https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/29/joyful-learning

Romans 12:2 is such a famous verse that I think most of us will know it like we know John 3:16. In essence it has 4 parts, and starts with (1) not conforming to the pattern of this world, followed by (2) being transformed by the renewing of our minds, and thirdly, so that (3) we may test and approve what God’s will is, and lastly, that (4) His will is pleasing and perfect.

My company is currently going through a transformation process, we are changing the way we do things and run the business across all divisions. Not change for the sake of change but change to bring in best practices from elsewhere applicable to our industry. More to update ourselves to the latest methods, processes that have been proven in other jurisdictions, other markets. As we dive deeper in, we realised that in certain areas, we are one generation behind like other markets had adopted this method or way of doing things way back in the 2000s. But it is only now in 2021/22 that we are doing this! However, there are casualties – in terms of redundancies and change of vendors. There is a cost involved – we pay to lay off people. Thus there is a cost to people in that some will lose their jobs.

Is it true that Romans 12:2 is merely transformation by just not conforming to the pattern of the world and being renewed in our mind? Just applying the biblical worldview like, for example, being selfless in rejection of the secular worldview of, for example, being self centred? Is it just changing our mindset or paradigm? Is it all in the mind?

Because Romans 12:2 is so well known, we just usually jump right into it. But Romans 12:2 actually sets the scene with verse 1 and in the first verse, Paul teaches that in view of God’s mercy (for saving us through the blood of Jesus), we must present or offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing (or acceptable) to God, which is our true and proper worship. In other words, like the transformation efforts by my company, there must be sacrifices made. Sacrifice is inevitable for true transformation to take place.

But as believers, the sacrifice I think is much greater – it is a living sacrifice. Our bodies must be offered and presented to God, holy and pleasing unto Him and that is our true and proper worship, not so much the songs we sing on Sundays or the instruments we play during worship services. We worship God by living a life that is sacrificial, holy and pleasing to Him. That, to me, is the pre-requisite to the transformation in verse 2.

Just like corporate transformation efforts, change requires sacrifice. The transformation that comes through the renewing of our mind also requires sacrifice. It is not merely in the mind. Our bodies must be holy and pleasing to God too. We must live our life as a living sacrifice. Then it will come together with us testing and approving, meaning we will see and experience, that God’s will for us is pleasing and perfect. We will see that it will all fit in nicely. We will then be the person God wants us to be, realising our fullest potential in Christ, fulfilling God’s plans and purpose for us – the raison d’etre of our existence here in earth! I think we cannot deny the saying that “no pain, no gain” is very true indeed!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/28/flight-of-ichabod

We learn in 1 Samuel 4:12-22 that Israel brought the Ark of the Covenant (which at that time contained the presence of God) into battle in an effort to boost their chances but without consulting God. Eli the High Priest’s sons carried the Ark and were killed in the battle and when Eli heard of the news of the capture, he fell down and died. Eli’s daughter who was pregnant gave birth and died when she heard her husband had been killed and she name her child “Ichabod” for the glory of God had departed from Israel. The glory of God was subsequently restored during the time of David and when Solomon built the Temple for the LORD to reside in the Holy of Holies, the purported site of where the Western Wall is in present day Jerusalem. The glory of God then became a permanent feature in the lives of believers when Jesus died for our sins and redeemed us to be children of God. Now God’s glory is within us and our role as people of the faith is to bring forth God’s glory through our Iives.

Is there a parallel we can learn today from this story in 1 Samuel 4? I think the first and more fundamental lesson is not to allow the glory of God to depart. In Ephesians 4:29-32, Paul taught us not to grieve the Holy Spirit by not doing certain things and thus if we continue in such behaviour, there is a risk of the glory of God departing from us, the same way if we continue to live in intentional sin or refuse to forgive those who have sinned against us. Our relationship with God will be blocked until we repent.

But what I think is a more practical lesson is not to take things into our own hands when it comes to the things of God or even in facing our own problems. Saul made the same grievous error when he took it upon himself to offer the sacrifice to God instead of waiting for Samuel, the High Priest before going into battle and as a result he lost his throne as king of Israel to David. In this story in 1 Samuel 4, the elders of Israel decided to bring the Ark of the Covenant into battle without checking with God, meaning to say they should have consulted God through Eli the High Priest. Eli’s own sons carried the Ark into the battle camp and if you read chapter 3, it brought such high spirits to the soldiers and fear upon the Philistines but alas the Israelites lost the battle. Bringing the Ark into battle without checking with God was a stupid move as it risked the Ark being captured and it was and the glory of God departed from Israel. They lost the presence of God as a result of their error.

I think the most important lesson for us is that the method is always inferior to the person, when it comes to God. Joshua carried the Ark with him when he crossed the river Jordan and he had 7 priests carrying trumpets in front of the Ark as they went around the walls of Jericho for 7 times. Carrying the Ark of Covenant worked in those instances, and worked well! Why? Because those actions then originated from an instruction of God! It is obeying the Word of God that brought the victory, not the methodology of carrying the Ark.

Whatever we do in our lives whether ministry or our day jobs, it is more important to keep the relationship going with God rather than rely on time tested methods and that can even be our routine to fast and pray for something. Keep God close, not our methods or ways of doing things as we need to be prepared to change our ways and methods as God leads. Carrying the Ark worked in the past doesn’t mean it will work now – what’s most crucial is what is the Word of God for the situation, what is God saying to us?

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/27/unlimited

God is definitely unlimited whether in time, energy or capacity. He can be everywhere at the same time and can do millions of things at the same time. The universe is infinitely large, but God is bigger than even that. He is busy with the millions that know Him and yet He still finds time to speak to us, to comfort and encourage us.

We, on the other hand, are all limited. We can only be at one place at a time. Although we can multi-task, we are still limited by time and strength. As I get older, my experience is that I tire more easily and thus am physically more limited. Like over the past few weeks, writing 2 board papers while closing 3 contracts in parallel. There are two new projects coming up around the corner where we are already starting preliminary work. The current projects have not been fully closed, contractual awards not finalised and contracts not yet signed and there will be other follow on details – and yet we have to start on another two. These are all transactions that run into millions of MYR and thus we have to all thread carefully and diligently. There are times when I feel that I just want to give up when I look at the overwhelming responsibility and accountability.

The solution, as the many before us had learned as can be gleaned from the pages of the Bible like Moses, Joshua, Caleb, David, Elijah and many others before and after them, is to tap on the infinite and unlimited God. Israel defeated armies much stronger and much bigger than them with God fighting the battle with them. They could bring down the walls of fortified cities like Jericho by following the LORD’s instructions to the tee.

I’m still going through the process but I do pray for His wisdom and strength to be upon me as I plough through the work. A piece of work I thought may take a whole day but sometimes can be done in a few hours or sometimes even 30 mins! That’s my experience of the unlimited God. We can stretch ourselves further. We can do more without breaking. The hours may be long and we may need to work over weekends, over days of annual leave but it can be done, it can be finalised and closed so we could move on to the next. Work never ends but they can be closed one by one, with the grace and power of God with us, backing us up as we move forward. The God of the unlimited is our God! Aren’t we so fortunate and blessed? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13)!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/26/rest-well

While I agree that enforced rest as in the Old Testament sabbath may be too restrictive compared to the relationship based rest in Christ, I feel there is merit in enforced rest.

Even in these modern times, the sabbath is still practiced rigorously by religious Jews especially in Israel and over there, with state support. So let me relate – in my line of work, when we deal with Israeli lawyers on documentation, our interaction with them whether face to face or via video or tele conferencing is usually limited to Mondays to Thursdays. We can do off site retreats but they will usually religiously leave by Thursday evening to meet the deadline start of the sabbath on Friday evenings. In Israel, for those observing the sabbath, all work related activities cease and I understand it can be as extreme as pushing the lift button. But the beauty of it is that the day is spent reading scriptures with family and reminding their children the goodness of God in their lives from the time of their forefathers till now.

As believers of the faith, we do not have to observe the sabbath but I think it is good to have a day of rest among us where we can focus on Jesus and lay off work or even ministry. Sundays do not really work as the church is the busiest on Sundays and most of us nap or catch up on household chores on a Sunday afternoon. Therefore a good time of rest should be on a Saturday and it could be just a few hours in the afternoon spent with Jesus that we can truly rest under His yoke. A time when we can take His yoke upon us to learn from Him for Je promised that His yoke is easy and His burden light.

Perhaps an enforced rest like that of the Jewish sabbath is unachievable by us in the modern context out of Israel and is also no longer required under the New Covenant. But the benefits of an enforced rest remains in both physically for our body and mind and spiritually for our spirit. Coupled with resting in Jesus as taught by the Lord Himself, we will have the best of both worlds! Rest and rest well. We need to enforce that time to rest in the Lord, to rest in God, on top of our daily quiet time. A time spent in His presence, a time to chill with the Lord, to just relax in Him, to soak in His love and compassion.

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/25/god-knows-we-feel

A couple of years back, something happened to me that caused a lot of distress, sadness and disappointment in my life. It also brought up feelings of wanting to retaliate, to just hit back, to take revenge. I was feeling really down for a few days. Fortunately, that feeling lasted only a few days and I remember that it was really difficult when I was going through it. And yet in the midst of all that, I sensed that God knew exactly what I was going through. My tears and sadness at what happened He felt.

During those trying times, I had the assurance that He was with me, that He will help me through all that. I knew I didn’t deserve His love and compassion and I was not sure at that point what the future will be. Maybe He had other plans for me.

It took a couple of months but in the end the situation was resolved. God made a few moves, I humbled myself before God and man, and persevered on. The clouds lifted and in the end, I saw the sunshine. As I recall back those dark months, I am thankful and grateful that God stood by me through all those times. The assurance that all will be good was comforting but as I was going through it in real time then, I was never sure of the outcome – I could only pray and trust the Lord. But the Lord helped me through, paved the way, changed the whole outlook and now a few years later, everything has changed – the scenery is now different, the trees and grass all have changed but it is still the same land, the same place.

Thus, it is true that God feels us but as God is God, He can do more than that. He can be much more than a shoulder to cry on. He can emphatise, understand and feel for us, and more. He can change scenarios, situations and outlook. He can not only lead us to the light at the end of the tunnel, but He can also brighten up the tunnel as we persevere on. His Word can be a light to our path, His Spirit can strengthen our will and our resolve. Just put our trust and hope in Him and accept whatever outcome He plans for us and in my case, He engineered a change that I didn’t imagine was possible when the situation first occurred. Indeed with man it was not possible but with God nothing is impossible. We must let Him determine the outcome – trust me, if you trust God, it will be good.

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/24/the-whatevers

When I reflect upon Philippians 4:8, I realise that often anxiety and fear arise when I think of things that have yet to be done. Looming deadlines, missed milestones, outstanding work, yet more and more work piling in. I feel suffocated, hemmed in, unable to breathe, not able to cope. Yet work like most things, needs to be done eventually. You may postpone or procrastinate, but eventually it needs to closed and ticked off, dusted and done. So the best thing is to just do it, tackle it one by one, prioritise but get to it. So thinking about work too much, brings in fear and anxiety unless we are looking for solutions, looking at ways how to write that paper, how to close that contractual point, how to solve that problem. Worrying about deadlines and outstanding work is useless and unproductive. We need to get on with it.

That’s why I think Paul’s advice and exhortation in Philippians 4:8 is excellent! Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy – think about such things! Whatever is great, think about those things. Thinking good thoughts lifts us up, brings us joy, makes us happy and puts us in a good mood.

Paul promises, if we approach life this way, the peace of God that transcends all understanding will be upon us. We will be a much happier, joyful and peaceful person if we think of such things more, rather than always worrying about something – whether it is the future, the government or if it will rain! If we haven’t known, worry adds nothing to the situation, adds zero value. Worry is like hatred although not as bad is nevertheless capable of freezing people, stopping us from moving forward. It doesn’t poison us like hatred but it paralyses us. Not so much just “don’t worry, be happy” as promulgated by Bob Marley but more “get with the program”. Meaning to say, just go and do it, get on with it! 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 go!

I believe that thinking good thoughts is also good food for the mind. Nourishes us so we have clearer thoughts and helps us do things quicker. Makes us more productive, more efficient. If we dwell on the Word, our minds will be renewed more and more, and our lives will be transformed more and more to be like Christ. Read and meditate on the Word, think good thoughts, speak to God, engulf ourselves in His presence, pray and intercede for others in need – do all these daily. I think we will find work and life more fulfilling and more can be accomplished in a day.

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/23/frolicking-in-freedom

I watched a documentary before on the happiness and sheer joy of young calves frolicking in the open fields after being let out of their stables. They will run and run and run, with such enjoyment and such abandonment. They want to stretch their legs, to let it all go after being confined to their stables. Closer to home, a similar picture can and will be seen when we are finally allowed inter-state travel after being stuck in our homes and towns for months due to MCO. We will just want to drive and drive and go to some faraway place, to visit family and friends or even just to eat and chill, just to go somewhere.

This picture of frolicking calves is an excellent metaphor for the joy and happiness of a believer who found Christ. Jesus gave us a similar picture in the parable of the precious pearl, where a merchant after finding that pearl, sold everything he had and bought that pearl (Matthew 13:45-46). It was preceded by a similarly themed parable of the hidden treasure in verse 44 where a man after finding the treasure, hid it again and in his joy, went on to sell everything he had and bought that land.

Accepting Christ has to be the most important decision we have ever made and Christ being the most valuable thing that we ever had. More important than even our decision to marry our life partner, more valuable than all our possessions and wealth. Why? Because it’s a life after death question, a decision that determines our future home for all eternity. When we pass away from this earth, we cannot bring over anything except our soul, our life story and our faith. But since we have Christ with us, He will be there with us on the other side of eternity. He promised us before that He had gone ahead of us to prepare a place for us, a room at our Father’s vast heavenly mansion. With Christ with us, our final destination is assured and our destiny in God is sealed. We are part of the family, we have become a certified member of the Kingdom of God. That is why both the merchant and the man sold everything they had to buy the pearl and the land with the hidden treasure. That is how precious and valuable Christ is.

I guess sometimes we forget (me included) how fortunate and blessed we are to have known Christ. If we had not made that decision, whether just yesterday or many moons ago, we will still be on the path that leads to destruction. We would still be chasing after fame and fortune, after power and position, after status or whatever our interests are. Actually nothing too wrong with all those ambitions except that they will not matter when we face the judgment day. The question that matters is whether the Lord our Christ knows us? Is our name written in the Book of Life? Did we accept the grace that was given to us freely when we were yet sinners and alive in this world? God has been good to us by calling us to Him. Will we not reciprocate and be a living sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to Him? Will we not offer our bodies to serve Him and to fulfil His plans and purposes for our lives? Will we not be frolicking in the fields like the young calves? Be thankful and grateful, do our part for God…

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/22/no-misunderstanding

Imagine we are deep in our own thoughts, thinking of something, talking to ourselves in our heart of hearts, in our mind. We are just talking in our heart, not speaking out or verbalising our words formulated in our thoughts. Now who can know or “hear” what we are saying to ourselves? Can the devil “hear” or know what we are thinking or saying? Can anyone know what we are thinking or saying to ourselves? In our own thoughts, in our own mind, it’s probably the only place in this entire universe that we can truly be alone and if we are in a quiet place, on our own with nothing to distract us as we close our eyes and just speak in our heart, we are really on our own. Except that we are not really alone and we will never really be on our own all by ourself. The Holy Trinity of God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit are with us and they can hear us and know what we are saying to ourselves. So instead of speaking to ourselves, if we were to speak to them and address them, any one of them and say “Father” or “Jesus” or “Holy Spirit”, we are then speaking to God and when we do that, it’s a prayer and it then becomes our conversation with God.

Therefore, the issue of God misunderstanding us can never arise even if we speak out or verbalise something wrongly or inaccurately (some of us may not be able to articulate that well what’s really in our heart). This is because God knows our thoughts, our heart intentions – He knows us inside out, He knows everything about us, all that we have ever gone through, every single moment of our life.

The issue then is that we may have nothing more to say to God in prayer or our conversation with Him. We are at a loss of words even in our heart of hearts. I believe in such a situation, this is when the Holy Spirit comes in and help us say those things deep in our hearts to God, those things the Father already know but we still want to say to them, with Jesus as our advocate at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. The Holy Spirit will give us the utterance. If we can speak in tongues, we could then speak in tongues to God for the Spirit to help us when we are at a loss for words. There can never be any misunderstanding by God for He knows everything including what’s deep within us.

However, we can or may misunderstand what God is saying to us. If we feel God is speaking to us something important that require action on our part, it is best to check against His written Word and maybe seek a sign of confirmation from Him. Speak also to our cell leaders or church elders or pastors for confirmation so they may pray for us too. We can and may misunderstand what God is saying to us although I think if we have been always communicating with God all this while, it is unlikely that we will misunderstand Him. Even then, it may still be good to seek independent verification through the Word and counsel of others.

In conclusion, I pray that all of us will always communicate with God amd learn how to hear from Him so that we will never misunderstand what He is saying to us at all times. It takes practice as practice makes perfect even hearing from God. The more often we converse and communicate with God, the better we will be at hearing Him.

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/21/truth-lies-and-vigilantes

I grew up reading Perry Mason novels as my father had a stack of those in his collection. The fictional Perry Mason (created by Earl Stanley Gardner) was a very good criminal lawyer in 1930s Los Angeles who was always able to present the real picture of the truth at exciting and often intriguing court battles. The other thing that stuck in my mind was he had a retainer of $5,000 – a princely sum then. Perry Mason pinged my interest in reading law. In law school and in legal practice, I learnt that truth in court is very much dependent on the evidence at hand and that there is always at least two sides to a story. Also truth sometimes depends on the perception of the eye witness as 5 people may witness an event but may nevertheless perceive, receive and describe it differently.

The message today is that in this age of quick transfer of information via private or public social media, a lot of unverified facts pass through us as facts and as truth. Exodus 23 warns against speaking lies against our neighbours, of testifying using falsehoods, of taking bribes to bear false witness against an innocent party. I think in this modern age, we are very less likely to do such things in a real court of law as there are criminal consequences for bearing false witness – perjury is a crime. However, in our society there are lots of unverified rumours swirling around since news may be controlled with certain facts suppressed for political or other reasons as half truths are never the full picture of any situation. Suppression of the certain facts may be the order of the day and thus becomes a hotbed for rumours. There is no smoke without a fire, so they say.

As believers what should we do? I think there is nothing wrong in hearing rumours. Sometimes it is unavoidable in daily conversations. But unless we know, we should not add on and we should not spread those rumours. Also, unless we are able to verify independently what is being asserted, we should also avoid forwarding miscellaneous messages as truth when the same may or may not be true. Perhaps if we feel that the message is very important, we should either research the matter in point or qualify ourselves by saying that it may or may not be true. I think it is highly irresponsible to forward something as the truth when we ourselves have not verified its authenticity. Some things may have fatal consequences like the decision whether to vaccinate against Covid-19. As people who have come to faith, let’s not perpetuate lies even unwittingly and unintentionally as we may end up being used as tools by the evil one to deceive, distract and lead others astray.

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/20/an-unexpected-guest

When we read the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10), we could compare Zacchaeus’ response with that of the Rich Young Ruler (Mark 10:17-22), in that while the former became selfless after meeting Jesus, the latter remained selfish and self righteous. Both were wealthy and were rulers (Zacchaeus being the Chief Tax Collector). The Rich Young Ruler was a law abiding religious Jew who kept the law since he was a boy while Zacchaeus was despised as a betrayer of his people for collecting taxes for the Romans.

I think the point that we should take note is that we must change after meeting Jesus, we cannot remain in our old self. In Zacchaeus’ case, Jesus declared that salvation had come to Zacchaeus’ house for his act of repentance in giving half of his wealth to the poor and for his willingness to repay back 4 times anyone whom he had cheated.

As for the issue of wealth, whether it is through hardwork, a better education, boldness to take risks or just plain inheritance, I think there is no real harm having wealth as believers. I know Jesus said that it is more difficult for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven in the case of the Rich Young Ruler. But we also know that while with man some things are not possible, with God nothing is impossible. Furthermore, salvation is by the grace of God and not by works. On the other hand, we know that faith without works is dead.

As believers who have known grace through salvation, we must likewise be gracious to others and thus when it comes to wealth, we should look at it as a blessing from God. Without God giving us the opportunity or allowing us to have the education or the break (like finding the right job at the right company where we excel or finding the right business that we do well) or being born into a wealthy family, we will probably not be where we are today. Therefore, hold lightly to our money if we are well off so that if Christ prompts, we will not be unwilling to part with it to help someone who is in need. Let our hearts be moved by God and compassion. Yes, there is a need to save up for our future, for our children’s education and for our old age. Yet there could be more pressing needs of others in the present. Let God bless others through us and let us use our earthly wealth to gather riches in heaven. If we can’t spare the effort or the time, support the cause with our finance. Everyone has a role to play in the Kingdom of God. If everyone goes full time and live by faith, who will then support us? Thus there will always be a need for more of us to work and earn, to support the church and ministries in the Kingdom.