I was quite surprised as I woke up just now to find myself tagged in a note.. by Alena! (: It was an interesting post about 'The Tale of the Crucified Crook' by Max Lucado, and I felt led to post it here (:

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The Tale of the Crucified Crook
('No Wonder They Call Him The Saviour', by Max Lucado)

�I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.� - Luke 23:43

We create false value systems. We say that you are valuable if you can produce. We say that you are valuable if you can slam-dunk a basketball or snag a pop fly. You are valuable if your name has a �Dr.� in front of it or a Ph.D. on the end of it. You are valuable if you have a six-figure salary and drive a foreign car.

Now please understand, this is man�s value system. It is not God�s. His plan is much brighter. God, with eyes twinkling, steps up to the philosopher�s blackboard, erases the never-ending, never-repeating circle of history and replaces it with a line; a hopefilled, promising, slender line. And, looking over his shoulder to see if the class is watching, he draws an arrow on the end.

In God�s book man is headed somewhere. He has an amazing destiny. We are being prepared to walk down the church aisle and become the bride of Jesus. We are going to live with him. Share the throne with him. Reign with him. We count. We are valuable. And what�s more, our worth is built in! Our value is inborn.

You see, if there was anything that Jesus wanted everyone to understand it was this: A person is worth something simply because he is a person. That is why he treated people like he did. Think about it. The girl caught making undercover thunder with someone she shouldn�t � he forgave her. The untouchable leper who asked for cleansing � he touched him. And the blind welfare case that cluttered the roadside � he honoured him. And the worn-out old windbag addicted to self-pity near the pool of Siloam � he healed him!

And don�t forget the classic case study on the value of a person by Luke. It is called �The Tale of the Crucified Crook�. If anyone was every worthless, this one was. If any man ever deserved dying, this man probably did. If any fellow was ever a loser, this fellow was at the top of the list. Perhaps that is why Jesus chose him to show us what he thinks of the human race.

�Any chance that you could put in a good word for me?�
�Consider it done.�

Now why did Jesus do that? What in the world did he have to gain by promising this desperado a place of honour at the banquet table? What in the world could this chiseling quisling ever offer in return? I mean, the Samaritan woman I can understand � she could go back and tell the tale. And Zacchaeus had some money that he could give. But this guy? What is he going to do? Nothing!

That�s the point. Listen closely. Jesus� love does not depend upon what we do for him. Not at all. In the eyes of the King, you have value simply because you are. Not because of what you do or what you have done, but simply because you are. Remember that the next time you are left bobbing in the wake of someone�s steamboat ambition. Remember that the next time some trickster tries to hang a bargain basement price tag on your self-worth. The next time someone tries to pass you off as a cheap buy, just think about the way Jesus honours you, and smile :)

I do. I smile because I know I don�t deserve love like that. None of us do. When you get right down to it, any contribution that any of us make is pretty puny. All of us � even the purest of us � deserve heaven about as much as that crook did. All of us are signing on Jesus� credit card, not ours.

And it also makes me smile to think that there is a grinning ex-con walking the golden streets who knows more about grace than a thousand theologians. No one else would have given him a prayer. But in the end that is all that he had. And in the end, that is all it took.

No wonder they call Him the Saviour.

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Inspiring right? Haha. His grace indeed surpasses all boundaries. (:

Yet we cannot demean it to such an extent that it becomes 'cheap', or undervalued.

In the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship he defines 'cheap grace as 'the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ'.

I was reading comments on Youtube and it struck me at how fractured the Christian community still is, even amongst the megachurches. And one of them is about certain NCC members getting upset over Pst Kong preaching against 'cheap grace' and felt that he had alluded to them. Oh, and that he's 'jealous because Pst Prince seems to be more anointed than him'.

My jaw dropped in surprise. How do you measure anointing? Material things like size of congregation, or even the assets? Certainly not! 'Revelations'?

I have friends who are members of NCC, including some who had attended CHC. I'm not accusing NCC of anything as I'm not in any position to do so. I just feel that partaking in mudslinging will not do them any good - it makes them look immature. Hard-selling by direct condemnation will not sway anyone, just like how open street witnessing is unlikely to win many converts.

And then inevitably some disgruntled NCC members who are sort of pissed at Pst Kong's opposition to cheap grace 'by a Singaporean pastor' have to bring in the whole 'China Wine' boo-hah to slam the church.

Seriously, I cannot see what's wrong with the video. It doesn't even look racy to me - it looks like an ordinary music video. Even if Sun was a part of it which led to them saying it 'cheapens Christianity'. How ironic.. She's in the business of impacting culture and winning it back to Christ, of course she has to fit in to be able to influence artistes and audiences, just look at Daniel and the Babylonians.

So can I guess that NCC members did not know/attend the recent Festival of Praise? Since its Executive Director's a certain 'Kong Hee'. Haha.

Ok its 7am in the morning. I hope the haze isn't so bad today. More dry weather predicted over Sumatra. Perfect conditions for forest fires to rage out of control.

Here's hoping that the online furore will not follow suit as well.

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