Holy God (Elohim Kedoshim)

This is the second out of two devotionals written for our church camp (8-12 Jun 2017).

Joshua 24:15b, 19, 21, 23
“... as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins.” But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.” “Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

Joshua and his family was committed to serving God but he questioned the people’s ability to do so. It required them to dispose of all other gods in their possession and give themselves wholly to the holy God. ‘Yielding your hearts to the Lord’ is not just the outward act of throwing away physical idols and gods, it is more importantly the cleansing and complete submission of our hearts to God. He has to be our top priority, our main focus in life. Anything else that takes His place in importance inadvertently becomes an idol, and it would need to be cast off too.

Leviticus 11:42, 44a

You are not to eat any creature that moves along the ground, ... it is unclean. I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.

In addition, worshipping the holy God meant that the Israelites had to keep themselves holy by avoiding any food that would make them unclean. However, it is not only the external things we consume that defile us, so can the thoughts and desires from within us.

Mark 7:21-23

For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come - sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.

So if wholehearted worship is what we want to model to our children, let us do some spiritual spring cleaning and throw out anything that has taken God’s place in our hearts or that makes us unclean. Only by keeping ourselves and our children pure would we then be able to pass on a legacy of true religion to the future generations.

James 1:27

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Reflections:

1. What are the things you need to dispose of, both for yourself and your family?
• ‘gods’ that have become more important than serving God (eg fulfilling your own or your children’s needs and wants, keeping up with societal expectations)
• anything unclean you or your family members are consuming (eg clothes, films, social media)
• any thoughts and desires which may defile you before God

2. What steps do you need to take to ensure that you and your family worship God only and keep yourselves holy and pure?

Prayer:

O holy God, forgive me and my family for worshipping ‘idols’ and placing them above You, for the unclean things that we consume, and for our defiling thoughts and desires! Cleanse us and give us the ability to keep ourselves holy and pure. Remove the wrong thinking and temptations which lead us away from worshipping You and You alone. Please come and take Your rightful place as King and Lord over our hearts and our lives, for our generation and the generations to come!

The Lord, the God of your fathers (Jehovah Elohei Abothekem)

This is the first out of two devotionals written for our church camp (8-12 Jun 2017).

Joshua 18:2-3
But there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes which had not yet received their inheritance. Then Joshua said to the children of Israel: “How long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you?

God often referred to Himself as ‘the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’. He is the God of generations because He is faithful through the generations. He keeps the promises He made to one generation for generations to come! So when Joshua called Him ‘the Lord God of your fathers’, he was pointing to how God had been faithful to all the previous generations before them. Hence the Israelites could continue to trust in Him that He would surely fulfill every promise He had made to them regarding the possession of the Promised Land.

Yet the Israelites hesitated. They had ‘neglected to go and possess the land’ that God had already promised to give to them. Perhaps they were afraid of the resistance they might face from the people who were already residing in the towns and villages. That was why Joshua had to remind them of the faithfulness of the God of their fathers, the same God who had led them on the Jericho walk and made the walls fall down!

This also goes to show that not only is God faithful, He requires us to be faithful to Him too! If the Israelites had not followed His instructions and marched around Jericho faithfully for seven days, they would not have experienced the victory that God had prepared for them. Hence, Joshua was challenging them once more to go and take the land by faith so they would see the hand of God yet again. Otherwise, they would never be able to possess the land they had been promised.

Joshua 21:43‭-‬45

So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their ancestors. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hands. Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.

True enough, the moment they acted in faith, God came through and every promise He had made since Abraham was fulfilled! And future generations would look back and remember how the God of their fathers had been given the Promised Land.

Reflections:

1. Can you identify the spiritual fathers/mothers in your family or community? How has God been faithful to the generations of believers before you?

2. How have your spiritual fathers/mothers been faithful to God’s calling on their lives and what impact has that made on your own spiritual journey?

3. In what areas of your life is God calling you to respond to Him in faithfulness? How do you think your obedience to God will affect the faith of your children and future generations to come?

Prayer:

O Lord, the God of my spiritual fathers and mothers, thank you for Your faithfulness through the generations and thank You for the faithfulness of the past generations of believers! Please grant me the faith to trust in and obey Your every prompting. May my faithfulness inspire the faith of my children and generations to come!

Talking about suicide with our kids

Recently, there's been a lot of talk about how videos and social media are influencing children and young people to attempt/commit suicide (just google '13 Reasons Why' and 'Blue Whale Challenge' and you'll see what I mean). Even more sadly, there has in fact been a string of copycat suicide attempts in the schools/social circles that our own children are in. However, most of them had been intercepted and/or their lives were spared. So we have had to chat with our children regularly on this topic and I thought I might as well share some of the tips that we've given to them with other parents, children and youth.

1. Look out for one another

Look out for friends around you who may be suicidal - they may actually say they want to die, or they may be in depression or feeling depressed especially after experiencing failure or something demoralising. Talk with them, pray with or for them, and most importantly, alert an adult who can help eg parent, teacher, counsellor, pastor.

2. Watch your thoughts

Watch out for suicidal thoughts in your own mind and replace them with 'good thoughts' cos our thoughts will influence our feelings and ultimately our actions and behaviour.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2

So if we keep dwelling on worldly ways of thinking such as 'life is meaningless' and 'I'll be better off dead', then pretty soon we will start to believe them and act them out. Instead, we need to fill our minds with Godly thinking which will lead to a transformation of our lives. Here are some egs of 'good thoughts'. There are many more in the Bible, of course.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life." John 14:6a

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:31-34

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. Psalm 23:1-3a

3. Get help!

Whenever you feel like you can't cope, go to God in prayer and worship, and read the Bible. Also, approach someone who can give wise and Godly counsel (a trusted adult eg parents, teacher, counsellor, pastor, youth leader) to talk with and get support from.

We love because... [Sermon transcript, 14 May 2017]

[The following sermon transcript has been edited for this blog. The original video recording and slides can be viewed here.]

When I was asked to preach on Mother's Day, I became curious about why we all love our moms. So I conducted a survey, and I think some of you (including my FB friends and blog readers) also completed it too! What I had meant to be a simple informal survey of friends and people I know turned into an international survey covering hundreds of people from more than 10 countries and every continent in the world!!! That’s the power of social media! Anyway, the survey respondents also consisted of both genders as well as a spread of different age groups. Well, here are the results of the survey.

Why we love our moms

1. NOURISH

Firstly, we love our moms because they feed us! Regardless of which country or continent we come from, moms are more likely to be the ones to make sure there’s food on the table for the family. I’m sure that for many of us, even after we’ve grown up and got married, our moms will still make sure we are well-fed whenever we visit them. In fact, whenever we attend any meetings or gatherings, who are the ones who would bring food for everyone? The moms, of course! Secondly, we also love our moms because they clothe us. More than ¾ of those who responded to the survey said that when they were kids, their moms would make sure there were bigger clothes on standby even before they had outgrown the ones they could wear.

2. NURSE

Not only do our moms feed and clothe us, they also take care of us when we are hurt or injured. The person who stays up through the night to monitor a feverish child’s temperature and administer medicine is most probably mom. Other than physical wounds, moms are also the ones more likely to comfort us when we are emotionally hurt or feeling down. And this seems to come naturally to moms because they have been gifted by God with a sense of empathy. That’s why more than half of the respondents said that their moms would be the first to cry during a sad movie. In real life, moms are also the ones who’ll feel sorry for those who are in pain or suffering. Like when we see a little child fall down, we are the ones who would fuss over the child to make sure he or she is alright.

3. NURTURE

We also love our moms because they teach us basic skills like how to brush our teeth and tie our shoelaces, and other much-needed skills for us to get on in life! Last but definitely not least, moms, sometimes together with dads, teach us values and beliefs through modelling and explaining them to us, in other words, by mentoring us.

How our moms love us

I grouped my survey results into three main categories – Nourish, Nurse and Nurture – three N’s! To nourish is basically to provide all that is necessary for someone’s physical health and growth. To nurse is to care for someone when something goes wrong. And to nurture is to teach and equip someone. Now we know some reasons why we love our moms. But do we know why moms do all this for us? Because of love! Mothers instinctively express their love for their children in these ways.

Of course I must qualify that I am not saying fathers don’t love their children by nourishing, nursing and nurturing them. In fact, some of the respondents indicated that their dads, rather than their moms, were the ones more likely to do so. But I’m generalising here as moms do tend to be more predisposed to showing their love in these ways. Dads may express their love for their families in other ways but that’s the topic for another sermon, perhaps on Father’s Day. 😉

How we should love others

As we look at why we love our moms and how moms express their love, let us not forget that God has explicitly told all of us to love one another (John 13:34) and to love our neighbours (Matt 22:39). That means, moms, we not only have to love our own families but we are to love the families around us and also those who are without families. And these instruction aren’t just for moms, so regardless of whether we are moms or dads or neither, all of us as the body of Christ and the expression of His love for the world, also have to do the same! In fact, we can easily find instructions for us to show love to others through these three N’s - Nourish, Nurse, Nurture - all over the Bible. Let me just list a few of these to explain what I mean.

1. NOURISH

Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matt 25:37-40

If we want to be counted among the righteous at the day of judgement, then we should be feeding the hungry and caring for the needy. That’s why we have community outreach by the church to reach out to the poor and needy in the community and to help meet some of their needs. This could also be something we do in our daily lives like for example, helping to cook a meal for our neighbours’ children when their parents are unable to for whatever reason.

2. NURSE

But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. Luke 10:33-34

Jesus also told the parable of the good Samaritan to illustrate what it means to love our neighbours. And in the parable the Samaritan nursed the wounds of the man who had been attacked by robbers.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2 Cor 1:3-4

We are also called upon to nurse the emotional wounds of those who are in any kind of affliction. So it could be comforting someone who has just lost a loved one or encouraging someone who’s unemployed to keep looking for another job.

3. NURTURE

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deut 6:6-7

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. Prov 22:6

Finally, we are also to nurture the next generation by teaching them to know God and to follow His way. This is not just the job of the parents and the Sunday school teachers or youth mentors, it is the responsibility of all of us in the faith community because we model to the young ones what it means to worship and serve God through what we do and say.

Jesus Himself exemplified what it means to love. Let’s look at what Jesus did and His demonstrations of love in the following video clip. As His disciples, we should then imitate Him and love like He did.

So just as Jesus fed the crowds (nourished), healed the sick (nursed), and taught others about the kingdom of God (nurtured), we are also expected to do all that and even greater things (John 14:12)! But it would be impossible for us to do all that with our own strength. It is only possible for us to love and serve others in the same way He did because He first loved us. It is only by the power of His love in and through us that we can also love those around us.

How He loves us

1. NOURISH

So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matt 6:31-33

When we have experienced how God feeds and clothes us and provides for all our needs then we can also feed and clothe others.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matt 11:28

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Is 40:29

And when we are tired and weak, He nourishes us so we can nourish others.

2. NURSE

He said, "If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you." Exod 15:36

Lord my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me. Ps 30:2

God also heals us so we can have the confidence to minister to those who are sick.

The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Ps 34:18

Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones. Is 49:13

And when He nurses us lovingly during our times of heartbreak, we will also have the strength to comfort and minister to others who are suffering or in pain.

3. NURTURE

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Tim 3:16-17

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."  Is 30:21

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.  Ps 32:8

Finally, when we have received His teaching and instruction through His word as well as through the guidance and prompting of His Holy Spirit, then we will be equipped to teach and nurture others in the faith.

At this point, I'd like to share a story which had ministered to me greatly in the past - A Tale of Two Pails (adapted from http://morningglorylights.blogspot.sg/2011/02/tale-of-two-pails.html).

The Master carried two pails of water each day to the people in his community. Day after day he made the trek. One day the pail on the right side of the pole fell off and cracked. But the Master didn't throw the pail away; he continued to use the broken pail to carry water to the people.

Every day he made the trek with the two pails of water.

Every day the broken pail dripped water along the path.

When the Master arrived at the people's homes, the bucket on the left was full and had plenty of water to share. The pail on the right had only a small portion of water left because it had dripped water along the journey.

One day the broken pail said to the Master, "Master, I am no good to you. I am broken. Please, just throw me away."

And the Master replied, "Don't you know how good the world has become because of your brokenness? Please, come with me. Let me show you how beautiful the world is because you hung from my pole on the right side of the road, right where I put you. Do you see the flowers there? Every place you dripped through your brokenness, I planted a seed. Because you were broken, the dry, barren ground was watered and the flowers bloomed."

Let’s look more closely at the pail that didn’t have any holes and wasn’t leaking water. Because it wasn’t watering the ground on the left side of the path, the ground remained dry and barren. Perhaps some of us are like this first pail, somehow you can’t shower love on others. You just don’t have the desire nor motivation and find it difficult to do so. Then I would say that what you need to is to ask for and receive more of God’s love. Only when you know His love and are filled to overflowing can that love then flow out of you onto others. Once you are moved and touched by His love, loving others will come naturally.

However, I suspect that more of us are like the broken pail. You have been giving and serving the people around you so much so that you are drained and emptied. I just read a few days ago an article on parental burnout, which quoted a study published in the Frontiers of Psychology journal: 12.9% of mothers and 11.6% of fathers, had what the researchers called "high burnout." That meant they felt exhausted, less productive and competent, and emotionally withdrawn - qualities that are similar to professional burnout - at least once a week. 

Another article also discussed the findings of a Yale psychiatrist's research that showed how new mothers often suffer from post-partum depression because they feel that they will never be able to live up to the image of the perfect mother often seen on social media: a nurturing, organized, sexy-but-modest multitasker who glows during prenatal yoga and seems unfazed by the challenges of leaking breasts, dirty laundry and sleep training. 

And sadly, a new mom in Singapore had jumped out of her flat with her infant baby because she had been struggling to cope with the demands of motherhood and pursuing a career. I have ministered to many stay-home moms and they already carry heavy, sometimes unbearable, burdens on their backs. So for working moms, it must be many times worse!

Remember that the broken pail had to be refilled over and over again in order to be able to water the seeds in the ground and bring forth the blossoming of flowers. Similarly, we must be continually filled with God’s love so that we can continue to love and serve the people around us. We need to take some time out regularly to soak in His presence and His love and be filled up before we can go out to the world to give that love away. 

The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will calm you in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17

How He loved Elijah

Let us now consider a classic case of burnout and depression in the Bible (1 Kings 19) - when the prophet Elijah was escaping from Jezebel who was after his life. He had just witnessed God’s dramatic power and defeated the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Yet he wanted his life to end as he felt there was no way out for him now that Jezebel was determined to kill him. 

But God knew what he really needed was some food and a good rest. So He sent an angel to feed him and get him to sleep. After the nourishment, Elijah was very much strengthened, so much so that he could get up and walk for forty days and forty nights to Horeb.

There, he met with God and the first thing he did was complain about how lonely and discouraged he felt. But God in His love and mercy, spoke to Elijah gently in a still, small voice and nursed his bruised emotions and encouraged him with news that he was not alone after all, but that 7000 other Godly men had been preserved. God also gave him specific instructions of what to do next.

As we can see, at a time when Elijah was feeling absolutely drained from serving God, even to the point of being depressed and suicidal, God showed up and nourished and nursed him back to health, then continued nurturing him for the work ahead. But let us not wait till we get to the end of our limits like Elijah to take a break and get refilled with His love. Let’s learn to go to God daily for our daily dose of His love just like the broken pail was refilled with water daily.

We love because...

So let all of us who are busy serving people like Martha, remember to spend time regularly at Jesus’ feet like Mary did. We must allow Him to keep filling us with His love so we can keep loving and serving others. No matter how tired and weak we may be, He is sure to provide for all our needs and nourish us with His rest and His strength. Regardless of what we’ve suffered and the hurts that we carry, He is always ready to soothe our wounds and comfort us, and nurse us back to health.

And even when we’re feeling lost and hopeless, He will shine a light on our paths and direct our steps as He continues to build and nurture our faith. The key is to first be loved by Him, the God of love.

We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19

Maybe you are someone who finds it hard to love others or perhaps you’re feeling drained from loving and serving others - be it as a stay-home or busy working mom or a burnt-out dad or someone who is overloaded from serving in a few ministries on top of your regular job. We all need to first receive His love and keep coming back to Him for more of it! So practise soaking in Him regularly on your own, at home or wherever, to make sure your love pail is filled up.

For instance, you could play the songs in this list, then meditate on the meaning of the lyrics, or you could pray silently and cast your cares on Him, you could also just wait quietly upon the Lord and listen out for His voice, or imagine Him singing over you as a mother would sing over her child to soothe and calm, or you could do a combination of all that. The main thing is to allow His love to fill you and touch you where you need it the most.

W - Two Worlds [Spoiler Alert!!!]

This Korean drama series, W - Two Worlds, really got to me. It broke the mould of the typical K drama formula (which will be the subject of another post) and got many viewers, including myself, drawn into the manhwa world (pun intended!) I also started to see many parallels between the story and the Biblical narrative so I'm going to try and describe some of them here. But if you haven't watched it yet and would rather do that first, it's available here. This site also provides well-written synopses of each episode with accompanying (mostly) thoughtful remarks.

What gave you the right to create me?
So the entire plot is based on how the female protaganist Yeon Joo (Han Hyo Joo) is pulled into the world of a webtoon W created by her Dad.  She meets and gradually falls for the main character Kang Chul (Lee Jong Suk). Later on Kang Chul also finds a way to step into the real world and meets his creator, Yeon Joo's Dad. However, he is boiling with anger as he feels that Dad has been unfair in killing off his entire family without good reason near the start of the webtoon. He demands an explanation and argues that Dad had no right to decide on such a horrendous life for him.

This reminded me of Job's tussle with God after he lost his family, everything he owned and even his health. And just like Job and his friends, many people mistakenly conceive of God as one who either has no control over what He has created and hence can't stop all the evil and suffering in the world, and/or that God flicks us around like pawns according to His whims and fancies without sparing a thought for our feelings. But we know that this is not who God really is. Unlike Dad in the drama who is self-centred and helpless in the face of his creature (he got shot by Kang Chul), our God is not only all-powerful and sovereign over the entire universe He created, He is also loving and merciful. However, He has given us free will (which I'll talk about more later) and because of sin, we keep making poor decisions and that is the reason for all the evil and suffering in the world. But God does not watch on helplessly. On the contrary, He is always at work to redeem our mistakes according to His plans for the world and for each one of us.

Christ figure
Anyway, halfway through the drama, Yeon Joo is reminded that she was in fact the creator of the main character Kang Chul. While a teenager, she had described and drawn him as her imaginary perfect boyfriend (more about this later) and her Dad had taken it up for the webtoon without her knowledge. So just like Jesus was with God from the beginning of creation, she was co-creator with Dad. Not only that, she also enters the created world, as Jesus did. And while there, Yeon Joo exercises her skills as a doctor and keeps saving Kang Chul's life. That is similar to how Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead while He walked the earth.

Yeon Joo's resemblance to Christ extends further to her unconditional love for Kang Chul that bears all, even forgiving him for shooting her Dad. That is reminiscent of how Jesus asked God to forgive those who crucified him while He hung on the cross. In addition, even though they subsequently realise that she is mortal in the webtoon world and the Killer is after her life, she is determined to stay in it for as long as she can because of her love for Kang Chul. Again, that reflects the same self-sacrificial love of Christ who came to our world to die for our sins. Eventually, she dies and is resurrected within the webtoon world, although it's not very clear whether it happens within the same time frame as Jesus'. But her resurrection is brought about by her Dad (through his drawing), as Jesus was raised from the dead through the power of God.

Born again of water
Kang Chul also experiences rebirth in his own way after he jumps into the Han river and everything in his world including his life is suspended. He is pulled out of the river and given a new life by Yeon Joo (through her drawings). This spoke to me of water baptism where symbolically our 'old self' dies when we are immersed in the water and then we are given a 'new life' in Christ when we emerge from the water.

After his 'water baptism', in this new life, Kang Chul has a whole new perspective because he realises that everything he used to seek after in the webtoon world is meaningless (fame, fortune, revenge) now that he has discovered his true destiny (ie to love Yeon Joo, his creator). Isn't this what those of us who love and pursue God experience too? All that the world can ever offer us pales in comparison to the wonder and beauty of His love, and any other pursuit is a mere chasing after the wind (or bubbles!)

Created for love
I mentioned earlier how there is a flashback to Yeon Joo's teenage years when she had created Kang Chul as her dream lover. He is destined to love her, for that is the purpose of his existence. Hence we see how after his rebirth the only thing that he finds fulfilment in, and it becomes his main pursuit, is to love and please her. In fact, even before that, Kang Chul is mysteriously attracted to Yeon Joo from the first time he sets eyes on her. Even after his memory has been erased, he is unexplainably intrigued by her. In the end, even though he has to stay in prison for three years, he finds joy and strength in the hope that when it is over he will be able to spend the rest of his life with Yeon Joo in the real world.

We were also created out of God's love and His desire for a relationship of love with us. Our love for Him propels us to seek His pleasure in all that we do. And until we realise this, many of us try to fill that longing for intimacy with Him by seeking after other 'loves'. But ultimately, we will not experience true fulfilment until we find and acknowledge our one true love. And this is the only love that can sustain and strengthen us through whatever trials and tribulations, even persecution, we may face in this life for we know that one day we will meet our Beloved face to face and spend eternity with Him.

Free will vs predestination
It is also because of love that God has given us a free will. A forced love is not real love, but only one that is freely given in reciprocation can be considered love. And that leads to the age-long debate over free will and predestination. The interplay between how Kang Chul is predestined to love Yeon Joo and how he is also given the self will to choose whether to pursue the love of his life (eg he decides to complete the 10 loving acts even though he has lost his memory of their relationship) perhaps gives us a glimpse of how free will and predestination actually work together hand in hand.

Another character also illustrates the dynamics between free will and predestination - Han Chul Ho. Yeon Joo comments at one point that he will no doubt try to eliminate the Killer because that's how his character has been set up yet Han is also shown to have self will in making that very decision.

Impostor god
The Killer is a nameless and faceless character whose sole purpose is to kill Kang Chul's family. Nevertheless, he becomes dissatisfied. He longs to be the centre of attraction and wants to take over as the main character of the webtoon. Consequently, the Killer steals Dad's face and tries to play God by controlling Dad to draw stuff for him in the webtoon in order to change the plot. He even pretends to be Dad in order to trick Yeon Joo and kidnap her.

This is not unlike Satan who became jealous of God and was thrown out of heaven as a result. He then tried to usurp God's place as the centre of worship as seen in how he tempted Jesus by offering Him all the kingdoms of the world if only Jesus would worship him. In fact, Satan still tries to get us to worship him instead of God by tempting us with worldly things like material wealth, power, fame, lust...the list goes on... But just like how Yeon Joo subsequently recognises that the Killer isn't Dad even though he has the same face, we also need to be alert and not fall prey to the lies of the wolf in sheep's clothing, the impostor god.

Even though the Killer does manage to kidnap Yeon Joo and  eventually shoots her fatally, he does not gain the final victory for he is killed and Yeon Joo is resurrected. This is analogous to how Satan thought he had triumphed over God when His Son was crucified and died, but with Jesus' resurrection he was defeated once and for all and Jesus won the final victory!

[I shall end here with this point. Despite having started writing this entry more than a week ago, it must be divine timing that I've completed it only now when we've just been celebrating Jesus' resurrection over the Easter weekend.]