https://odb.org/2023/10/05/ready-to-go-2

“For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” is one of the most well-known sayings of Paul (Philippians 1:21), which, to me, is probably the epitome of what our faith is all about. This is because when we pass on, we know that we will be with Christ in heaven, and one day, we will be resurrected with our glorified bodies (like Christ on His resurrection 3 days after dying on the cross for our sins). We will also live in the new heaven and new earth as revealed to John in Revelation 21. That is why in Christian funerals, although we grieve, it is actually a joyous occasion for the departed as they will be with their Saviour. For those of us in the faith, that’s our ultimate goal in life – to be with God and reunited with our loved ones who had departed earlier in Christ.

But in all honesty, not everyone is possibly as confident as Paul of their ultimate destination. We know the spiritual principles of Christ having saved us. We know that we are justified by faith. We know that salvation is by grace. Yet we might be afraid to see Christ face to face. Maybe because we feel we are not ready. We may feel that we have not done enough for God to fulfil His plans and purposes for our lives. Or we may worry about the people we leave behind, our loved ones, our sheep, our congregation, our work and colleagues, and friends. That is also why in Christian funerals, we minister to those who are left behind, the friends and family grieving for those who had passed on.

Thus, I think, as much as we want to be able to say, like Paul, that “to die is gain,” we should focus on “to live is Christ.” If to live for us is indeed Christ, then the time will come when at our dying breadth, we will genuinely be able to confidently say to die is gain. We are confident approaching Christ on judgment day at the Bema judgment seat of Christ that we have done all we could to fulfil His plans and purposes for us and to love the LORD our God with all our heart, soul and mind, and love our neighbour as ourselves. Remember, James had already warned us before – faith without works (good works) is dead (James 2:17). Salvation is by grace and may be free, but our Saviour has to sacrifice His life for us. Therefore, we need to carry our cross and be a living sacrifice unto God that is holy and acceptable to Him (Romans 12:1).

https://odb.org/2023/10/04/finding-life-2

I was fascinated by Jesus the day I started reading the English-Malay New Testament that was on the bookshelf of my home. I think I was probably around 9 or 10. It was only when I was 14 that I started taking classes on Jesus Christ that I finally accepted Christ into my life. I have now known and served God for 40 years, and I can testify to His goodness in the well-being of those dearest to me, my beloved wife, and my two boys who are now young adults. My family is indeed testimony that with God in our lives, we have indeed become better from a socio-economic perspective. For example, both my boys have enjoyed stints overseas for their studies when I myself only barely scrapped through entering a local university, something that would have been impossible if not for some government assistance. Back then, my family just had enough for our daily living.

It is also true that after I accepted Christ, my sister, father and mother followed suit, thus affirming Acts 16:31 – believe in the Lord Jesus, you and your household will be saved. Since those days, my family and I have served God in various capacities, and I can testify that both my parents have done so until their dying breadth here on earth.

This journey of Godly blessings in a life lived for God, and His purposes however begins with a personal confession of turning away from sin and accepting Jesus Christ into my life as my personal Saviour and Lord. It is personal to me and is personal to everyone in the family, and yet the blessings of God flow to all. It is my prayer and hope that my two sons will likewise perpetuate this legacy of faith that the hand of God will continue to be with our family for generations to come.

If any of you haven’t accepted Jesus Christ into your lives and you want to do so, pray and confess the following sinner’s prayer:

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. In Jesus’s name, I pray.

Make it personal as it has to be a personal confession and prayer in order that we may indeed find life in God, living for eternity with God one day.

For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believed in Him shall not perish but have life eternal (John 3:16).

https://odb.org/2023/10/03/i-can-see-you

While it is great to aspire to see Jesus face to face one day and live with Him in the new heaven and new earth at the end of time, we should be thankful that the Holy Spirit has removed the scales from our eyes that we are able to grasp and understand spiritual truths and the mysteries of the Kingdom. It is because of the latter that we are now professed children of God, seeing Jesus through eyes of faith and seeing Him transform our lives for the better even while we are still on earth in this earthen vessel.

We may not be Moses, who had the privilege of knowing God face to face or even the 12 disciples and those whom Jesus had ministered to in person during that era. We may not have the same privilege like Paul learning from Jesus personally in the spirit for nearly 3 whole years and has seen things in the spiritual that can not be spoken about. Or even John, who was given the honour to see and write down things to come at the end of time. There would have been many who had seen Jesus or Father God in dreams and visions. In our simple faith, we are able to believe and put our hope and trust in Him.

The truth is that our faith is simple but is not blind. It is not without basis. We do experience Jesus working in our lives. We experience His reality as we cast our cares and anxieties upon Him. As we pray and commit our work, He gives us ideas and solutions. He blesses the work of our hands. He is compassionate to forgive us for our transgressions and sins and helps us overcome the consequences of our mistakes. Because of God in our lives, our future generations will be better off in this world as has been proven all over the world. There are real and tangible benefits in the natural knowing God, although the greatest is still our life eternal.

As we get off to work or college or school today, be thankful and appreciative that our eyes have already seen Jesus, even if it is only in the spiritual realm. Thank God for opening our eyes and revealing to us Himself, His Son and His Holy Spirit, and the mysteries of the Kingdom. May our faith and spiritual life be strengthened each day as we allow Him to mould and transform us into the masterpiece He had created in us before the foundations of the world!

https://odb.org/2023/10/02/the-masterpiece-within

I think whether it is a question of uncovering God’s masterpiece within us or God working in our lives as it is more popularly understood, we still need to do our part. Transformation does not work like a magic wand. In a business, even experienced senior people applying formulas from other places will not work when the market as a whole has changed and moved on. Transformation needs time and effort. What more when the change needs to come from within. Change is not for show or mere lip service. Life changes that make a spiritual difference must be genuine and from deep within us. It’s not a set of moral codes of conduct, but are we becoming better human beings?

As much as Jesus says that His burden is light and His yoke is easy, that He is gentle and humble, we must still carry His yoke (Matthew 11:28-30). We must still be that living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God (Romans 12:1). We have to take up our cross and follow Him.

Our job after we have accepted Christ into our lives is to become that masterpiece of God that had already been crafted in the spiritual realm. Let it come out in our earthly natural lives. We have been made for good works since the foundations of the world. Let our true potential be uncovered and fulfilled as we live our lives for God and His glory.

As we start a new week and a new month this week, let’s make it our priority to press on heavenward towards the goal that Christ has set before us and let God uncover His masterpiece within us. Let our full potential in God be fulfilled. Do our part to work with God, to cooperate with His Holy Spirit, forgetting what is behind but only looking ahead like Joshua and Caleb in the Promised Land. Let us clothe ourselves with the armour of God (Ephesians 6:11-13) that we may deflect the enemy’s fiery darts and destroy his shackles and bondages in our lives and the lives of those we are reaching out to. May His will be done here on earth as it is in heaven!

https://odb.org/2023/10/01/elegant-design

I went AWOL last week as I was away on vacation, visiting Daniel in beautiful and cosmopolitan Melbourne. Had a wonderful time enjoying its good vibes and excellent cuisine. I posted some photos on my insta page – feel free to have a look when you are free at instagram.com/ronlim68/.

Praise the Lord for such privilege to travel, to see His goodness at work in another city. We attended the Chinese Baptist Church in Melbourne 10 mins walk from our hotel and listened to a message filled nearly 90% with testimonies of how God turned around lives in Hong Kong and how China is very much a cashless society nowadays.

As we reflect upon His creation and read Genesis 1, we know that these accounts are not exclusive to us as the creation story and the great flood have been with many civilisations since ancient times. Sometimes, we may question its veracity when confounded by other theories. However, the complexity of the bodily functions of humans and animals can not but point us to a creator. All living creatures share a blueprint in terms of having internal organs that process the food we eat, the air we breathe (even sea creatures extract oxygen from water), and the water we drink. While animals are driven by instincts, human beings have a thinking mind that not only controls the body but also a soul that lives forever. We have been created to not only live a life here on earth but also in preparation for the new heaven and earth that will come about at the end of time. The fact that Jesus Christ was at the beginning during creation as John proclaims in John 1:1 and Jesus Himself quotes Genesis 2:24 as recorded in Matthew 19:5 all point to the truth and veracity of the creation story in the bible.

God is real, and our Lord Jesus Christ is alive today and is the same yesterday, today, and forever more. He is the way, the truth, and the life. Our afterlife will be in peril if we don’t believe in Him and accept Him as our Lord and Saviour. Only He alone has the words of eternal life, and only He holds the keys to Hades. Learn the spiritual lessons and principles well as enumerated in Scriptures. They will stand us in good stead in this life and thereafter.

https://odb.org/2023/09/21/god-covers-our-sin

When we read John 8:1-11, the emphasis is, of course, that no one, as well as Jesus, condemned the woman caught in adultery. The Jewish leaders wanted to entrap Jesus with the question of what you do to the woman in adultery as, seemingly, the law of Moses would have had the woman stoned to death. However, Jesus checked-mate the Jewish leaders by asking the one without sin to cast the first stone. As all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), no one could, in all honesty, cast the first stone. Since Jesus was the only one without sin and He didn’t condemn her either, she was free to go but Jesus ended the encounter with the words, “Go now and leave your life of sin”.

As much as Jesus was and is still compassionate, we have to remember and remind ourselves that the grace and mercy of God is not a licence to sin or do evil. As humans, we will not be able to meet the requirements of the law of God to be righteous on merit. So Jesus died for our sins and redeemed us from the path of sin that led to destruction. But we must remain on the path of righteousness that leads to eternal life. That basically means that our demeanour and approach to life and others around us is one of selflessness, humility, kindness, and compassion too. Like the woman in adultery who was not condemned by Christ, we must leave our life of sin. We can not live a life of sin and still expect to be in fellowship with God. The High Priests of the Old Testament, if they enter the Holy of Holies without consecration, may end up dead in the presence of God. Moses was asked to remove his sandals when he was in the presence of God (presumably sandals being the dirtiest part of our clothing symbolised sin). See Exodus 3:4-5.

Thus, as much as we sometimes may want to avenge some injustice wrought upon us and take matters into our own hands, best we leave that all to God to do as per His discretion and will. We carry on with life believing in faith that, like Jesus did with the woman in adultery, God will find a fresh start for us, although in our case, we are not the ones who sinned. Nevertheless, we believe that God loves us and will not abandon us, but He will find us a way when there appears to be no way. Keep ourselves pure and righteous before Him and remain on the path of righteousness. We can not avoid injustice in this world, but with God on our side, who actually can be against us?

https://odb.org/2023/09/20/shooting-ourselves-in-the-foot

In Mark 10:35-45, John and James, the sons of Zebedee, asked Jesus that they be placed at the right and left hands of Jesus. In other words, in the Kingdom of God that Jesus was advocating, they wanted to be No.2 and No.3. Jesus answered them by saying they didn’t know what they were asking and asked them whether they could drink the cup he would drink? Meaning, could they also die on the cross with Him? They answered yes – because they probably didn’t know what Jesus meant. In the end, Jesus said that their request was not for Him to grant but reminded that whoever wants to be great in the Kingdom of God must be a servant and whoever wants to be first must be a slave to all. For even Jesus did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.

Thus, the basis for leadership in church is service and not to be served. The leader is the one who works the hardest, who tirelessly attends to everyone’s needs. That is why it is very tough to be a pastor in church. Everyone’s problems are yours to help resolve, no matter what time of day. Then you have the weddings and the funerals, the baptisms, and the pulpit. It’s the servant-leader model, where service is key. That is why Jesus said you need to be slave to all!

While not everyone is called to shepherd a church, those of us in ministry will know that once we start, it’s service all the way. It’s somewhat like the disciples of Christ (Simon Peter and Andrew, James and John), although not quite. The day they dropped their fishing nets to follow Jesus, there is no turning back. For example, I have been serving in the church since I was a young boy and have been doing so for the past 40 years. It didn’t matter what my role was, but I continued to play some role here and there, in music, cell groups, and even in Christmas presentations.

The message this morning is for every one of us to continue to serve God in the church and from wherever we are. Service is the essence of Christian leadership. To do great things for God is to serve Him. Start small, but start somewhere. Once you start, you will never be able to stop – you will have your boots on the ground until your dying breadth! I recall my own dad was counselling someone in the morning before he was hospitalised in the afternoon and passed on the next morning. To love Jesus is to feed His lambs (see John 21: 15-19).

https://odb.org/2023/09/19/faithful-but-not-forgotten

Faith is the substance of things hoped for; evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 1:1 (NKJV). Meaning to say that even though reality does not yet reflect our hope, we persevere in believing God, trusting God. Although we can not see God, for He is spirit, we still cling on to Him in faith. Even though we can not see heaven yet, we trust that we will enter into eternal life one day. We unwaveringly hold on to God’s promises for us even though none received what had been promised them in their lifetime (Hebrews 11:39). That’s the essence of faith.

That is why missionaries sow in the present for the future. Many do not see the fruits of their labour in their lifetimes. But they persevere with their calling. They don’t give up even if they do not see results now, believing that things will turn around one day by the power of God. This is particularly so in hard ground and closed countries. Perhaps after one lifetime living among the people they are reaching out to, the next generation will turn to God.

We ponder – is what we are doing now making a difference? The small gestures of kindness and compassion. The recipients of our kindness and compassion may not think too much about it. But one day, when they find out we are believers, they will attribute it to the goodness of God in our lives and perhaps one day at the right time, they may turn to God and accept Jesus into their lives.

The message this morning is to launch out in faith every day, doing good and being kind and compassionate. No one we know may notice or know. But God knows, and the recipients will know. They will ask why? Why is he or she so good and nice to me? I am in no position to make his or her life better. I am a nobody. He will gain nothing being kind to me. But one day, they will find out that we had been so nice and kind because of our God. Then perhaps they may want to know this God of ours and make Him theirs? That, my friends, is the essence of faith, the essence of our faith.

https://odb.org/2023/09/18/the-red-dress-project

An interesting fact I learnt today is that Aaron is not only Moses’s brother and spokesman during the time of the Israelites’ sojourn from Egypt to Canaan but also the founder of the Israeli priesthood. He and his two sons were the first priests of Israel, the first of the Levites whose lives were consecrated to serve the Temple. Thus, although there were 12 tribes of Israelites, only 11 tribes were given land in the Promised Land to cultivate crops and rear livestock. The Levites were not given land as they lived in and for the Temple. The other tribes were hence required to give one tenth of their produce to the Temple as a tithe unto the LORD for the subsistence of the priesthood.

The modern church has used this delineation by God of the Israeli tribes to justify the giving of tithes and offerings to the church with some churches going to the extent to interpret tithes as only for those in full-time ministry and offerings for the general upkeep and maintenance of the church. Churches also set up special building funds when they embark on substantial capital expenditure like the building of a church sanctuary.

The difficulty of this interpretation is that as believers, we are all part of a royal priesthood, each an individual priest to and for God. In 1 Peter 2:9, Peter wrote that – but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.

Yet if believers do not support the church, the church and its full-time workers will not be able to live as the latter had given up gainful employment in the world to serve full-time in the church. In the same way that the Levites did not have land to cultivate and grow their own food and livestock, full-time workers do not have an income source outside of the church.

My view is that all that we have is God-given or God-enabled. Thus, we should be generous to give to God to support His work, and that in particular is His church. But there are times when He prompts us to help persons in need and other ministries. We should likewise be generous to respond to the prompting of God. People who live by faith, depending fully on God for their subsistence, actually depend on His children (you and I who are believers) responding to His prompting to give and share. We should give as the Holy Spirit prompts with one tenth as a rough guide because if we want to go back to the delineation of the tribes in Exodus as our basis for giving, the other tribes were not required to give more than one-tenth each for the Temple and Levites. In that sense, the maximum and the minimum remains that amount.

Ultimately, what matters is our heart, and we should give as the Lord prompts as generous as we are able and capable while setting aside for our own rainy day, our future, and our families.

https://odb.org/2023/09/24/compassion-in-action

On Thursday, I don’t know what got into me. I just felt generous. I saw this crippled guy (one leg amputated) at the entrance of the bank, and I have seen him like countless times. He was perhaps similar to the guy crippled from birth that Peter and John must have always seen at the entrance of the temple in Acts 3. I thought that like that guy who was smart to wait at the entrance of the temple, this guy was also smart to wait at the entrance of the bank. So people, after withdrawing cash from the ATM, may perhaps spare him some loose change. That day, the Lord prompted me to give him more than just a few bucks. I gave him RM20 – he could probably have a few meals with that. Then, at night, I had to go to an ATM to activate my Wise card, and I saw a migrant lady selling tidbits, none of which I fancied. Looking at her pleading eyes and just fresh out of a lesson on foreigners, I gave her RM10. She was surprised and wanted to give me some tidbits in return. But I told her it’s OK.

I think these are just small acts of compassion, the amounts being so small to us but perhaps may mean something to the recipients. But exercising compassion must start from somewhere. We start by giving out small amounts before progressing to bigger ones. Ultimately, we can not help everyone, and eradicating hunger and poverty is the job of governments and public policy. But what are we as redeemed children of God when we can’t show compassion to another human being, the crippled and the foreigner?

As Father God was compassionate to us by calling us to be His children through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, we must likewise exercise compassion in our dealings with others. Sometimes, we may be the ones requiring compassion. It’s give and take in life. Sometimes, we may even require compassion from God. We should take nothing for granted, even God’s love. Being compassionate doesn’t cost us much. Instead, we will be reflecting the glory of God through our lives. Go ahead, make someone’s day!