Here's my lil sermon blog, and I have never thought it any prettier than when I set eyes on it again today. O poor forgotten blog no more! The font on the right side, especially for the caption "My Life for Christ" is so suitable, so medievally apt to my taste. :)

After so many months, of course, my Christian life has not been a quiet one. I had many encounters with God and His wonderful Love. His giving of a new Swatch watch with metal straps so that my skin will not be allergic towards it. Well, God did not cure my allergy towards latex or rubber, but He sure has His Ways of doing things. Neither has my Christian life been a smooth one; there were shaky times, when my faith in Him was tested.

One fine afternoon on 4th Sept, after a time off with my mentor friends at Starbucks before our finale for the 6th cycle of mentors, this friend told me about this fantastic novel by Dan Brown called Da Vinci Code. Previously I have heard about it, but I was not too keen on reading. Neither was I moved when I realised it might have something to do with Jesus as while browsing at Popular one day, I glanced at the contents that it touched upon the Lord's supper. It was only when this friend claimed that this book talks about Jesus being married to Mary Magdelene, then that stirred my curiosity. And as usual, curiosity kills the cat.

After spending 3 days in different bookshops to read the thick novel (400 odd pages, goodness!), then I began to ponder about some of the claims of the book. It was a very knowlegdeable book, I guess. There were many facts, or so-called facts. And it stipulates the claim that Jesus might be married to Mary, and that there was this descendent lineage from Jesus. It did mention that Jesus might not have any divinity, and that He is just an ordinary man. Yet, the question that bothered me was that, if Jesus indeed got married, then why would his divinity be of a question? Is it wrong for God to be married? For Jesus has been made man, in flesh and blood, given desires of the flesh too. Is marriage then seen as a sin? Is sex to be seen as a sin?

Anyway, I had a couple of chats with my Christian friends. And one said that Jesus has to be God. Otherwise, He is either a lunatic, or He is lying. If Jesus is a lunatic, He would not have followers, and imagine, followers up till this day. Then if Jesus is lying, He would not have died for us on the Cross. So He has to be God. Only God would be able to do such things. To forgive sins, and bridge the gap between man and God.

So then what about Constantine and his compilation of the Bible? Many has questioned on the same thing. But one interesting point that my friend made was that God can use ungodly people to do His Will. Take for instance, King Nebudhadnezzar (forgive me, if this is the wrong spelling). God used him to conquer Israel and take it into exile. He was executing God's plan. And of course, the most fresh for us to remember is Jesus' death on the Cross. That, too, was done by ungodly men, but God used them to fulfil His work. So perhaps, as pagan as Constantine had been claimed to be, he was also used by God to bring about His Word to the world.

I was still struggling with the concepts from the books, and I realise how much I lack in my knowledge. Heck, I still have not much of an idea what happened during the Crusade. Nor of Joan of Arc though a friend told me before that I should have read about her life story to be able to understand about my faith. Finally a friend told me that what lies in Dan Brown's book may not all be true. It is still a fictitious book after all. And people have done their research, and shown that it was not all accurate what was written in the book. Certain things have certainly been exaggerated. Boy, I was relieved and I also felt foolish. It is really a story after all.

Yet, it has been a good test of my faith. I need to learn not to trust something too blatantly. To always do research on how much is true. But time is not the only constrain, sometimes it's the interest as well as the assessibility and availability of good resource.