https://odb.org/MY/2022/01/29/perfect-like-christ

Matthew 19:16-26 sets out an interaction between Jesus and a rich young ruler, the latter meaning someone with authority and wealth. So this young ruler asked Jesus what it takes to enter the Kingdom of God and Jesus replied, keep the commandments. But the young ruler pressed Jesus for more and Jesus answered, to be perfect (meaning complete or in maturity), he should sell all of his possessions and give to the poor. Jesus then ended that discourse by telling the disciples that it is difficult for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God and even easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. But He said, even though with man it is impossible, with God all things are possible.

People had used this passage to contend that therefore it is better to be poor than rich because it is quite impossible for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God. Actually I think it doesn’t matter whether we are poor or rich because in the end, we are not able to fulfil God’s criteria for righteousness on our own as a human being. Salvation is by grace and not works. It is a gift of God. On our own, whether we are rich or poor, of high standing in the church or not, socially held in high esteem or not, of high academic qualifications or not, holding a high position in the government or at the private sector or run a successful business or not, or whether our parents and grandparents were diligent servants of God or missionaries – we, on our own, can never enter the Kingdom of God. It is only through the sacrifice of Jesus, His blood that was shed on the cross of Calvary that God is able to look past our sin and iniquities and accept us as unblemished. When Jesus said that it is impossible with man but all things are possible with God, He was actually talking about Himself being the ultimate Lamb of God to die for the sins of mankind as He alone was without sin and blemish to be the Lamb to atone and redeem mankind from the first sin of Adam.

So in this era of the church in the last days, is it true that the rich and powerful and successful will find it difficult to enter the Kingdom of God? Do we have to sell all our possessions, resign from our jobs, give up our businesses in order to enter the Kingdom of God? Surely not! As we are not relying on ourselves but Jesus to gain admission and acceptance in the Kingdom of Heaven. Remember it is impossible for us to go in on our own steam, on our own merit. We must thus be forever grateful to Jesus for opening the door to us and inviting us into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Having said that, I think that for maturity and perfection, there could still be elements in our lives that hinder us from growing more into His glory and those are the things we must look out for. Maybe it’s our wealth, our pride in our jobs or position, our success in ministry, our office as a pastor or elder or deacon or leader of a church. Everything we have, be it material wealth or fame or power or talents and position, use it wisely for the purposes of the Kingdom lest these things prevent us from being the person God had planned for and wants us to be in Him. Don’t let these trivial things cloud our judgment and distract us from the real issues at hand. Keep on walking the narrow path and keep our eyes on Jesus, the perfector and finisher of our faith!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/01/27/squash-the-beef

I think one of the most difficult challenge anyone who has come to faith faces is this ability not to hold grudges. It is easier said than done! Some say forgive but no need to forget. But seriously, if we remember, can we genuinely forgive, especially if we keep on remembering? Some say time will heal. Really? As you can see in today’s ODB, time did not heal, people still remember after 50 years!

If we read Paul’s exhortation in Romans 12:12-21, we will see that we need to not only forgive but also bless the person who hurt us, who caused us harm. It’s really an out of this world standard. I think not achievable with our own strength, but only if we are strengthened by the Holy Spirit. When we say, vengeance is mine, says the LORD – it really does not mean that we pray that God will strike this person down with lightning or rain him or her with hailstones from heaven! How is that blessing that person if we ask God to seek revenge for us?

Let bygones be bygones. Someone had harmed or hurt us, let it go. Squash the beef! Not keep the beef! Forget about it. Banish it from our mind. Focus on the good things of God ahead of us. On the many wonders and miracles Jesus has in store for us in our journey with Him on the road to heaven. Not only forget our past hurts but also our past achievements and look ahead to the new milestones He has for us. There is too much to do to be bothered by our past, to be bogged down by our history. Dwelling on what could have been done or even what we had done is not much use unless it helps our future. If it’s lessons learnt and how not to make the same mistakes again, yes by all means! Other than that, forget the past and move on.

Let us be like Jesus and pray for our enemies and those who had harmed us in the past including the government with its institutional racism and all other faults. For they do not know what they were or are doing. Pray that God will bless the country, the government and all who had hurt or harmed us. Let the will of the LORD be done here on earth as it is in heaven! Always remember and be reminded that we are all pilgrims on this journey to heaven. We are merely passing through this world. Don’t let things that happen here bog us down, instead let us march on! Onward, Christian soldier. Marching as to war. With the Cross of Jesus, going on before. Christ the Royal Master, leads against the foe.

Always remember that our fight and struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12)!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/01/26/genuine-happiness

True happiness? Isn’t that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Elusive and yet many still feel it’s achievable and thus have not given up hope chasing it. Perhaps it’s the carrot to spur the donkey on and we are donkeys to believe in fairy tales.

Riches and honour or money and fame we know don’t bring true happiness. Why? Because we know that once we have, we want more. More money, more fame, more honour. The human appetite is insatiable. The first billion to the next. The first Datukship to the next. The first platinum album to many more to come. The first house to the next. The first Rolex or PP or AP to the next. Even cameras, from 1 inch to crop to full frame!

Power and pleasure are even worse. The moment is fleeting but the quest may even take a lifetime. Is it all worth it? The power to decide the destiny of thousands. With great power comes great responsibility. Power and pleasure are dangerous pursuits as they tend to get addictive. We want the next high, the next big thing and the reality is that it is a downward spiral as the aftermath of the mountain top experience is down at the pits. That is why drugs and drink are just not worth the trouble. The hangover is just too much of a headache (forgive me for the pun)!

True happiness comes when we are able to deal with the ups and downs of ordinary life. Life is mostly ordinary. 24 x 7, 365 days. If we can deal with that, we can find true happiness. But as God has put eternity in our hearts, ordinary life may be too long a toil for us. We cannot live in the ordinary for eternity. We need something out of this world to look forward to. In the end, Solomon, the wisest man during his time and perhaps the wisest man of all time, concluded – true happiness can only be found in God.

We are made in His image and He has put eternity in our hearts. Thus we can only find true happiness in Him. This is because only God can make the ordinary extraordinary and only God can make our life meaningful beyond the riches and honour, money and fame and power and pleasure. Our satisfaction may only be everlasting in God because He gives us eternal life and everlasting life here on earth and in the time to come. Jesus is the truth, the way and the life. The one and only truth which is the only way to God and thus the only life we may find refreshing, satisfying and everlasting. If true happiness is the Holy Grail of life, then we’ll be surprised that it’s actually not elusive as the answer is and has been staring us in the face all this while! We are made by God and to be like God – thus only God can satisfy our deepest need and longing! God is spirit, and so are we. Seek out God with all our heart, soul and strength and we will find true happiness.

https://odb.org/MY/2022/01/24/the-potters-wheel

We have often heard of the analogy of the Potter and the Clay to describe God shaping our lives as it’s an analogy that God uses in Jeremiah 18 to describe how He shapes Israel. It didn’t matter that the clay was marred, God is able to reshape it into something beautiful. We also know that even broken pieces may be made beautiful again as God remakes and reshapes our broken lives. Of course the key to all that is our willingness to be clay, to be reshaped by God into the sculpture He wants us to be.

I think the message today is that this Potter and Clay relationship is a continuous one. It is not a one off situation at the time we accepted Christ where God took our brokenness and made us into a new creation. It is instead a continuous relationship of God shaping us over the years from the day we first knew Him until the day we die. That means more and more of our broken lives or more and more of our brokenness will be made new by God as we let Him work in us. The fact that God is the master Potter is undeniable. The fact that God will want to shape and mould us into something beautiful, into something He is proud of is without doubt. He is God. He is LORD. Through Christ, He sees past our sins and will mould us into becoming more like Christ in our character and thinking that we may be more Christ like in all that we do and think. The question today is whether we are willing to allow God to continue working in our lives, turning more of our brokenness into beautiful sculptures? Are there areas in our lives that are still inaccessible by the Spirit of God, that we have kept hidden and locked away? We already know that we cannot hide from God for He knows all things and yet there are things in the past that we are still unwilling to face up with God.

I just like to encourage everyone today that God remains our Potter and we remain the Clay even if we have been at this for many years. The LORD is still actively working at moulding and shaping us even after all these years. Will we open up more of ourselves to Him? Or else we may be beautiful in parts but not in whole. Allow God full access to our lives that He may reshape and mould every aspects of our lives. Let Him make a complete work out of us!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/01/23/this-is-grace

We know that it is by grace that we are saved, not our good works although as a child of God, we are made for good works and thus will inevitably do good works for God. Grace is undeserved forgiveness and love. We deserve to die for our sins but God chose to forgive us and gave us eternal life instead through Christ. It’s like we have been convicted of a crime and was pardoned. Up to there it is mercy but instead of only being pardoned, we are also given a new lease of life, like we are given a piece of land in another place to start a new life. Now that’s grace. God gave us something new, eternal and meaningful life instead of endless misery and suffering in hell that we deserve because of our sins. The blind beggar was not only forgiven his sins (eternal life) but was also healed of his blindness (meaningful life).

The question this morning is that while it is well and good for us that God has shown us grace and mercy, are we showing grace and mercy to others? The Chinese has a saying, don’t kill him off, give him a new road to walk on. Actually what that really means is to let him find his opportunity again in life in another way. That is why when people do wrong at work, employers seldom make it into a police case. The employee will be terminated but usually to the extent that he may get another chance somewhere else. Or he may be forgiven and given another chance without losing his job. As we are not God, it will probably be tough for us to go the extra mile to find an errant employee who had committed wrong another job somewhere else. That’s the true extent of grace but it is unnatural and we will perhaps be overdoing it. I think for us to be gracious is really to be forgiving and to give others another opportunity, another chance. If it’s not a disciplinary issue but just a clash of working styles or work cultures, then perhaps we could take the additional step to help him or her find another place that he or she will fit in better. That’s the essence of grace and mercy. We are quick to forgive, to support and slow to punish and condemn. Like God is able to turn us around by showing us grace and mercy, we will likewise be able to turn those around us by showing grace and mercy. Thus grace and mercy are not just values we practice only because God had shown us grace and mercy but these are values we adhere to because there are also positive consequences. Often the values we are instilled through Christ, by being Christ-like, like having love and compassion, being generous, being kind are not just moral standards that we need to adhere to as Christians. It’s not a compliance regime. God is actually teaching us to be better persons, persons that we ought to be as creations made in His image but all these values have good and positive consequences and vibes. When we treat people better, people will become better people and that can only be good in whatever context, whether it’s in our church, our family, our cell group, our company or our department. Treating people with grace and mercy is always good!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/01/22/still-seeking

Isn’t it an oxymoron to say we are hiding from God? We can’t hide from God basically because He is all seeing and all knowing. David proclaimed this very clearly in Psalm 139. No matter where we are, at the farthest ocean, up in heaven, in total darkness – God is there. Even our deepest thoughts, God knows. That is why although we may fool man, we can never fool God as He knows our heart, our motivations. He knows whether we are sincere or we have an ulterior motive or an evil plan in the things that we do.

Yet, we do hide from God. Just like Adam and Eve, we want to think that God is like us humans. We can hide from people and thus we can hide from God. We are ashamed of ourselves. We have done wrong. We didn’t do our best. We allowed our flesh to take charge, we gave in to the temptations of the world. We compromised our standards. So we hide.

Don’t hide. God knows where we are. He is compassionate and forgiving. When the LORD met up with Adam and Eve who emerged from their hiding, God for the first time took the life of an animal and made them clothes from the animal’s skin. You can see that in verse 21. The LORD is compassionate and forgiving and cared for Adam and Eve even though they had sinned and disobeyed Him. The consequences of their sin led to Man being banished from the Garden of Eden and as a result was denied access to the Tree of Life and He had to send His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins and by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Saviour and seeking God’s forgiveness for our sins, we will one day be able to partake of the Tree of Life again, as promised to us in Revelation 22. The Tree of Life makes it possible for Man to live forever. It is the key to eternal life.

The other notable thing I like to point out today from Genesis 3 is that the serpent is a very crafty creature. He twisted the commandment of God and created doubt and desire in Eve and Adam. They were deceived and mankind suffered the consequences. The deceiver is still very much active in the present age especially in these end times. Thus we must always be on guard against all the deception that is in the world and not allow ourselves to be unwittingly misled. Always refer back to the Scriptures and the accepted interpretations and not form any views of our own in isolation. Allow the Spirit of God to speak to us and guide us in the correct path and may His Word indeed be a lamp unto our feet! Amen

https://odb.org/MY/2022/01/21/give-while-you-live

I think it’s a good proposition to give while we are still alive. Of course if we are barely making ends meet, it will be tough to do so. However as believers we also know that when we give sincerely, it does open up the heavens in terms of the outpouring of blessings. This is something for us to experience ourselves but the logic is that if the Lord prompts us to give, perhaps it is likely that the Lord will not want to see us go hungry as a result of us responding to Him. We should experience it ourselves.

But if we have more, we should perhaps not think too much when it comes to giving except that we also need to prepare for our retirement and old age. Perhaps we could also prepare ourselves by going into self sustaining practices like growing vegetables, rearing poultry and livestock, using ground water and solar energy. We will then need less capital to sustain us in our old age. Those practices will also help us in preparing for the coming great tribulation that is expected in our life times.

I think the principle remains that we give while we can, while we are still earning and have some excess. We save up for the future but we should also help others. That also applies in the area of serving. Serve while we are still able, when we are still strong and have energy. Don’t wait until we are retired and old. Serve God now in whatever way we can as we respond to His call upon our lives. What happens if we are striken down by an illness later on? We might be incapacitated. Then we will not be able to serve God much or anymore.

Give while we are still alive. Serve while we are still strong and have breadth in us. We don’t know when will be our day to depart from here, life and death is in the hands of God. Give and serve while we still have time here on earth. Don’t wait any longer. Do it now and unto the Lord. He will help us fulfil His plans and purposes for our lives!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/01/20/love-of-learning

I had a similar experience growing up reading newspapers as a source of knowledge. In fact I patted myself on the back that I could read in Std Two after learning words and spelling and pronunciation for 2 years since preschool through to Standard One. And the test was the ability to read what’s in the newspaper. Of course my vocabulary and understanding were limited! But the fact that I could read sentences meant that I could read! Then the more I read, the more I learnt the meaning of new words from the context or through the dictionary. I guess children nowadays could probably read and write since preschool as they are exposed to education from as young as 2 or 3.

The lesson today is that learning and acquiring knowledge as advised and taught by Proverbs 1 is a life long pursuit. General knowledge, specific knowledge based on our interests and hobbies, computer knowledge, systems and processes, internal controls, cooking, gardening, camping etc. There is so much to learn and much to be gained. But most importantly our knowledge of God, of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and the mysteries of the Kingdom as God reveals them to us is as wide and broad as the universe appears to us as limitless and infinite. There is just so much of God that we may learn and apply and appropriate.

Let the wise listen and add to their learning and let the discerning get guidance (Proverbs 1:5). Knowledge is meant to guide us, to steer us through life. If I may add – if acquiring knowledge is the engine that drives our boat forward, the fuel to motivate us to move forward in life, then knowledge is the steer to guide us, our boat through life. What knowledge will thus benefit us most if not the knowledge of the Great I Am, the Almighty God, our Heavenly Father who created the heavens and the earth? May we all grow in our knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ as we add to our learning by listening to His voice and through all that be guided through our life that we always remain true and faithful to our Heavenly Father and not be deceived and swayed by false and dubious teachers or tempted by the various attractions and fancy life of the world! I pray that we will all be knowledgeable in the things of heaven that we are able to discern the times and recognise the seasons of the move of the Holy Spirit in our midst that we may partake of what God is doing in our church, community and nation! Have a good day ahead, everyone!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/01/19/stay-awake

Accessibility has its advantages. With the Internet and YouTube, we can now experience worship services from all over the world without needing to physically travel there. In a way it is like teleporting although not quite. What happened in Acts 8 to Philip after evangelising the Ethiopian eunuch gives us the vision and hope that perhaps one day that is how we will travel the world in our glorified bodies.

Accessibility however also has its drawbacks. Without actually taking a flight, we could attend conferences and listen to preaching and teaching from practically anywhere in the world. That opens us up to all sorts of strange teachings and may inadvertently shape our spiritual thinking and cause us to make decisions in a certain way which may have long term harmful effects on us. For example, we could be so much taken up by the conspiracy theories spun by anti-vaxxers that we start to believe them to the extent that we ourselves resist and fight against vaccination. Perhaps it is possible that the vaccines have long term negative effects that are unknown right now. But oral medications also have long term negative effects on our liver and kidneys. Does that mean we do not take our medications? The risk of short term effects outweigh the long term impact and that’s the basis that medical science operates. We live to fight another day. Thus, to me, the same principle applies to vaccination – except that if we decide not to vaccinate, we are also endangering those around us and society at large. Unless of course if we self-isolate and completely cut ourselves from the world.

Therefore, be vigilant and pray constantly that the Holy Spirit will guard and protect our faith and hearts. During the end times, there will be a profileration of false teachers to deceive and draw believers away from the faith. Perhaps even the false teachers themselves may not be aware that their teachings are wrong. At the end of the day, check everything against the Word. Check every interpretation. Consult our elders and pastors and leaders. Check with the Holy Spirit in us. Does the teaching sit well within us, do we feel convicted and at peace? Pray and ask God to reveal to us if we are on the wrong track but at the same time, don’t make hasty decisions. Fast and pray, meditate, contemplate and do our research. What is God speaking to us? What is Jesus saying to us? Ask for the spirit of revelation and the word of knowledge to be upon us by the power of the Holy Spirit that our minds and hearts are open to the genuine move of God among us and help us to be vigilant against the wile, devious and cunning schemes of the evil one!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/01/17/brave-your-storm

This picture given by the writer of Hebrews (believed to be Paul due to the writing style although he was not credited for it) in verse 1 chapter 1 is a strong encouragement for us to persevere on with our faith. We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses cheering us on as we run the race of faith that is marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of faith. We may feel we are alone as we run the race but the reality is that there is a cloud of witnesses, akin to the thousands in a stadium cheering us on to finish the race. Every runner has his or her own race to run, every runner has his or her own finish line. We are not competing with anyone, but we run in our own lanes, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. If our burden is heavy, we pray for Jesus to help us carry it, for His yoke is light. If we face storms and squalls, we ask Jesus to calm them down like He did in the lake with the disciples. Whatever happens, we don’t get off our lane, we don’t drop out of the race. We keep on running, walk if we have to. Ask God to strengthen our feeble legs and knees but we keep on going.

Know also that there is no condemnation in Christ as He had made us clean, as white and even whiter than snow. Leave our past behind. The cloud of witnesses only see us running the race and they are cheering us on. They are not armchair critics picking on our every fault as they know that we can never be perfect here on earth. Our old self, our flesh needs to be crucified daily. But it is still part of us. Don’t give up and keep on running although we are not perfect, although we have not fully obtained the character of Christ. As long as we allow Christ to transform us daily, as long as we do as His Word says, as long as we are fulfilling His plans and purposes for our lives – we are on track, we are running the race. The devil will try to deceive us to slow us down and make us give up, telling us it is too difficult, too tough. Just look at what the world offers. The temptations of the world and the desires of our flesh – the devil will use to distract and hinder our race. He will try his best to get us to cease running, to give up and just turn back to the world and our flesh. But we will not be distracted or deceived as our gaze is heavenward towards Jesus, our focus and motivation is our Lord, the Lamb of God that was crucified and resurrected and had already defeated the sting of sin.

Let us all be encouraged to persevere on in our walk of faith. We are not alone. There is indeed a cloud of witnesses! God the Father, Jesus our Lord and the Holy Spirit will spare no effort to make sure we continue on the race. All the resources in heaven are at our disposal. Race on, push on and finish the race, my dear brothers and sisters! Never give up!