Short Good Friday Message from Tokaut Tokstret

There are two kinds of people in the world: The Judases and the Peters.

On the night of His arrest both Judas and Peter betrayed Jesus. Perhaps one's betrayal was deadlier than the other, but they were both betrayals by Jesus's most "loyal" friends. After realizing their acts of treason, one went and hung himself, thinking his sin was beyond forgiveness. The other went and repented in shame, and became the Rock on which the church is being built.

Peter understood and received God's forgiveness. Judas thought God could never forgive him. I'm convinced if he repented like Peter, God would have forgiven him. Although Judas was born to betray Jesus, he wasn't outside of God's infinite grace and mercy. He only needed to believe and receive it.

You and I betray Jesus everyday, for we all sin and fall short of His glory.

Question is: Do you return like Peter, or are you slowly "hanging" yourself like Judas?

No matter how grave a sin you think you've committed, God's grace abounds above it.

Don't hang yourself...

I guess that's why it's called "Good" Friday. Despite all the bad things that happened, good triumphs above it all. That can even go for our soul.

Heavenise Good Friday

Ganjiki

A Confused World

By GDW

“You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.”

~Jesus

We live in a morally confused world. Where philosophers tell us even the notion of morality is an irrelevant consideration in the makeup of society. "What you believe in private doesn't matter in public". So keep your  morality at home.

In the book of Genesis, in the Garden of Eden the Devil, through a serpent, tried to convince man he didn't need God to know good from bad, right from wrong. That we could be like God. Nothing has changed except the form of the devil’s messenger. The message is still the same. Now he just uses secular philosophers, high-powered media, politicians, and "special interest" groups to push this agenda, not mentioning Hollywood and the entertainment industry. They're excellent salesmen for a very bad product. And the world is totally buying it.

Meanwhile, the people who do have the best product to sell to the world are the most miserable salespeople. Christians are selling the Gospel short, through their lack of assertive communication and of course their (our) blatant hypocrisy. In fact they're even buying that dangerous product dished out by its aggressive salesmen.

The world thinks it can fix this itself without God. And people who believe in God are starting to believe that to be true too. We somehow think that by walking away from faith in the one who gives us a choice to believe in Him, we're becoming liberated, and somehow more advanced in our humanness.

But look around. See how lost we are. By being our own "god" we've almost blasted morality into oblivion, and inserted our own preferences for determining what's right and wrong. And we’re getting “loster”. We don't know what's right or wrong anymore. We go by the majority and by the loudest philosopher, like Oprah or Chopra. And grasp the air for some longer-lasting point of reference from which we can know what's right is really right. Because our private preferences are wearing thin. We say things like:

•   It’s ok if it feels good
•  As long as you aren’t hurting anybody else
• As long as the person you’re doing it to/with consents to it, it’s ok
• You have the power and freedom over your own body
•  Be yourself!
• Don’t be held down by religion. Be free.
•  Look out for yourself, your happiness is all that matters
•  If it makes sense to do it, do it!
•  God is what you say it is.
•  God only thinks it’s wrong if you hurt others

If you push those statements to their logical end, you’ll find a world of contradictions, inconsistencies, clashes and lies. Let’s talk through a few of them.  

“If it feels good it’s ok”. But for some people it feels good to kill others. It feels good to rape and taunt others. It feels good to hurt themselves. It doesn't work. So enter another assertion: “As long as you don’t hurt others”. But hurting others feels good. And besides, the other consents to it. So here he is, killing because he feels good, and the other consents, but the world doesn't know so the world prosecutes him. “Be yourself!” But he was being himself when he was raping the kids. He can’t reconcile that need to be himself with the need to not hurt others without their consent. “You have the power and freedom over your own body”, so kill that child in your body before it has a chance to breathe on its own. But then why are we concerned that people should live healthy lives? Or why do we try to discourage them from using drugs and wasting their lives? And when they want to commit suicide—which means consenting to your own death, and executing yourself, because you just want to be yourself and people won’t let you—we tell them no please call us on this hotline and we’ll talk about it first. And when they call we tell them “don’t do it!” Aren’t they entitled to do whatever they want with their live and just “be themselves”? Aren’t they being themselves? Maybe not existing anymore is better for them than existing miserably? They’re not “hurting” others right? And finally, God thinks it’s wrong only if you hurt others. But if God cares about not hurting others, how could He not care about you hurting yourself. Contradictions abound!

Back to the earliest line that’s supposed to dismiss even this kind of essay: “What you believe in private shouldn’t be shared in public!” So moral convictions should not be brought in to the public discussions about how society is shaped. Morality shouldn’t be a major factor in politics and social re-programming. But think about that statement; a self-contradictory statement: It is itself a private belief being shared publicly, in the attempt to discourage the public sharing of private beliefs, by private individuals. You might as well say “my opinion matters and not yours. My word is truth and not yours.”  

Secular teachings can get us into deep deep trouble. It cannot provide a coherent set of answers to life and society’s moral dilemmas.  You’ll have to amend the principles every time a situation changes.

One time at the crowded bus stop at Waigani a man had a carpenter’s saw sticking out of his back pack, bare and ready to slice an unaware commuter. I asked the man kindly to be careful about his saw as it may cut the others when we all rushed for a bus. His arrogant answer was “wari blong ol!” He couldn’t care less if someone got hurt by his equipment. But you wonder how his response would be if he was another commuter who did get hurt by the saw sticking out of someone else’s back pack. He would probably retaliate in anger at the person’s carelessness. He would have amended his “wari blo ol!” principle. In fact he would have completely about-faced on it.

And that’s what the secular world tells us: to amend every time the situation or some other variable (e.g. popular belief) changes.

Sure we can be "good", do "good" things and generally not do anything considered "evil" in this world. Even in a god-less state of mind. But if we push our self-induced morality to its ends, we'd likely find a whole heap of contradictions, and ultimate a weak foundation. Like houses built on sand instead of on rock.

And oh how we try to redefine God according to our preferences. Maybe He cares about this and not that. Maybe He thinks this way and not that. As if His nature is dependent on our beliefs. Like if I believed strong enough a stone will turn to bread. Some things can't be altered no matter what or how strongly we believe. Same for truth. We don't like it so we change its very definition, making it malleable.  We want "truth" that's amenable and subjective and relative...and of course convenient. But that isn't truth. Truth (a translation of reality into information), isn't dependent on our beliefs. It can't be changed. 

Ray Boltz, a Christian musician responsible for some of Christendom’s most popular songs such as “I Pledge Allegiance” and “Thank You (For giving to the Lord)”, came out publicly declaring that he was gay. Then he said, “If this is the way God made me, then this is the way I'm going to live." So he divorced his wife and pursued his homosexual practice. But did God really “make” him that way? Does God want Him to stay that way? He seems to have amended God’s character without God’s consent, only to suit his sexual proclivities. It would have been better if he said clearly that “there is no God”.

The question "Is there a God?" can only be answered "yes" or "no". We can't ever say "it depends!" Yet the most intelligent people and nations in the world would say "it depends". If yes, does He give us our moral code? Did He write them in the deepest crevices of our souls that we can know it without knowing Him? If no He doesn’t exist, then no problem. Everything is permissible. And anything that is not permissible must be explained to be not permissible. If it depends, then morality is just a matter of “it depends”. It depends on anything: feelings, gains, science, security, happiness, selfishness, pleasure, pain, etc. etc. etc. 

A moral code keeps people from freedoms they think they must have to be happy. Renowned atheist Aldous Huxley said it himself, betraying that the true reason for people like him rejecting a God-ordained morality is their selfish lusts. “We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.” (in Ends and Means).

That kind of world, Papua New Guinea, can get as confusing as confusion can get. Yet it seems to be what the world wants. As a nation we would do well to steer clear of it.

Heavenise day!

Ganjiki

Akwinamak

Akwinamak

27/02/13

This day o'er two decades ago

While I was just learning to talk

Looking softly and tenderly

The infinite God He spoke 

"I shall make for this son a helper

A companion, his steady staff

A pillar of strength

His prime care giver"

And so she arrived

To tend with me this garden

Bred in central modesty

Guided by His Majesty

She waltzed into my vision

With a brethren's acute description

"Talk to the hand" said she

First attempt, oh poor me!

But love and curiosity grew

So much so that she consented

To hear me pledge allegiance

"Forsaking all others" I commented

This bride, me she dazzled

This man of many words 

I am left baffled

That God would give me this masterpiece

Carved by Mercy

She forgives my faults

Seasoned by truth

She affirms belief

Endowed with strength 

Steadies a shaky pace

Gives pause for wisdom's embrace

With drops of compassion

She points to vital burden

With wings of peace

She steadies my storm 

Her way of love

Never lets me starve

As St. Paul said before

She is my glory, my pride and more 

That Maker His mercy knows no end

His love it knows no limit

His faithfulness I can't comprehend

Amazing grace I do understand 

And I trust you see it too

All because He gave me you...

(c) Ganjiki D Wayne

27/02/13