https://odb.org/2023/11/30/trust-in-his-name-2

Israeli Kings of old oscillate between trusting their chariots and horses and trusting God. Usually, those who trust in the latter were successful on the battleground. In Joshua’s case, he brought down the walls of Jericho completely on the instruction of the LORD by marching around the city with trumpets for 7 days. Their reputation of God helping them in battles preceded them, and sometimes half the battle is won if the enemy had already been defeated psychologically. Some Kings fought battles using conventional weapons but with spiritual forces assisting them in the heavenlies and even in the natural. There were times when God created confusion and panic at the enemy camp, resulting in them being easy targets of the Israeli forces.

But in order to trust God, our lives need to be given to Him. That is why some Israeli kings failed miserably. They already allowed Baal and Asherah poles into the Temple. They allowed their people to marry the people of the surrounding nations and brought into Israel their practices, idols and gods. The Kings who reestablished God’s word and rule in the life of the nation are Kings who ended up trusting God and winning battles, most notably David.

We also trust in our own chariots and horses, our time proven methods of problem solving or project or time management. Everyone would eventually develop their own unique ways of managing work. The idea, however, is not to get rid of them but to work hand in hand with God. To pray for God’s hands to be upon us and to bless the work of our hands. We rely on His guidance and direction. We work as guided by the Holy Spirit. I’m sure like Israeli kings who called upon the name of the LORD, we will have better and more satisfying successes as we work with God in our lives. But trusting and relying on God also means our lives are given to Him. Not just lip service but a genuine transformation of our hearts towards Him and the things of His Kingdom. They go hand in hand.

https://odb.org/2023/11/29/just-a-whisper

Job, despite his sufferings and losses, was able to hear the whisper of God’s voice through nature. See Job 26:7-14. Although his 3 friends tried to convince him that his predicament was due to his sin, Job insisted and was determined in his contention that he was blameless. Instead, it was the perogative of the LORD to bless and forfeit. The fact of the matter was that it was Satan who was afflicting the miseries upon Job’s life. The LORD allowed it to prove to Satan that Job was and would be blameless. Job was obviously oblivious to the cosmic discussions. As much as it was unfair to him, being made a guinea pig of a spiritual experiment, Job kept his integrity before God and never once blamed God for his sufferings and losses.

Job, to me, was a special case. The LORD took up Satan’s challenge because He knew Job inside out. He knew Job would stand firm. God knew Job’s stand was if the LORD blesses, He may also take away. We, on the other hand, will most likely crumble under such pressure. We will be depressed and may never recover if the same were our afflictions and sufferings. But then we also know that whatever God allows us to go through will not be beyond our capability to endure (1 Corinthians 10:13). That was proven in Job’s case.

I think the lesson we can draw from Job’s experience is to find the still small voice of God in whatever we are going through. Let Christ be our strength and comfort. As Elijah learned, God is not found in the fire or earthquake. He is in the still small voice. God is there, in our darkest moments, our lowest, our afflictions and losses. He will lead us through it all. He is and will be there at the end of the tunnel. In the end, hold on to Paul’s exhortation in Romans 5:3-5, that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance, character, and character hope. We have that hope because we persevere through and developed the character of Christ in the process! It will be tough, but like Job, it will end well. For us, if not in this life, then in the life to come. That is our hope of glory!

https://odb.org/2023/11/28/the-skill-of-compassion

I always thought of compassion as a quality we must have as a believer. An attribute. We need to be compassionate as God was compassionate to us that despite our weaknesses and inadequacies, He called us to be His own so that His power may be made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Like love and grace, compassion is an aspirational quality to have as a Christian.

“A thorn has entered your foot. That is why you weep at times at night,” wrote Catherine of Sienna in the 14th century. “There are some in this world who can pull it out. The skill that takes they have learned from [God]”. Indeed, it is a skill to deal with the deep hurts of our loved ones and those we are close with. It’s a skill we may develop over time ‘on the job’, but often, our ‘patients’ may also be unwilling to let go of those past hurts and move on in life. Some prefer to cling on to those past hurts and disappointments. Blaming fate, themselves, and their parents for their predicament.

That is why I guess as Catherine of Sienna wrote, we need to learn this skill from God. To take away the thorn that makes some weep in the night, there must be patience and sometimes long suffering to endure an outburst or two or many before the thorn is removed and the wound allowed to heal. At times, time will heal. But mostly, divine healing works best. So we pray and intercede and extend our ears to hear out their grief, a shoulder to cry on like a representative of Christ here on earth. The foundation of which is compassion. That is why it is a skill. It can and needs to be developed. It doesn’t come naturally just because we have accepted Christ. Only Christ can change our cold and lackadaisical hearts, our selfish, self-centred love – to have compassion and love for others around us.

Learn the skill of compassion. It will make a lasting impression in our lives and those we love. Some thorns are just so delicate and sensitive to remove.

https://odb.org/2023/11/26/who-am-i-7

When it comes to giving back to God, two perspectives come to mind. The first, as expressed in the song Alabaster Jar (by Gateway Worship), is that whatever we have of worth and all that we have, Jesus deserves more. He is more beautiful than what we have. He is more worthy. Yet, this is all we have. This is all we can give, including the limited time we have left in this natural life of ours. https://youtu.be/l6GeVG1CNso?si=LmB0DvVb4TFyO32u

The second perspective, as expressed by David in 1 Chronicles 29:14 – who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? In the end, what we have comes from God. It is by His grace and mercy that we are who we are today and that we still have breadth in us. In other words, it is a privilege and honour to give unto Him, to serve Him, to be instruments for His glory. We should be thankful that God has chosen us and called us to be His own, that we may bless Him and give back to Him.

There are three things that we have that we may give back unto Him, although He deserves more, much more. But this is all we have. Our talents, our time, and our treasures. Have we started giving God our time in service? Have we started using our talents and giftings for His glory? Have we started giving our money to glorify His name? As we save up for our future, remember to store up our treasures in heaven, too. Our riches stored in heaven will last us for eternity. It is us saving up for the rainy day in the form of our savings for our eternal life. Our EPF in heaven. Jesus Christ has gone ahead to prepare our place in heaven, but we must do our part to store up our riches there, too. As James 2:26 teaches, faith without works is dead.

The remaining time we have, our talents and money – will we start giving back some to God as a sign of our thankfulness and appreciation for His calling for our lives and His gift of salvation? He deserves more. That’s true. But we can only give what we have.

https://odb.org/2023/11/24/worthy-of-all-praise

Besides prayer, one of the privileges we have as believers is to worship and praise the LORD. We can pray while we worship, but worship as an act is distinct as we can actually enter into the spiritual realm through worship.

In Jesus’s encounter with the Samaritan woman in John 4, Jesus spoke about worshipping God in spirit and in truth. The latter is, of course, to use the revelation of Christ and God as found in the Scriptures. Of His great power, His abundant grace and mercy, and His steadfast love. That is why we need to be careful of the lyrics of the worship songs we sing. Do they declare the truth? Or are they writing about ideas that are twisted or slanted?

As for the former, this is where some songwriters use the phrase “as we worship, we meet You face to face,” meaning to say that we are able to enter into the spiritual realm in worship. Or we may have lyrics to the effect that the train of His robe fills the temple, and as we worship, we are able to touch the train of His robe, a garment that signifies the power, splendour and authority of God through Christ Jesus.

Personally, I’ll pick up my guitar and sing to worship and praise the LORD. In personal worship, I can sing any song I like in my own arrangement. There is a 3/4 song that I sing in 4/4 in personal worship. In corporate worship, I can’t do that as my pianist, who is my dear wife, a trained musician, will give me an earful! We don’t even have to sing in pitch in personal worship as what matters is us and God in the spirit. We can also sing in the spirit, in heavenly language, as the Holy Spirit directs, and He intercedes for us when we are lost for words.

Sing, worship, and praise God in our quiet time. If we are not musically inclined, just worship Him accompanied in the background by a YouTube song on our phone or our home sound system. Or just sing a cappella. Whatever works for us. Be sincere and let the songs and the words flow from deep within us. Close our eyes and let the Holy Spirit come and engulf us in His presence. The LORD is God and King. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, our Lord is worthy of all our praise. He deserves all our honour as we bow in adoration at His Name. Sing of His greatness, His loving kindness that endureth forever. Sing of His everlasting love. Sing of the goodness of God.

https://odb.org/2023/11/23/unexpected-blessing-2

I think the teaching of Jesus in Luke 14:12-14 to invite strangers and the needy to banquets is probably something not practised much in most societies except maybe those in smaller villages. In the kampongs (village in Malay) in Malaysia, however, people do throw kenduris (a feast in Malay) where everyone in the village is invited. But for a proper banquet like the lavish 9-course Chinese dinners, it is unheard of to open the doors to everyone. In fact, wedding dinner gate-crashers (uninvited guests) are frowned upon and looked at in disgust. Obviously, fewer people are charitable to give away seats, which cost borders RM200 nowadays. Thus, Chinese dinners are always on an RSVP basis – short for a French phrase, respondez s’il vous plait, meaning “respond if you please.”

But the teaching of Jesus is not so much opening banquets to the poor and needy, but more to bless others who can’t proportionately bless us back in return. It is not about taking turns buying lunch at work but more of a senior manager buying a meal for an intern. Or when we first started out working, buying a round of drinks for the table is something we couldn’t afford when we actually needed to count the cost of our daily meals. Thus, it is that person buying that round of drinks. Or the situation where you lend someone some money knowing that it will likely not be repaid. Thus, the spiritual principles taught by Jesus in Luke 12 were to bless others who can’t return the favour as well as to look out for the needy and poor. In the end, God’s grace and compassion are always with the least in society – the weak and downtrodden, the widows, orphans, and foreigners (migrants).

When relating with God, we can not avoid touching on issues dear to His heart. Generosity as individuals and even as a church is dear to God. We can not be stingy and yet expect to be close to God. Closeness to God is not ritualistic but following Him to do the things dear to His heart. If God is generous, it is clearly wrong for us to be stingy.

https://odb.org/2023/11/22/shining-stars-2

In Philippians 2:12-16, Paul teaches about two elements. One is that we need to continue working out our salvation in fear and trembling. We already know by now that salvation is not only saying the sinner’s prayer, and we are set for life for eternity. Although we can not work for our salvation as it is by the grace of God that we are saved, we need to work out our salvation. We need to allow God to work in us to fulfil His good purpose in us. Salvation is not about getting that train ticket to heaven but about getting that ticket into the Kingdom of God where we each have our respective roles already carved out for us. The angels guarding the entrance will let us in because we hold the ticket with Christ’s name written on it. Admission, however, is not like into an amusement park to play and enjoy the rides but more akin to be staff or crew. There is much to be done in the Kingdom of Heaven.

The second thing that Paul teaches is that we should do everything without grumbling or arguing. It’s like we know this is our job and we just do it. Like my elder son, who works his daytime job and yet runs a small business – there is much work to be done to take orders, buy and receive stocks, sort and then pack and deliver the orders to customers. There is no time to grumble or complain as the work needs to be done to get the business moving. Take your hands off the wheel, and the cycle may be broken, and there may be more problems to solve later on. Yet he also needs to sort out all the issues coming his way in his day job. Or if you are in sales, you need to bring in the business. If not, the factory will be idle or like my company providing professional services, many specialised resources will be on the bench doing nothing. The company can not go on like that as every unbilled resource is a cost, which will bleed the P&L. Likewise, the factory can not be idle as there are overheads and staff costs to pay.

I think we always need to remember and be reminded that there are two judgments at the end of time. The Great White Throne Judgment of God and the Judgment Seat of Christ (Bema Judgment). The former is for unbelievers, while the latter is for those who have accepted Christ into their lives. As Paul teaches in Philippians 2, we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling to achieve God’s purpose for us and to do everything without grumbling or arguing so that we will be blameless, particularly when we face Christ in the Bema Judgement. What will we say if we are asked to give an account for our lives? Will we say that we started with fire, but the flame died down a few years later and remained dead for many years? Or will we say that we have been striving for God all these years and have given Him our best until our dying breadth? Did we do everything without grumbling or arguing? Are we blameless before Him? Was His death for us justified? Are we worthy of our names in the Book of Life?

https://odb.org/2023/11/21/precious-to-god-2

I believe most of us would have heard of the impact of our relationship with our natural father with regards to our relationship with God the Father. It is unavoidable that our experience on earth colours our experience with God in the spiritual realm. This is because as God is our Father, we will see Him as though He is like our earthly father. Thus, those who had a bad experience relating to their earthly fathers tend to struggle a little relating to God. Not that we expect God to treat us badly, too. Just that we are likely to feel that He is distant, cold, and unsupportive.

For example, if we had grown up being rejected 9 out of 10 times when we asked for things, we would likely feel that God would reject our prayer requests. Thus, the coping mechanism that we have built up over the years dealing with rejections from our earthly father will automatically kick in when we relate to God. This may be detrimental to us as we may be unconsciously praying with little expectation or hope. But we know faith, trust, and hope are necessary when praying and seeking direction from God.

There is, therefore, a need to reeducate and reorientate our minds to relate to God as we journey with Christ in faith. Over time, we will know and experience that God as our Heavenly Father do actually grant us the deepest sanctified desires of our hearts as we strive to live in the centre of His will for our lives. We may not have gotten the table fan or the nice clothes or Adidas sneakers we so wanted when growing up, but God, as the creator of the world, is definitely infinitely more capable than our earthly father could ever have been. Most of the times our earthly fathers would have wanted to give us the things we wanted, but there is always a question of affordability and the best practical use of money.

We will all relate to God differently based on our unique relationship with Him over time. The message today is to discard the lens of looking at God like we looked at our earthly fathers. Our earthly father loved and still loves us dearly. He may have his own way of relating to us amidst his own struggles with life, his job, and raising the family. Our Heavenly Father, however, is loving, compassionate, and gracious. He will work all things out for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. We hold on to this exaltation of Paul in Romans 8:28 and trust Him that He always has our best interests in His heart at all times!

https://odb.org/2023/11/20/priceless-results

We usually use the word ‘cheerful’ to describe a giver to encourage the congregation to give willingly and happily and not begrudgingly. This is because the Lord loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:6-7).

But Proverbs 17:22 also teaches that a cheerful heart is good medicine as a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Mood or spirit is transferable in the sense that if we are of good cheer, we may “infect” everyone with our good cheer as compared to affecting everyone to be downtrodden or downcast. Cheerfulness also brings in an atmosphere of victory instead of defeat. When we are cheerful, we are more likely to move forward and progress.

Good cheer is like joy, except that perhaps joy is something we feel internally, but the manifestation of joy is a good cheer – a pleasant and happy appearance and demeanour. A good cheer also reflects contentment that we are at peace with where we are in life as per our blessedness by God. We could achieve more in a year’s time, but we are content with our achievements to date.

Be of good cheer, my dear beloved brothers and sisters, for God loves us and has called us according to His purposes. In fact, He will make all things good for those who love Him and who are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28). A good cheer is infectious. It brightens up the atmosphere. It is positive and reflects God’s glory in our lives.

In John 16:33, Jesus declared that: in the world, you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.

https://odb.org/2023/11/19/gathering-strength

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:9. It’s an exhortation from our Lord Jesus Christ that affirms that He is working on our weaknesses in the natural as we journey with Him in our spiritual life.

No one is perfect, even the most successful of people except Christ. All of us will have weaknesses. Even in analysing deals and transactions, there are bound to be cons as there are pros. In business analysis, we weigh the pros and the cons and consider which outweigh the other? There can never be a business without risks. If so, the premium is prohibitive, or the returns will be low when compared against the outlay. Case in point is investment in government securities, which is incidentally a fiscal tool used by central banks to regulate liquidity and thus inflation. Malaysia government securities are bonds issued to raise funds that are long-term in nature with a relatively low coupon rate that are tradable with a discount to the rate. It comes with a sovereign risk rating. In other words, it is one of the safest of investments as it is pegged to the government’s risk rating. For something like a minimum of RM5 million, we will tie our money down for 10 years for a return of, say, around 5% per annum. High entry point, long-term, and relatively low return.

I think we have to accept that as human beings that our genius somehow comes with some deformities. It is rare to be athletic, beautiful, tall, strong, brainy, a mathematical wizard, an accomplished artist, profilic writer, inventor, and multi instrumentalist to boot. In human history, only Leonardo Da Vinci comes to mind, and even he is not without weaknesses.

However, as believers, our God delights in human weakness as it is in our weakness that His strength is made perfect. Our weaknesses keep us humble in the Lord, for we need Him to overcome our gaps and inadequacies. His glory shines forth as we see His power working in our weaknesses to perfect and make us complete. For example, as we grow older, we are slowly weakened by afflictions. Just a simple muscle pull will stay with us for weeks! But life goes on. We need to strive on in our work and spiritual journey, for our own sake, and for the sake of our loved ones. It is the Lord who gives us the strength and encouragement to continue fulfilling His will and His plans and purposes for our lives.

Don’t despair our weaknesses and human afflictions and shortcomings. Instead, rejoice that God’s power may be perfected in our weaknesses. We will see His grace, mercy, and compassion working in our lives as we humble ourselves before Him. He will rescue and redeem us in our times of trouble. He will make complete and perfect us day by day and strengthen our inner man, and one day, we will be complete in Him.