https://odb.org/MY/2021/10/06/teaming-up

When my father was posted back to the West Coast after 10 years in the East Coast as a teacher, he took up scouting at the new school. Even though I was very young then, maybe standard two or three, my father will bring me along for his scouting activities although I was studying in a different school. I can’t remember exactly but I think in my own school, you can only join the scouts from standard four or five onwards. What I do recall from scouting during those years (later I also joined the scouts in my own school) was the camaraderie that we had as a unit when doing things together. Whether marching, handling crowd control during sports day, setting up camp or cooking, we all did things together and the sense of togetherness was very strong.

I feel this is what we missed most during the pandemic. Even at work, when a group of us closed a contract to move on to the implementation of a project, even on the successful implementation of that project – the feeling of having achieved something together is there but not as strong. It is different when we are physically present gathered in a room or working together in the field to achieve a certain goal.

Paul taught in 1 Thessalonians 5:15 that as believers we ought to strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. In verse 11, he exhorted us to encourage one another and build each other up. In verse 12, he suggested that we should acknowledge those who work hard among us, who care for us in the Lord and who admonish us. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work and live in peace with each other (verse 13).

I feel the first thing we should all do as a church or cell group is to take on a project together to rebuild the camaraderie among us, to restore the togetherness. This will certainly lead to us encouraging and building us all up, living in peace with one another as we work hard to achieve something meaningful for Christ. It can be a project or activity to help those displaced by the pandemic or just being there with those who had lost someone due to the same or as a result of something else. Let’s all start working together again for the sake of everyone. Let’s all do what is good for each other and for everyone else. It can be an activity to feed the poor or to visit a village in the interior. James had advised faith without works is dead (James 2:26). Let’s start doing good works together as a church and cell group once we have more freedom when the MCO restrictions are lifted as the pandemic turns into an endemic!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/10/05/with-me-in-the-valley

As a Christian, we do not fear death since we are assured of salvation and eternal life. We know that with Jesus having redeemed us by His blood, death has lost its sting. Jesus proved this by resurrecting on the 3rd day after His death on the Cross of Calvary, as a hope of glory – showing us that one day, we who are in the faith will also be transformed or resurrected with a glorified body either during our lifetime when we are caught up in the rapture when He comes again as King of kings and Lord of Lords or on the day of judgment.

Paul said before that for him, to die is gain and to live is Christ (Philippians 1:21). Hannah Wilberforce said as she’s dying that “better and worse; Jesus as good as ever”.

As we see death of people we know in our midst, lost to disease and it became more prevalent recently due to Covid, I think we should remember that as much as life and death is in the hands of God, we must do what is assigned to us by God now and not later. Life is frail. One moment we are here getting on with our life, the next moment we are gone. We move on. What are the plans and purposes of God for us? Have we put in the effort to find out and do them. Have we found our passion in God, the thing that really inspires us to give our best, rain or shine, day in and day out?

I had experienced some pain around my chest area recently and thus instead of postponing my medical check-up due to my work schedule, I forced out some time to do a medical yesterday. Did the stress test properly this time and reached 99% of the targeted heart rate (166/167). I was prepared for the worse, at minimum aspirin or at worse angioplasty. Praise God that my heart is normal! That was indeed a relief! But I’m not in the pink of health as I already have the dreaded 3 – high blood, elevated cholesterol levels and diabetes. But this time round, I willingly requested for all necessary medication. As far as the heart and other organs are concerned, I feel I have been given a new lease of life now to make amends for the mistakes I made the past 50 years so that I may have a good quality of life for my next 20-30 years. I need to remain strong and healthy to do my part for the Kingdom as well as for the sake of my wife and children.

With what I had gone through last week and with the positive results from my appointment with my cardiologist yesterday, I sensed God’s love and compassion through it all, that as I go through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for His rod and staff comfort me. I am grateful to God for giving me a second chance so that I can say like Paul that to die is gain but to live is Christ. Or like Hannah Wilberforce, better and worse; Jesus as good as ever.

I think everyone of us should not take death lightly – as much as it brings us back to God, we really don’t want to leave this world (if at all possible and if God permits) before we have fulfilled His plans and purposes for us. While alive and well, live the life that God had appointed for us from the beginning and take all necessary precautions to have a healthy life so we may achieve the best we can for God while still here on earth. We mustn’t take tomorrow for granted – live for God today, don’t wait till tomorrow, for tomorrow may never come. To die may be gain but if we are to live, live for Christ!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/10/04/wherever-we-worship

I have been involved in worship for most of my Christian life as learning to play the guitar was the thing that brought me to join a Navigator’s bible study and subsequently accepted Christ. Two years after that I joined a church that sang acapella with tambourines for rhythmic timing and thus I later started playing acoustic guitar, adding chords to the mix. That’s more than 35 years ago.

Throughout all those years, as much as I believe musical instruments and good musicians are an essential element to a good worship experience, I know that our hearts are always more important. By that I mean that our hearts when worshipping God and that includes the hearts of both the worship leader as well as the musicians. As musicians and worship leaders, we play and sing to the best of our abilities. We use the best equipment and instruments that we or our church can afford so that we are giving God our best in worship under the circumstances. And yet what’s more crucial to achieve a worship experience where we touch God’s throne and enter into His presence is our heart. Worship cannot be mechanical or out of duty. It has to come from within us, filled with thanksgiving, adoration, gratefulness, awesome wonder as He is indeed beautiful beyond description and we stand in awe of Him. Christ is really worthy of all of our praise and worship. That I believe is what Jesus meant in John 4:23 when He said the time will come and it is now that true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. We need to worship God in the spirit, deep from within us in unison with the Holy Spirit as He guides us and as He moves among us. For worship leaders, moving along with the Spirit is a sensitivity we develop over time based on a sanctified life. So yes, I agree we can worship anywhere because the place is irrelevant. That means we can worship God via Zoom or Facebook Live from anywhere we are, no matter how bad the connection or how limited the musical experience. That doesn’t mean we should dispense with meeting one another all together as congregational worship and getting together have their own merits.

Jesus also taught that we need to worship in truth. What that basically means, in my view, is that we need to sing truths as revealed by the Word of God. We don’t sing any song to worship God, but I believe that any song that speaks the truth of His glory, that tells of His goodness and His faithfulness is a good worship song. Any song that exalts the truth as revealed in Scriptures is good. That is why when I prepare for worship, I believe I can choose any song that touches my heart or speaks to me. There is good in having a theme or in choosing songs that proclaim a certain message but to me, the songs must touch my heart first. A true worshipper and worship leader can take any song that proclaims the truth of God and worship or worship lead with that.

Worship God from anywhere with any song of worship or praise or hymn that comes to mind. Worship from within us. Live a sanctified and forgiving life. The Holy Place is where we are. God’s presence will be there with us as we worship Him from where we are, from who we are in Christ, having been redeemed and justified by the blood of the Lamb. There is thus no condemnation as we approach the Throne of Grace. Only grace and His loving presence.

https://odb.org/MY/2021/10/03/adam-r-holz

It had been a long eventful and emotional week for me! Two large value transactions I was handling were approved by the Board of my company to proceed, two major contracts I have been negotiating were finally signed, my son flew off to the UK for further studies, my dog passed away and a church leader with end stage cancer passed away right before our eyes when my wife and I visited her and her husband yesterday afternoon.

I witnessed the frailty of life when both the oximeter and blood pressure device registered reducing and then zero readings in the case of my church leader. Breathing stopped and we couldn’t feel any pulse.

My dog refused a piece of chicken (not a good sign as she eats practically anything and anytime as she is a dog that is always hungry!) at around 6pm the day before. We took her to a vet and they suspected possibly kidney failure and by around 11 pm, she didn’t have any more life. She was gone. She was a very strong dog and died the first time we saw her unwell. She was 12 years old (in human terms, that’s 84). When life goes, it goes – there is nothing we can do at that point but honour them with a proper burial.

There is no doubt that as we age, we will feel the changes in our bodies. We are not as strong as before. We have aches all over. Our joints freeze. We get tired more easily. Our vision and hearing become poorer. Our thoughts are slower. Outwardly, we are wasting away, day by day. Because of the fall, humankind can never live forever in this earthen vessel. In the earlier days of Adam and Cain and Seth, humans live up to perhaps, 800 years. But in Genesis 6:3, God decided to limit our lifespan to 120 years, meaning to say, that the days of man living till 500 or 800 years old were over.

However, Paul taught in 2 Corinthians 4:16 that inwardly we are being renewed day by day. Our spirit is being strengthened as we dwell and immerse ourselves in His presence. As we serve Him and sow seeds of faith for His kingdom, we become stronger inside the same way we will be storing riches in heaven by heeding amd following His laws and commandments.

I think for me there are two major takeaways. First is if we want to serve God more fervently, do it while we are younger and not older. It is risky to wait until we retire as we will be much older then and weaker physically and likely bogged down by sickness. Yes, we have a career and a day job and family needs, but there must be a balance. We should give God our best, and we are at our peak when we are at our youth.

So, if there is something we want to do for God, do it now and not later. We are in control of today. We can’t do anything about yesterday and we don’t know what tomorrow lies.

The second takeaway for me is that we must spend more time strengthening our inner man. We exercise, eat healthily and take our meds but we will still be wasting away. We can slow down the process but aging will inevitably takes its toll. Spend more time praying, reading His Word, being in fellowship with Him, worshipping God, serving Christ. Do all that we need to do and more, to strengthen our spirit as that is the part of us that will live on after our outer shell passes.

If we eat good food all the time, we put our physical body at risk to all sorts of diseases and infirmities, but if we partake of good spiritual food all the time, our spirit will be stronger and stronger!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/10/02/adolescent-faith

I remember during my adolescense years with God and it was longer than my natural adolescence years, I was in this constant battle whether to follow God wholeheartedly or follow my dreams and ambitions. During those years, the two appeared to be mutually exclusive. The spirit was rebellious like the Israelites during Moses’ time. I wanted to be with God and yet I wanted to pursue my own interests. I wanted to follow my heart that was not fully Christ’s yet then. I was also just beginning to know the world, just out of school and later university. I came from a small town and the city lights were bright. Also I then started to earn my own money, not much but still it was much, much more than what I used to have. For example, I could have more variety in terms of food and not limited to the less than RM2 meals when I was in University. We nearly always had RM1.60 mixed rice with 2 meat and one vege dishes plus Chinese tea and soup as our lunch. I remember too when I first started travelling for work that I was trying hard to save the per diem allowance of thirty five US dollars (a princely sum then) by eating bread for dinner!

During those years, God was close and yet far. As I said, I wanted the things of the kingdom but also the things of the world. Didn’t quite figure out how to go about both then and thus this constant battle within me. I go to church and serve God, but my heart was very much drawn to the attractions of the world. Thus although I knew God, my heart was not fully His. But as can be seen in today’s ODB, God knew we will fully give Him our hearts one day.

Later I learnt that following God and our own ambitions need not always be mutually exclusive as we could commit our ambitions to God and let Him sanctify them and our hearts and lives. We could live in the glory of His presence and yet pursue our interests. In the end, it still boils down to Matthew 6:33 – “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these shall be added unto you”.

Everyone of us will have our own adolescence years with God. The Israelities during the wilderness and one whole generation had to perish before Joshua and Caleb (only two from that generation) led the remaining into the Promised Land.

The question today is are we still in our adolescence years in God when our natural years are well advanced, well past adolescence? Adolescence by definition is the transition from child to adult. Are we still transitioning? I think it is clear that we cannot forever be a child or adolescent in our spiritual life. We need to step up and step out in faith and take on the challenge to grow up and that can only mean that we need to determine that we will follow God with all of our heart, all of our soul and all of our strength. We need to be a living sacrifice. We need to fulfil His plans and purposes for our lives. Dive into the fire and no longer stand at the peripherals, at the outer circle.

https://odb.org/MY/2021/10/01/whats-your-name

Today’s ODB sets forth an interesting discussion on names, namely (pun intended), the name our parents gave us, the name others give us, the name we give ourselves as well as the name Jesus gives us. Our first name (for example, mine is Ronnie, the name my parents gave me) will remain throughout the other 3 scenarios, but I think it is useful to ponder what are the other names we could or would or are given.

What name would others call us? Reliable, dependable, hardworking, meticulous, smart etc or negatives like evil, selfish, self serving, difficult, tyrant, stingy etc? I have heard people calling me “an experienced negotiater” in my line of work and coincidentally that’s my tagline in my LinkedIn profile. I have also heard people calling me “a nice guy” which in the social context is good but not really good in the context of work as the latter means I’m likely to give in than to fight for more. Of course there are negatives as we are not perfect but let’s not dwell too much on that. But I think the question today is what is the name we want people to know us? For me, I’ll like that to be a person who tries to put God first – recognising the intent but perhaps I’m not always successful, the frailty of the human condition. What about you?

The third name is the one we give ourselves? What is that? Is our name we always give our best in all situations or we just do what we can. Or maybe we like to be known as we will do just enough, no more no less, to commensurate with our salary and position? There is no right or wrong as everyone is entitled to take their stand. I prefer to be known as someone who will help if I can, whether it’s life advice, work, finance or spiritual journey. But when it comes to work, no problem to work beyond my call of duty. Just that I need to look at my workload to do justice and to be fair to everyone. But at the spiritual front, I think I like to be known for faithfulness, more than anything else like powerful, visionary, prophetic, apostolic etc.

Lastly and most importantly, what’s the name Jesus will give us on the white tablet at the day of judgment? Will it be well done, my good and faithful servant? We have done what He had set you out to do with our life? Thus, we have fulfilled His calling upon our lives?

Perhaps, the best outcome is that the name people give us, the name we give ourselves and the name Jesus gives are all one and the same. Our reputation, character and our soul all exhibit and resonate the same thing – that is to glorify God’s name. It will not be easy, but it is doable as we allow the Lord to be our Potter and we be the model Clay, submissive and totally surrendered to His will. Pray and think about this today.

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/30/all-that-you-need

As humans, we are not perfect. That’s a given. So we might not be as tall as we would have liked. Or we may not be as fair in skin tone. Or we may not have that much hair, that lush long and thick hair. Maybe our features are not so sharp, eyes not so big or we do not have double eyelids. Or we may not have had tertiary education or didn’t do Masters or PhD or didn’t pass that professional course like CLP or ACCA. Or maybe we have yet to own our own home or buy that German luxury car. Perhaps we don’t sing that well or play guitar or piano or bass that well or don’t play saxophone or drums. Perhaps we don’t speak that well in public or don’t preach so well. Or we are still working for people and have not become a business owner. Or like the ODB life story of today, we do not have biological children of our own. Or maybe we are afflicted with a disease that has caused us to be handicapped in some ways. Or we were born deaf or blind. Or had become immobile due to disease or an accident.

Whatever is our lack or imperfection, some things can be changed like our physique with weight training or our educational credentials by studying for it or our property, by saving up for our first house. But there are things that are permanent like our height or fertility or lack of vision or hearing.

The message today is that God is our portion. He perfects and completes us by being our portion, meaning to say, we can carry on with life as we are because we have God and God will be that substitute for our lack. If we are lonely because we have lost our life partner, God is there to be with us and comfort us. He will be our companion, our partner in life. We can do things and go about life with God at our side, doing things together with us. Whatever lack or void we have, God will be our portion. If we do not have an earthly inheritance and have had to build our earthly life from scratch, God is our inheritance.

I think whatever the hand of fate had dealt us, we now have a destiny because of our faith in God. We may turn fate to faith. Ultimately we now have God with us and thus we must forever be grateful that God found us and reached out to us, to be our portion. The Levites were not allocated land when the other 11 tribes were. With land, one can cultivate produce and rear livestock and the land itself has perpetual intrinsic value. God then became their portion, they live off the tithes and offerings given to God by the other tribes. So they didn’t have land that will appreciate in value over time but they had a permanent place in the house of the LORD, a constant nearness to the glory of the LORD in the Temple. They had what David described in Pslam 23 as the goodness and mercy of God for the rest of their lives by having the privilege to dwell in the House of the LORD forever, literally and not figuratively. God became their portion. God can and will become our portion too as we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice unto Christ! He is indeed our portion, our rock and salvation! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

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)!