Of A Personal Nature

Friday, January 8, 2010

$300 will feed 20 children once a day for a month. Thanks for whatever you can provide. Every penny given to KOI goes for food for the kids. All administration costs are provided out of the regular fund.

Food for the KOI

$15 will feed a child once a day for a month. Thank you for your help.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

“Blessed is he that considereth the poor.”

"Poverty begins where plenty ends. A man is not to be counted “poor” because he dwells in a cottage, lives simply, dresses plainly, earns his children’s bread by the sweat of his brow, as long as his work is healthy, his food plentiful and wholesome, and he can keep out of debt, and have a little to give to God’s work and to a needy neighbour. But when strength is overtasked, when toil and thrift cannot keep the wolf from the door, and work fails or health breaks down, and the question has to be faced how long the home can be kept together,—then, indeed, poverty is felt to be one of the bitterest forms of the curse which sin has brought into human life."

From Psalm 41

The Pulpit Commentary: Psalms Vol. I. 2004 (H. D. M. Spence-Jones, Ed.) (323–324). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Faith and Works and the Indonesian children

I was studying Matthew 25:31 and following this morning. Here are a few quotes I saved.

In this passage Jesus is talking about separating the sheep from the goats at the last day. Those rewarded were the ones who fed the hungry, took care of the needs of the sick and those in prison, and sheltered and clothed the needy. In doing these things they were doing them to Jesus himself.

“Matthew is not telling us that people who do good things will go to heaven; rather, he is telling us that good things are an evidence of true discipleship and genuine faith. Those who are saved by faith are judged by their works, since their works show how much they were willing to deny themselves in the service of others.” ^{^[1]}

“For there are many passages of Scripture where it is shown that our works, in the business of salvation, are regarded as indispensably requisite, or as a primary condition, to which the reward of eternal life is inseparably connected.”^{^[2]}

“We can all best serve Christ by ministering to his brethren. This is what he most cares for.”^{^[3]}

“We cannot minister to Jesus himself; will we minister to him vicariously, through his suffering brethren?” ^{^[4]}

^{^[1]} Campbell, I. D. (2008). Opening up Matthew (153). Leominster: Day One Publications.

^{^[2]} The Pulpit Commentary: St. Matthew Vol. II. 2004 (H. D. M. Spence-Jones, Ed.) (483). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

^{^[3]} The Pulpit Commentary: St. Matthew Vol. II. 2004 (H. D. M. Spence-Jones, Ed.) (497). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

^{^[4]} The Pulpit Commentary: St. Matthew Vol. II. 2004 (H. D. M. Spence-Jones, Ed.) (512–513). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Use of the word Allah

The strange thing about this ban of the use of the word Allah in Malaysia (next door to Indonesia and speaking a similar language) is that the Indonesian translation of the Bible has used the word Allah for well over 100 years. Personally, I do not like the use of the word. I don't know why the original translators chose to use this word instead of the word Yahweh, or at least the Indonesian word "tuhan" which means "lord". The KJV incorrectly used the word "Jahovah". This was corrected in later versions where the word "LORD" was used in all capital letters to show the original was the tetragrammaton (Yahweh). Where lower case letters were used the regular meaning was intended.

If Malaysia bans the word "Allah" from all non-Islamic materials, then will Indonesia follow suit? If it does then the Bible will have to be reprinted using a different word for "God". This would not offend me.

If we want to translate the Bible correctly into the Indonesian language, then let's use the word Yahweh everywhere the tetragrammaton is used in the Old Testament. And while we're at it, why not use the word "silam" (immersion) instead of "baptisan" (baptism), or "jemaat" (assembly) instead of "gereja" (church)? There are more, but you get the point.

Finally, the word "Allah" is not an Islamic word, but an Arabic word predating Islam and a very large part of the Indonesian vocabulary is made up of Arabic roots or words. Do we eliminate them all? One could only hope....

Malaysian court lifts ban on use of Allah for Catholic paper

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia's High Court on Thursday handed down a landmark ruling by overturning a government ban on the use of the word Allah, or God in Arabic, in a weekly Catholic paper. The High Court in the capital Kuala Lumpur ruled that the word Allah was not exclusive to Islam, and that an existing ban by the Home Ministry was illegal and void.

The court ruled that the Herald newspaper was now permitted to use Allah to refer to God in its Malay-language articles.

Thursday's court decision put to rest a year-long legal battle between the Catholic church and the mainly Muslim government, which ruled that the word Allah was prohibited in any non-Islamic publications in order to avoid "confusion" among Muslims.

The government's ban on the use of the word in the Herald, the country's main Roman Catholic newsletter, prompted minority religious groups to argue that the Arabic word is a common term for God that predates Islam and has been used for centuries as a translation in Malay.

Malaysia's constitution declares it a secular state but with Islam as its official religion. About 60 per cent of Malaysia's 25 million people are Muslims.