Simply Katherine, a Christian blog

No, I'm not a doctor but have you heard sometimes people say that "the best doctor is the patient herself?" Oh well, maybe that's not a popular notion after all. Let me then put it this way: I realize that I should be careful here addressing the matter of depression and anxiety since obviously I'm not an expert, who can medically help anybody in that sense. However, I must say that due to the simple fact that we all live in a convoluted cosmos, a complex system of living in the world, we're all bound to suffer from some extent of depression and anxiety. I'm making tons of generalization since I'm simply referring to the overall condition of human race.  Mrs. L 's husband once said, " Anxiety is the totality of the natural human life ." So the easiest way to talk about all these is for me to share with you what happened this past week. Yes, I was a basket case indeed.  I was reading Psalm 90:10  - how our years are short and t...

The Education of Our  Conscience There needs to be the acquirement of the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah through our reading, studying, enjoying, and experiencing His Word in the Bible. How we need to be reconstituted  with  and  by  the Word of God. How we need to read the Bible and being educated in God's language. Now that I consider more, if all the  consciences  (if there's a plural form of the word) on this earth are properly functioning, we would not need any human government. Everyone would behave. There would be peace and order everywhere we turn our head, but that is not the case today - is it? A foreigner once mocked a Christian, an ex-cannibal, for reading the Bible. The Christian simply responded, "You should be thankful that I'm reading the Bible. Otherwise, you would be here (pointing at his stomach) by now." "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1) "For the eart...

Few days ago I was having a fellowship with my Christian companions. We got into this matter of "having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience" (Hebrews 10:22). One of them brought up the etymology of the word, " conscience". So I decided to do some homework on it. The Etymology of Conscience The Latin word for "conscience" is conscientia.  The preposition com- / con- means "with" or "thoroughly," meanwhile scientia means "knowledge" or "knowledge acquired by a study." So literally, the word  " conscience" means "with knowledge." Cultures Influence the Function of Our Conscience Vincent Van Gogh once said, "Conscience is a man's compass." Yet it just dawned on me this morning how our conscience is daily bombarded with all kinds of education, all kinds of knowledge existing out there in the world. For so long, I've learned that conscience is the le...

Have you all heard about sing-reading ? Sing-reading is simply singing the Word of God.  "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God." (Colossians 3:16) It's quite simple, so I'm going to do a little demo here. My little disclaimer: The point is to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Just make up your own tune and sing the Word of God with grace in your hearts to God. Here we go! This is sing-reading Psalm 84:4-5. "Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they will yet be praising You. Selah. Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion."

Please read my previous post: Secret of Secrets - Why Bad Things Happen to Christians? A lot of times, this is my case. My faith would anchor me into trusting in His perfect heart toward us, that He is always right, that His purpose can never be thwarted. Yet many questions would still linger: Why does my family have to pass through these complex sufferings? Why did one of my relatives die young? Why can my parents be successful in their business? Why do they have to always end up in such a dire situation? Until I went into  the sanctuary of God , then I perceived  the secret of secrets . I became clear once I entered into this realm, the realm of  my spirit  and  the church . Just like in the Holy Place mentioned in the Old Testament, within our spirit and in the church, there is the shining of the golden lampstand with the seven burning lamps of fire, of which the fuel (i.e., the olive oil) is God Himself.  I learned that  the...

"Certain secrets in the Bible were not made known to us until we came into the twofold sanctuary - our spirit as the personal sanctuary and the church as the corporate sanctuary." This morning, I was struck by this sentence from my morning devotional book. The statement refers to chapter 73 of the Book of Psalms, beginning from verse 16 until the end of the chapter.  The psalmist was faced with a dilemma. He began the psalm by saying, "Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart." But then it became a "troublesome task" in his sight to understand why the wicked could live so prosperously while he, a genuine God-seeker, suffered. "When I considered this in order to understand it, it was a troublesome task in my sight, until I went into the sanctuary of God..." (Psalm 73:16-17) This is not a mere doctrine or theory. I believe most of us have the same question. Why do bad things happen to good people? Or more specifically...

When I hear the word " spiritual revival ," I immediately think of a big Christian movement involving a large congregation of some sort. These words come to mind: dynamic, animated, exuberant, explosive, extraordinary , and so on.  Being revived definitely means "being made alive." Well,  I have experienced "being made alive," everyone. I don't know about you but as a God-seeker, sometimes I would come to the point of feeling dry and numb within. I mean outwardly, I would still read the Bible, pray, fellowship with other Christians, serve in the church, shepherd others, but inwardly, I would have this sense of numbness that's rather difficult to describe. Strange, right? That happened to me recently. I did not know exactly why such feeling lodged in my heart since I was actively participating in different spiritual activities, church services, you name it. I tried to ignore the way I felt inside, but as time went by, the feeling acce...