Hugh Tay says:
OK, that was indeed irrelevant... But quite cool nonetheless. :D


About "people who call themselves Christians" - maybe those are the kind who are different people in and out of church? Or maybe the kind who come to fulfil their quota of 'Amen's?

Guess I have to explore the "Altar and the Door" effect in detail... but a bit lazy. :p


Let me end off with an extraordinarily irrelevant quote from a friend:

Help! My world has come crashing down on me!
And I'm using it as my blanket. ^_^


Good day to all! ;-)

cherlyn says:
hahah i read!

but forgive me for the short and seemingly superficial comments that may not be directly relevant..

i just want to thank God for His patience and grace.. because we are imperfect and always stumble and fall.. God help us to strive on towards the day when we become complete!!

I just feel quite sad that sometimes people reject Christ because of bad experiences with Christians/people who call themselves Christians.. can't blame them.. although it is forgotten that they ought to look at Christ the perfect One rather than the imperfect followers.. yelpz!

Hugh Tay says:
Haha you don't have to take me too seriously about this... I just threw in some semi-random stuff that popped into my head for that 5 min or so. :p


But 1 thing I noted (and too lazy to wait)...


If the Parable of Seeds (Luke 8:5-8) is describing the non-believers, then I suppose the growth of the seeds should represent how the non-Christians come to grow in Christ (i.e. ~ the path of new Christians).

Falling on the path -> Trampled underfoot / Eaten by birds
(E.g. ~ superficial acceptance - easy K.O.)

Falling on a rock -> Wither away
(E.g. ~ lack of prayer, Bible study, church etc.)

Falling among thorns -> Choked by thorns
(E.g. ~ unequally yoked with bad company)

Falling into good soil -> Yield 100x results
(E.g. ~ having proper fellowship with Jesus)


The last scenario probably fits together with Luke 6:47-48...

"Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built."


As for myself, I can say that I have most likely fallen onto a rock (definitely not Peter) and naturally, I stumble easily, maybe like someone who's recovering from a broken leg but is too impatient to wait for it to heal completely.

Which means I'm essentially heading for trouble. Oops... :p


P.S. ~ Of course I accuse no one of being the typical Christian-hypocrite; that people act differently between the Atlar and the Door might be due to some subconscious effect, which I shall not go into the details for now.

Daniel Tay says:
O.o Let's not have it become a duet or (dis)harmony of the tays trio/quartet here... lol

The parable of the sower is about sharing of God's Word and testimony about what He's doing in our lives with non-believing-followers of Christ. I have always believed and often seen that when the seed of the gospel is sowed, the result was as mentioned in the parable.

Only difference with this parable and what I was saying in my post was the target audience. So results expected will definitely be different. Don't think I should go into a discourse here (was tempted and had typed quite abit)... Let's just say most of our youth are transparent, they are the same in school, at home and in church.

Let's just wait and see who else read the post (and our comments) and are willing to comment and we continue this dialogue. ;)

Hugh Tay says:

Haha, I thought this is a common practice among many Christians. LOL


I believe this has been termed "The Altar and the Door" by Casting Crowns:

"At the altar, everything makes sense. When we're in the church and spending time with God, we know what we re supposed to do and how to live. Everything is black and white. But somewhere between the altar and the door, when we leave and go out into our lives, it all leaks out. Everything gets gray again. It's like we have these two lives, and the Christian life is the journey between the altar and door..."


So we're kind of like 'weekend Christians' or 'part-time Christians' where we try to walk in Truth only on Sunday mornings.

Some might even just come to sing a few songs and fulfil their quota of 'Amen's and 'Hallelujah's and go back to their normal lives outside church.


Of course, I'm probably one of the worst of those you've seen... I make no attempt to at least conceal my lack of enthusiasm or try to show that I'm a good boy in church.

I'm sure you found it obvious that I was stoning in your Newbies' class. And also my devious attempts to get through the memory verses exercise during Sunday school.

So I'm pretty much the same guy in and out of church. LOL maybe I can score marks for consistency.


But anyway, this must be the most common issue that every Christian faces. I'm sure it already existed long before you pointed it out and will continue to be so for a long time to come...


In my opinion, all we can pray for is this:

A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold. (Luke 8:5-8)