Living By Faith Is Living in Miracles

By Stephen Lau

This book is about the tall order of living by faith in this secular world. But living by faith is living in miracles that transform the being of an individual to survive and thrive in this world. Get your spiritual wisdom to live as if everything is a miracle in different phases of growing up. There're many real-life examples to show how living by faith can overcome daily life problems and challenges

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Nov 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9781304856470

Book preview

A close-up of a stone Description automatically generated

Copyright © 2023 Stephen Lau

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-304-85647-0

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE: LIFE AND LIVING

1. Questions and Answers about Life and Living

    2. Meaning and Purpose of Life and Living

    3. Dreams and Goals in Life and Living

    4. Thinking and Realities in Life and Living

Perceiving and processing

            Consciousness and subconsciousness

    5. Identity and Personality in Life and Living

The identity

The ego-self

Conclusion

PART TWO: WAYS OF LIVING LIFE

1. Living by Wants

2. Living by Personality

3. Living by Examples

4. Living by Conscience

5. Living by Faith

          Conclusion

PART THREE: LIVING IN WISDOM

1. Wisdom Essentials for the Thinking Mind

Awareness

Empty mind

Simplicity living

Humility

2. Biblical Instructions for Life and Living

          Conclusion

PART FOUR: Living by Faith in Real Life

Development Phase

              Loving

              Learning

              Doing

Transition Phase

Changes

Information

Pressure

Education

Dating

Fights

Demons

  Doubts

  Sloth

  Failures

Consolidation Phase

Careers

Choosing

                Calling

              Businesses

              Interactions

Employers

                Co-workers

                Family members and loved ones

Relationships

Loving

                Forgiving and forgetting

              Connection

Empathy and sympathy

                Compassion and loving-kindness

                Giving and receiving

              Money

Money fantasies

                Money miseries

                Money realities

Marriage

Staying together

                Ending pregnancy

                Avoiding adultery

                Fighting separation

              Judgment

Perceiving wrong

Wrong predicting

                Judging and craving

                Judging and executing

                Judging and presuming

                Judging and rebuking

Awakening Phase

Aging

Misfortunes

Suffering

Dying

Impermanence

  Letting go

  Death perspectives

Enlightenment

Awakening

Aging

  Misfortunes

  Suffering

  Dying

  Enlightenment

  Awakening

Transformation

PART FIVE: All About You

          1. Questions and Answers

          2. Disbeliefs and Miracles

          3. Change and Transformation

          4. New Self and Old Self

          5. Fairness and Justice

          6. Help and the Helper

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Go back to CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION

This is my last book, and I believe the best of all my books written in the past three decades.

    In my life, I’ve only two passions: drawing and writing. I began my drawing at age four. I made many drawings on paper, and I sent them to South China Morning Post, a newspaper in Hong Kong, which published all my drawings. I was elated and thrilled. I began teaching myself watercolor painting, oil painting, and Chinese ink painting. For many years, I’d enjoyed my artwork, and I even painted on the walls of my parents’ house—in those days, wallpaper was very expensive. Then, one day, I suddenly stopped all my artwork when I was around forty years old and began my second passion of writing.

    In my late thirties or early forties, I developed an autoimmune disease, and I didn’t like the side effects from my medications and medical treatment. So, I began to look for an explanation and more information about how and why I had the disease. Going through my early childhood and my past experiences was self-enlightening for me: I was awakened to the fact that God had been playing a role throughout my life and destiny. I began writing one book after another. I wasn’t concerned whether my books were well written or well received; I just wanted to share my thoughts and experiences with others.

    My late wife once said to me: "Stephen, don’t you want to paint again or anymore? I said: No! I just love to write."

This is my last book. I don’t know how long I shall live. If I live to a hundred years old, I’ll spend the coming years—if I’m still mentally sound—revising and reviewing all the books that I’d written a long time ago, and they all represent what I’d gone through in my life. I’ve written more than 30 books, even using 3 different pennames to write some of them.

    This book—my last one—is a summary of some of my books. In the past months, every day I prayed to God to inspire me with writing this book. Indeed, I felt so inspired when I woke up in the middle of the night with new ideas and inspirational thoughts that I believed came from God.

    I really love this book and hope you’ll enjoy reading it.

Stephen Lau

Go back to CONTENTS.

PART ONE

LIFE AND LIVING

Human life is complex, and living is complicated. So, existence is all about life and living in this world. Living well needs better understanding of life, and then living it as if everything is a miracle.

But how?

Life and living have everything to do with thinking—the thinking mind of an individual.

William Shakespeare once said: There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. John Milton, the famous English poet, also had this to say: The mind is its own place, and in itself can make Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

So, thinking is everything in life and living. But, according to Albert Einstein, thinking is difficult, and that’s why so few people do it.

1. Questions and Answers about Life and Living

    Thinking is a process of asking many self-intuitive questions to find and to explore many intelligent answers to all those questions asked. Asking questions is a process of self-reflection, without which there’s no self-awareness and hence no personal growth and no development. A static life is never a life worth living.

Charles Proteus Steinmetz, a German-born American mathematician and electrical engineer, once said: There are no foolish questions, and no one becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions.

So, on waking up every morning, one should ask two simple questions: "Is one’s life really happy? and Is one’s living getting simpler or more complicated with each day passing?"

    The answer to the first question may not be as simple and straightforward as one thinks, especially if one is already feeling unhappy every now and then. As to the second question, living is forever getting more complicated with its many problems remaining unresolved.

    Indeed, there’re many other questions of how, what, when, where and why that one may want to ask regarding what’s happening in one’s daily life. So, seeking relevant answers to the questions asked will sharpen the thinking mind over the long haul. It’s also important to live in the presence of every question asked and to be patient with all those questions that can’t be answered right away. True enlightenment may one day come when one is asking fewer or even no more questions, because by then one may have already got all the answers—that is the ultimate self-enlightenment of the thinking mind through asking questions and seeking answers.

"From knowing to not knowing.

            This is superior.

        From not knowing to knowing.

            This is sickness.

        It is by being sick of sickness

            that one is not sick.

        The sage is not sick.

            because he is sick of sickness.

        Therefore, he is not sick."

        (Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 71)

Living by faith, you ask yourself many questions about God to strength your belief and to broaden your spiritual understanding of God.

2. Meaning and Purpose of Life and Living

    Life must have a meaning, and living must have a purpose.

Why do people want to live and to survive in this world?

    Not just because their parents gave birth to them, but because many want to enjoy life and expand their enjoyment throughout their living on this earth. And that is what living life is all about—enjoyment.

In life, there’re certain things that some people love to do, such as playing music, running, swimming, and teaching others to pursue their dreams and endeavors. Yes, wanting to do what they love, while enjoying the doing—that is the meaning and the purpose