Rev. Charles C.T. Chen's lecture on "How to Be a Real Christian" (怎樣做個真實的基督徒). The lecture started at 1:30 p.m. with a little singing done first -- For the photos of the lecture, click and see #2016-0731.

Here are some of my "random notes" that I took while listening to the lecture:

Topic: How to Be a Real Christian
Speaker: The Rev. Charles C.T. Chen
Time: Sunday, July 31, 2016, starting at 1:30 p.m.
Place: St. James' Episcopal Church, in Taichung

Biblical Lessons:
 1) James 5:13-16
 2) James 4:13-17
 3) Hebrews 11:1-6

The Outlines:
 I. Introduction
 II. Main Body
   1) Pray: be a person who prays
   2) Read the Bible: be a person who reads the Bible regularly
   3) Be a person who has faith in the Lord, a person who always believes in God
   4) Be a person who loves the Lord and the Church
 III. Conclusion

My Random Notes:

001 -- Rev. Chen shared a couple of real stories, telling that the sick were cured through prayer and that "sincere" prayers can be very powerful -- at times even more powerful than we would expect.

002 -- We the Christians should pray often for others and for ourselves. "The more we pray, the more able we will be."

003 -- Faith is so very important; we need to have faith in God. 

004 -- Without breathing, men will die; in the same way, the Christians would no more be "real Christians" if they did not pray often enough. So, praying is to a Christian what (or as) breathing to every person. (= As breathing to every person, so praying is to a Christian.)

005 -- How to pray? What should be included in your prayer? A simple answer is ACTS, which means Adoration (A), Confession (C), Thanksgiving (T), and Supplication (S). And good prayers should become "acts"; not only "words" but also "actions" -- This reminds me of the proverb, "Actions speak louder than words"!

006 -- The Lord's Prayer shows us how to pray, what to focus on in our prayer, and so on.

007 -- The Serenity Prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) is also a good example of prayer for us to learn: "Father, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and the insight to know the one from the other." The most popular version, the authorship of which is unknown, read: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

(According to the English Wikipedia, the Serenity Prayer was originally written by the American theologian named Reinhold Niebuhr, 1892-1971, instead of Barthold Georg Niebuhr, 1776-1831, who was a Danish-German statesman and historian!)

008 -- A Father's Prayer by General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) is also worth reading....

009 -- Christianity is a "religion of a book," the book meaning the Holy Bible, containing 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament, without mentioning the Apocrypha. We should form a good habit of "reading the Bible every day."

010 -- The Bible is the Covenant between God and his people.

011 -- The Old Testament is the "shadow(s)" of the Gospel; the New Testament is the "reality" of the Gospel. (I'm still not sure how to translate "舊約是福音的影子，新約是福音的實底" into English; maybe "實底" can be interpreted as "assurance" or "(the) truth" or "real things or real natures of things" or something like these!)

012 -- Learning from Abraham H. Maslow's hierarchy of needs.... 

[The illustration on the right is taken from the English Wikipedia.]

013 -- Learning from Soren A. Kierkegaard's points-of-view....

(The pronunciation of Soren Kierkegaard: /ˈsɔːrən ˈkɪərkᵻɡɑːrd/ or /ˈkɪərkᵻɡɔːr/; in Chinese we usually call 齊克果 / 祈克果.)

Regarding Soren A. Kierkegaard (1813-1855), we may find some readable information in the English Wikipedia. But, here is a chart provided by Rev. Charles Chen during the lecture (see below):

014 -- "Everything is tosy-turby (or more commonly spelled topsy-turvy) in this way," said Soren A. Kierkegaard, when meant to point out the contradictions between the human situations and what they were supposed to be. (Note: Something that is topsy-turvy is in a confused or disorganized state.)

015 -- What does "a blessing in disguise" mean? Let's learn to find out the blessings hidden in the confusion and troubles that we have now encountered or may have to deal with some day.

016 -- Regarding the "self-consciousness of sins" ...

017 -- There exists the "infinite qualitative difference" between God and human beings!

018 -- Several types of "philosophies of life": Compare Confucianism (儒家), Taoism (道家 / 道教), Buddhism (佛教), and Christianity (基督教信仰) to learn more about the best philosophy of life.

019 -- We need to have the Three Hearts (三個心): "歸向心," "責任心," and "宣教心." Yes, we know we belong to the Lord, we'll try our best to carry out what He wants us to do, and one of the most important things for us to do is PTG; that is, to Proclaim (or Preach) the Gospel.

020 -- Conclusion: "Just go, go, go and go!" (See the Gospel of Matthew 28:19-20.)