https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/13/a-worthwhile-wait

I think this is one of the major issues those of us in the faith always face – how do we trust God to do what’s best for us? As humans, we have a tendency to take things into our own hands. We are impatient. We want fast resolution. Even in counselling people, we tend to want to step in or advise a quick resolution rather than wait for God to move or let things unfold further. Sometimes time will tell the sincerity of a person but we are quick to jump to conclusions and make impulsive judgments and decisions.

Two classic cases of taking things into our own hands in the bible. The case of the Northern Kingdom Israel’s King Hoshea seeking Egypt’s help to avoid paying a tribute to the Assyrians – see 2 Kings 7:1-4, which is what is alluded to in today’s Scriptural reading in Isaiah 30:15-19. In the end, the Assyrians came in and destroyed them.

The other case is that of Saul who couldn’t wait for Samuel to arrive to offer sacrifices to the LORD before going to battle and instead took the role of the priest and in the process, he lost the battle and later his throne to David.

The principle is clear, we must seek God’s help and wait upon Him – there are just no two ways about it.

Thus God declares in Isaiah 30:18 that the LORD longs to be gracious to you and blessed are those who wait upon Him. In the story of Jesus resurrecting Lazarus who was dead for 4 days, Jesus took His time to go to Bethany although He was determined to go despite previous threats. See John 11. The thing is Jesus delayed so that everyone could see the glory of God and believe – it can only be a miracle if one is raised from the dead after 4 days! The timing and will of God is perfect and cannot be rushed although He may be determined to intervene and rescue us from our situation. In John 11 we saw that Jesus was deeply moved by the situation and wept. Yet He allowed the timing and sovereign will of God to take precedence.

Trusting in the love and compassion of God is more meaningful as that means God personally and directly helped us. I experienced this when I faced some devastating news four and the half years ago and through it all, I experienced His love and compassion although I didn’t deserve. The Lord literally remade my future in the process and I can truly say that His plans for me is to prosper and not to destroy me because only He could do what He did!

Where does my help come from? My help comes from the maker of heaven and earth, the creator of all things. Those that wait upon the LORD shall indeed mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/12/heroes-tyrants-and-jesus

I recently heard someone say that Paul’s story is second only to the story he told, the story of his Jesus and Him crucified. The story of Jesus who didnt remain in the grave but was resurrected and is alive even today! After being turned-over by Jesus Christ Himself in a vision on his way to Damascus to look for and arrest Jews who were following the Way then, Paul became the bridge between Christ and the Gentiles and in the process formulated the theology that formed the tenets of our faith, beginning from a faith by a Jew for Jews to one with universal appeal to all men, that now spans across all corners of the globe, transforming millions and millions who responded to His call upon their lives in the past, in the present age and the age to come. Paul had to suffer more than most of us in the process and yet he never wavered from his goal to preach Christ and Christ crucified to the Gentiles, all the way to Rome, the center of the world then. All this coming from a man born around the same period as Jesus and yet never had the opportunity to have met and interacted with Him in the flesh like you and I.

Can we be as driven as Paul to preach Christ crucified? Can we be as driven as Paul to start and grow churches, to nurture and raise up men and women to take up the cross and fulfil Christ’s calling for them? To support, encourage, counsel and shepherd people, cell groups, outreaches and churches across nations? Paul is a good role model for us to follow and emulate, his passion for his Saviour, his drive to preach Christ crucified to the leader of the known world which he knew would have led him to his death. He followed his Saviour to the tee, he obeyed his Saviour till the end, till death he did his part as he had written before that for him to die is gain but to live is Christ. In other words, while it is an advantage and thus a gain to die for Christ; if he lives, he only lives for Christ and Christ alone.

This morning as we praise God and worship Christ as the Lamb of God in our churches, the One who died for our sins that we may be reconciled to the Father, let’s ponder upon our own lives – are we seeking first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness, are we storing up treasures in heaven and are we fulling God’s calling for us? Let the thoughts, exaltations, lifestory and sacrifice of Paul for Christ to preach Christ crucified be an inspiration for us to realise our full potential in Christ ourselves, no matter how old or young we are, no matter how eloquent we are or not, no matter how bold or confident we are or not. Paul did not speak with the eloquence or wisdom or confidence of man but with the power of God. Let us likewise respond and be like Paul and do like Paul did! Blessed Sunday, everyone!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/07/the-perfect-name-2

Even as I sit at the beach this morning waiting for the sunrise – I have been away these past few days on holiday in a beautiful resort in Tanjung Jara, I read this morning’s ODB and pondered upon the first coming of Christ, foretold by Isaiah many years prior during the reign of King Ahaz in the Southern Kingdom of Judah slotted in between the prophesy of God bringing in the Assyrians to take the children of Israel into captivity. Christ came to bring hope to Israel in the spiritual sense although they expected it in the natural to overcome the hardship under the Romans. Christ came as God in flesh, the Immanuel, as John put it. How apt since Christmas is here in just 18 days. What a year it has been! More is to come with the new variant and possibly other new variants! Chaos and depression may reign again as much as the world is on the road to recovery in the new normal amidst rising prices and dwindling household incomes.

There is a sense that as Covid brought drastic changes to the way we live, we will never be the same again. There is a sense that the situation will get worse in time to come and our longing for the bustle of life pre 2000 may never materialise. Those days of chasing after the next growth number is probably gone. They may never come back. These days it’s a question of preserving our current numbers that we don’t fall into red.

Preachers have preached – the signs of times are for all to see. Never before anything like this has happened in the history of man at a global scale. Christ is coming again and it is in our generation. It will be Immanuel again but this time He will come as King in both the spiritual and natural sense. The time will come when all will be judged although some will be saved by the blood of the Lamb shed at His first coming. There will the great tribulation.

This Christmas let’s ponder on the hope that was but also that is to come. Put our hope and trust in Jesus, our Lord and our King. Strengthen our faith in Him. As He comes as King, let’s make sure we are part of His Kingdom and that we will live with God as He dwells among His people in the new Jerusalem, the new heaven and new earth, where there will be tears no more.

https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/03/truth-and-tiaras

The catch phrase today is really since we are children of God, then we need to act as children of God. John was very clear in 1 John 2 that if we are children of God, we will not continue to sin because Jesus came to take away our sins. In Jesus there is no sin, so no one who lives in Him continues to sin. He came to destroy the work of the devil. Thus no one who is born of God will continue to sin.

Is that the reality in our lives? I think the point here is there must be a determination not to continue sinning simply because God is in us, we live in Him and thus we have the power to overcome temptation and to defeat sin. We may still sin but if we still sin, we must always repent and ask God for forgiveness. Will we continue to do that 100 times or 1,000 times? After some time, we will surely be able to come out tops! And we can as we know God, we are born of God, we are children of God!

The other thing in 1 John 2 is John’s emphasis that we be ready when He appears again. He starts off the chapter by asking us to continue in Him so that when Jesus appears we will be confident and unashamed. We are not afraid of facing Him. We are bold knowing that we have lived a life worthy of His blood that was shed for us. We know that we have responded to His calling for us, we are living out His plans and purposes for us. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him.

We have heard already that Christ will come again in our generation. Yes, no one knows except the Father. But there are signs of the times. What if Christ truly comes again this generation? Are we prepared and ready? Let’s start today if we are not. Christ is gracious. He will help us prepare ourselves. Don’t delay or procrastinate anymore. Let’s respond to His call now, today and not another day! Amen

https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/02/celebrating-diversity

It is ironical that as stated in the story on the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 that God scattered humans and confounded their language, that we are now trying to unite peoples of diverse creed, colour and language in the church as well as out of the church. The church itself has a pathetic record in this in that just two hundred years ago, people who capture, transport, sell and trade in human slaves were people who professed to be Christians. Slaves were chattels, an economic asset and as humans can reproduce, they could be the means for their owners to multiply in wealth while providing them with food and lodging only type of cheap labour for life.

Is unity really achievable? We see that in America there are white and black churches, no doubt a testament of their past in slavery. And even within such churches, there are middle class and blue collar churches if not among churches, then within the churches themselves. As outsiders and observers, we cannot do much about the situation because no matter what we may want to say about it, churches are communities of believers that have got together and evolved over the years and thus each church has its own dynamics of interacting, gathering and reaching out among its people.

I think as individuals in a particular church, what we can do is to embrace that diversity breeds multiplicity and the more diverse we are as a church, the broader will be our appeal to the masses and the more diverse will our ability to reach out. As much as we like to gather as like minded and same type of people (whether in terms of race, education, social status, age), we should accept diversity and take advantage of the diverse sub-cultures within our community of believers. Everyone is unique and have special God-given gifts and talents. Our role as church leaders and members is to identify and allow such multiple talents and giftings to grow and flourish in our midst so that we can all serve God and fulfil His plans and purposes for our lives and our church together as a community of believers. Embrace, capitalise and make use of our diversity, rather than fight or overwhelm it. I believe much may be achieved if everyone is given the opportunity to do their part effectively.

https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/01/someone-may-need-you

Before the lockdowns and partial lockdowns imposed due to the pandemic, there were some who professed the faith and yet refused to attend church. There could be a variety of reasons including golf or cycling on a Sunday morning or just wanting to chill during the weekend after a long work week etc. The pandemic sort of made these reasons superfluous as the lockdowns didn’t allow golf or cycling and church can now be attended from the comforts of one’s home. Not only that, we can now attend any church service in anywhere in the world so long we have a good broadband connection and the church concerned runs an online service. However, attending church online is different and lack the human touch – the human interaction, fellowship, the congregational singing which ushers in the presence of God in an atmosphere only corporate worship could.

The point made by today’s ODB is that we attend church because someone may need us there. We could worship God on our own with our family but people who need us are not at our home. That is why it is uplifting and encouraging when we see people dress up and attend church on site. We ourselves get encouraged. Thus others will get encouraged when they see.

In Hebrews 10, the writer of Hebrews emphasised the confidence we now have in Christ Jesus to approach the throne of grace, to enter into His presence, reminding us to not neglect meeting together so we may spur each other towards love and good deeds, and encourage each other until the day of the Lord. Not neglecting meeting together as some have the habit of doing.

There is thus a lot of good meeting together. Once the churches open up, do our part to encourage the brethren by just attending church on site whenever we can. There is much more to Christian life and ministry than just attending church, but the least we could do is to be there in church as someone may need us there. Be that someone to that someone. Be an encourager of the brethren. That’s the least we can do. Amen

https://odb.org/MY/2021/11/30/for-others-sake

I can’t imagine how it is like to be deep in a cave in near and complete darkness with rising waters and not knowing whether anyone will actually come and rescue us. Darkness is disorientating and although our eyes can adjust to darkness, it is impossible to see anything in complete darkness. This is because the source of sight is always light. The source of colours is light. What we see with our eyes as reflected by our retina and translated into electrical waves into our brain are reflections of light. How much we can see is always a question of how sensitive are our retinas to light and animals who are nocturnal naturally have much more sensitive retinas. Certain species of fish also have very sensitive eyes but those that live in very deep waters create their own light. So being in near and mostly total darkness for this bunch of kids in Thailand not knowing what fate awaits them must have been a very harrowing and distressing experience that no one will wish on another.

We know that Jesus is the light and through Him we will be the light of the world. But imagine ourselves before we knew Jesus. We were in total darkness when it comes to matters of the Kingdom. Maybe we knew something on the surface and thus were not in total darkness. Maybe most of us were in near darkness with any genuine light being a considerable distance away, very dim and flickering. The truth was hidden from us before the Holy Spirit convicted and lifted the scales off our eyes. We lived in spiritual blindness, in darkness to the way, the truth and life. If God didn’t send Jesus to rescue us and deliver us out of the miry clay, we would have drowned in the darkness, descending into the abyss, into nothingness. The bright sunshine of heaven where everything is illuminated by the glory of God and where nothing is hidden was very, very far away from us indeed.

Now that we can see the light and we live in the light where heaven is within realistic reach and where sometimes we get a glimpse of heaven or a touch of God or a taste of His glory, where the Psalmist mentions that even touching the hem of His robe fills us with such peace and joy and power – do we want to go back to our old life of darkness? Do we want to go back to the cave again where we are not confident and do not know for sure that anyone will come and rescue us? The waters are rising and we find it difficult even to breathe and the more we worry, the worse it becomes. Do we want to live a life of constant worry and despair and not knowing whether our final destination will be a perfect one?

My dear brothers and sisters, live in the light and move forward, forgetting what is behind as Paul taught. Strive forward look heavenward, we are already in the light and let the light guide us through. Don’t descend back into darkness, where the ultimate end is the fire and the gnashing of teeth!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/11/29/even-if-3

The story Sadrach, Meshach and Abednego in Daniel 3 is the famous story of how God protected the 3 children of Israel who refused to bow down and worship the golden image made by King Nebuchadnezzar while the Israelites were in exile in Babylon. As a result they were thrown into a burning furnace. What was amazing was that that were not harmed by the fire in the burning furnace and everyone there saw there were 4 people in the furnace; the three of them plus another. But what was more amazing was the reply given them to Nebuchadnezzar that the God they serve will rescue them and even if He does not, they will not serve Nebuchadnezzar’s gods or the golden image he made. Meaning to say that they were willing to die than to deny or betray Yahweh.

Yesterday we just heard a message from Elder Pastor Bernard Chong from Ipoh on the possibility that Christ may return in our generation based on certain signs of times. It is not a prophesy but an observation of prevailing facts as can be seen from world events. Thus, if we believe in the post tribulation theory, that means that the beast will emerge in our generation and we will all go through the great tribulation prior to the second coming of Christ and the day of the Lord.

The question is not whether Elder Pastor Bernard is right or wrong but what if he is right? Will we wake up and start preparing our hearts and lives so that we may go through the great tribulation like Sadrach, Meshach and Abednego in Daniel 3? Will we refuse to bow down to the golden image and take the mark of the beast even if it means severe suffering and hardship for us and our families? There are practical preparations we need to plan in advance if and when the time presents itself like the appearance of the beast in the world scene. But most importantly I think for us, at this stage in time, is to prepare our hearts and to strengthen our faith so that we will be strong when the time comes. I believe that as we hold tight to our faith, we will experience the supernatural power and presence of God like Sadrach, Meshach and Abednego or if we die in the process, we will get to see Jesus immediately. Trying times with intense persecution will come our way if and when the great tribulation comes as part of God’s sovereign will in our lifetime. Can we go through that intensely difficult period without compromising our faith or betraying Jesus? Read Matthew 24 and 25 for some pointers on what we should do as individuals and as a community of believers.

As I have shared before the destiny of every man is death (Ecclesiastes 7:2) and thus we should start now, at whatever stage of life or age we are, to seek first the Kingdom of God, store up treasures in heaven and fulfil our calling in God. If we have to go through the great tribulation in our lifetime, then there is much greater urgency that we start acting now in those 3 areas in the midst of and despite the daily challenges we face just living this life here in earth! The question is not whether it is true but what if it is true? Are we prepared? Will we thus not prepare ourselves from now on? Food for thought for today and this week.

https://odb.org/MY/2021/11/27/bold-faith

I often wondered how and why some people have so much boldness to preach the Gospel? Why were they able to share their faith so boldly putting themselves in harm, even going through pain and suffering, torture and imprisonment to proclaim Jesus? Or in the case of Prem Padhan who was wounded during the war to walk with a limp, God called him to preach the Gospel in the Himalaya mountains. Surely it is through our weaknesses and disabilities, we find strength and power in God and experience heaven on earth.

I think two things stand out when people of faith respond to God’s call to minister and reach out. One is that they are seldom without weaknesses and some handicap whether physically or in speech or boldness and secondly, they are usually ordinary people like you and I. Usually “unschooled” in terms of spiritual education.

During the time of Jesus, most people are unschooled and illiterate as those that are literate and educated are usually educated in matters of religion like the Scribes and Pharisees. Except for Paul who was from the latter group, the apostles amd most believers were just ordinary unschooled people.

I think that in matters of personal faith, while a bible school education will help us in the long run in ministry, too much head knowledge may well hinder us since we may be thinking and analysing too much. Often most responses in faith to God involves just volunteering and stepping out in faith without too much reasoning as the more we reason, the more we will be overcome with fear anxiety and even doubt. We should respond not without thinking at all, but without thinking too much! In corporate speak, we call this analysis paralysis – we analyse something until we are paralysed with inaction and that will be useless if God meant for us to move forward. To step out in faith means to be considered and yet we leave it to God to work, we depend on Him rather than our natural planning or ability or education and most crucially, failure should not discourage us but motivate us to try harder.

My view is that such boldness to preach, speak or reach out can only come from God. Not only the call, but also the drive and boldness to action the call. Only God can give us that and I believe if we are willing and we raise up our hands, He will give us that boldness and drive. God calls ordinary people to ministry. Education is good and important but not always the prerequisite to ministry. If we are willing, God will use us. We can upgrade ourselves gradually over time. There is no need to have to start with a seminary degree to serve God, just a willing heart and I believe God will give us the boldness and over time educate us!

https://odb.org/MY/2021/11/26/mighty-warrior

It is a recurring pattern in the Old Testament of Israel’s disobedience and evil resulting in oppression and subsequently the Israelites calling out to God and God then delivers them. Egypt was not like that, but the Assyrians and Babylonians were and in those instances they were exiled in a foreign land. But in the case of Gideon, it was more of them being oppressed by the Midianites.

It is also a recurring theme in the bible of God choosing those who are hesitant and weaker to confound the strong and wise like in the case of Moses and Gideon or David when he was young or Jeremiah or even the 12 disciples, and you and I. While it is true that God will choose us even if we are weak, young and unprepared, it doesn’t mean conversely that God will not choose us if we are strong, matured and trained. The Lord will choose whoever responds to Him in our heart whether our flesh is strong or weak, prepared or not. Paul is a good example of one who is of the finest among the Scribes and Pharisees and God chose him.

But the point remains that if we are weak and not as brilliant or of the pedigree like Paul, that God will still choose us to do His will. God will still call us to be His warrior, to fight for Him in the Promised Land, to be like Caleb and Joshua to conquer and defeat strong armies and fortified cities even if we are outwardly weak, less of a standout, reserved and less brilliant. I guess in the end what matters is our heart. Is our heart for Him? Is our heart fanatically all for Him? Maybe we dare not show this to the world but deep inside us, we will do anything for God. We are not afraid to even die for Him. We love God that much. No one sees that part of us, but only God.

I think if our heart is for Him, nearly 70% of the battle is won. 70% but nevertheless not 100%. We still need to respond to His call. We still need to prepare and let ourselves be trained, to be molded into the warrior that God wants to make us to be. That we alone can slay 100 on the battlefield. That we can bind and break spiritual forces and principalities of the air with the authority and power given us by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us respond if the Lord calls us. Respond to be His warrior, to defeat those who oppress us and the brethren. Doesn’t matter that we are old or young, strong or weak, prepared or not – so long as we are willing, God will prepare and train us. Will we respond to His call?