https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/02/celebrating-diversity

It is ironical that as stated in the story on the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 that God scattered humans and confounded their language, that we are now trying to unite peoples of diverse creed, colour and language in the church as well as out of the church. The church itself has a pathetic record in this in that just two hundred years ago, people who capture, transport, sell and trade in human slaves were people who professed to be Christians. Slaves were chattels, an economic asset and as humans can reproduce, they could be the means for their owners to multiply in wealth while providing them with food and lodging only type of cheap labour for life.

Is unity really achievable? We see that in America there are white and black churches, no doubt a testament of their past in slavery. And even within such churches, there are middle class and blue collar churches if not among churches, then within the churches themselves. As outsiders and observers, we cannot do much about the situation because no matter what we may want to say about it, churches are communities of believers that have got together and evolved over the years and thus each church has its own dynamics of interacting, gathering and reaching out among its people.

I think as individuals in a particular church, what we can do is to embrace that diversity breeds multiplicity and the more diverse we are as a church, the broader will be our appeal to the masses and the more diverse will our ability to reach out. As much as we like to gather as like minded and same type of people (whether in terms of race, education, social status, age), we should accept diversity and take advantage of the diverse sub-cultures within our community of believers. Everyone is unique and have special God-given gifts and talents. Our role as church leaders and members is to identify and allow such multiple talents and giftings to grow and flourish in our midst so that we can all serve God and fulfil His plans and purposes for our lives and our church together as a community of believers. Embrace, capitalise and make use of our diversity, rather than fight or overwhelm it. I believe much may be achieved if everyone is given the opportunity to do their part effectively.

https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/01/someone-may-need-you

Before the lockdowns and partial lockdowns imposed due to the pandemic, there were some who professed the faith and yet refused to attend church. There could be a variety of reasons including golf or cycling on a Sunday morning or just wanting to chill during the weekend after a long work week etc. The pandemic sort of made these reasons superfluous as the lockdowns didn’t allow golf or cycling and church can now be attended from the comforts of one’s home. Not only that, we can now attend any church service in anywhere in the world so long we have a good broadband connection and the church concerned runs an online service. However, attending church online is different and lack the human touch – the human interaction, fellowship, the congregational singing which ushers in the presence of God in an atmosphere only corporate worship could.

The point made by today’s ODB is that we attend church because someone may need us there. We could worship God on our own with our family but people who need us are not at our home. That is why it is uplifting and encouraging when we see people dress up and attend church on site. We ourselves get encouraged. Thus others will get encouraged when they see.

In Hebrews 10, the writer of Hebrews emphasised the confidence we now have in Christ Jesus to approach the throne of grace, to enter into His presence, reminding us to not neglect meeting together so we may spur each other towards love and good deeds, and encourage each other until the day of the Lord. Not neglecting meeting together as some have the habit of doing.

There is thus a lot of good meeting together. Once the churches open up, do our part to encourage the brethren by just attending church on site whenever we can. There is much more to Christian life and ministry than just attending church, but the least we could do is to be there in church as someone may need us there. Be that someone to that someone. Be an encourager of the brethren. That’s the least we can do. Amen

https://odb.org/MY/2021/11/30/for-others-sake

I can’t imagine how it is like to be deep in a cave in near and complete darkness with rising waters and not knowing whether anyone will actually come and rescue us. Darkness is disorientating and although our eyes can adjust to darkness, it is impossible to see anything in complete darkness. This is because the source of sight is always light. The source of colours is light. What we see with our eyes as reflected by our retina and translated into electrical waves into our brain are reflections of light. How much we can see is always a question of how sensitive are our retinas to light and animals who are nocturnal naturally have much more sensitive retinas. Certain species of fish also have very sensitive eyes but those that live in very deep waters create their own light. So being in near and mostly total darkness for this bunch of kids in Thailand not knowing what fate awaits them must have been a very harrowing and distressing experience that no one will wish on another.

We know that Jesus is the light and through Him we will be the light of the world. But imagine ourselves before we knew Jesus. We were in total darkness when it comes to matters of the Kingdom. Maybe we knew something on the surface and thus were not in total darkness. Maybe most of us were in near darkness with any genuine light being a considerable distance away, very dim and flickering. The truth was hidden from us before the Holy Spirit convicted and lifted the scales off our eyes. We lived in spiritual blindness, in darkness to the way, the truth and life. If God didn’t send Jesus to rescue us and deliver us out of the miry clay, we would have drowned in the darkness, descending into the abyss, into nothingness. The bright sunshine of heaven where everything is illuminated by the glory of God and where nothing is hidden was very, very far away from us indeed.

Now that we can see the light and we live in the light where heaven is within realistic reach and where sometimes we get a glimpse of heaven or a touch of God or a taste of His glory, where the Psalmist mentions that even touching the hem of His robe fills us with such peace and joy and power – do we want to go back to our old life of darkness? Do we want to go back to the cave again where we are not confident and do not know for sure that anyone will come and rescue us? The waters are rising and we find it difficult even to breathe and the more we worry, the worse it becomes. Do we want to live a life of constant worry and despair and not knowing whether our final destination will be a perfect one?

My dear brothers and sisters, live in the light and move forward, forgetting what is behind as Paul taught. Strive forward look heavenward, we are already in the light and let the light guide us through. Don’t descend back into darkness, where the ultimate end is the fire and the gnashing of teeth!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/11/29/even-if-3

The story Sadrach, Meshach and Abednego in Daniel 3 is the famous story of how God protected the 3 children of Israel who refused to bow down and worship the golden image made by King Nebuchadnezzar while the Israelites were in exile in Babylon. As a result they were thrown into a burning furnace. What was amazing was that that were not harmed by the fire in the burning furnace and everyone there saw there were 4 people in the furnace; the three of them plus another. But what was more amazing was the reply given them to Nebuchadnezzar that the God they serve will rescue them and even if He does not, they will not serve Nebuchadnezzar’s gods or the golden image he made. Meaning to say that they were willing to die than to deny or betray Yahweh.

Yesterday we just heard a message from Elder Pastor Bernard Chong from Ipoh on the possibility that Christ may return in our generation based on certain signs of times. It is not a prophesy but an observation of prevailing facts as can be seen from world events. Thus, if we believe in the post tribulation theory, that means that the beast will emerge in our generation and we will all go through the great tribulation prior to the second coming of Christ and the day of the Lord.

The question is not whether Elder Pastor Bernard is right or wrong but what if he is right? Will we wake up and start preparing our hearts and lives so that we may go through the great tribulation like Sadrach, Meshach and Abednego in Daniel 3? Will we refuse to bow down to the golden image and take the mark of the beast even if it means severe suffering and hardship for us and our families? There are practical preparations we need to plan in advance if and when the time presents itself like the appearance of the beast in the world scene. But most importantly I think for us, at this stage in time, is to prepare our hearts and to strengthen our faith so that we will be strong when the time comes. I believe that as we hold tight to our faith, we will experience the supernatural power and presence of God like Sadrach, Meshach and Abednego or if we die in the process, we will get to see Jesus immediately. Trying times with intense persecution will come our way if and when the great tribulation comes as part of God’s sovereign will in our lifetime. Can we go through that intensely difficult period without compromising our faith or betraying Jesus? Read Matthew 24 and 25 for some pointers on what we should do as individuals and as a community of believers.

As I have shared before the destiny of every man is death (Ecclesiastes 7:2) and thus we should start now, at whatever stage of life or age we are, to seek first the Kingdom of God, store up treasures in heaven and fulfil our calling in God. If we have to go through the great tribulation in our lifetime, then there is much greater urgency that we start acting now in those 3 areas in the midst of and despite the daily challenges we face just living this life here in earth! The question is not whether it is true but what if it is true? Are we prepared? Will we thus not prepare ourselves from now on? Food for thought for today and this week.

https://odb.org/MY/2021/11/27/bold-faith

I often wondered how and why some people have so much boldness to preach the Gospel? Why were they able to share their faith so boldly putting themselves in harm, even going through pain and suffering, torture and imprisonment to proclaim Jesus? Or in the case of Prem Padhan who was wounded during the war to walk with a limp, God called him to preach the Gospel in the Himalaya mountains. Surely it is through our weaknesses and disabilities, we find strength and power in God and experience heaven on earth.

I think two things stand out when people of faith respond to God’s call to minister and reach out. One is that they are seldom without weaknesses and some handicap whether physically or in speech or boldness and secondly, they are usually ordinary people like you and I. Usually “unschooled” in terms of spiritual education.

During the time of Jesus, most people are unschooled and illiterate as those that are literate and educated are usually educated in matters of religion like the Scribes and Pharisees. Except for Paul who was from the latter group, the apostles amd most believers were just ordinary unschooled people.

I think that in matters of personal faith, while a bible school education will help us in the long run in ministry, too much head knowledge may well hinder us since we may be thinking and analysing too much. Often most responses in faith to God involves just volunteering and stepping out in faith without too much reasoning as the more we reason, the more we will be overcome with fear anxiety and even doubt. We should respond not without thinking at all, but without thinking too much! In corporate speak, we call this analysis paralysis – we analyse something until we are paralysed with inaction and that will be useless if God meant for us to move forward. To step out in faith means to be considered and yet we leave it to God to work, we depend on Him rather than our natural planning or ability or education and most crucially, failure should not discourage us but motivate us to try harder.

My view is that such boldness to preach, speak or reach out can only come from God. Not only the call, but also the drive and boldness to action the call. Only God can give us that and I believe if we are willing and we raise up our hands, He will give us that boldness and drive. God calls ordinary people to ministry. Education is good and important but not always the prerequisite to ministry. If we are willing, God will use us. We can upgrade ourselves gradually over time. There is no need to have to start with a seminary degree to serve God, just a willing heart and I believe God will give us the boldness and over time educate us!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/11/26/mighty-warrior

It is a recurring pattern in the Old Testament of Israel’s disobedience and evil resulting in oppression and subsequently the Israelites calling out to God and God then delivers them. Egypt was not like that, but the Assyrians and Babylonians were and in those instances they were exiled in a foreign land. But in the case of Gideon, it was more of them being oppressed by the Midianites.

It is also a recurring theme in the bible of God choosing those who are hesitant and weaker to confound the strong and wise like in the case of Moses and Gideon or David when he was young or Jeremiah or even the 12 disciples, and you and I. While it is true that God will choose us even if we are weak, young and unprepared, it doesn’t mean conversely that God will not choose us if we are strong, matured and trained. The Lord will choose whoever responds to Him in our heart whether our flesh is strong or weak, prepared or not. Paul is a good example of one who is of the finest among the Scribes and Pharisees and God chose him.

But the point remains that if we are weak and not as brilliant or of the pedigree like Paul, that God will still choose us to do His will. God will still call us to be His warrior, to fight for Him in the Promised Land, to be like Caleb and Joshua to conquer and defeat strong armies and fortified cities even if we are outwardly weak, less of a standout, reserved and less brilliant. I guess in the end what matters is our heart. Is our heart for Him? Is our heart fanatically all for Him? Maybe we dare not show this to the world but deep inside us, we will do anything for God. We are not afraid to even die for Him. We love God that much. No one sees that part of us, but only God.

I think if our heart is for Him, nearly 70% of the battle is won. 70% but nevertheless not 100%. We still need to respond to His call. We still need to prepare and let ourselves be trained, to be molded into the warrior that God wants to make us to be. That we alone can slay 100 on the battlefield. That we can bind and break spiritual forces and principalities of the air with the authority and power given us by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us respond if the Lord calls us. Respond to be His warrior, to defeat those who oppress us and the brethren. Doesn’t matter that we are old or young, strong or weak, prepared or not – so long as we are willing, God will prepare and train us. Will we respond to His call?

https://odb.org/MY/2021/11/25/a-thankful-heart

As I have shared before, one of the blessings we receive by having God in our lives, is an uplift of our economic status over generations. This could be indirectly a result of us being a better person and thus avoiding vices like gambling, drinking, drugs and womanising. It could also be due to us having a better education and job or business opportunities as our mind, acumen and soft skills become sharper and better with Jesus in our lives. But I believe it is also just a broad outpouring of heavenly blessings upon our lives that made things just smoother and better over time, say 40 or 50 years in our lifetime or over a few hundred years across generations.

That is why it is good to devote ourselves to prayer, be watchful and thankful. We must acknowledge the goodness of God in our lives as we reach out to Him every day in prayer, as we communicate with Him, even in times of supplication and requests. Be thankful for what we have and who we are. Be thankful that God had called us to be His own. Be thankful for the ministries we have the opportunity to be involved in. Be thankful for the lives who had cared for us and have touched us. Be thankful for the lives we can reach out to. Be thankful for the time and effort put in by various ones to preach messages to us from the pulpit, for the worship leaders leading us in worship, for the time put in by musicians to sharpen their skills. Be thankful for the writers of ODB and for those who take time and effort to help us draw closer to God.

As for me, I’m thankful that I may write these commentaries with the inspiration from the Lord and guidance from the Holy Spirit and for the many who support me in this endeavour by reading my work. I’m thankful for my job for how the Lord protected me and opened up new opportunities within my present organisation that despite earlier setbacks, I can soar with wings of an eagle again! I’m thankful that with the blessings of God that my wife and I are able to support two of our sons who are now in tertiary education and give them the opportunity to broaden their horizons and achieve their dreams. This is supposed to be the most strained times of our lives as parents in financial terms but I’m thankful that God’s blessings are seeing us through smoothly. I’m thankful that despite the economic downturn and uncertainty caused by the pandemic, our respective companies are doing fairly well and are able to withstand the storms coming our way with rising prices and dwindling consumer wallets and customer revenues.

If we have ever helped anyone before, even if we did not expect anything in return, we at least hope to receive an acknowledgement of our help, a note of thanks and a genuine heart of thanksgiving and gratefulness. Most of the times, that would have made our day. I’m sure our God the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are the same. They would also want us to acknowledge and appreciate them as they help us along in our lives and pour down their blessings from the heavenlies to smoothen our paths that we may lead better, more comfortable and more purpose driven lives.

Be thankful to God. It will not hurt. His love and compassion may be steadfast and unconditional, but He has feelings too. Remember that in John 11, Jesus was moved by the mourning crowd, and He wept. He loved Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, and He loves us too.

https://odb.org/MY/2021/11/24/hey-soul

Jesus taught us to pray to our Heavenly Father that Your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. We pray for the sovereign will of God be done and yet we know that it will be done regardless of what man does like the coming of Jesus through the line of David, the death and resurrection of Christ, the choosing of the twelve disciples, the raising up of the apostles through the coming and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the conversion of Paul and the letters he wrote that formulated the tenets of our faith. We know that Revelation 22 will be real one day and Christ will come again as King and God will once again live among man like He did at the beginning in the Garden of Eden with the Tree of Life accessible to man again.

All those are very big events that affect our life and yet they do not relate to us directly. They affect where we will go after we depart this earth. We know we have an excellent final destination and our life here is temporary. As someone had said, we are pilgrims passing through this earth. 90 or 100 years is nothing compared to eternity and yet every passing second, every passing minute here on earth needs to be lived here on earth. This is the reality we know of now, one that we can feel, see and touch and experience in our flesh and blood.

What then is God’s will for us? My soul waits in silence for God. Yet David tells his soul – my soul, wait in silence for God alone. God’s timing is perfect and sovereign. He cannot be rushed and neither will He rush. Our role as His children and servants is to wait upon Him. Let His will come to pass in our lives here on earth as it is in heaven as He had intended and planned for us even before we were formed in our mother’s womb. As we investigate, seek and discover His calling for our life as we discover what is His will for us – fulfil it and let it come to pass that we may see and experience His glory here on earth. As some say, let us experience a touch of heaven here on earth, let us have a glimpse of heaven as we live out our life here on earth. Sometimes and to some of us, our lives may be so tough and difficult that we are tempted to give it all up, to give up on God. But don’t! No, don’t! For Jesus is our rock and salvation, He is our hope, our real and genuine hope and help in times of trouble.

Truly my soul finds rest in God. He is my rock and salvation, He is my fortress and I will never be shaken.

I believe that as much as our final and true destiny is in heaven, we have a separate destiny here on earth. We have a specific calling. There is God’s will personal to and for us, that relates directly to us. Yield and surrender to Him our lives and He will make us into fine vessels for His glory to shine forth. My soul, wait in silence for God alone. My soul, find rest in God alone. Amen

https://odb.org/MY/2021/11/23/walking-bibles

In my sermon last Sunday that I shared in my local church, I structured my message by starting with the narrative on Lazarus in John 11 and from that last miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead after 4 days, I expounded on the two points that God put in my heart to speak on: (i) the perfect and sovereign timing of God, and (ii) that nothing is impossible with God. However, as Lazarus was raised from the dead in his own same natural body unlike Christ’s glorified body, he eventually had to die even though as we can see in John 12, his resurrection from the dead was a marvel that brought many to believe in Christ. Then I moved on to Ecclesiastes 7:2 where Solomon (as believed by most) declared that the destiny of every man is death and thus the living must take this to heart since Lazarus later had to eventually die. Thus I asked the question by just picking on 3 verses – what should we do in the meantime before our destiny comes a calling? I shared from Matthew 6:33 (seek ye first the Kingdom of God), Matthew 6:19 (store up treasures in heaven) and Jeremiah 1:5 (our calling in God).

The structure of my message was a departure from my usual exegesis of a chosen text or narrative, which would then form the gist of my sermon. This time the Lord led me to use a chosen text as a springboard to deliver a reminder on what we should all do before death comes a calling; no matter what is our present age, education, social status, ministry or calling in God.

I believe that my daily reading of ODB and the accompanying Scriptures have helped me to have this versatility to expound on a topic beyond a selected biblical text and I am grateful to the Holy Spirit for teaching and guiding me along the way. I never believed that I am able provide an exhaustive exposition on any given text or topic in the bible but I believe that those 3 Scriptures were timely reminders to all that there are just some things that we must always aspire to do amidst our “busyness” in coping with life and its pressures, to earn a living and live in this world but always deferring to God’s will for our life.

My exaltation to all of us this morning is to strive on reading God’s Word as the more we read, the more may the Holy Spirit teach and guide us in the knowledge and fullness of God and His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The more we read the Bible, the more we may be transformed into the image of Christ, in our actions, reactions, thoughts, motivations and character. We cannot avoid but become a better person in Christ as we allow the Word of God to speak to us, change and transform us from within! Amen

https://odb.org/MY/2021/11/22/true-worshipers

We know now what Jesus meant in John 4:23 that a time will come when true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. The place of worship matters less than the spirit that has been renewed and born again, we worship from deep within us and empowered and prompted by the Holy Spirit that lives within us. And in truth meaning to say that we worship God based on what is revealed about God in His Word. Like His greatness, His steadfast love, His grace and mercy, His forgiveness and providence. He is a great and mighty God and He has compassion and love for His people!

Having re-experienced physical on site church worship for the past two Sundays now after such a long break, I have to say that it’s indeed good and great to worship together as a congregation at a physical place. Zoom works as we are not limited by space or place when worshipping the Lord and yet physically worshipping together as a congregation works better despite us all wearing face masks and having muffled voices. It is still better than hearing only our voice and the worship leader’s during Zoom! We could hear some variations and harmonies in the distance as we all give our best to God in singing and worship with the songs led by the worship leader.

I pray that this pandemic situation will quickly become andemic and life will become normal again albeit a new normal. We may get infected but it will be mild like the common cold even if we have comorbidities. That even the older and weaker ones will be properly protected as our community immunity through vaccination becomes stronger and the virus becomes overall weaker.

In the meantime, let us all continue to walk this walk of faith and worship the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost wherever we are as God seeks true worshippers who worship Him in Spirit and in truth. We wait for the day when more and more of us can worship together again at on-site worship services to celebrate and proclaim the goodness of God and His abundant mercies!