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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/09/hotel-corona

2 Corinthians 5:14-20 speaks a lot of reconciliation, between us and God through Christ as well as a ministry of reconciliation and for us to bring forth a message of reconciliation. As a new creation in Christ, the old has passed and as Christ had reconciled us to God, we should likewise attempt to reconcile other people back to God by bringing them the message of the Gospel that Christ died for their sins and salvation is by the grace of God.

But as ministers with a ministry of reconciliation, we should also reconcile people in our midst. Family feuds cannot go on forever. Past quarrels cannot be left unresolved. Our friends should not stop speaking to each other. Like the Corona Hotel in Jerusalem (the life story in this morning’s ODB) which united and reconciled people of different faiths due to and despite their common ailment, we should reconcile those among us who are still feuding after many days, weeks, months or even years.

Reconciliation with God brings us to the road to eternal life, the narrow path that leads to God instead of the road that leads to destruction. Thus, reconciliation among feuding persons will lead to harmony, forgiveness, compassion, kindness and love – all factors necessary for their reconciliation with God. In order for God to forgive us, we need to forgive those who had trespassed against us. Let go of that quarrel, that fight, that feud – forgive if you’re the party wronged and apologise and say sorry if you are the party who did the wrong – and move on in life and in God. If we are still unrepentant and allow pride to control us, to overpower us – we will be stuck in the past and will miss out on all that God wants to do in our lives and lose our testimony in the process. This applies if we are already in the faith, in fact, this applies especially if we are already in the faith. Should we be proud and boast that that as people of God redeemed by Christ and reconciled to God that we are not able to reconcile with our family, friends and colleagues?

There are no excuses anymore! We who are tasked with the ministry of reconciliation, to share the message of reconciliation to reconcile man to God, we ourselves must practice reconciliation in our midst! Pray, commit it to the Lord and just do it! Step out in faith and reconcile…

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/08/send-me

Throughout the Bible, we see God choosing and calling different ones to fulfil His specific will. God called Abraham out of the Ur of the Caldeans to Canaan and as Abraham responded in faith, the nation of Israel was born and Jesus came through that line that Isreal became an utmost blessing unto the whole world, reconciling mankind to God. Then Joseph was called to go to Eqypt first as a slave, then a prisoner and later he became the prime minister and as a result of his faithfulness, he ended up saving the surviving Abrahamic clan led by Jacob from intense drought in Canaan then. That bunch of folks ended up settling in Egypt and over 400 plus years became slaves when the ruler of Egypt changed after Joseph’s demise. God then called Moses and as Moses responded in faith, he freed the nation of Israel from slavery back to the Promised Land (Canaan) although in the end, it was the new generation raised in the wilderness that made it into Canaan led by Joshua and Caleb. Then we saw how God anointed Saul and later David and later Elijah followed by Elisha to name a few prominent examples of God’s calling.

In the era of Jesus, God sent Jesus to die for our sins and then called the 12 disciples and later Paul, Barnabas, Priscilla and Aquila, and host of others during the time of the Acts of the Apostles.

In modern times, many had taken heed the calling of God to be missionaries like Hudson Taylor to China or Eric Lund to Spain and the Philippines (today’s ODB) and thousands and ten thousands of others including present day missionaries like my own cousin and her hubby who have been reaching out to the Tibetans and residing in China for the past decade or a pastor and his wife affiliated with my local church and who have been working among the local aboriginal tribes for more than 40 years.

Is God calling us to do something for Him that is part of His sovereign will and part of His specific will for us? Is God calling us to His plans and purposes for us? Have we explored and discovered what are those plans and purposes of His for us? Are we fulfilling our destiny in Him?

I’m doing my part to fulfil His calling to me to write these commentaries as faithfully as I can day in and day out as He inspires the right words in my mind. He has a further calling for me that I hope I will be bold enough to respond in the coming years. What about you? What’s His calling for you? Will you step out in faith and respond like how the many thousands and tens of thousands before us did throughout history? Will we respond to serve Him and see His glory fill the whole earth? As much as we are like Isaiah, a man of unclean lips, the LORD will cleanse and sanctify us for His work as we respond to His call. Be bold and courageous for the LORD our God is with us!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/07/complete

While we can only be fully complete in Christ, I think we should not dismiss the notion that our better half completes us in the context of a marriage that is sanctified by God. Besides continuing the family line and thus the perpetuation of the human race, marriage brings together two distinct individuals to become one flesh before God (Genesis 2:24). In the union of marriage, Christians believe that our spouses are other children of God specially chosen by God to complement us – thus in the natural sense, to complete us. That is why marriage is for life, till death do us part or until the Lord returns.

I find this to be true in my own marriage. I’m more relaxed but my wife is more uptight. To those who are acquinted with the DISC analysis of personalities – my wife has a strong D, while I’m strong in I, S and C. I’m more of a relationship person, non-confrontational while she will speak her mind in anything that she sees to be wrong, especially to me! In the arrow analogy taught by Pastor Albert Kang, she’s more arrow head while I’m more arrow shaft and tail. That is why when our boys want something, they come to me first! Even in music, she plays the piano and I play the guitar and she sings harmony naturally while I am better at just singing the straight melody.

In a true Christian marriage sanctified by God however, as much as our spouse completes us in the natural, there is still that spiritual dimension and most of us believe in a triangle with Christ as the Lord of our lives and thus our marriage. The same way as Christ is the Lord of our family and home, He is the Lord of our marriage. Therefore, we fulfil the will of the Father in Christ but we are stronger in all that we do for Him as a couple. Two is better than one for if one falls, the other can lift him up (Ecclesiastes 4:9). But ultimately, Christ is the Head and we are His body.

If we are married or planning to marry one day, always put Christ as the Head but remember that our spouse is to complement us to make us a more complete person in Christ. There is no need to compete with him or her in the things we do to prove we are better as we will always be better together as a couple!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/06/resting-secure-in-god

When I was much younger before I knew Jesus, I used to think about who I am. Asking questions like why was I born this way, to this family, in this town, in this country? Prior to that I was living in a more multi racial town in the West Coast of Malaysia. But when I moved to a small town in the East Coast, it was evident that I was different from my peers in school, with funny looking eyes compared to the rest. There were people like me in that small town but they mostly attended another school.

Over the years I began to accept myself as I am on the basis that we can’t choose how we look like and which family or town or country we are raised up. Despite some racism and the institutional discrimination I faced when growing up, I was nevertheless thankful to be born as a non-Muslim in this country. This is because I could accept Jesus into my life at 14 and got to know and serve Him since then, freely worshipping God in the churches I attend and serve in.

As I got to know God, I became more thankful that I was born as I was. Not because I was born into a privileged background but because it was God who created me as I am. I felt privileged to be created by God. But it was more than that – because the Creator was my creator and since He has accepted me as His son through Christ my Lord, I knew I was in good hands. There were unique talents to discover deep inside me, to be birthed and flourished by God and because God is God, He can add on other things, talents and skills, in my life as I follow Him and allow Him to mould and shape me.

As I look back and reflect upon my life, I am truly grateful to God for having reached out and touched me in this small town in the East Coast. I may have had misgivings about who I was when I was young but over the years I am most thankful and grateful that I have had the opportunity to grow up knowing God. In the end, I think it was my good fortune to be born as I was. God was gracious and merciful to me and my family for all the blessings He had bestowed us and will continue to bestow upon us throughout our lives.

I think if we accept that God created us exactly as who we are, we can accept us as we are. Since we belong to God, there is much He can do with us and there is still much He will do us in terms of who we are in Him. We are all unique and special, created for God’s pleasure and service. Embrace our self and our identity in God. There is still much He can achieve and will achieve in and through us.

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/05/help-from-the-holy-spirit

God’s standards are high and yet He wants us to meet them. Thus He sent Jesus to die for our sins so that we are all redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. After Christ rose again but before He ascended back to heaven, He promised us a helper and the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost. Such a mighty outpouring of power in miraculous healings, signs and wonders and most importantly, extra ordinary boldness came upon the Apostles and believers to proclaim the power of God in their lives that many were added to the faith daily. The Holy Spirit made a historical change in the lives of believers!

God’s standards are still high today. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. But with the Holy Spirit in us and with us, there is actually nothing that we cannot do – I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 3:14). Nothing is impossible with God – or with man this is impossible but with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).

The message today is that if we, like the Israelites, have backslided; God wants to cure us of our backsliding (Jeremiah 3:22). The LORD is calling us to return to Him, to repent of our sins, to turn away from our crooked and rebellious ways. God wants to give us victory over sin. There is no habit or sin that is too difficult to overcome. His standards may be still high but He is gracious and compassionate and forgiving. God is like the professor who wants us to do well. If He is marking our life story, He wants to find all sorts of ways to give us points, to let us pass, to help us overcome, to let us succeed and move on to greater heights in Him. He is not the examiner who is constantly finding fault with us to minus our marks to fail us and impede our progress in Him. The thing is God refuses to lower His standards but He will help us through with the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives! Repent and turn back to Him and He will make our paths smooth and straight again! He will be our God and we His people again!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/09/04/man-of-prayer

One of the testimonies that I heard in a message from the pulpit and which stayed with me till today is the exaltation given to his late father by a pastor in my former church. The pastor’s late father, who was a founding member of a well known mega church in the Klang Valley, was known in his family to be a man of prayer. He is always gathering everyone together to pray whenever there is something on – whether it’s the exams of his children, a doctor’s appointment, birthdays, an interview, someone is not well or they face a small or major family crisis from finding misplaced keys to finance etc.

That testimony led me to think today that I’m not actually like my pastor’s late father as I don’t pray that much except in my quiet time, during meals or prayer meetings, or when my wife and I pray for those we lead and the church once a week (we try to keep this going as regularly as possible). I do speak to God but rarely do I gather everyone together to pray or pray with someone for the things we are facing. Even if we do, it is not a regular feature in my family life.

That realisation led me to think as to why I am not a man of prayer and why is it that I am not aspiring to be a man of prayer? It is kind of silly, I think, not wanting to be a man of prayer because prayer is the most powerful weapon every believer can have against the forces of evil (the oft quoted Ephesians 6:12). It is a privilege and honour given to those redeemed by Christ to communicate and commune with the Creator of heavens and earth, the all powerful, all knowing and ever present Almighty God, the Great I Am. Our prayers reach the heavenlies, will transcend straight into the spiritual realm and as we pray that Your will be done here on earth as it is done in heaven, we know God will surely do something about the thing we prayed in accordance with His will and in His time. A prayer moves the Hand of God and thus prayers may move mountains and part seas and rivers like we saw in Moses and Joshua. Prayers also may raise the dead or bring down rain in a drought as seen in Elijah. Or in the case of Peter and John, made the lame walk.

Therefore, I encourage everyone including my good self – let’s all be people of prayer. Pray in all things and for all occasions. Aspire to be known as men and women of prayer as a touch from God can only do good in any situation!