Week 5 Creative Post: In Reaction to the Poem Pomegranate

Heaven or Hell?

Heaven or hell is the question I ask

Knowing this life will soon be past…

We worry about the choices we have to make

But are we thinking about where will they take?

Some will say I believe in Christ and I am saved

But if we believe would we stay the same?

Heaven or hell is the question I ask

Knowing this life will soon be past…

Imagine a man who strived all his life

To have a good job and find a pretty wife

His wife has children, and they get a house

But one day he dies and leaves his spouse

Heaven or hell is the question I ask

Knowing this life will soon be past…

It is never too late to ask that question

Is it worth to live of a false impression?

Many claims to be sure, but how can they know?

There is only one who can tell where they will go

Heaven or hell is the question I ask

Knowing this life will soon be past…

The one who can know is not hard to find

It is only hard for those who still blind

Disobedience to God will cause us to sin

The only way to avoid is to live for Him

Heaven or hell is the question I ask

Knowing this life will soon be past…

To live[for yourself] is to die and to die[for yourself] is to live

It is more than to say that we just believe

To love means more than to say good words

But love in action produce good works

Heaven or hell is the question I ask

Knowing this life will soon be past…


Meditation:
Luke 6:44-46

44. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.
45.  A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
46. And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Week 4 Annotation- A Raisin in the Sun (Act III)

Reading Raisin in The Sun Act 3 made me search for the root of the meaning on one specific passage. So, I took the time to meditate and dig from the Scriptures where this teaching has come from. So, I found that behind MAMA’s sermon to her daughter is actually a part of the Lord Jesus’ Sermon on the Mountain.

"MAMA: There is always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing. [Looking at her] Have you cried for that boy today? I don't mean for yourself and for the family 'cause we lost the money. I mean for him; what he been through and what it done to him. Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most; when they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain't through learning- because that ain't the time at all. It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in himself 'cause the world done whipped him so. When you start measuring somebody, measure him right child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is."

Let’s analyze:

MAMA’s sermon above was in response to her daughter. When she said, “Love him? There is nothing left to love.”

So, MAMA starts, "There is always something left to love."-  meaning, her daughter should still love her brother regardless of what he had done to her.

The Lord Jesus taught in Matthew 5:43-44a, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you…” – meaning, we should still love regardless of what others have done to us.

MAMA kept on saying, “And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing. [Looking at her]” – putting a strong emphasis why her daughter should know this.

The Lord Jesus taught, in Matthew 5:45 “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” – putting a strong emphasis on why we should learn this.

MAMA said, “Have you cried for that boy today? I don't mean for yourself and for the family 'cause we lost the money. I mean for him; what he been through and what it done to him.” – showing how her daughter should love her brother.

The Lord Jesus said, Matthew, 5:44b “do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” – showing how we should love one another.

MAMA said, “Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most; when they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain't through learning- because that ain't the time at all. It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in himself 'cause the world done whipped him so.” – making her daughter think on why she should love her brother at that time.

The Lord Jesus taught in Matthew 5 :46-47 “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more [than others]? do not even the publicans so?” – making us think why we should love one another.

MAMA said, “When you start measuring somebody, measure him right child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is."- saying that her daughter should not judge her brother for what he is going through.

The Lord Jesus also said in Luke 6:36-37, which is a parallel verse to what we just read in Matthew (parallel meaning it is Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mountain), “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:” – saying we should not judge one another for our failures.

This is very significant to the story,  because it gives authority to what MAMA is telling her daughter. But, it is also important because it tells something about the author. This shows that Lorraine Hansberry may have been a Christian who was trying to pass a biblical message to her audience, or she had a good knowledge of the Bible and she wanted to portrait MAMA’s character as a good Christian. Taking this in consideration, and looking at the whole story, we can  pull out other times where MAMA have acted as a good Christian.

We also see another hidden Christian message on Walter's final response to the rep. of the ‘Welcoming Committee’. Walter says. “We don’t want to make no trouble for nobody or fight no causes- but we will try to be good neighbors. That’s all we got to say.” Is this how a Christian should behave? Is that another biblical message behind this scene? I say yes, I believe that all these hidden mesages conclude to the point that the author had the intention to get the audience to think on their actions and influence them to consider biblical principles on how they should behave.

Week 3 Problematize: A Raisin in the Sun (Act II)

In our reading for class tomorrow, A Raisin in the Sun Act II, I passed by a sentence that have challenged me, and I am sure challenges us, and our culture at SEU.

On page 1666, Beneatha answers her mother as she asked if the man from the “welcoming committee” had threatened them, “He said everybody ought to learn how to sit down and hate each other with good Christian fellowship.”

My question is, Is that true about our lives? Are we ”sitting down and hating each other with good Christian fellowship”?

This challenged me to search my own heart, then ask God to show me where I may have been a hypocrite towards someone.  I know the word “hypocrite” sounds harsh, but it is truly what that behavior is. Hypocrite is one who acts out something that is not true about him. We could even say that hypocrite is an actor. The weight of that word in Christian culture is very heavy due to the fact that Jesus has condemned hypocrisy more than any other sin. Not that the other sins are not condemnable. As we read, according to the Lord Jesus himself, on Revelations 22:14,15 :

“Blessed [are] they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without [are] dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.”

So, we are assured that anyone who lives in the practice of other sins will also be condemned to hell or the lake of fire. But, still hypocrisy seems to be a very disgusting sin due to the fact that the Pharisees were harshly rebuked by the Lord so many times because of their hypocrisy. Through those rebukes we find that hypocrisy is the root of all kinds of other sins, as the Lord Jesus mentioned over and over to the Pharisees in Matthew 23, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!...” And every time He mentioned it, he named something different they were doing wrong.

The question for us is, are we hypocrites? Do we pretend to love one another and in our hearts we hate each other? Or, do we hate anyone and pretend to love them?

If so, may we repent and go to the Lord in prayer and ask him for His forgiveness.

P.S.: I quickly would like to make an observation, just so we don’t miss out this opportunity to be challenged. In order for us to be forgiven by the Lord, it is very important that we repent first. As it is written in Acts 3:19, "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,” Repent literally means to turn around. We must honestly understand what we did was wrong, make our mind to never do it again, and do what it takes to prevent from doing it again. Of course that must come from a genuine desire to turn around. It doesn’t always happen naturally, in that case we must ask the Lord to help us to repent and then ask Him to forgive us. This we see in the Bible many times when the Lord had forgiven someone. They truly realized what they did was wrong and did not want to do it again anymore, wether they said or not, their hearts had turned from their sin.

May God bless us all!

"Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to [our] father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham."
Luke 3:8 

Week 2 Reflective: The Death of a Salesman

The biggest lesson I have taken from The Death of a Saleman is the delusion of the American Dream. Through the scenes, I observed that Loman lived his life chasing after the American Dream.  As he went to work and expected to get more and more sales, he built his house, later in life he died and the mortgage was finally paid off. His sons seemed to have little moral principles; they were just trying to succeed without any training. Consequently, they didn't build a family, if they did would probably this dysfunctional like theirs. The father was so focus on working and was so deluded that the son might be a football player or some kind of sales man because he was “liked”, that he never invested on his sons lives. All these things are rooted in the fact that Loman was chasing after the delusion of the American Dream.

The Death of a Salesman is a dramatic story, but it is the reality of many lives around us. The story shows a lot of things, which if we don’t look for them around us they might just pass by. Such as, the lies in this world and the lusts that men fall under, thus causing great destruction to their families. More than likely, we all have had some experience of this kind in our past. Maybe we are going thru or we know others who are. If we do, what are we learning from it? Just from reading this story, I can think of many situations in my life in the past… so, I would like to share what I have learned from them… This is what I learned, only those who put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ have a true hope. A hope that cannot be faded… a hope that comes from knowing that He lives and He promised us eternal life with Him, if we repent of our sins and follow Him. And I honestly hope that we all do, or we may end up sharing the sad end of Loman and others who are chasing after the American Dream delusion.
 "every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. " Matthew 7:26,27