https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/19/unbreakable

Jeremiah 1:4-10 highlights a few interesting facts on how the LORD related to him. God said that He knew Jeremiah even before he was formed in his mother’s womb and had set him apart then. This means that our spirit was already in existence even before our human body was conceived in the womb. In Ephesians 1:4. Paul exerts that Christ chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be whole and blameless before Him. Thus I believe that there are already millions and millions of spirits/souls formed at the beginning and as human beings conceive in the natural, the spirit/soul will be made part of the physical body to have life, all in perfect order and sequence according to the exact time appointed by God, the same way God breathed life into the body He formed from dust when He created Adam.

The second point from Jeremiah 1:4-10 is that God promised to be with him and he need not be afraid of the people that God sends him to. The same way God promised Moses that He will be with him when Moses meets Pharoah to demand the release of the Jewish slaves, the same way God promised to be with Joshua as he led the Israelites into the Promised Land. Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid for I am with you, says the LORD. That is why Jeremiah was unbreakable although he suffered much, and so was Paul.

The third thing we will see in Jeremiah 1:4-10 is that when Jeremiah said that He was too young and would not know what to say, God touched his lips and put His words into Jeremiah’s mouth. This means that as God called Jeremiah to the purpose He had appointed him before he was even formed in his mother’s womb, He will equip Jeremiah as he responded to God.

I believe that each and everyone of us have an appointed purpose for God to let us to be born at the precise time and era. We were born in this century and not in the first or 15th century. We were born at the exact time and date as God had planned beforehand way back to the beginning of time, into the family and town and country that God had planned. As we grow up as humans and go through life and as God calls us to be His children, we must know that as we respond to God’s calling for our lives, He will be with us like He did with Jeremiah. God has a specific plan and purpose for each and every one of us, which plan and purpose He had formulated even before we were formed in our mother’s womb. As we respond like Jeremiah did, we will be unbreakable like Jeremiah and Paul. Unbreakable in our faith and resolve, because we will see and experience God being with us all the way. That I believe is the reason why many were willing to be martyred for the faith. The hope of eternal glory as well as Christ being present in their midst as they experience the actual tangible reality of God.

As we step out in faith to respond to Him, He will equip us and I believe He will do so whether it is ability, opportunity, platform, network or finance. God will be with us and will equip us since it is ultimately His purposes and plans that we are serving. It is ultimately His Kingdom of Grace that we are working so hard for. Why would He leave us to our devices if we are living within His good and perfect will?

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/18/a-sweet-aroma

We are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing (2 Corinthians 2:15).

I think reaching out is a must for believers but some of us are not equipped as to what exactly to say and some lack courage and boldness to speak up. Like people who dabble in MLM, if we always preach when we meet someone, people may start avoiding us.

Being equipped with the message of the Gospel is a must. We must know the message of salvation that God sent Jesus to die for our sins and salvation is by grace, meaning that we cannot work for our salvation. Go for some training or research it. Be prepared and equipped to preach when the Spirit leads or the situation is right.

However, perhaps a more effective way is to leave the message of Christ behind wherever we go? Be prepared to preach when the situation allows but in any case, leave the sweet aroma of Christ behind as we interact whether at work or in town or wherever we are. If someone has a need, offer a prayer. If someone is unwell or sick, command healing and pray for God’s compassion and mercy. Be kind and considerate, merciful and gracious, be understanding, treat everyone well and with a smile – that’s the sweet and pleasing aroma of Christ.

James had mentioned before that faith without works is dead (James 2:14). Thus preaching without a life testimony is also hollow. No doubt the message of Christ is powerful enough on its own as at the Word of God and at the name of Jesus, demons and diseases will flee. Yet it is not complete if we only preach and not walk the talk. Make the message as natural as possible. In fact make our life the message – that as people see us, people see Christ. But it should be accompanied by the real spoken message, not a silent message by conduct alone. The light should be placed up high on a hill so that it can shine bright for the whole town. Likewise the message of Christ needs to be spoken out as much as it needs to be lived out. They go hand in hand like thunder and rain. People need to see and taste the salt. They must hear and know what Jesus Christ is all about, why He came to walk among us two thousand years ago. Why He was crucified and why He arose from the dead and achieved what no man had achieved before? Let’s all preach Christ with our words and our life, spoken and lived out, sincerely and genuinely that the glory of God may be manifested throughout the whole earth!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/17/move-your-fence

When the LORD spoke through Isaiah in Isaiah 43:18-21 to forget the former things and not to dwell in the past, He was not so much talking about Israel’s past failures or rebellious actions but their past successes. Don’t dwell too much on what God did with them in the past like the Red Sea experience, but focus on what He is doing among them now. The past has its good point as a monument, a reminder of God’s goodness in our lives. There are spiritual milestones we want to look back to remind ourselves of His greatness when we face doubts or difficult challenges in the present. They are good points of reference to jolt our memory of what God did and thus the past serves to encourage us that He can and will do the same again today and in the near future.

The past is a good reminder, an excellent monument but it is not a good place to dwell in. We mustn’t live in the past because we actually live in the present, and for the days to come. What we do today determines where we will go tomorrow. Yesterday may have led us to today but today is the stepping stone to tomorrow. That is why God said to the Israelites, “see I am doing a new thing!”. In other words, see the new thing I am doing now. That may include what He is calling us to now and we know the best way forward is always to see what lies ahead for us through the eyes of God which is like that of an eagle soaring high above the air and yet seeing something in sharp focus one mile ahead! There is a high level vision and yet with clarity of detail. Both are essential for our path to the future.

I think the message today is that as much as the past is a good encouragement and assurance to us that God was with us and thus will still be with us, we need to see what the future lies. Thus seek God’s vision on what He is doing in our midst that we may flow right in. See the new thing He is doing now. Forget the former things, don’t dwell in the past, meaning don’t stay in the past but the present. See what God is doing now and do that.

Just a side note that as the pandemic had confined most churches to Zoom meetings, the church must respond in a new way to the new normal especially on the lack of direct fellowship from Zoom. God is doing a new thing in our midst and God works even in this new normal, even amidst the raging pandemic. He is sovereign and in control. What is the new thing He is doing among us, in our families and our churches? Let us not live in the past but move on in the present for the sake of our future!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/16/from-mess-to-message

There must have been countless lives changed from mess to message since knowing Jesus, throughout history as recorded in books, magazines, testimonies in rallies and churches all over the world. I’m sure we have heard of such testimonies among our local community and church, at our workplaces, colleges or schools. He or she was in a mess, but God came in and they became shining beacons of God’s glory. Of course, the change did not happen overnight and yes, there were relapses back into mess. But over time, we see believers becoming softer in heart, stronger in character, more cultured, more forgiving, more compassionate, more caring and a kinder person – or just plain different but a better human.

There are two points I think God is saying to us today. The first is that although change will take time, it mustn’t take forever. There is no excuse to keep on delaying transformation within us as the longer we fight it, the longer will it take for God’s glory to be seen and His power manifested in our lives. We must persevere on, inch by inch and not take one step forward but 3 steps backwards everytime. Running the race and progressing is the name of the game!

The second point is that it need not always be a full catastrophic mess to a shining and glowing message. Change can come from whatever stage our life is presently and it can be from a small mess but nevertheless the message needs to remain. The message must be constant. Our testimony before God and man must be maintained in all that we do. Maybe our speech used to be punctuated with swear words but now we speak in a more cultured way. Perhaps, we should now pray out loud to praise God in front of the congregation. Maybe that’s not such a dramatic change but it is still a constant “on the job” improvement of our life. Our testimony is kept intact, the message remains.

When I quit smoking “cold turkey” more than 20 years ago, it was a dramatic change as I started to like to eat more and more like some sort of substitute remedy. Partly age and partly reduced metabolism, as well as a more sedentary lifestyle spent hours at the desk; over the last mote than 20 years I have put on nearly 30 kgs! From thin and scrawny to an overweight fat boy! Quiting smoking helped my health in the long run and is a good testimony. Fortunately, because of Christ in me, I did not turn to drugs or drink and became an addict or alcoholic. But the testimony needs to be maintained. So, I need to lose weight (good for my long term health too) and over the past two years, I have lost around 5 kg and hopefully over the next two years, I will lose another 5 kg. I will never get back to my weight during my smoking days but at least there will be a constant change.

From mess to message; to me, it’s a constant thing. No need a big mess to start with. Any mess will do. The thing is to make it into a message for Christ, big or small, little or major. We are all “work in progress” but we must be constantly transforming pieces of “work in progress”, not stagnant or regressive and thus denying God’s workmanship and glory!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/15/the-ocarina

The Prophet Isaiah uses the metaphor of the Potter and the Clay in Isaiah 64:8 to describe the relationship between Israel and God and by extension through Christ, between us who are in the faith and God. However, if we read Isaiah 64 carefully, we will sense that there is a feeling that God had already left Israel to their sins because they had continued to sin against Him – they felt that the LORD had hidden His face from them and had thus given up on them. Isaiah was sort of pleading with God when he declared that the LORD is the Potter and we are the Clay that we are all the work of His hands. Isaiah then went on to exalt the LORD not to be angry beyond measure and not to remember their sins forever.

The question this morning is are we the Clay that God can work with as the Potter. In its natural form, the Clay is inanimate and thus is a picture of total submission. The Clay just yields as it is shaped by the Potter as He spins the wheel and His hands mould the Clay into the form that He wants. The Clay doesn’t do anything as it can’t – it is not a living thing.

Now imagine that the Clay is alive and can move since it is a metaphor of us as living believing beings. Will the living Clay be like the inanimate Clay, allowing God to shape us as He wished. Or will the living Clay now move against the hands of God, avoiding His touch, jump off the wheel and run away? Will the Clay now want to remain in its original form and thus refuses to be moulded? Will the Clay now resist and rebel against God shaping it?

As much as Isaiah exalted God that He is their Potter and they are His Clay, the reality is that they were a bunch of rebellious, disobedient Clay that had rejected the hand of God. That is probably why Isaiah felt God had given up on them. They were living Clay not behaving in its natural inanimate form.

Ask ourselves today – are we the Clay that God can work with? Although we are not inanimate but alive, can we be like the inanimate Clay when God works in our lives? Can we just let God shape and mould us as He pleases into an instrument that brings forth His glory like the ocarina in today’s ODB? Will we yield our will to Him or will we fight and resist Him? Will we go the way He directs and open new frontiers with Him or will we walk our own familiar path, our comfort zone? We all know that the Clay can only become pieces of beauty after it goes through the heat in the furnace. That’s a topic for another day. For today, we need to accept God’s hands working us into the shape and form He wants before we are ready to serve Him in a deeper way, to do great things for Him in the Kingdom of God!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/14/outside-the-camp

In Hebrews 13:11, the author of Hebrews uses the phrase “outside the camp” and in verse 12, the author mentions that Jesus also suffered outside the city gates, in the sense that He was crucified “outside the camp”. It was the place where the sacrificial bodies of the animals are burnt while the high priest brings their spilled blood as a sin offering to God in the Most Holy Place in the Temple. It was also the place where lepers live in seclusion, isolated from the mainstream of society during ancient times and the time of Jesus. There was however an exception in a leper who thrived despite his condition as he was the commander of the powerful Assyrian army and God healed him through Elisha after he humbly obeyed the seemingly stupid instruction to wash in the Jordan river for seven times (see Naaman in 2 Kings 5). But generally and in most cases, lepers were isolated from society and this is true until perhaps 50 years ago even in Sungai Buloh, Malaysia (used to be the 2nd largest leprosy settlement centre in the world, see http://www.thewayhome.my/History.html)

Do we still have sections of our contemporary society banished to outside the camp? Perhaps the slums in the larger cities? People who live on the streets perhaps? Drug addicts, people of unsound mind, discards of society? In the time of Jesus, there was a demon possessed man living among the tombs (see the Gerasene in Mark 5:1-10). Will we reach out to such people and extend our love and have compassion for them?

In Hebrews 13:11, we are urged to go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore, to the place where our Lord was crucified, to the place where He died for our sins. Will we heed God’s call to go outside the camp? To reach out and have love and compassion for those society looks at in shame, in disgrace? To those in the slums, on the streets, or condemned in prison.

Even among our friends and colleagues amd relatives, there could be some who have somewhat been banished to “outside the camp”; not physically and perhaps not intentionally by society, but psychologically and in the social hierachy sense. Perhaps they lost their self esteem, confidence and status after losing their high paying, top of the line and powerful jobs due to the pandemic and are now surviving by their retrenchment payouts, life savings or by doing Grab or Food Panda. Or perhaps some had lost their businesses or are afflicted with a life threatening illness. Or some are just people who are retired and thus no longer command the status, power or influence they used to have. None of these people are physically outside the camp and yet they are now at the fringes in terms of the role they play in society. Can we reach out to them with compassion and love like Jesus did to the widows, the crippled and the tax collectors? Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, the Son of God – died for our sins, crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem, banished and condemned outside the camp among the criminals, the scum and discards of society. Will we go to those outside the camp like Christ did?

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/13/a-living-document

Psalm 1 is probably one of the of most popular and beautiful of the Psalms, besides Psalm 23 and perhaps Psalm 63. To me, Psalm 1 is beautiful as it contrasts the righteous and the unrighteous (called wicked here) and highlights 3 main outcomes for the righteous (those who are with God and who side with Him) – they will prosper, they will be able to stand in judgment and God watches over them.

According to Psalm 1, the distinct contrast in outcomes arises as one decides not to walk in the company of the unrighteous but instead meditates on the Word day and night and he is described as blessed and like a tree planted by streams of water with full sustenance and thus bears fruits in season and have nice and healthy leaves.

This leads us to the subject matter of today’s ODB, the power of the Word in bringing the life of God into our lives and the power of God into us. The Word is a living document as the Word was at the beginning, the Word was with God and the Word was God. Scripture is living as it not only embodies God, but is God Himself. As much as it is Logos (as it was originally written in time and literary context), it is also Rhema (that speaks to us today and right now to our situation, what we are going through). As the Word is God, and as it describes the various interactions between God and men in literal form, it is perhaps God’s best gift to humankind for us to know and understand Him better (of course nothing beats His gift of His son, Jesus Christ to die for our sins). It is the recorded interactions, seen through human eyes, of God dealing with His people, forgiving and saving His people as they repent from their sinful and rebellious ways and return to Him, of Jesus walking here on earth as a human being like you and I, of His love and compassion, of how the early believers and the Apostles dealt with issues of doctrine and life, all of which are still relevant and applicable today in our present world. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. There is just so much to glean and learn from the Word.

I think a practical pointer to read the Bible is perhaps to read a few translations (NIV, NKJV etc) and also the paraphrased Bibles like the New Living Translation, the Message, the Amplified Bible etc. Reading across versions should help us see different facets of the translations of the original written language and hopefully through all that, the message that God is speaking to us at our relevant time comes through – breaking through the Word into our mind and understanding or as some say, “the Word comes alive in our very own eyes”! Have fun exploring who God was throughout history and who God is now and who He is to us and in the days to come as we read and study the Bible more and more! I pray for understanding and His wisdom and discernment to be upon us by the power of the Holy Spirit as we diligently read and study His Word!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/12/a-single-act

https://www.bibalex.org/SCIplanet/en/Article/Details?id=13515

Paul taught in Romans 5:12-19 that as one disobedient act by one man caused separation from God by sin and condemnation, one obedient act of another man brought reconciliation to God for the multitudes of sin and eternal life plus all the blessings of heaven upon us. The one act of faith by Jesus and His life story impacted the disciples and the believers then, and perpetuated the faith that grew from strength to strength by the power of the Holy Spirit, a faith that grew from a handful of believers into millions around the world today. It is not the effort of these handful of people that the faith grew by leaps and bounds, but by the power of God. The Oregon honey mushroom, the largest organism in the world the size of hundreds of hectares, illustrates how the Kingdom of God has grown and will continue to grow.

Jesus said in Matthew 17:20 that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed (meaning it need not be big), you can say to this mountain to move and it will move (meaning if one places our faith in God, no matter how small, God is able to do much more). Jesus physically demonstrated God’s multiplication power in two instances recorded in the bible; the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000. The point is it doesn’t matter how little you have, in God’s hands it can become thousands.

We have read about this in the lives of missionaries who toiled the hard soil for years only for us to see the results after their life times from one converted soul to villages and provinces won for Christ. Like the headhunting Batak community who killed and ate the many missionaries that went into the interior of Sumatra to reach out to them and yet today, the Bataks are known as Christians.

Whatever we are doing for God; however small it may look, however minute an influence it may make from whatever little corner of the world we are stationed – just carry on doing what the Lord has placed in our hearts. Do it faithfully, day in and day out. Be a good and faithful servant, serving His purposes through whatever little God has placed in our hands. We may not see the results now or in our life times, but so long as one soul benefits, so long as one soul may be touched, we continue to toil the ground for Christ!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/11/from-wisdom-to-joy

Ask any active older folks (like those around 80 or so) about life and there will likely be pearls of wisdom like pace yourself (as in today’s ODB) or enjoy nature or don’t hold grudges or smile, to name a few examples. Usually people who are older are wiser as they have eaten more salt than us, a colloquial and Chinese way of saying that they have gone through more in life than us.

Proverbs 3:13-14 teaches that blessed are those who find wisdom, who gain understanding as she is more profitable than silver and yields better return than gold. That’s very true as wisdom is the best investment of all. However, Proverbs 9:10 advises that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Therefore, as much we know from the life story of Solomon choosing wisdom over riches is the right choice, wisdom in the context of Proverbs is actually the fear of the Lord. What the fear of the Lord does is to draw us closer to God – in the Old Testament, the fear of the Lord is another way of saying to love God and His laws and percepts. In the end, true wisdom in the “Proverbs sense” is to know and love God; to fear Him, to put Him first in all things. Jesus taught this in another way, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). In other words, put God first and you will have tangible things like wealth and riches, and intangibles like love, peace and joy.

If we are asked to choose today between wisdom and riches like God did with Solomon; what would we choose? Surely we will choose wisdom, right? This is because we can have wealth if we have wisdom. But it is actually Matthew 6:33 that Jesus taught – because wisdom is God (wisdom in Proverbs is the fear of the Lord). Thus, if we choose wisdom, that is we choose God always in all the things that we do (seek ye first the Kingdom of God), all these things (including wealth and riches) shall be added unto us.

In conclusion, the”wisest” thing anyone can do as a human, a mortal with an immortal soul/spirit that lives on forever, is to choose God and as we choose God and continually choose God throughout our life (every step of the way until we grow old and depart this earthen vessel) – we will find the joy and all the goodness of God, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/10/like-a-symphony

In Philippians 2:1-4, Paul urged the Philippians to be like minded like Christ, to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

This concept is probably alien to most of us when we first knew Christ as we will naturally value ourselves higher than others and do things for our selfish ambitions and self interest and very rarely will we put the interests of others first. We were brought up in the world and that is exactly how the world works – what’s in it for me?

However, as we are now children of God and co-heirs with Christ, we ought to be like minded with Christ. Christ put Himself at the level of a lowest servant (though He was the King of kings and the Lord of lords) and was obedient even unto death at Calvary. He allowed Himself to be fully and totally humiliated before men and God. The Creator of mankind subjecting Himself to the torture, degradation and shame by men when He could easily have destroyed all His tormentors in an instant, a blink of an eye, is really the ultimate picture of true humility. He did that out of love and compassion for you and I, for all humanity. Endure just a bit more although it’s so painful, degrading and humiliating – for the sake of all before and after, that all may be reconciled to the Father and have life eternal, that all may be freed from the bondage of sin, the shackles of the evil one and have the scales of their eyes lifted to see salvation!

So as Christ had gone through all that for our sake and had humbled Himself to the extreme, can we not be little humble ourselves when we interact with others? Can we not think of the interests of others in all that we do and not only put our own self interest above others like before? Can we no longer conform to the pattern of the world but let our selves be transformed by the renewing of minds as in Romans 12:2? Really – what’s the point of knowing Christ and accepting Him as our Lord and Saviour if we are not one bit like Him? Did Christ die for our sins in vain if we are still stuck in our old wordly ways after accepting Him? We cannot and must not remain as we were. If we have not moved on, now and today is the time to change and be counted as one of His!