https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/28/great-wisdom-and-a-thousand-eyes

I think one of the challenges as shepherds and fellow believers is to deal with brethren holding a different point of view. It could be something radical or just a simple matter. It could be something as serious as being against the current Covid-19 vaccinations or just a matter of not wanting the mRNA vaccine or not wanting the booster shots. Some could be led by strange teachings or false teachers as enumerated by Jude, the half brother of Jesus. Or it could just be holding on to solid teachings but with a radical slant or taking a more extreme approach. There are diverse viewpoints and the challenge as leaders and fellow believers is how to navigate through all that while maintaining peace and harmony and discipline, not stifling growth but encouraging revival of the spirit.

So I agree that the shepherd needs great wisdom and a thousand eyes to examine the soul’s condition from every angle. How do we care well for people spiritually? We need to maintain discipline and standards but at the same time allow fresh ideas and approaches to germinate to revive the church.

I think the best way to have that wisdom is to pray more for our sheep and fellow brethren, something I’m guilty of not doing enough myself. Prayer brings us to the throne of God, to hear His heartbeat, to know His will, to listen to what He is doing in our midst. And that may not be the same as in other churches and communities as every church and community is unique and God could be working in different ways in different contexts. Whatever we do must be done within the context of the dynamics in play at the local church. With prayer, the Holy Spirit can work in our lives amd ultimately all these work have to be birthed and ignited by the Holy Spirit. May the Holy Spirit give everyone, leaders and followers alike, the wisdom to deal with diversity of views and bring a revival of our souls in our midst so that we may all actively participate in what God is doing among us!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/27/gods-right-hand

There are times in our lives when we are in such a fix, usually stemming from our own incompetence or carelessness, that we can only call upon God for help. No one except God can turn the tide against us. Judah faced a similar situation with their disobedience and insolence, with God promising them the Assyrians and the Babylonians to overrun and conquer them and drive them into exile in a foreign land, becoming slaves as a result of their own folly despite God forewarning them countless times before.

We knew it was coming. God already told us and yet we were stubborn like a bull. We were like Judah. We rebelled against God. We refused to bow down and obey. Instead we went our separate ways. We wanted our own way. Now we are in a fix. Will we continue on this road or will we repent and return to the righteous path?

From the ancient experiences of Judah when it came to the Assyrians and Babylonians, as much as the LORD wanted to teach Judah a lesson, it was not out of revenge or intention to destroy. The lesson was not meant to kill Judah but to bring her to repentance, to reconciliation with God, to come home rather than continue to drift away. If Judah had heeded God’s call, she could have averted the disaster and yet even after the punishment was afflicted, God remains ready to accept her back if she repented.

I believe what we can learn from these episodes of Judah’s encounters with the LORD is that ultimately God loves Judah and His people, the children of Israel. He will not see her destroyed. Judah will not be wiped out from the face of the earth as history will testify, Israel as a nation was created in 1948 thereby reuniting all the Jews from around the world back to Canaan, the Promised Land.

There is a sense that if we are children of God, the LORD will protect and keep us safe. If we had sinned and strayed, there are consequences and implications but God will not see us destroyed. Repent and come back to Him, He will restore us and nuture us back to strength. The LORD our God will lift us up again as He did with the Israelites over the years. Be humble, admit our mistakes, return to God. He will give us rest, the peace that surpasses all understanding. Don’t continue to run away and be rebellious anymore, He only has love amd compassion for us. His steadfast love never ceases. Repent and return to Him, Christ has paid the price for our sins and iniquities. There is no condemnation in Christ if we repent and return to God. God will indeed be our God, our help.

https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/25/christmas-child

Blessed and Merry Christmas, everyone! It is my prayer that you are having an enjoyable and uplifting time with friends and family, attending church whether on site or online this morning, worshipping God and having fellowship with other brethren. Christmas is a time of celebration, a time of rejoicing of the goodness of God despite the challenging year before and the expected challenging year ahead! It’s about the Christmas tree, the presents, the nice food and drink but ultimately Christmas is about Jesus Christ, the Immanuel. That God made Himself man and became a tiny speck in Mary’s womb to enter this world He created as a created being, a baby born in manger all forlorn, among the animals but witnessed by the angelic beings in heaven, proclaiming the Good News of the Messiah, the saviour of the world with the government upon His shoulders. He is the First Noel.

Let’s all just enjoy this day, the day the Lord has given to praise and worship God, to honour and give glory to Christ for dying on the cross for our sins and for the eternal ife we are enjoying here in earth and will be enjoying later in heaven for all eternity as we await the day when our Lord comes again triumphantly as King and Lord over the whole earth that indeed every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is the King of Kings nd Lord of Lords!

Have a Blessed and Merry Christmas! May all of us be filled with love, peace and joy wherever we are and may our praise and worship today be a sweet incense unto Him in the heavens that He may dwell in the praises of His people! Amen!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/24/the-prince-of-peace-2

It’s Christmas Eve! As we prepare for the big day tomorrow, for our presentations or to show our pre-recorded presentations or if we are leading worship or playing an instrument tomorrow or those of us who are preaching on Christmas Day, or just plain attending church whether on site or via Zoom or Facebook live – just take a moment to pause and remember Jesus’s birth and what it means to us.

What is Christmas to us? Gifts and presents under the Christmas tree? My happiest gift was a remote control car I got from my dad in Std Two. It was really cool and quite expensive too! Then we celebrated Christmas as a tradition as we weren’t born again Christians yet. So Christmas was a time to look forward to. It’s the holidays and there will be nice programmes to watch on TV and mum will cook up some nice dishes to eat!

When I became active in church, Christmas almost always involved something to do in church – a play to act in, songs to sing, worship leading etc. December was always a busy month of preparations, practices and carolling. Covid suspended some of those but we now prepare in advance and film and record and then show on Christmas Day!

I think it’s good to do something for God for Christmas in church even if it’s just a small role as a shepherd boy looking at the angel proclaiming the birth of Christ. If we are offered, just grab it and do our part! Everything we and everyone else does will have an impact on those watching, hopefully giving them a better picture of what our Lord did for them by coming to earth and dying for their sins! We like Paul only preach the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

As we ponder on Christ, know that He is indeed the Prince of Peace. Only He can give us everlasting peace. We will still struggle with life, its unfairness, its cruelty, life with its uncertainties and unpredictable consequences – yet with Christ in our lives, we are able to go through life with peace, love and joy, with hope and strength! The peace that surpasses all understanding. The love that is steadfast and unconditional. The joy that overflows and abundantly available.

Take a moment to pause and reflect. God has been good to us all this while…. We are forever grateful and eternally thankful for the gift of salvation and the promise of eternal life. The Prince of Peace and the hope of the nations indeed, Christ my Lord and my God! We love you with all my heart, soul and might. You are our King of Glory! Amen!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/23/how-theyll-know

I recalled that I used to identify myself as a Christian when young because I had a Christian name, or what some will say a Western name to my Chinese name. In fact most of my friends then with such names were usually Christians. I used to justify that by saying that my dad was a Catholic and Catholics were Christians. However, as I seldom go to the Catholic Church and thus was not schooled in Catholicism, I wasn’t sure exactly what it really meant to be a Christian. As I used to study at the Anglo Chinese School, we had religious classes and since I professed to be a Christian, I was placed at those classes and it was there that I first learned about Christ. Later after I moved to the East Coast, a close friend encouraged me by writing to me about Jesus Christ and with the English-Malay New Testament at home, this led me to seek out God and when an outstation teacher in my little town offered to bring me through a Navigators bible study, I jumped at that chance. That was how I accepted Christ and became known as a Christian, who now have had a proper beginning or what we would call a “born again” experience.

Being identified as a Christian may or may not have implications in present day Malaysia as Malaysia is more keen to know whether you are a Malay Muslim or a native of Borneo in terms of your constitutional rights. However, if we are known as strict religious adherents to our faith, there could be issues of practicality and being less street-wise but issues of integrity will be the least of a concern. But as believers, we know that if we have God on our side, we will be better at what we do, at doing our job and the effects of that will be felt as part of our work output and deliverables. So long as we are hardworking, responsible, trustworthy and not calculative, we should be able to be good at what we do and master our job requirements and perform. It is good to work more than others even if we are not paid as much as the more we work, the better we will be and over the years we will be very good at what we do. Doing more is always good although it is not the fairest of situations. But when was life ever fair, right?

The time may come that being identified as a Christian may become a liability. Like during the days of Paul and the Apostles. When Greeks became to be known as Christians and the faith was no longer perceived as a mere sect under Judaism and thus became to be looked upon as a threat to the Roman Empire. A time will come when being a Christian may be perceived as a threat because we are different and are not bowing down to a man-made symbol of humanity and thus perceived as anti humans, as against the human race. We could face a similar situation as that faced by Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in Daniel Chapter 3. Will we bow down and relent in order to live on or will we plough on holding on to the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord? The time will come when the label Christian may not be something to boast of, to be proud of and may be looked upon like scum, like a criminal, a condemned person as Jesus was – on the cross stripped naked and left hung to die. Where will we be then? Will we still be known as Christians?

https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/22/virtual-presence

Covid 19 has changed the face of the earth. At its peak, our carbon footprint reduced tremendously when countries went into lockdown and factories ceased production, in particular in China. CO2 emissions dropped across the globe and global warming was given a reprieve with our ozone layer recovering a little. But it had disastrous economic consequences and one of its aftermath is that the cost of things have gone up across board now. Freight charges have increased even 5 fold, mainly because shippers needed to recoup significant losses suffered in 2020. It is paradoxical, we know we are destroying the environment with the way we are going on as humans and yet when something catastrophic like Covid-19 occurs, we work very hard to get back on track as soon possible so that we can continue to destroy the environment! It is tragic that human activity is such that if we pause even for a few months, it is detrimental to almost everyone, except the animals and trees in the forests and marine life in the oceans.

Some say that Covid-19 is the devil’s plan to destroy the church since nearly everyone was forced online and missed out on the gathering of the brethren, the joy and celebration of worshipping God together physically ushering His presence in our midst. The blessings from the fellowship of congregated believers. But was the church destroyed? It was definitely affected and people could have gone astray or became plain lazy, worshipping God in their pyjamas or skipping church entirely. No, the church survived and adapted. Those of us in the worship and AV ministries worked hard to make the experience as good as it could possibly get and we praise God for the advent of connected technologies like high speed broadband, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet that church and work could continue online from the comforts of our homes. We are only limited by the broadband bandwidth of our homes and with online services, we are now able to tune in to services across the globe, anywhere that we wished as long as the other side lets us in.

Embrace change and adapt my dear brethren because in the end times, things will not become easier. As congregations, we must support one another that we may all continue in the faith. Covid-19 has changed the world forever. There is the new normal. Perhaps hybrid meetings will be a permanent feature in our church services? Or smaller churches could offer multiple services to cater for more on site services at reduced capacity with SOP and social distancing implemented? Not a question of law but the well being and health of our fellow members.

At the end of the day, we trust and have faith that the Holy Spirit unites us all and we will continue to experience the presence of God despite worshipping alone from the confines of our rooms or living halls. Even as some of us continue to complain about this less than ideal situation, know that just 30 years back before the advent of cellular phones and during the era of tapped fixed lines, believers in the underground church in China relied only on the prompting of the Holy Spirit on where and when to meet! Stop mumbling and do our best now that we have everything at our finger tips virtually! God is good and good all the time!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/21/gods-compass-2

When I was a baby scout (called cub scouts) in primary school in Sitiawan, one of the things I really wanted to have was a nice knife and a compass. It never came to pass as scouting wasn’t active in Pasir Puteh, the East Coast town I moved to at Primary 6 and thus I never got to trek deep into the jungle. So I didn’t really understood the function of the compass then as it can only show north, except to figure out later that if we are ever lost in a jungle, going north means going in one direction and the wisdom of going one direction is that we will not end up in circles. Often people who are lost in a jungle fail to get out because everything looks the same and thus they ended up going round in circles. Of course, even as cub scouts we were taught to leave markings as basics for trekking but never got to practice that then. Nevertheless the basic essential equipment for trekking remains the little compass.

How wonderful an illustration is the little compass to our real life on earth! It is really an excellent picture of what the Word of God is, a compass for us as we thread through life. Like the compass, the bible points us to only one direction and that is to the Almighty God Himself. Whatever we are going through if we stick to God we will not go wrong. We won’t go round in circles whether in our ministry, our career, relationships and our faith.

Stick to one direction, stick to God, stick to the narrow path. Do not waver or let ourselves be distracted or turn to the left or the right. Just go straight ahead. Don’t go on a frolick of our own or become like Alice in the Wonderland as the world can indeed become a Wonderland, drawing us away from God and His purposes for our lives. The world can also be a Wonderland that can ensnare and devour us like the Venus Flytrap. The world entices us, attracts us and then slowly but surely destroys our faith in Jesus, causing us to eventually lose sight of Him.

Like the humble compass, stick to one path, krrp to one direction only as illuminated and lighted up by the Word for us like a lamp unto our feet. Read and meditate upon the Word and we will be like a tree planted by rivers of water, that brings forth fruit in its season, whose leaves will not wither and whatever we do shall proper (see Psalm 1). Amen!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/20/fear-not-2

When I was young and I haven’t yet known Christ then, I was taught a simple ritual to pray from my late mother from the Taoist traditions of her family (my late mum became a fervent Christian after accepting Christ a few years after I accepted Christ). I won’t describe it here but suffice to say it involves a prayer to God in heaven. The prayer was like a call for help but alas I had no assurance then that God in heaven or anyone out there would listen me or pay any attention to my prayer. Mainly, because I didn’t really know this God in heaven or whether I had any standing with Him but I nevertheless prayed to Him for protection.

However I recall that despite this avenue to call for help, I was still afraid of the unknown and the future. I was afraid of darkness and after watching the movie Exorcist between the spaces of my fingers covering my eyes, I remembered that I had nightmares everytime I recollect the terrifying scenes from that movie.

After I knew Christ when I was 14 and started going to church and be involved in ministry from 16 onwards, I recall that the nightmares had sort of miraculously ceased. I was no longer fearful of the dark and the monsters that it could bring. The difference is that I now have Jesus in my life and I could reach out to God the Father, our Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord. I realised that there is power in the name of Jesus, that as children of God professing His name, demons will flee, spirits will not be able to make us fearful. I learnt very early that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4)! Resist the devil and he will flee from you (James 4:7).

As we usher in the Christmas season and celebrate the symbolic day of Jesus’s birth (we know that the actual day is not 25th December of the gregorian calendar), let us remember the Good News of Jesus’s birth and how He changed our lives from the day we knew Him until today. Remember what He has done for us and our families and how He has seen us through all that we had gone through throughout the years. Be thankful and grateful for the privilege of knowing God the Father, Christ and the Holy Spirit. God’s love and compassion and His abundant grace have been with us through it all and will be with us and our loved ones as we journey on this path of righteousness and faith. His steadfast love never ceases, His fauthfulness endures forever. He is our God and we are His children. As we call upon His name, we know He will answer us. We know our prayers are heard, every single one of our prayers as whatever we bind on earth, will be bound in heaven and whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven (Matthew 16:29) because we have the name of Jesus with us and in us, the name that is above all names! The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!

Have a Blessed Christmas, everyone!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/18/well-done

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith – 2 Timothy 4:7. That’s Paul saying that to Timothy while in prison at the tail end of his life as he knew he will be executed once he appears before Ceasar Nero to argue his case and preach Christ crucified and His resurrection.

Paul’s exaltation in 2 Timothy 4:7 is the inspiration and also the aspiration of every believer. We want to be able to say that before we breathe our last. We want to be able to say that when we appear before our Lord Jesus on that day. Can we say that we have fought the good fight, have finished the race and have kept the faith? Not a question of salvation but a question of whether we were with God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit till the end? There will be no condemnation in Christ. Jesus is not there to shame us and tell us of our shortcomings and weaknesses. He will not harp on the things we did not do, or should have done but didn’t. Instead Jesus will be praising us for the things we have done. The RM1k gift we gave to that missionary. That RM1k contribution to that mission. That RM1k we sent to that charity that feeds the poor. The times we helped the old folks at that home. The prayers we prayed for Christians oppressed all over the world. The things we did in fulfilment of our calling, the things we had done as part of God’s plans and purposes for our lives. Not a question of whether we could have done better, but commendation for having done what we did.

We should try our best to do what God has called us to do and to fulfil His plans and purposes for us. Whether we achieve great success or greatness in doing those things is irrelevant and besides the point. Success is relative and is not something to be measured externally and in the natural alone. What happens in a person’s soul we can’t see with our naked eyes.

I think to have fought the good fight and have finished the race with our faith intact is really about having given it our best shot under the circumstances. We tried our best and didn’t waver. We gave it our all. We had to live life and face its challenges head on and yet we did our best for God. We didn’t run away from our calling. We didn’t turn our backs on His plans and purposes for us. We did all that while still living in the world although we are not of the world. We gave God our best. I think that’s what it’s all about.

https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/17/beautifully-broken

If something is broken like a piece of electrical equipment, we will usually not throw it away. We will keep in case we could use its parts as spares for other electrical equipment that breaks down. So we keep screws, wires, cables etc to the extent space permits. However for pottery and cookery, if it’s broken, we usually have no choice but to throw them away as a broken cup or plate is unusable. I know that in Japan they have made it into an art to repair and restore broken pottery but I have not seen this in Malaysia before. However, if broken pottery or artifacts from ancient times are found, the life example in today’s ODB, efforts will be made to restore them – even in Malaysia. That’s because broken pottery from an ancient era is valuable as it gives us an insight to human life of those times. It establishes our history and heritage.

If we are broken vessels (which we know we are), do you think God will keep us because we could be useful to Him like spare parts and thus if we are both broken and useless, God will throw us away like rubbish to be disposed, in the sense, He will not have anything to do with us? Or do you think God will want to restore and repair us to be beautiful again because we are valuable to Him even though we may think we are broken and useless? Of course it is the latter, you will say and that’s true! When we are broken and useless, we have value only because God sees us as valuable and He knows He has the capability to make us whole again, not only through the blood of Christ but through the work that He continually does in our lives through the Holy Spirit. However, the rejuvenation of our soul and the restoration of our spirit can only be done if we are willing. If we are unwilling, God will not force us to change and transform. But the promise is that if we allow the Lord to work in us, He will make something truly beautiful out of us. If we flow with God along the path, one day we will become the man and woman God had always wanted us to be! Remember we are not broken and useless but valuable in the eyes of God!