https://odb.org/MY/2022/02/08/success-and-sacrifice

I just heard a sermon last Sunday on how the Christian world is sadly similar to the secular world whether it’s the church, a mission organisation or a seminary. There are opportunistic people in high places, there is politicking, manipulation and people looking for sensational things like supernatural encounters, angelic or spiritual visions and big titles (like apostles, prophets) and academic qualifications like doctorates. The criteria for success has become somewhat similar – the flashy, the high flying rather than the humble and the down to earth. The focus is still on the externals and the performance aspects of a person (speaks well with signs and wonders), rather than the character and what’s inside so much so that when someone is gifted and anointed, people will close an eye to his or her character flaws or manipulative or opportunistic ways.

That is most unfortunate. At the personal level, I am always wary of people who like to be called apostle or prophet as though they are Elijah, Ezekial or Peter, Paul or John. Also I cannot understand the paper chase when we know that head knowledge although good to have is not critical or something that defines our relationship with God. Furthermore, all these emphasis on titles and Christian education comes across as seeking to glorify the self and not God. Isn’t self-glorification against the very core of the Christian virtue as the LORD hates the proud and exalts the humble. Are Christian leaders not servants first, and didn’t Jesus Himself teach that the first shall be last and the last first? Can we all dismiss and justify all this down to just human frailty and the weakness of the flesh? Hasn’t the case of Ravi Zacharias taught us anything?

I think we must relook our criteria for success in the Christian world more to stuff like how much a person is willing to lay down his life for others? How much someone is willing to go out on a limb to help others? How humble someone is in character? How forgiving someone is of others who had hurt or harmed him or her? How much suffering one is willing to go through for Christ? I think these are the things that Christ will judge us for our reward on that day, whether we deserve our crown of glory? Furthermore, these are the things that will store up our treasures in heaven, not how many members our church had or how powerful our ministry or how big our title was? Food for thought for today!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/02/07/getting-what-we-want-2

History is filled with people getting what they wanted and those who didn’t. The bible itself records such instances as in the case of Adonijah and Solomon, or even Saul and David. We also see what happened between Jacob and Esau or Cain and Abel. People react badly when they didn’t get what they wanted. But fortunately in the case of Jacob, God turned Jacob around when he wrestled with the angel and he became Israel. He got what he wanted by deceit and craftiness and God had to change and transform him and put him through a period of 20 years with Laban to fully turn him around before using him for His glory.

But the point today is what do we do if we don’t get what we wanted or had aspired for? This could mean that promotion, that position, that house, that car, that million dollars, that pastoral office, that leadership status whether at work or in the church or ministry. It could mean that large department or that large church or that large mission organisation that we used to lead. We might have worked very hard all these years for that but unfortunately it is not meant to be. We see that very clearly in our present local political scene of old politicians trying to relive their past, trying to achieve their dreams even in their old age.

I think we have got it all wrong if we had been pursuing our own dreams and desires. Even if we had got what we wanted, it wouldn’t be good enough to satisfy our most innermost needs. It becomes worse when we didn’t get what we wanted. We are filled with disappointment, anger, bitterness, hatred and even revengeful desires – all negative elements that will eat us up and make us only a shadow of what we could have been in God. I recalled a founding pastor of a church who dreamed about having 100 churches in cities in Malaysia and abroad and in the end, could not even build a simple church building for the church even though they were given the land and had raised the finances. Why? Even the building itself had to be a grand affair!

In the end, I feel it’s best we pursue what God wants for us than what we want ourselves. Go for God’s plans and purposes for us that He had planned for us since the beginning of time. That is what matters at the end of the day or should I say at the end of time. What if we achieved what we wanted or didn’t achieve what we wanted? Will that matter in the scheme of things? What matters is did we achieve what God wanted for us? Did we fulfil what Jesus wanted us to do? What is it that Christ and the Father and the Holy Spirit had earmarked for us to do as part of the many tasks for the Kingdom of God? We know that Christ is the Head of the body and we a part. Which part is ours? Which brick is it ours to lay in the building that is Christ? No point laying our own brick at another building. We do our part and that’s what matters in the end.

https://odb.org/MY/2022/02/06/sweet-sleep

There are instances where the bible uses the term ‘sleep’ to denote death and for the righteous (justified by law or faith), it is an apt description as our ultimate destination is heaven and death is temporal as there will come a day when all those who are righteous before God will be resurrected to be in the presence of God for all eternity.

However, the sleep that we are talking about today is not that kind of sleep but the sleep that we are all more accustomed to. This is the sleep when we rest and close our eyes and drift into a world of dreams. A sleep that is necessary for most if not all created living beings because the physical body needs a downtime for its systems to perform what we call in the working world periodic maintenance, except that for humans and most mammals, it is a daily affair. We need to sleep once a day and if we push ourselves by denying sleep over a prolonged period, our body may break down. In fact I believe that is the reason why God made day and night and provisioned that there are 24 hours to a day.

But to some, sleep is difficult to come by. There could be a variety of reasons but mostly it is our worries that usually cause us sleepless nights. The latter expression to me is a misnomer as people usually use it to mean difficulty in sleeping i.e. insomnia rather than no sleep at all.

So in a way ease in falling asleep is indeed a blessing. Some could even do genuine ‘power naps’. Intentionally dozing off for just short periods and allowing the body to go into its ‘rest and repair’ mode. It’s a gift from God if we sleep easily. Of course not unintentionally, especially when we are at the wheel! Then it becomes a serious problem with major consequences! There are also people who developed a habit to drink in order to sleep and that is a dangerous slope as it will almost certainly lead to alcoholism! If we exercise and workout so we can have a good sleep, then that’s an excellent approach to the issue at hand so long as we don’t overdo it and end up forcing our body to go into overdrive at its rest and repair phase!

A clear conscience and a heart of gratitude to God are things that will help us get a good night’s sleep. May I add a forgiving heart so that we are always reconciled with God and man every night? Settle our worldly affairs and be at peace with the world at large. Then we can dream in peace and joy with no worry in the world bothering us in the background. Then, I believe our dreams will be sweet and joyous.

My prayer for all is that we will all get our deserved rest every night and dream good and sweet dreams, perhaps doing God’s work and helping people like we do in real life! Amen!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/02/05/not-for-our-comfort

The life story of Dan in today’s ODB is similar to that of the well known Toni Eareckson who became a paraplegic after suffering a spinal cord injury. They both sought healing from God but it never came. Instead, in their suffering, they persevered, from their perseverance, they had character and from character, they had hope. They both recognised and saw what God was doing in their midst and accepted the fact that it is through their sufferings that the glory of God will be manifested. Paul also likewise suffered loads of hardship in order that the glory of God may shine through his life in fulfilling his calling to bring the gospel to the Gentiles.

I believe everyone goes through sufferings one way or another. Some sufferings are self evident like paralysis. But most sufferings are hidden and people suffer in silence. We may seek healing and we may command healing but it is also a fact that not everyone gets healed despite the authority given to believers to command and pray for healing. Healing is still a matter of God’s grace in my view although some may disagree.

The question today is do we glory in our sufferings (Romans 5:3) knowing that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance produces character and character, hope? Do we rejoice inspite of our condition or situation? For example, if we are diabetic, it’s a life long preoccupation to control our diet, weight and take our medication. If we have cardio vascular issues, it’s a life long affair dealing with blood thinners and anti cholesterol medication which has long term implications on our liver. Or if we have had a colectomy, we need to live a life carrying a stoma bag with us.

If we are in such a long term situation of suffering, I think we must always remain positive and see the glory of God working in us. Glory in the fact that God is working through us through our sufferings. Remember the story of the beggar at Abraham’s bosom in paradise (Luke 16:19-21)? He laid at the rich man’s gate and longed to eat the crumbs that fell off the rich man’s table. But when they both died, it was a very different scenario.

As believers redeemed by the blood of Christ, having been reconciled with God the Father, we have an inheritance in the riches of His glory. Our destiny and inheritance in the kingdom of God are the things we should guard against and be protective. What we go through and suffer now here on earth pales in comparison to the glory that awaits us (Romans 8:18). No matter how great our sufferings are now, always see the glory of God that is in our midst, what God is and plans to do through our sufferings while focusing our eyes on the glory and inheritance that awaits us one day in heaven. See John 9:3 – neither he or his parents sinned. This happened so that the works of God may be displayed in him. In that particular situation, the blind beggar was healed but in other cases, it is through our sufferings that the glory of God may be manifested!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/02/04/glacier-mice

If we think more carefully about creation, we will realise that the act of creating something actually involves a lot, a lot of prior thought. I watched a few videos on the human body in YouTube during the CNY break. Just how the food we eat are processed by the various organs in our body is itself something of a marvel. Of how the pancreas, liver, stomach, small and large intestines all work together to break down the various elements in our food from fats to carbohydrates to proteins and other chemicals to enable our cells to absorb them and turn them into energy and cell repairing and building elements. That’s just the digestive system. But our body contains many more other co-related and co-dependent systems that doctors spend 5 years just to learn the basics and a lifetime to learn more and to specialise in its organs or systems. If we compound that into the various animals and creatures we have on earth, the various vegetation, fauna and flora, the various insects and then the multitudes of micro organisms – all having their own specific and peculiar systems and there are thousands and thousands of individual specie like the glacier mice that we read about in today’s ODB – is it not even more mind boggling and amazing? We cannot even begin to comprehend just how difficult it is to make one specie, what more thousands and thousands of species, all with their own unique characteristics and each individual within a specie being each a distinct creation! I for one know that my cat Cotton is different from all other cats out there and I know that my deceased Husky and Daisy are just examples of different breeds of a dog and yet each a distinct individual.

If we look at the creation of just one single specie as a project, we will probably need thousands and thousands of teams working at all the separate parts and systems just to create one specie. So to create the earth and all that is within it, if it was a man made creation, millions and millions and millions of teams will be needed to work at the task at hand! I also cannot imagine how long it would take! The immensity of the project is just beyond our comprehension! Just so much thought and work would have been needed to create just one specie, what more the millions of species on earth!

Today’s post is however not about proving the theory of creation against the Big Bang theory. The message today is that if God can do all that with His spoken Word and no doubt that He may not need or could have spent some time crafting and developing the idea and all the details, how difficult our problems do we think is to God? Creation is not just a simple task of building a mould of a man or other animals and creation out of dust. If we had done that, we could probably just succeed in making the form but not the substance! There are thousands and thousands of moving and living parts within that form and there are still the intangibles like the mind (as opposed to the physical brain) and the emotions and also the part which is of another realm – our spirit. So how difficult are our problems and challenges to Him?

The only conclusion we can reach today is that God is infinitely more capable than us and if we were to commit our problems and struggles to Him and seek His help and guidance, He will surely be able to help us out and I’m not saying intervention only in a supernatural way, moving things about or changing situations. I’m saying God is infinitely wiser and much more intellectually capable and thus, His solutions will always be better than ours. Seek Him out. Pray and ask Him to guide and teach us when we face an unmoving wall of a problem. The Lord our God will find a way for us to move forward. Trust Him to work all things for good to all who love Him and who are called according to His purpose. No matter how complex and complicated, nothing will ever compare to creation and He had done that very successfully and seemingly effortlessly!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/02/03/a-fresh-start-4

One of the advantages being a Christian of Chinese ethnicity is that soon after Christmas, we have the Lunar New Year festivities. So it’s a consecutive double celebration, one after another!

Chinese New Year (CNY) or what is called the Spring Festival in China is a time for families to come together for an annual reunion lunch or dinner. I guess there are other occasions when the family gets together but CNY is special because a concerted effort is made to make it special. In my own family, my dear wife will cook the seafood pot, among other delicious dishes, which usually contains, inter alia, abalone, big prawns, scallops, fish maw, oysters, sea cucumbers – basically, stuff we usually only eat once a year! I also look forward to the mandarin oranges, menglembu groundnuts and some beer, which we also get to buy once a year at bargain prices due to overwhelming demand! Besides meeting our loved ones and enjoying good food and giving out ang pow (red packets), it is also a time for the spring cleaning of our homes. The latter is a family activity where everyone chips in before the big day. CNY is a time to visit close friends and relatives although the MCO SOP restrictions still in place somewhat limit visitations to only relatives.

One fundamental element of CNY is to wish for a good year ahead and this year being the Year of the Tiger (which in Chinese means hardship), in a sense, makes the wish for a better year takes a more significant meaning.

But we know that in Christ we are a new creation and thus our destiny and path in life are not determined by the prevailing seasons of time. We can prevail and be victorious even in the Year of the Tiger, in these Covid-stricken times like the Israelites in times of drought. As children of God, God can and will guide us through these shambles of destruction in our nation, in particular, our political scene that in spite of the follies, trickery and greed of man, the will of God in our lives may and will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. God will guide us out of this thick and confusing maze as we put our hope and trust in Him.

In our CNY greetings, we wish our friends, colleagues and relatives a better year, that the Year of the Tiger be a better one for everyone. We wish that 22 will be a better year after going through two difficult years in 20 and 21.

Chances are however Covid-19 will be here to stay and for a long time to come. My prayer for all of us is hence that we will all be able to quickly adapt to the new normal as the Lord leads and guides us, and that, in my view, includes the way we run our churches and our church services and ministries. For example, perhaps, the hybrid model will be with us for the next 7 years and not just a few more months? Perhaps working from home will be a permanent feature in our work culture and life?

May God bless and keep us all safe in 2022! Xin Nien Kuai Le, everyone!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/02/02/a-loving-posture

I think one of the easiest things to do when it comes to God is to be humble before Him. Easy because we know who God is and He being our creator and Lord and King, surely we cannot match Him in any way, in any thing. He is exceedingly superior to us in every single thing. So we should be rightfully and logically humble before Him.

Strange as it may seem, we are sometimes proud before Him. Maybe not exactly before Him but before Man. And in this respect, we know God is everywhere and He sees everything and knows our heart, so why are we behaving with haughtiness before people? We know God hates proud people, in fact pride has been the downfall of many a Christian leader, in the past and in the present.

I think pride takes over when we start to think that we are who we are today because of our own sweat. It doesn’t matter whether we are successful in the secular world, in ministry as a man of the cloth or as a lay leader in church or in music as a musician or a worship leader – we think it’s all based on our own effort. That I think is when pride creeps in and we ended up being proud of ourselves and our achievements and totally forgot we are where we are because God put us there or because God made or allowed someone to put us there.

See Psalm 16:2 – David said You are my Lord, apart from You I have no good thing. In other words, we are nothing without God. That’s the posture of humility that I feel all of us must have. We must never ever forget that without God, we are nothing. See Philippians 3:8 – Paul regarded all that he had achieved in the past as rubbish, that he was willing to lose everything to gain Christ.

The message today – we know that God hates pride and proud people and He is superlatively greater than us in everything and thus we ought to be humble before Him. So let’s all have a humble posture before man and God. Depend on God in all that we do and say. Pray before we speak and act. Ask God for His guidance. Let Him guide us. Let Jesus be our teacher and master in all that we do. Rely on Him. Don’t think we can sort things out on our own and always remember we are where we are today, we are who we are today because God loves us, because of His grace and compassion, because He had planned that for us before we were even formed in our mother’s womb. Be thankful and grateful and humble before God and man, and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Surely goodness and mercy will follow us the rest of our days if we have the favour of the Lord with us all the days of our lives!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/02/01/love-on-the-go

The Gospel of Matthew uses 5 teaching blocks to wrap around the story of Jesus, of which the first and last were the longest and appear to stand in contrast to one another. The first block, the Beatitudes or the Sermon of the Mount, presents the ideals and principles of living in the Kingdom of God while the last block, speaks of the consequences if those ideals and principles are not adhered to or disregarded.

In Matthew 25:31-40, Jesus taught about the need to treat others well as when we do so we are doing the same to Him. It is like those people that are around us, that we meet in the street, that we interact with in our daily life at work or wherever is a proxy of Jesus, a representative of Him, a persona of the Lord. If we are kind to them, we are kind to Jesus. If we are mean to them, then we are mean to Him. If we exert authority and oppress them or cheat and swindle them with trickery or deceit, then we are doing the same thing to Jesus! Not only do we ask ourselves what would Jesus do in that situation, we need to tell ourselves that everyone that we deal with is Jesus and if so, will we ever be mean, cruel or vindictive with anyone ever? God is represented in each and everyone one of them. Surely, we will be kind and forgiving to Jesus if we were to meet Him in person, face to face! So in the same rein, surely we will be kind and forgiving to everyone if everyone is a proxy or representative of Christ!

Blessed Chinese New Year, everyone! As we enter the Year of the Tiger, may we apply and live out the ideals and principles for the Kingdom of God in the Beatitudes as Jesus shared in the Sermon of the Mount and may we indeed treat everyone we meet and know, whether in our family, church, community, at work or in the streets, with love and compassion, kindness and forgiveness and see Christ in every single one of them! If we are mean, cruel and vindictive to them, then we are likewise mean, cruel and vindictive against our Lord Jesus Christ!

Just when preaching in church at the pulpit, I think I’ve teared up twice already. Once due to a sad situation that directly affected me and another when the Holy Spirit touched me and spoke to me intensely through my own message. In both, it was quite an embarrassing situation but I somehow did not squelch the tears. I guess the story here is that when God moves, it is alright in fact good to let it all flow out, whether tears of joy and gratitude or even sorrow. In my second experience above, it gave credence to the principle that a message should speak to the speaker first.

In other instances, when alone and in worship, it is much easier to shed tears of gratitude and thankfulness just knowing that God is with us. Sometimes in worship, the presence of God is so strong and real that we just cannot contain our emotions and it should be like that. When God touches us, just allow the moment to flow and soak in His presence – allow Him to speak to us, to correct us, to strengthen and encourage us, to edify and minister to us even as we minister to Him in worship. He is God and doesn’t need us and yet He is happy to dwell in the praises of His people, His children as our praise and worship is a sweet incense, a sweet aroma unto His throne.

I think the takeaway today is to let ourselves go when God moves in His presence and envelopes us. It could be when we are preaching, when we are leading worship or when we are alone worshipping Him, reading His Word or even when we are listening to a song. Allow the moment to overcome us. Let our emotions out, let our guard down. Allow the Holy Spirit to touch and convict us, to lift us up. Don’t squelch the tears, don’t rein in the emotions. Let the LORD be God, let Him rule and reign, let Him take control for He is our God and our King!

Happy Chinese New Year to all who are celebrating! Xin Nien Kuai Le! May this coming year be a better year for all of us and may our Father in heaven pour out a greater portion of His anointing upon us that we may be strengthened and empowered to do more for Him and His Kingdom of Grace!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/01/30/are-we-there-yet-2

Are we there yet, Lord? Like our kids asking the question many times on a long distance road trip – are we there yet, Pa? The difference I guess is that no matter how many times they ask, we know that there is a definite end to it and it’s a matter of hours or minutes or kilometers.

When it comes to unanswered prayers, do we know for sure it will have the ending we had hope for? To be sure I think we need to ask a few basic questions. Is our prayer in the will of God? Is it as per God’s calling for us? Is it part of what God is doing in our life, what God is doing in our midst? Or are we just hopeful that things will turn out the way we want them to? And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28 NKJV). There is a sense that as much as we love God, our prayers must be in line with God’s calling and purpose for us. Then everything will work together, will come together for good.

The other point is of course whether we have unforgiveness in us? Do we hold hidden grudges against man? Are we resentful for who we are, where we are today? Maybe someone had hurt or rejected us before? Perhaps someone had done something evil to us? Or we were denied an opportunity? Have we forgiven and forgotten about that? Or do we bring to remembrance those memories every now and then to feed our soul, our emotions?

Or do we have sin in our life? Some known sin that we have difficulty overcoming, extinguishing. Some sin that is still bugging up after all these years. Can we break free? Remember that sin and unforgiveness are major hurdles preventing us from reaching God.

Are we there yet, O Lord?

My prayer for all of us is that may we be near. May our prayers be just around the corner. God is going to come through for us. It could be a breakthrough, a revival that we have been praying for, for our church and ourselves and our family. Are we there yet, Lord? Will you be answering my prayer soon, O Lord my God?

Be that as it may, you will always be my Lord and God, my Saviour and my Deliverer. You are nevertheless the only God and King that I know. You are the only one that I worship and adore. You are my King of Glory, the lifter of my face. To you all glory and honour and power and dominion! Amen!