Live by the “Present Truth”
“Therefore I will not be negligent to remind you of these things, though you know them, and are established in the present truth...For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” We heard this voice come out of heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.” (2 Peter 1:12, 16-18 WEB)
The apostle Peter wrote to the church, saying that they were “established in the present truth”.
The existence of a present truth necessitates that there was a former truth.
I believe that he was referring to the change in covenants, from the Old Covenant of the Law (former truth) to the New Covenant of Grace (present truth).
He was probably addressing those who disbelieved that the Law has been replaced by Grace, and who wanted to continue keeping the Ten Commandments.
The New Covenant of Grace is all about God’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter then recounted an incident that happened to him many years ago, when he saw Jesus transfigured on the mountain.
“After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain by themselves. He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as the light. Behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with him. Peter answered, and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you want, let’s make three tents here: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” When the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces, and were very afraid. Jesus came and touched them and said, “Get up, and don’t be afraid.” Lifting up their eyes, they saw no one, except Jesus alone. As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Don’t tell anyone what you saw, until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”” (Matthew 17:1-9 WEB)
The transfiguration was firmly etched in Peter’s mind. He saw Jesus’ majesty—the glory He had before His incarnation.
But right after seeing that, he was starstruck when he saw Moses and Elijah who appeared and spoke with Jesus.
Moses is the mediator of the Old Covenant of the Law, while Elijah is one of the most highly esteemed Old Testament prophets.
He stumbled over these two great men of God, and put Jesus on the same level as them by asking if he should pitch three tents for them to stay in.
God the Father was displeased by this, and He overshadowed Jesus, Moses and Elijah with a bright cloud, and told Peter, James, and John to listen to Jesus only.
Moses and Elijah disappeared, and the apostles only saw Jesus alone.
This is the way God the Father intended—for His Son to receive all the glory, honor, and majesty.
Under the New Covenant of Grace, the “present truth” is that we listen to Jesus alone.
It is not about keeping the Ten Commandments or observing the ominous warnings of the prophets anymore. Don’t be deceived by “cunningly devised fables” invented by the minds of men who seek to use the Law to enforce behavior modification on ignorant believers.
The entire Bible is about Jesus and the revelation of His story.
“Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27 WEB)
Notice how Jesus expounded the Scriptures to Cleopas and the other disciples on the road to Emmaus, by explaining to them the things concerning Himself. Moses refers to the first five books of the Old Testament which were written by Moses, and the prophets are represented by Elijah.
Both Moses and Elijah are pointing to Jesus Christ who would be born as a Man to redeem mankind from their sins by dying on the cross, and eventually, Jesus will return to reign on David’s throne as the eternal King of Israel!
Did you ever wonder why Jesus only brought Peter, James and John to the mountain? I believe they were chosen because of their names.
Peter means “stone”, representing the Law which was engraved on stone tablets. James means “to supplant” (to be replaced). John means “grace of God”.
Putting their names together, we derive this meaning: the Law has been replaced by Grace.
The Law is the former truth, while Grace is the present truth which we are to be established in. We need to be constantly reminded of this truth so that we can keep our eyes on Jesus. Like Abba God said from the bright cloud, “Listen to Him.”
“For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17 WEB)
No matter what challenges you are facing today, choose to keep your eyes on Jesus, and let His Spirit lead you. Jesus is the full realization of grace and truth. He is God’s righteousness. We must stop mixing the covenants and live by Grace alone!
——
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Primaries and Disqualifications (Lee Yee)
Elsie Leung said, not disclosing all of the provisions of the National Security Law (NSL) is to prevent invoking clashes in society, and that the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC) has already conducted sufficient consultations with different sectors.
Without disclosing the provisions of the NSL, what was used to consult these different sectors? This point alone discloses how absolutely absurd the so-called “sufficient consultations”, “different sectors”, and frankly, her entire statement are.
There have been commotions in the online community around the suggestion of achieving international sanctions through large-scale disqualifications, focusing mainly on the contradictions between the pro-democracy camp’s primaries and a large number of candidates. Primaries mean an aggregation of votes, to avoid an overextended list of candidates who would be dividing up the votes and possibly leading to the reduction of the number of elected seats. Most of the pro-democracy camp, including young candidates, are supportive of having primaries. The primary selection mechanism stipulates that only the winners are able stand for election. Some suggested that even the losers from the primaries should go ahead and stand for election, and were criticized for violating the principles of primaries.
These principles, however, were drafted before the NSL. It was when the legal profession and some Democrats still believed there was room for negotiation, when the retired former Chief Justice Honorable Andrew Li Kwok-nang proposed to protect the implementation details within Hong Kong under the premise of accepting the NSL. Some Democrats also suggested to bring back Article 23 in place of the implementation of the NSL by NPC, or to adopt the sunset clause. If the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is willing to bargain, the red line for disqualifications of candidates could be drawn at the absolute “anti-NSL”, while turning a blind eye towards the Democrats who are willing to negotiate, such that LegCo would continue to have “decorative” Democrats.
The CCP categorically rejected all bargaining, and Andrew Li accused the Hong Kong NSL as completely undermining the independent judicial power guaranteed by the Basic Law. Martin Lee stated that “the Hong Kong NSL must be resisted fully”, and “people whose attention is being diverted to the devil in the details have already fallen into the trap devised by the CCP”. Moderates who wish to main the current system, to avoid “scorching-earth”, are already at a dead end.
The complete societal rift induced by the NSL is simple: on one side, you have people who blindly support an NSL without any disclosed provisions, including the pro-Beijing camp and the voluntarily “visually-impaired”; on the other side, you have citizens who support democracy. According to a poll conducted by the Hong Kong Institute of Public Opinion at the end of last month, 96% of the “supporters of the pro-democracy camp” opposed the NSL, and only 1% supported the law; Among those who are “non supporters of the pro-democracy camp”, 62% expressed support towards having the NSL implemented by the NPC, but those who opposed still amounted to 29%.
This was a poll done a month ago. With those who were willing to negotiate being rejected at this point, the societal rift should be more apparent. The situation is clear: any participant of the pro-democracy camp’s primaries, given that they have not been too vocal about opposing the NSL, even if they do win the primaries, have are able to join the election without being disqualified, they could still end up not winning the election. If citizens are to woefully cast their votes for candidates who do not oppose the NSL, looking at the poll, there’s only a 1% chance among the “supporters of the pro-democracy camp”.
Another situation that is clear: those who have openly and clearly opposed the NSL and somehow escape the fate of disqualification of candidacy is almost impossible. Even if there were, the voters would be doubtful of the candidates’ true stance, leading to a slim chance of getting elected.
As such, for the pro-democracy candidates, it is almost impossible to either oppose the NSL or to be disqualified for opposing. This, is precisely why the original intent of an aggregation of votes through the mechanism of primaries is likely to fail.
Disregard the results of the primaries. Flood the election with a loud and clear message of anti-NSL from a whale of candidates. This is the only way out. Having all or the majority being disqualified would be an obvious deprivation of Hongkongers’ right to vote, a guaranteed way to get international attention.
How much of a shockwave will international sanctions send to the CCP? An opinion piece published in Taiwan suggested that a senior Chinese official who may be sanctioned by the US because of the Hong Kong NSL has hidden assets in the US that are worth as much as US$3.1 billion. In 2013, Snowden, a former CIA employee who is now in Russia, announced that Chinese officials’ foreign deposits amounted to US$4.8 trillion. In normal circumstances, cash holdings account for only one-third of total assets, meaning that the total assets should amount to tens of trillions of US dollars (Hong Kong’s foreign exchange reserves are only about US$440 billion). And these were figures from 7 years ago.
International sanctions are, inevitably, internationally “earth-scorching”, where the side carrying out the sanctions will also suffer immensely. Freezing the assets of sanctioned officials in foreign countries will not help the sanctioning parties at all. Senior Chinese officials could care less about the Basic Law and Hong Kong’s human rights, but to laugh off one’s own properties? This is Hong Kong’s “earth-scorching” bargaining chip.
devised meaning 在 BENJAMINSE7EN Facebook 的精選貼文
Babylon Calling 巴比倫之聲 主理人Soma Liang為韓國首爾音樂廠牌Oslated所錄製DJ Set非常值得一聽,誠意推薦給大家!
Soma Liang
Babylon Calling
Taipei
Taiwan
Born in urban Taipei, DJ soma views music as Freud's theory of id, ego and super-ego. Id is the sounds created by human desires. Ego is the equations devised by human logic. And super-ego is the styles conceived by human emotions.
As a DJ, she wants to recreate the never ending search for the meaning of life throughout human history.
By combining different cultures, gender and skin colors in the form of music, she tried to present the beauty and flaws of humanity. In her mind, there's no need for thought, people should simply focus at the moment in our own dreams, because we create our own universe and love.
Soma would like to dedicate this Set to her late grandmother.
May her soul be touched by the grace of music.
타이페이 태생의 DJ Soma. 그녀는 음악을 원초아, 자아, 초자아에 관한 프로이트의 이론에 근거하여 바라보고 있다.
여기서 원초아는 인간의 욕망에 기초한 소리를, 자아는 이성적 관점에 의한 원초아와 초자아 사이의 균형을, 초자아는 인간의 감정에 의해 탄생된 음악적 표현 형태를 일컫는다.
디제이로서, 그녀는 인류의 역사를 통해 끊임없이 삶의 의미를 파악해나가고자 한다.
서로 다른 문화, 성별, 피부색을 음악이라는 형태로 통합해내며, 그녀는 인류가 가진 아름다움과 결함을 표출해낸다.
그녀의 마음속에서 사람들은 생각할 필요가 없다.
그들이 해야할 일은 단순히 꿈속에서 주어진 시간에 집중하는 것뿐이다. 세계를 만들어내고 사랑하는 것은 우리이므로.
Soma 는 이번 Set 을 그녀의 조모 (祖母) 에게 헌정하고 싶다고 한다.
음악의 아름다움이 그녀의 영혼을 감동시키길 바라며.
- Translated by Yunbi An
@dj-soma
www.facebook.com/soma.liang.9
Oslated Seoul.
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