Habit of prayer

https://odb.org/2024/02/19/prompted-to-pray-2

I have heard before of testimonials by believers experiencing supernatural interventions in their lives in the form of a good Samaritan suddenly appearing out of practically nowhere to extend help. As suddenly as the help appeared, that person sort of vanished into the crowd, never to be found again. These believers later found out that at that precise moment, someone, in some cases in a far land, was praying for them. Thus, as the words of the song say, prayer moves the hand of God. Prayers also help in spiritual warfare as it gives strength to angels battling demonic forces in the heavenly realm.

Thus, as Paul teaches in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 and in Colossians 1:3, we need to continually pray for one other. That the grace and mercy of God will always be there to safeguard and protect us, especially our hearts, when facing difficult and challenging situations. So that we keep our faith and maintain our course heavenward in this race. In addition to developing this habit to pray in the morning during our quiet time with the Lord, we should also pray before we enter into our dream world as we retire to sleep. And then, on top of that, we can pray whenever we are free. Instead of daydreaming, pray for someone. Pray as the Holy Spirit leads. That is probably what Paul meant to pray continually. We are always praying and communicating with God. We express our thoughts to Jesus any moment that we can.

Besides drawing us closer to God, prayer will help others and in the process we will become a vessel for God’s grace and mercy, love, joy and peace, His providence and blessings and supernatural powers to flow through us. As we pray, God’s transforming powers would flow through us. We are changed in the presence of a Holy God, the one and only, the Great I Am! Let Your will O Lord be done here on earth as it is in heaven! Let Your will O Lord be done through us, Your sanctified vessels of righteousness! Amen!

Love each other

https://odb.org/2024/02/16/love-all

When it comes to the commandments, the first is always love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37). The second is to love your neighbour as yourself (Matthew 22:39). The third is love each other as I (Jesus) have loved you (John 15:12). The third commandment is higher because Jesus laid down His life for us. He died for our sins on the cross. In John 12, Jesus taught that there is no greater love than a man who lays down his life for another. That reminds me of stories of men who gave up their places in the life boats for women and children, and Christians for non-Christians when the Titanic sank so that the latter ones may live on and still have a chance to embrace Christ and be saved for eternity.

Are we able to lay our lives down for others? Yes, in terms of our service in church and ministry. Yes, in terms of being kind and caring towards our brethren. In exchange for our life? Perhaps only for our spouse and our children. There are limitations as to how much we are willing to lay down our lives for one another. This third commandment of Christ is surely the most challenging. We could take heed of Paul’s declaration that for him to die is gain, but to live is Christ (Philippians 1:12). If we were to die for another, we would definitely and surely be with Christ, and thus, it will be our most significant gain in this life for eternal life.

If we were to live to go through the coming Great Tribulation, we could be tested whether we are willing to die for Christ or for another. Let’s make the right and wise choice if we were ever required to make such a call in time to come.

Humility and Cooperation

https://odb.org/2024/02/15/humilitys-perk

Ancient Godly wisdom teaches in Proverbs 22:4 that humility is the fear of the LORD, and its wages are riches, honour, and life. As the fear of the LORD is the beginning of understanding or wisdom, humility is the key to wisdom as the wise always chooses God over everything else. Thus, the best way for man to gain access to God and His grace and mercy in the olden days is to be humble as God loves the humble but opposes the proud.

But what does it mean to be humble before God? In my view, it is to recognise deep within us that all that we are and have are because of God’s grace and mercy. It may be our hard work, but if God hadn’t made our circumstances such, we would not be where we are today. If we had capitalised on opportunities, remember that it is by God’s grace that the opportunities presented themselves to us. Our paths to college and university were made possible because God opened doors for us. We may have qualified on merit, but I was the 33rd person to squeeze into a racial quota of 30 in a class of 100 undergraduates. How was that possible? 3 original acceptees declined and went overseas.

Humility also breeds cooperation among others as humility means we are willing to listen and accept other viewpoints. We are humble if we don’t think that we are the only ones with the right answer. Humility among people means we are willing to admit our mistakes and say sorry when we are wrong. Human nature is such that if we are humble, people are attracted to work with us, to cooperate rather than resist or comply grudgingly. Humility breeds willingness, unity, and harmony, and such a combination will lead us to collectively reach greater heights whether at work, in church, or in ministry. But it would be easier to be humble before man if we are already humble before God.

Make it our lifelong quest to be humble before God and man. Ultimately, we will surely reap its wages – riches, honour, and life as promised by Proverbs 22:4!

Love and Commitment

https://odb.org/2024/02/14/motivated-by-love-2

One of the greatest blessings of having a husband or wife in the context of a Christian marriage is the commitment to be with one another through thick and thin. We build our lives together in Christ throughout the years, building our family and career while serving God in ministry and church. As time goes by, we know why God chose us for each other. Some of us may have chosen our other half based on our emotions, but over the years, we will realise and see God’s wisdom in joining us together as a couple. Usually, opposites attract like positive and negative points of a battery, but the reality is that shared interests will keep us together for years to come. For example, my dear wife likes dramatic movies, and I prefer action ones, but every now and then, we will find something that we both like, and we watch these together for a long time. Like we are now watching a Youtube channel called Little Chinese Everywhere, which showcases less known cities, towns, and places in China.

The commitment that comes with love is important when we are just starting out in our lives and careers but become more pertinent as we grow older into our senior years. Once the children grow up and leave the nest, we will be left with one another. It is part of life to allow our children to find their own way in life and in God. Ultimately, how they love and serve God is really up to them to reconcile with the demands of their lives. We will encourage and support, but we can no longer compel. They need to find their own balance between the natural and the spiritual, the present, and the eternal.

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul taught about love, and the bottom line is that all that we do and who we are are quite meaningless and count for nothing if we don’t have love. Love must be the foundation of all that we do. If we do not have love, we do not have God. This is because God is love. But remember, love and commitment come hand in glove. In most cases, love means commitment, whether it is with regards to the love of our life, our children, our family members, or God.

Today, as the whole world celebrates Valentine’s Day, let us remember and appreciate our love for each other, for our loved ones and Jesus Christ, and renew our commitment to each other and God. We will never ever forsake our loved ones or God but will remain faithful to each other, and we shall be on the path of righteousness together for all eternity!

Happy Chinese New Year, Xin Nian Kuai Le and Gong Xi Fa Cai, too!

Pride and destruction

https://odb.org/2024/02/08/brought-low

It is ancient wisdom written in Proverbs 29:23 that pride brings a person low, but the lowly in spirit gain honour. We are proud of ourselves when we achieve something significant or reach a milestone in our lives like we bought a nice car or a new house or a good guitar or the latest camera. Or our first worship leading session in church. Or a promotion at our workplace. Or we achieved our first RM100,000 savings. There is nothing wrong with being proud of ourselves. I’m sure that the Lord is also proud of us and happy for us as we reach our life milestones, especially in spiritual maturity.

The human tendency is, however, to tell of our own achievements as sometimes achieving something without anyone knowing may not be sufficient for some of us. I think close friends and family knowing should be good enough. But some of us need to broadcast to the world to proclaim our various successes. With social media, this becomes easier nowadays. We don’t need someone else (like the press, radio, or TV) to trumpet our achievements. We could do it ourselves. Just take a picture and post it on Instagram and Facebook, and everyone knows about our promotion, our spanking new premium car, our expensive gourmet food experience, or our travels to exotic lands, especially so if we travelled business or first class. Sometimes, we take pride in the extravagance to show the world we could afford such luxuries.

I always remember the ring in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. The ring that possesses us and causes us to lose our heads and drown in our successes. It ultimately leads us to destruction. That’s the real amd present danger of pride. Did Jesus turn stone to bread as challenged by the Devil? Did He like Adam and Eve thought that He could be better than the Father?

I think the greatest danger of pride is that we may end up thinking that we are so good already that we don’t need God anymore. We are our own man. God is irrelevant and inconsequential. This can happen even to great ministers of God, although perhaps in more subtle ways. The bottom line is to give all glory and honour to the King as it is He who brought us out of the miry clay and place us on the rock of salvation, who is our Lord Jesus Christ. Be confident, be bold, and be courageous. Yes, because the Lord is with us. Not because of our wealth, position, status, or achievements in the world or ministry. Ancient wisdom is that the LORD hates the haughty. Do we want to be on His side, or do we want Him to be against us?

Prayer and practicality

https://odb.org/2024/02/07/angels-on-the-walls

Nehemiah is not only a book in the Old Testament but was well-known for being the one who spearheaded the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem with exiles who returned from Babylon to Judah. Nehemiah was born in exile and became the cupbearer to the Persian King, who allowed him time off to return to Jerusalem when he saw how sad Nehemiah was about the crumbling walls of Jerusalem. Eventually, Nehemiah became governor of Jerusalem for 12 years. Scholars believe Nehemiah was a eunuch in the courts of King Artaxerxes.

The verse in the book, which I remembered was Nehemiah 4:9, where because the other tribes around Jerusalem were unhappy with the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem and were causing trouble, Nehemiah prayed to Yahweh and posted a watch every night. It speaks of the importance of prayer and committing things of importance to God but also being practical in the natural. A combination of both the spiritual and the natural to deal with issues of the day and life.

It’s like while you pray for God to help you with your exams, maybe give you inspiration on how to best approach a question, we need to still study hard and prepare ourselves. By now, we should know that using our service in church to compensate for our lack of preparation in facing exams or assignments, whether in school, college, or at work, is a recipe for disaster. The world doesn’t work that way, and we are living in the world amidst worldly systems. Yes, there is a spiritual dimension, and it will give us an edge but not in substitution of the work that we need to put in. So, if we are a good musician in God, God may use us to touch the hearts of the people but we cannot run away from putting in the practice to be who we are in music in God.

Always pray and commit our ways to God in all that we do. Don’t only go to God as our last resort. In the meantime, as we face the realities of life, be practical about things. Trust in God, yet do our part. Take the medication, go through the physiotherapy, and exercise while trusting in the healing power of God.

Sacrifice & obedience

https://odb.org/2024/02/06/true-surrender

We all know that our lives are to be lived as a living sacrifice to God. This is in view of God’s mercy in calling us to be His children while we were yet sinners through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross on account of our sins. Therefore, we are not to conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we may test (experience) and approve the good, pleasing and perfect will of God. See Romans 12:1-2.

In response to His calling for our lives, there are bound to be sacrifices to be made. Perhaps there are things we may need to give up. Not only sinful or bad habits. Practically, in serving God, we usually need to keep our weekends free for Him. Thus, there are probably hobbies we may not be able to pursue as a consequence. For example, if we like to go camping or fishing or even travelling on weekends, this may need to be sacrificed. Not that we will not be able to pursue such hobbies anymore – just that we will not be able to do it regularly if we want to instead serve in church regularly. Instead of our hobbies and other pursuits, our lives will inevitably revolve around our service in church. When I was in university, I really wanted to join the reserve army but had to let it go as they only train during weekends and semester breaks. It was impossible to pursue both ministry and my interest at the same time.

But the rewards even on this earth may well be great when we sacrifice for God, although we must always bear in mind the spiritual principle that obedience is better than sacrifice. I think a simple way to avoid breaking that principle is not to sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice. It’s not a question of choosing to give up the apple in our left hand for the orange in our right. We give up as God instructs and commands. We seek to serve and obey. Then, I believe the peace that transcends all understanding will be upon us. What’s the point of giving up our university education to pursue our dream of being a missionary? Is that our calling in God or our own dream for adventure? Of course, ultimately, God will make the best of our bad decisions.

Be obedient to the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us. As God calls, we are bound to need to make sacrifices, one way or another. In the case of Abraham with Isaac, it was more a question of obedience than sacrifice. Sometimes, it is the same thing but not necessarily so all the time.

The Third Option

https://odb.org/2024/02/05/dignity

Although the story of Jesus encountering the woman who was caught in adultery mentioned that it was a trap laid by the teachers of the law and the Pharisees so that they may accuse Him, what constituted the trap was not crystal clear from the story. See John 8:2-11.

The trap was actually a horns of a dilemma situation, where both choices are difficult ones. If Jesus had excused the woman’s sin, He would be seen as having denied the law of Moses and is thus a false teacher. But if He had answered to stone her (as per Moses’s law), He would then be going against Roman law – for only Rome could issue a death sentence. Instead, Jesus chose the third option, which was to ask her accusers who didn’t have sin in their lives to throw the first stone. One by one, everyone walked away, leaving only Jesus, the one and only one without sin. Instead of condemning her, Jesus let her go but asked her to leave her life of sin. He showed her compassion and mercy, a second chance. But it always comes with repentance, a turning away from our sin.

Applying this to our lives, I think we should always try to seek the third option when there appears to be only two. It may not be the obvious ones. Nevertheless, it could be there if we seek out Jesus. There could be another way out of a situation if we have Godly wisdom. The third option is usually tapered with grace and compassion. Instead of my way or the highway, perhaps there is a heavenly way? Perhaps the third option needs more faith and trust in God. For example, instead of choosing between two job offers in this uncertain economic situation, we could wait for a better one? Sometimes, when the climate is not good, we say we will go for the lesser of two evils – but do we really need to? Is there a third option? Could we take the step of faith and start something of our own?

Pray and commit our path unto Jesus and let Him lead us to green pastures and still waters. Even if we need to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil for His staff and rod comfort us. See Psalm 23.

Have a good week ahead, dear friends, even as we prepare ourselves, to those celebrating, for the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations and festivities! Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Gratitude to God

https://odb.org/2024/02/04/rewired-by-gratitude

I recall being taught in a non-Christian seminar on the importance of having gratitude towards the creator, the Almighty God. It is one of those things that could release some hormones in our bodies to make us happy and contented and satisfied.

That is why, as advocated by today’s ODB writer, we as believers may be rewired by having a genuine gratitude towards the LORD. Psalm 103 encapsulates this very well. The Psalmist blesses the LORD, his soul, and all that is within him. To not forget His blessings, who forgives us our sins and iniquities and who heals our diseases. He redeems our lives from destruction and crowns us with loving kindness and tender mercies. He satisfies our mouths with good things that our youth may be renewed like an eagle. When I lead worship in church, I always like to start with the song, O Bless the Lord. Or start by proclaiming our great and awesome God, His goodness, and mercy.

When we face crossroads and crises in life, besides praying and committing the way forward to God, it is good to remember and appreciate His goodness and blessings upon our lives. Sure, there are others who live better than us. But there are numerous ones who are worse off. Wherever we are with life, remember that it was He who brought us to where we are today.

From a family who lived month to month and who only briefly owned a property, I now have savings and assets that hopefully will help me through my retirement one day, while still serving Him and helping others with their needs. God has been good, and He is good all the time, yesterday, today, and tomorrow!

He brings changes to families not only in terms of our spiritual life and eternal destination, but also in our present lives that if we had lived in poverty in the past, we would be living in abundance in our generations to come. But only if we heed and follow His commandments the same way He prospered, blessed, and protected the Israelites from the time of Abraham and Moses.

Having gratitude and thankfulness to God avoids us from falling into depression from the things we are going through. Maybe we had lost some of our dreams and aspirations or even someone we loved.

Let’s start this morning by thanking God for who He is and who He is to us as individuals and His beloved children. Have a great time worshipping God today in church! May His glory come down and be upon us as we meet Him face to face in the spirit in worship.

Deep friendship in Christ

https://odb.org/2024/02/02/deep-friendship

I can see in the lives of my sons that time needs to be invested to build friendships. They do take time off to just chill and hang out with different groups of friends, and while they may have more time and energy in their youth, it is inevitable that time needs to be invested. Because yesterday was a holiday, my younger son drove up with his friends in two cars to the highlands to just breathe in the cool air and have a meal.

But once our careers take off and we start to put in 50 to 60-hour work weeks, it gets increasingly difficult to spend time to build friendships. This will be compounded if we have settled down and have children at home. So friendships are then cultivated at work since we spend so much time in the office.

Experts recommend that we should instead cultivate friendships outside of work. I read this somewhere before, and it makes sense. This is because friendships at work are mostly lost once we or our friends leave the workplace for another job. Even lawyers who often meet in the corridors of courts will drift apart once they go in-house and become part of the corporate world.

For our spiritual lives and ministry, we should cultivate deep friendships with our brethren. To serve as a check and balance, an indirect spiritual accountability mechanism. I think we will likely behave better as believers if we have close friends in the faith. At least we will not readily compromise our faith and spiritual principles out of respect for our friends, or we try our best to grow in spiritual maturity together rather than be left behind.

But such friendships should be cultivated out of church. If not, we will be hanging out in church only, and that is at most a couple of hours a week among a sea of people. To develop genuine life-long friendships like that of David and Jonathan, we need to invest time. A time to share our lives and challenges and aspirations, to open up, even in our struggles in the faith. We should chill over a meal, a cup of coffee, or open up our homes. Or even indulge in some hobbies together. There is more to life than just work, family, and church. Friendships built in the faith will help us run the race in the long run.

This will not be easy if we are in the habit of withdrawing to our homes after work. But when I see the younger ones make such efforts, I think everyone should do likewise. Let’s invest time and effort to cultivate deep friendships in Christ.