https://odb.org/MY/2023/07/28/from-crucible-to-service-or-the-long-game

In this age of near instant gratification, the world sort of promotes quick success. Rather than save RM40,000 a year to have RM1 million in 25 years, some people aspire to be a millionaire before they turn 30. For those who graduate from college around 23, that’s only after 7 years of working.

Even in the church, this is sometimes carried over, with some expecting to achieve spiritual maturity and leadership after becoming a Christian or serving for only a few years. As there is somewhat a dearth of capable leaders in church, some churches promote their capable members quickly up the ranks, looking more at the externals, than for the heart that has already been tested and refined by God. Or, as another example, when we pray for something, we expect God to provide or answer us almost immediately.

The Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness after God, using Moses, freed them from their bondage of slavery in Egypt, in part due to their insolence and unbelief but partly also because they were not ready to enter the Promised Land. Thus, the 40 years was the time used by God to raise a new generation that was mostly raised in the harsh conditions of the desert who were totally reliant on God daily for their sustenance and direction (manna, water source and the cloud/ball of fire). Even Moses spent 40 years working for his father in law Jethro as a shepherd in the mountains after fleeing Egypt before God called him to free the Israelites from Egypt.

In the faith, a quick rise to prominence, whether in terms of position or giftings or profile (right in front as a worship leader or preacher), may not be good as Christian life is a long game. A lot of things inside us take time to change. God with His infinite patience may take years to mould and transform us into a proper image of Christ. For example, humility takes time to cultivate. It’s a long walk to the end. Overcoming a few obstacles at the front, although good and admirable, is not everything as there are many more ahead in our journey of faith. We need perseverance, but more importantly, we need stamina to last the long haul. It’s surely not a 100m dash but a 10,000 km journey on foot!

One last point – certain things can only be done in the spiritual realm if we have had a genuine internal transformation. It could be having access to the spiritual dimension or God opening up the mysteries of the Kingdon to us. Granted, it’s a long game. But I think we will be more effective if we are quicker in allowing God to transform us as then we will have more time to do more effective things for Him. If we are only changed in our 70s, we will have less strength and not much time left to do those things for Christ.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/07/27/extra-grace-required

The most fundamental tenet of our faith is that salvation is by grace. There is nothing we can do on our own that can save us as we are all born sinners and thus deserve wrath. That’s the thrust of Ephesians 2:2-10. We were dead in our transgressions, but God, in His rich mercy because of His great love for us, made us alive with Christ – it is thus by grace that we are saved.

Therefore, instead of uncertainty and trepidation, we have certainty of where we are going after we die. The question is whether our names are written in the Book of Life. Not a question of a weighing scale of whether our good deeds outweigh our bad. Not a question of whether our prayers and social welfare in our old age outweigh the sins and transgressions of our youth. If our names are written in the Book of Life, we will live with God for all eternity.

Of course, the effort then comes in after we are saved as we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling as Paul teaches in Philippians 2:12. In Ephesians 2:10, Paul exhorts us that we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Thus, even the good works that we are to do have been planned and prepared in advance by God for us.

If we follow the track suggested by Paul, we will be OK. Christ saved us by His death on the cross, in God’s abundant grace. Then, we work out our salvation by doing the good works God has prepared for us. Don’t rebel and go our own way. Do all things without grumbling and arguing so that we may become pure and blameless children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation (Philippians 2:12-16). Go with the flow as the Holy Spirit leads. All this arguing and grumbling will just waste time and achieve nothing when there is much to be done.

The last point I like to bring up today is that as we are saved by grace, we should likewise give extra grace to those around us. People can sometimes be dumb and silly or just plain irritating but forgive them. Cut them some slack. It’s OK. We are not perfect, as yet when we were sinners, God saved us.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/07/25/every-grief

I have written before on Revelation 21, and I’m writing it again today. It is about the new Jerusalem and the new heaven and new earth. The dwelling place of God that Isaiah wrote about many years ago in Isaiah 65:17-25 and which the Apostle John was given a glimpse while he was exiled at the island of Patmos.

The eternal life or “life everlasting” that John wrote in John 3:16 is actually Revelation 21. Ironically, heaven will be on earth and not a place in another dimension. As the dead in Christ rises on the second coming of Christ, we will all be given a glorified body, a body that is physical and yet will not be contaminated by sin and will not slowly rot away. On top of that, the place where God dwells among His people will come with unrestricted access to the tree of life, upon which as we partake of the tree, we will continue to live. Thus, Revelation 21 is Eden recreated, as it was at the beginning, and so it will be at the end of time. For Christ is the Alpha and the Omega. This is the hope of glory for all believers. A life lived in eternity with our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why it is said that as believers, we will only have one death and not two, as since we have had two births (natural and spiritual), we will have only one death. https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/born-twice-die-once/

In Matthew 10:12, Jesus warned us not to be afraid of those who want to kill our body but can not touch our souls. Fear only God who can destroy both soul and body in hell. At the end of time, souls that are condemned with the devil and his evil compatriots will be destroyed in hell. That is the second death. You may read about this in Revelation 20.

This beautiful earth with all the creatures and living things created by God for man – we will get to relive it again at the end of time in the new heaven and earth. The original intent of God for man to have dominion over all other creatures on earth will now materialise again. The sin of Adam redeemed by the Lamb of God, the stain and sting of sin are no more!

A word of caution, though. The new heaven and new earth and the new Jerusalem are not for everyone in the sense that not everyone will be there. This future place, this future heaven and earth, is, however, available for anyone who wishes to book a place there. We can do so by accepting Jesus Christ into our lives today as our Lord and Saviour. One day, we will all meet up there at this place for those whose names are written in the Book of Life.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/07/24/hope-in-grief-2

The preacher at my local church articulated yesterday that the natural precedes the spiritual. For example, no matter how hard we pray, we will die one day. Of course, life and death are in the hands of God. As some say, there are two things we can not avoid in life – death and taxes.

I lost my mum in 2009 and lost my dad last year. So I’m technically an orphan, although the term usually depicts someone who lost their parents while they were young and had to grow up without their biological parents. Nevertheless, when I lost my parents, I had hope even though I grieved. They were both in the Lord and had been active serving Him when they passed on. Thus, I’m comforted that one day I will see them when Christ returns.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 is the passage of Scripture where Paul taught on the rapture of the living, and the dead in Christ rising again on His second coming. But it starts with an exaltation that we as believers not to grieve like others in the world because we have hope in Christ – the dead in Christ will rise again one day. Though they may die, they will live – for Jesus is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). Coincidentally, this is the verse I had placed on the tombstone of my late father and mother and is our hope of glory in Christ. We know that one day, we will all be reunited with our loved ones who had died in Christ, whether family or fellow comrades and servants in the Kingdom of God.

I think the message today is to remain on the narrow path and be faithful to God’s calling for us. This is because for 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 to be real and to work for us, we have to be in Christ when Christ returns. There is thus a deep and strong motivation for us to be faithful to God. We will see our loved ones and our fellow servants of Christ again on that day! We look forward to that glorious day of reunification. We have hope in our grief, yes, but we ourselves must remain true to the cause.

Have a good and blessed week ahead! May the King of Glory continue to mould and transform us so that we may fulfil His plans and purposes for our lives!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/07/23/remember-in-prayer

One of the most powerful weapons we possess as a believer is the power to communicate directly with our Lord Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. Besides the relationship part, prayer is powerful because it can move the hand of God. Prayer is also powerful because, as believers, we have authority and power over demonic forces. Thus, as we pray, we will assist angelic forces as they battle evil principalities of the air in the spiritual realm. The demonic forces also gain power from the worship of those who believe in them.

In addition to the relationship with God and the intercessory prayer, we can also remember others in prayer. We can make it a habit to pray for a list of people from our loved ones like our spouse, our children to our family, our cell group members, the people we know in church whom we know need prayers as well as our friends and colleagues. We could pray for others as they go through crises or issues in life or just pray for their general well-being and health, and most importantly, that the Lord will strengthen their faith or that they will not lose sight of Christ and the narrow path as they live out life. As Christians, we have a concept of remembering and covering others with prayers like a layer of protection. And we can also pray for those in closed countries who are underground believers or who are already facing persecution for their faith.

The message this morning is that we all ought to develop a life of regular prayer and communion with God, and as we spend time praying, use the time to pray for people we know who are in need of prayers. For example, people who are miserable at their current jobs and are on the lookout despite the challenging economic outlook. Or those who are currently unemployed and looking for a job. Or those who are inflicted with sickness for God to heal them or to taper down their suffering.

Prayer is usually unseen and in the background. The people we pray for may not even know that we are praying for them. Yet it is a potent spiritual tool available to us as believers in Christ. Invest time in it and pray for people!

Have a blessed Sunday worship service this morning, everyone! Exalt the Lord on high, for He is worthy of all our praises and worship! May He dwell in the praises of His people, may our worship be a sweet incense unto His throne!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/07/21/room-for-silence

The story of Elijah at the cave in the mountain with the wind, earthquake, and fire but only meeting God in the gentle whisper is a passage favoured by and popular among preachers. The account is in 1 Kings 19:9-14, and the context is Elijah had fled the scene after defeating and killing 450 prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel. Despite the spectacular victory calling fire from heaven to consume wood soaked in water proving that Yahweh was real to the Israelites, he feared for his life when Jezebel, Ahab’s Queen who introduced Baal worship to the Israelites, threatened to take his life.

The spiritual principle is that while God was in the spectacular (God being God), He is also found in the gentle whisper, or “the still small voice”, as the King James version puts it. Sometimes in life, we need to distil all the drama happening around us and quiet down our hearts to hear the still small voice of the LORD. We need to cut through all the “noise” to decipher God’s voice reaching out to us.

But I think as charismatic Christians propagating healing and signs and wonders, we also need to realise that God is also in the ordinary things we do. Healing ministry has its place, but the steady daily proclamation of Christ through our lives and the life of the church is equally, if not more important. Missionaries of old spent years just being part of the community to proclaim the Gospel. Many sacrificed their lives in the process, like those reaching out to head hunting communities in the interior. But look at the Bataks of Sumatra today. They are proud of their Christian heritage despite their murderous past. Catholic missions built schools and hospitals that were of significant impact to communities in their efforts to proclaim Christ to the masses. Today, the best schools in the world are often Catholic schools.

Don’t look for God only in the spectacular. He is found in the ordinary too. In the gentle whisper. In that still small voice. In our quiet worship. In our quiet time with Him. When we meditate on His Word. When we reach out to Him from the stillness of our hearts.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/07/20/putting-on-humility

In Philippians 2:5-11, Paul reminds us of a very important point in dealing and relating with one another. Using Jesus as the perfect example for forsaking His divinity to become man and to live among His creation as a human being, Jesus became a servant to the point of death. Humility is thus an important trait to have when dealing with our fellow believers and others.

Humility is key because we are all equals before God as brothers and sisters in Christ, as co-heirs with Christ. There is a leadership hierarchy in the church, but before God, I don’t think God sees us as pastors, leaders, or just members. In the spiritual realm, everyone is the same to Him. Every believer possesses the same power and authority to pray for spiritual intervention, to break strongholds, and to pray for healing. We all have an equal voice to speak. The Lord doesn’t answer the prayers of the pastor first. But there are spiritual gifts and unique talents bestowed or acquired by different ones of us over time with faithfulness and persistence, and thus, some of us in fulfilling our calling may do certain tasks better. But at the baseline, we all have the same spiritual authority and power as believers and children of God. It’s like in the police force – every policeman, whether rank and file or an officer, has the legal authority and power to carry firearms and arrest a civilian who commits an offence.

Therefore, it is essential that we remain humble before God and man as everyone comes into this world naked and will return to God naked. We come into this world with nothing, and we will leave with nothing. On the day of Jesus Christ, we will all be resurrected and clothed in a new glorified body. There has been no indication in Scriptures that we will have bodies with differing powers and abilities as we only have one sole example in the resurrected Christ. That is the body we place our hope of glory on.

Humility is also important for us as God Himself loves the humble. In James 4:6, he writes that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. This is evident in Psalms 136:6 – though the LORD is high, He regards the lowly, but the haughty He knows from afar. In Proverbs 3:34, it is written that towards the scorners, He is scornful but to the humble He gives favour. In Matthew 23:12, Jesus Himself said, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Let’s all be humble before God and man. The LORD will be proud of us. Jesus will be delighted. Most importantly, it is easier to gain cooperation and trust if we are humble.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/07/18/doing-something-right

There are two ways to look at things if we are doing wrong. One approach is to continue doing wrong. Since we have sinned, or as some say, already covered in dirt, nothing we do now may undo the wrong we did or wash away our dirt – so we continue to wallow in the dirt like pigs in a pig sty. Another approach is the other extreme and, I believe, adopted by some believers who put their faith in the gospel of grace. And it goes like this – we know God is forgiving, gracious, and compassionate. So we take our chances. We sin, and then we seek forgiveness. Then sin again and seek forgiveness again. We do this 500 times over 20 years, and we are still at it today. No change, no transformation. In essence, we are no better than the others of the world, although we profess to be a child of God.

Both are wrong at different ends of the spectrum. On the one hand, there is forgiveness in Christ, and He can and will wipe us clean like snow. His blood shed on the cross forgives us our sins. Therefore, there is no justification for anyone to continue sinning, as though once tainted, it is always tainted. God forgives, and Christ cleanses. On the other hand, we can not keep on sinning and seeking forgiveness because by doing that, we are taking God’s grace and compassion for granted. We do not reverent God. If we are still the same the day we accepted Christ and today, many years later, there is probably something wrong with our faith.

The thing that cuts across both extremes and modulates the ends together, in my view, is repentance. If we had committed great sins but have a repentant heart, God forgives and gives us a new lease of life in Him. The past will not taint us. We are who we are today in Christ. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega and will bring to completion the good work that He has begun in us. Conversely, if we have repentance, we will not get into this pattern of sin and forgiveness. Repentance means that after we seek forgiveness, we will cease sinning. Of course, there may be relapses, but they are few and far in between.

With repentance, there is hope for those who had done great wrongs before as well as those who continue doing wrong despite knowing Jesus. Have a humble and contrite heart before God, as the Psalmists say. Repent of our sins before God, and He will in His abundant grace and mercy, forgive us and write our names down in the Book of Life.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/07/17/whats-my-purpose

I guess one of the questions Jesus will ask us at the Judgement Seat of Christ (Bema Judgment) is – have you done the things I called you to do? Just a few days ago, I wrote on the types of judgment awaiting us on the day of Jesus Christ: https://ronnielim.com/2023/07/13/personal-responsibility-and-accountability/

Have we fulfilled our calling in God? Did we live in the centre of His will? Did we execute His plans and purposes for our lives? Or were we too busy living our own lives, fulfilling our own plans and ambitions? From the days of our youth till our old age, did we only pursue our own things and matters? Was God ever figured on any of the things we do? Did we serve Him in church and ministry? What is the Lord’s specific will for our lives? This is something for us to seek out with God and discover and fulfil. I always believe each and every one of us has a specific role to play in the Kingdom of God. We are that particular brick in the wall. Only we can fit that gap with our unique talent and giftings in Christ.

Having said that, if we are still on the road of discovery on God’s purpose for us and are still unsure, whatever our age – the message is to make ourselves useful. Call up someone and make conversation or in today’s world, just WhatsApp someone. Our care and concern may light up someone’s day. Go out and invite someone for a meal and a time of fellowship. Invite people to our church service and be their usher when they come. Attend to them. Do home or hospital visitations. Offer to pray for people and their needs. Pray and intercede for people in our midst. There is much we can do if we choose to make ourselves useful.

What’s my purpose in life is something for us to discover with God? Once we discover that, we can live a purpose-driven life, being the best that we can ever be in God. We can live in the centre of God’s will. In the meantime, make ourselves useful. In fact, we might end up discovering our calling in God as we serve Him in small and minute ways. Maybe our purpose in life is to be a Barnabas or a Timothy. Not everyone has to be Peter or Paul or John!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/07/16/prayer-and-transformation

Psalm 127 is the start of Book Five (or the Fifth Part) of the Psalms that speaks of the rescue of Israel and their return to Jerusalem and Canaan land (Israel). The Psalmists likened the LORD’s rescue of Israel to sailors caught in the tempest of a storm at open waters. The Psalmists wrote that the merchants at sea, in their peril, had their courage melted away. They reeled and stumbled like drunkards. They were at their wits’ end. Then they cried out to the LORD in their distress. He heard their cry and stilled the storm to a whisper. In the end, the LORD guided them to their haven, a safe harbour away from the elements.

Psalm 127 can also be looked at as an example of God answering our prayers when we face storms of life, that as we call upon His name in our distress, He extends His hands to help us and lift us up from falling. It reminds me of Jesus lifting Peter out of the water as he sunk even though he had walked on water for a distance. We can see the account in Matthew 14:22-33. In another situation, when the disciples of Christ were afraid for their lives during a furious squall, Jesus woke up and spoke the storm into a whisper. See Mark 4: 35-41.

I think Jesus will not calm every storm that we face in life as some storms are meant to mould and transform us into a better person for Christ. Some storms will make us stronger after we go through it. There are spiritual principles and lessons of faith that we will carry with us for the rest of our lives after such storms. Like in Psalm 127, I believe one principle we should adopt and practice is to pray when facing a storm. Cry out to Christ for help like Peter did with Jesus. Jesus will either calm the storm or calm our nerves. Come what may and whatever happens, our faith must remain steady and focused. Commit our situation to Jesus and believe that Romans 8:28 will be our ultimate outcome. Even though we may lose some battles, we will win the war! Look at the big picture when facing storms in life. Remain on the narrow path to eternal life, on that boat to salvation.

But if the storm is really unbearable, please speak to someone. We pray and commit our situation to Jesus, but also confide in someone who may be able to help or lend us a listening ear or a shoulder to cry on. A human touch is and will be useful and helpful, although divine intervention may be required. Sometimes, God will only intervene later, in accordance with His time as He makes all things beautiful in His time. In the meantime, hang on there like a sailor adrift at sea clinging on to a raft to stay afloat. Help is on the horizon and will reach us soon.