https://odb.org/MY/2021/08/30/master-of-mercies

The sunflower growing and standing triumphantly in the middle of a highway next to the fast lane. Josiah, after a long line of idol worshipping and evil Kings of Judah, followed the ways of his forefather David and served and worshiped the LORD. Josiah destroyed the idols, turned Judah back to God and repaired the Temple of the LORD. Both of these examples go to show that God is able to work in unexpected ways; whether in a lonely place like a far away highway or after a line of many disobedient, rebellious and unfaithful Kings. Or we may extrapolate – in cold and dark countries that are violently hostile to the Gospel or in the middle of and among the most isolated Amazon tribes or among the more advanced but liberally lost nations of Europe or even in communist regimes like China, North Korea and Cuba.

Perhaps our life has been uneventful in the spiritual space all this while? Perhaps our church have been praying for a spiritual breakthrough all this time? Perhaps we have been praying for a miraculous healing for ourselves or for someone? Or perhaps we have been waiting for a long time for that recognition at work, that promotion, that jump in salary?

The message today is God is in control and may work whether through nature (sunflower) or man (Josiah) unexpectedly. God can work even when the odds are heavily stacked against Him. The Lord will work in you and I even if we are one of those whom most will not expect to see change and becoming like a King Josiah. Respond to His call, step up in faith and see His miraculous Hands working in our midst, in our life, brightening up our surroundings and blessing us and those associated with us with His grace, mercy, love and protection – all under the shadow of His mighty wings! He is the Almighty God; the same God who grew the majestic sunflower in the middle of nowhere and the same one who raised Josiah after a long line of evil Kings! Praise the Lord for He is a good and mighty God!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/08/29/the-gospel-of-rome

Interesting to know from today’s ODB writer that the Good News used to mean that the Roman Empire had no boundaries or end and that it meant Augustus was decreed by Zeus to be the divine son and saviour of the world to usher in a golden age of peace and prosperity. Except that the harsh reality was the Roman Empire was built on the backs of thousands and thousands of slaves who were legally the property of their masters (generally, slaves were spoils of war who were given the choice to be slaves and live or death).

The Gospel of Jesus Christ as preached by Paul first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles was the real Good News, promising hope and salvation to all including the multitudes of slaves who had no future but also to the free who were shackled by sin, living in spiritual blindness. The Gospel is the power of God to bring salvation to everyone who believes. For in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith.

Although we are all legally free today as rightful and lawful citizens of our country, we are not completely liberated by the shackles of sin. Some of us remain in spiritual blindness. The enemy increasingly wants to keep us bound by sin as well as entangled by the attractions of the world – to distract and keep us away from God’s perfect plans and purposes for us.

The Good News of the Gospel is thus still relevant today, even to us who are believers – as a reminder that we were previously slaves bound by sin with no identity in God and separated from God by sin. We are now lawful and rightful children of God in fellowship with God where our prayers can reach and penetrate into the heavenlies with the power to change the natural, with the hope of glory for an eternal life to come.

Thus, take our place in the Kingdom of God and begin to act with authority over sin and the devil as rightful and lawful children of God. Don’t be passive anymore, looking on at the sidelines and sitting tight in our pews. Get in the ring and fight for the Kingdom, for God as our battle is not against flesh and blood but principalities of the air and dark forces. Use the power of prayer given to us and begin interceding for our family, friends, church, country and the world! Be active and participate in the work of the Kingdom! Let’s all do our respective part in the body of Christ!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/08/28/a-great-ending

Revelation 22 is the goal and motivation of every believer, the life eternal promised by John 3:16. It is the great ending, except that it is the start of a new beginning. Somewhat akin to the fairy tales’ happy ever after ending. Fairy tales endings are wishful thinking as life is never a happy ever after experience and yet Revelation 22 is not wishful thinking. It is real and will occur as promised because the Living God said so in His Word as revealed to the Apostle John. Because Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is the Bright Morning Star. It will be eternal life living with and a life of fellowship with God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. The tree of life that was rightfully ours in the Garden of Eden before the Fall, will rightfully be ours again!

As much as the great ending is such an excellent motivation for us to strive on in our faith, we need to actually strive on in the present. As much as salvation is by grace, there are still good works and faithfulness to God’s plans and purposes for us that we need to pursue while we continue on this journey of faith here on earth in the present.

Well and good that we are assured a great ending. But like every novel that we have read and every movie that we have seen, the plot matters more than the ending. How we write our story, the story of our life, determines what we will present to our Lord when we reach the finish line. Our life story can be like the fruits brought by Cain or the fatted portions from the flocks brought by Abel. On that day, we cannot bring over any of our possessions and achievements but our life story. Did we fulfil God’s plans and purposes for us?

Therefore, let us write our life story with the end in mind so we may present our life to the Lord as our rightful gift for His redeeming grace and sacrifice on the cross for us. Make our life story a story worthy of such a great ending, worthy of a life of eternal fellowship with God and deserving of our right to partake from the tree of life!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/08/27/the-ultimate-healer

I think the issue highlighted by today’s ODB devotional is one that we could still be facing today, but subtly. The Israelites as we know faced idolatry constantly. As they settled in the Promised Land after the 400-year plus sojourn in Egypt, they slowly absorbed the cultures of the surrounding nations and that included the worship of idols.

As believers, we surely do not have an altar of idols at home and neither do we pray using joss sticks. Those are clear cut practices that if we had done in our old life, we surely would have left them behind in our new life in Christ. But idolatry can come in various subtle forms, like our worship of famous people or idols (pun unintended) or even practices “we swear by” (doesn’t mean we really swear, just an expression or idiom). We could have our own bronze snake that Moses made that King Hezekiah destroyed – some tried and tested method of doing things that have now become like an idol that we worship. It doesn’t replace God and thus is not an idol in the strictest sense but if we place more reliance on that methodology than God, it has the potential to overwhelm and engulf us or the enemy could use it to divert us away from God.

I think one way to overcome this and prevent something else taking over God’s place in our lives is to always depend on God in all the things that we do whether at work, church or in ministry and be always prepared to depart from our usual practices when God prompts us. When the Holy Spirit nudges us to go another way or use another approach, go ahead and obey. Our confidence must be in God and not our human ways. If we have a bronze snake in our lives, it’s high time we take appropriate steps to eliminate it from our lives! To God be all the the glory, for the things He has done and is doing in our midst and for the things He will doing!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/08/26/heeding-the-warnings

One way to teach children who are growing up is to incorporate warnings. Of course as wise parents we try to remove all threats like dangerous objects or things that may be swallowed when they are much younger and yet warnings are inevitable as we cannot be with them all the time. So we will tell our kids not to cross the road without an adult or to follow strangers or accept sweets from people they don’t know or follow people into cars.

Jesus in Matthew 10 in commissioning the 12 disciples to proclaim the Kingdom of God is here to the Jews then (not to the Samaritans or Gentiles at that point) also incorporated a warning – He will acknowledge before the Father those who acknowledge Him before others and disown before the Father those who disown Him before others.

Which brings me to the question of the day – do we warn others of the consequences of not believing in Jesus when we reach out with the Gospel? We usually emphasise eternal life in the salvation message as well as God’s grace and love for reaching out to humans by sending His only Son to the world to die for our sins and to defeat death. But there is also a warning – if we reject Christ, the path is to eternal damnation at the place called hell where there will constant gnashing of teeth and most pertinently, we will lose forever our link and access to the creator of heaven and earth.

Corollary to that, God in His love also warns us personally as His beloved children whether when He speaks to us during our quiet time or through our reading of His Word or when we hear the message on Sunday or through the wonders of nature or through our family and friends or even through this Daily Bread devotional readings. Heed the warnings whenever we hear them. If God takes the trouble to warn us, we must take the trouble to heed – at least out of our love, respect and appreciation of God’s work in our lives.

One of the first things I did when my wife and I started leading a Young Adults (YA) Cell Group in our local church was to continue the practice of our predecessors posting a link for morning devotions in our YA WhatsApp Group. My first posting was way back in 14th October 2015.

We started with a few devotional websites before settling, over time, on the long established and well-known Our Daily Bread (ODB); which I believe most of us would have come across in our lifetime as a Christian in its hard copy booklet form, but now available as an electronic copy.

At the personal level, I had moved on from posting a link to setting out a summary like a preamble, but for the past few years, have been writing more of a commentary like an insight to the subject (which is slightly longer). I have also started this blog and made my postings available to my church members in general (via my church’s WhatsApp Group), to my current and former work colleagues, ex-classmates in school and university as well as friends and relatives.

I believe that writing these commentaries is my calling in God for this season; and as I write what comes to mind in the morning prompted by the Holy Spirit, I am encouraged that many have been touched and blessed. God does use these commentaries (coupled with the excellent devotional writings in the ODB) to reach out and speak to my readers on their life situations.

It is my prayer that each of you will be blessed as I continue to respond to this calling from God to the best of my ability.

Love-in-Christ