https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/24/no-loss

Meeting up with classmates whether school or college mates for reunions may sometimes be an intimidating experience and may even be thought-provoking. There are bound to be others more successful than us, and perhaps there are some who are less, and we usually define success in terms of material wealth or recognition in the world. For those who chose the narrow path as believers and even more so for those who chose to go full-time serving God, the question may come whether if we had not chosen God, would we be equally wealthy and successful as our more successful classmates?

The answer is that it may not be necessarily so! If we had chosen to walk the broader path, it would not mean that we would be wealthy and at the top of our game like our more successful classmates. In fact, the opposite could be true – we might have fared worse.

Ultimately, I think the question should never be asked because the Kingdom of God is like a hidden treasure in a field. Once discovered, one would sell everything we have to buy that piece of land so that the hidden treasure is ours. It is also like a precious pearl that we would sell everything in exchange for. In other words, God is worth all that we have or will have and much more. We would have it no other way. If we could turn back the clock, we would still choose Jesus to the riches of the world. Jesus was offered the world in exchange for bowing to Satan, but Jesus was not tempted. He chose to run with His destiny to sacrifice Himself for the sake of the world. To go out there to try to convince humanity to turn from their wicked ways and return to God. Jesus had faith that humanity is worth His sacrifice and efforts.

Paul was a top up-and-coming Pharisee schooled by the well-known and respected teacher, Gamaliel. A thorough-bred Jew, the creme de la creme, and yet in comparison to his new-found faith in Christ, he considered it all dung, rubbish (Philippians 3:8). He lost everything, but he didn’t regret it at all. Instead, he chose to go through the sufferings he knew he would go through for the sake of Christ, who revealed Himself to him in person on Paul’s journey to Damascus.

Whatever path our life in Christ has taken us, rejoice that we are living in the centre of His will for us. We would not be where we are today if not for Christ. We would have no other life even if given a choice to turn back the clock. We will not be where we are today in ministry or career if the grace and blessings of God were not upon us. We are who we are in our faith today because our Lord Jesus Christ was beside us all this while. Therefore, may we push forward without looking behind and continue fulfilling His plans and purposes for our lives and continue serving and living in the centre of His will!

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! Xin Nien Kuai Le!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/19/but-im-telling-you

In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus taught us to love your enemies as a departure from the then conventional wisdom to love your neighbour but hate your enemy. Popular religion, even till today, still expounds both love and hate together in the sense that if you can love someone, you can also hate someone else. So Germans hated the Jews and that led to the Holocaust in WW2, and the Arabs also hated the Jews and that has led to wars between the Arabs and Israel. Hatred leads us to love our own and our kind and hate not our kind. So, there is animosity among the whites and blacks in the US, and in Malaysia, there is no true unity among the races because there is still deep-rooted distrust and resentment born out of hatred for other races gaining a place in this land that was originally the Malays pre-colonisation by the British.

There is no place for hatred as believers because we are children of God, and God is love. God can get angry, but He has no hatred in Him as ultimately all humanity is His creation. Although He chose the Israelites first, since the death and resurrection of Christ, Jews and Gentiles are equal sons of the Kingdom of God as co-heirs of Christ.

There is Godly wisdom in banishing hatred and replace with only love, instead of having love and hatred going hand in hand. Hatred consumes us from within and may lead us to destructive behaviour. Cain murdered Abel due to jealousy and resentment, but ultimately, it was hatred that drove him to kill. If Cain had only love, he would not have killed Abel. So what if God liked Abel’s offering more? Will killing Abel solve the issue? Will that cause God to love him more?

However, we are all human, and it’s difficult not to hate and resent when we are wronged or bypassed or treated unfairly. It’s is part of the human psyche to love and hate. We could as believers hate sin, but not another human, and the reason is that God loves him too, no matter how evil he may be now. Perhaps one day, he will see the error of his ways and repent and accept Christ?

History has proven that with hatred for fellow humans, wars are started, and lives are lost. No man will kill another if he only had love and no hatred. Accept that we must love even our enemies and learn how to do this in our lives. Since Jesus taught it and it forms the foundation of our faith, having no hatred for other people will only be good for us. It will transform us to be a more caring, understanding, and compassionate person and make us a better believer, one that is transformed and worthy of our crown of righteousness at the finish line of our faith. If we had banished hatred from our hearts, we would have succeeded in becoming more like Christ! It’s definitely a development that will be good for our spirit and soul.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/18/heart-problem

In this day and age, it is unlikely for a believer to be in Christ and yet be openly and directly worshipping idols. Chances are, if they are both, they are likely nominal Christians – Christians in name only, not genuine bible believing ones. This is because both are incompatible with each other unless one subscribes to the deception and lie that all gods lead to heaven like the saying, all roads lead to Rome, that Jesus is not the only way but one of the ways. Idols are a clear-cut no since we can not be worshipping two spiritual powers at the same time.

Yet idols go deeper than just visible gods or deities that people pray to or worship. This is because anything that takes the place of God in our hearts is an idol. Anything that draws us away from God is an idol. It could be our job and career. Or even our real-life idols like people we idolise that obsess us, even Korean soap operas and their actors and actresses if we are very much into all that. Or our music and musical heroes, people we emulate and ‘worship’, and that could also mean leaders that we idolise; business leaders, or even world or political leaders.

Having said that, in my view, as much as idols can take many forms, the prohibition to worship other gods remains a clear-cut prohibition against other gods in the literal sense. The commandment is that “Thou shall not have other gods besides Me” (see Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5). The context remains other gods as in those worshipped by those living in and around the Promised Land; Baal, and the Asherah poles – basically the gods of Jezebel whose prophets Elijah confronted and killed. Those are the deal breakers for our hearts as we can not worship and serve two spiritual powers. They can not exist side by side in our hearts.

The message today, I believe, is that as much as we must be wary of other idols that can draw us away from God and create an obsession within us, there may come a time in the near future when we may need to choose between Jesus and death or an idol and live; or in a more subtle form, Jesus and misery or another god and prosperity. Will we renounce Jesus to avoid persecution or trials and tribulations that come our way because of our faith? Will we follow Jesus all the way through the narrow road, or will we give in to other idols and choose the path of least resistance? It may well be a one-off decision or something we continually have to contend with. In the end, the commandment can only be fulfilled by what’s really in our hearts. Who is our true Lord and God?

https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/17/never-late

The resurrection of Lazarus recorded in John 11:17-27 is significant in proving the deity of Jesus in that, like the ancient prophets of Elijah and Elisha, He had raised the dead, not once but a few times in the course of His ministry. But the resurrection of Lazarus was extra ordinary and supernatural as he had died for 4 days, well past the traditional belief that a spirit still lingers near the body for 3 days. We, however, know that decomposition starts immediately after death, and thus, unless artificially preserved, a 4-day-old corpse is already in the advanced stage of decomposition. Thus, a person who is raised from the dead after 4 days will be a zombie as the brain and other internal organs had decayed and the walking dead will not be the same person as the person who died. Of course, that is all medically impossible and is only the stuff of movies!

But Jesus did it! He raised Lazarus from the dead, notwithstanding that he was long dead. Thus, it was asked why He didn’t rush to Bethany immediately upon hearing about the death of Lazarus when Bethany was just 2 miles from Jerusalem, probably just an hour walk away? Instead, Jesus delayed the journey, so as to quash all doubts of the magnitude of the miracle! This is to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that this was a true reversal of a decomposed body bringing back the soul and spirit that originally dwelled in that body. Only Creator God could do that, and Jesus was precisely that!

As much as the resurrection of Lazarus was a true and true miracle, an even more significant miracle awaits us as His saints in that one day we will all be raised from death in a glorified body like the body Jesus was resurrected in after His death on the cross. That will be the ultimate defeat of sin and death as conquered by Christ through his crucifixion and resurrection, for all mankind who believe in Him and call upon His name. Lazarus was resurrected, but he eventually died because his was still a broken human body, unlike the glorified body. Also, at the end of times at the new Jerusalem, we will have access to the tree of life. Thus, we will live for all eternity.

The lesson today remains that God’s timing is perfect. Martha said to Jesus, “If You had been here earlier, my brother would still be alive.” Yet as we can see, he still lived although Jesus was 4 days late! If we are waiting for Jesus to come through for us and we know it is God’s will, continue to pray and believe and wait. He will be there for us in His perfect timing. He makes all things beautiful in His time.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/16/be-filled

Isiah 58:6-12 speaks of a common but misconceived idea that some of us may have that God will accept our fasting and answer our prayers despite us not having a kind and compassionate heart. It is as though there is a set of rituals or practices we can adopt to bring in the blessings and power of God while side-stepping the issue of our character and personal traits. Our faith is, however, not something only personal to us with our deeds and actions only in relation to our religious obligations done in isolation to the people around us. We can not worship God in church and yet not have a transformed heart, a heart that is kind and compassionate.

For example, we can not claim to be a Christian and thus be in a relationship with God, and yet scam others contending that this is how we earn our living. Or if our tenant needs to terminate our tenancy due to a family emergency, we should be considerate not to forfeit the deposit, although we may be fully entitled to do so under the contract. Of course, if at the end of a tenancy, we find excuses not to return the deposit with the intention to oppress the tenant, then we are probably not genuine in our faith. This is because our faith is not only in terms of our religious obligations but encompasses all areas of our lives. If we oppress the poor and needy, then we are clearly off-track as we are to help them whenever we can.

Jesus gave the example of the Scribes and Pharisees praying loudly for all to hear, to show off their prowess, and to let people know they are doing their religious duty. But our worship of God and our public prayers are never meant as a way to boast, and neither are even our involvement in social causes. Do things sincerely and for God, but at the same time have a transformed heart that emulates the heart of the Father. Don’t do things to show off to boast, and when we serve God, make sure our hearts are likewise transformed. In the end, God is more interested in our transformed hearts than our service or ministry for Him. The Lord will be truly happy seeing us being kind and compassionate to the poor and weak, rather than receiving our prayers and fasting when our hearts are still evil and conniving, selfish and calculative.

Our faith can never be superficial or lip service. It must be real and reaching deep within us. Not everyone can be transformed overnight. It is a journey, and we may still be “work in progress”; but we must at least be on the journey. We can not say we are but are not really so within us!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/15/from-lament-to-praise

In some depressing situations like societal injustices, especially in the multiracial society in Malaysia, where government support and funding are racially driven, we lament to God. For example, our home born Malaysian world famous actress, Michelle Yeoh, who just won a Golden Globe for best actress. It was a culmination of 40 years of hard work, but when some Malaysian authorities tried to claim Michelle as our own, those in the local film and arts industry lambasted such people for their hypocrital attitude having done nothing for Michelle over the past 40 years. There were many others who had to take their art abroad in Taiwan and Hong Kong due to a lack of local institutional support.

It’s an injustice prevalent in Malaysian society that cuts across public institutions from education to government service to probably all layers of where there’s government support and funding. The non-Malays need to find their own, although they pay the most taxes with those in the government, only thinking along the lines that national interests mean Malay interests and not Malaysian interests. Like any other non-Malay, I have lived with these injustices since I was young and over the years have accepted and am resigned to the fact that we are very much on our own to make it in this land with many having migrated abroad to find more level playing fields to pursue their dreams and passions.

As believers, we may lament God on such societal injustices. It affects us directly and yet not just us but nearly everyone who is like us. It’s not really a personal predicament and yet personal all the same. Will the LORD hear us out? The consolation is that this is never a question of life or death or personal liberties. This is not severe persecution experienced by other believers in other places. Institutional discrimination places us a few steps back to allow the favoured ones a head start and easier passage in life because, in the end, most of us eventually make it. Just takes a longer time and via a more complicated route.

In lamenting God, it is a good practice like in Habakuk 3:17-19 to lament and praise, knowing to our Lord is God and is able to turn adverse situations around. Just a question of time. We may not see it in our generation, but God is God. So long as Christ has not returned, we have hope that things will be better in time to come, in 50 years or 100 years. God will make this land a better place for our children and our children’s children. So don’t just lament but praise too, even in seemingly hopeless situations. Justice will prevail one day, even in the face of the most powerful. Because God is God, He loves and cares for His people.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/13/the-crowd

One of the characteristics that define us as a believer is Romans 12:2, that we do not conform to the pattern of the world but be transformed by the renewing of our mind so that we may be able to test and approve (prove) the will of God, His perfect and pleasing will. Thus, as Christians, we do not follow the crowd. Our beliefs can not be based on what is popular and common. Our faith can not be based on what the prevailing trend of thought is. This is because as the crowd sways, we must remain steady and steadfast to the cause.

Paul faced this situation after his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. After meeting Jesus face to face in a vision, His life changed immediately. He was trained as a rabbi and a Pharisee and was zealous for God by persecuting followers of the Way. Jesus confronted and asked him why he was persecuting Him? Paul then realised that Jesus was the LORD, and thus, his past zeal was misguided. The Messiah is already here, and he, Saul of Tarsus (his original name), was persecuting the Lord instead of serving Him!

Paul’s change of heart and motivation then presented him with a unique situation. He will now be going against the grain of public opinion then as the Jewish community and authorities regarded the way as wayward. In fact, even today, there are only a handful of followers of Yeshua among the 14-15 million of Jews worldwide. But instead of being fearful of the crowd, he confronted them and pointed out the errors of their ways. They have got it all wrong. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is and was the Messiah they were all waiting for. He brought heaven down to them. He and His followers are the Kingdom of God here on earth! But this situation brought anguish to his heart as if he could, he preferred to be with his people, to be part of the crowd.

It is inevitable that as believers and followers of Christ, we need to make a stand, and that could be against the crowd. It is tough and difficult, but we must draw our line in the sand. There may come a time when we may be required to bow down and worship the golden image and receive the mark of the beast. We may well need to go against the crowd like Paul did during the early church or like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and Daniel did during ancient times. It could well be a question of life or death, which brings to mind Paul’s exhortation in Philippians 2:1 – to live is Christ, to die is gain, meaning to say, we will only choose to live if living is for Christ and thus if living means betraying Christ, then we will choose death.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/12/the-rest-of-our-story

One of the things I am fascinated with our faith is that God did things through Jesus the unconventional way. Instead of a king in a white horse coming from heaven brandishing a sword dressed in full armour, Jesus came to the world as an infant born to a virgin conceived by the Holy Spirit. Jesus came to us as Immanuel (God with us), but as a vulnerable baby born in a manger among animals and was welcomed by shepherds in the night. Yet the 3 kings of orientland, the Magi, were also there to give Him gifts to honour and worship. On a day celebrated today as Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding a donkey welcomed with shouts of Hosanna! He was meek and yet strong. He was sacrificed on the cross, bruised beaten with His flesh torn and His blood flowing, mocked with a crown of thorns. Yet someone gave Him a nice tomb to place His body, but His body was no more found after 3 days, for He was resurrected!

In Revelation 5, in the vision given to him, John saw the Lion of Judah as the only one worthy in heaven and earth and under the earth to open the Scroll and yet He was the wounded Lamb of God, bruised for our transgressions. The Lion of Judah was the Lamb of God!

As believers, we live lives that are “right-side up”, you could put it as “upside down” – in comparison to the world. People are selfish, but we are selfless. People are materialistic, but we are spiritual. People have earthly concerns, and we have eternal goals. People build up treasures on earth, but we build riches in heaven by sowing good on earth. People live their own lives, but we are a living sacrifice unto God for He had redeemed us by the blood of the Lamb. People enter by the wide gate while we choose the narrow one. We are different and not conventional because our Lord is not. Our fight is not against flesh and blood. We are not to conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. We live in the promises and plans of God for our lives.

The message this morning is that we are different as we are in the world and yet not of this world. Ultimately, we are pilgrims passing through this temporary home in our journey to our permanent and eternal abode. Thus, Paul reminds us that whatever we may be going through in our sufferings for who we are pales in comparison to the glory that awaits us in Christ heaven. It’s OK to be different as that’s our destiny once we accept Jesus. Christ was different, and so we are and will be different too!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/11/out-of-the-lions-den

In Daniel 6:10-23, we can read the account of Daniel, an exile from Judah in Persia who was thrown unto the lions’ den for praying to the LORD when King Darius had issued a decree that no one is to pray to anyone but him for the next 30 days. But Daniel was a trusted administrator in the King’s court, and thus, the King was distressed with the situation as he could not go against his own decree. The King, in throwing Daniel into the lions’ den, had hoped that the God that Daniel had faithfully served will rescue him and the King could not sleep that night while waiting to see the outcome of his punishment. In the morning, King Darius immediately rushed to enquire of Daniel and was relieved to hear his voice that he was well and that an angel had come in the night and closed the mouth of the lions and thus Daniel was unharmed.

A similar incident happened in Daniel 3 when Daniel’s 3 Hebrew friends – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – were thrown into a burning furnace but were also unharmed, saved by the God they had faithfully served. In that case, it was a golden image, and the King was Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. But the most touching phrase uttered by them was in verses 17 amd 18, where they said that their God whom they serve is able to rescue them but even if He does not, they will still not serve the Babylonian gods or worship the golden image.

Yesterday, we spoke about the second coming of Christ with the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, and thus, there are those who believe that He will come again within the human generation of 1948, meaning within 80 to 100 years thereof. Some believe that as true believers, we will be raptured when the Lord returns, and yet some believe that rapture will only occur after the great tribulation of three and a half years. We will know for sure when it occurs, but I just like to remind us that if rapture does not occur before the great tribulation, then Daniel 3:17-18 will be the model for us to look up to if we need to choose whether to take the mark of the beast to continue to buy and sell in the world then.

We may need to be self-sufficient during the period of the great tribulation, but most importantly is that if we need to make a choice between death and worshipping the golden image, we have the example of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and Daniel. The examples are that God rescued them, but the spirit is that even if God doesn’t, we will still not worship the gods of Babylon or worship the golden image made and decreed by King Nebuchadnezzar or bow down to King Darius of Persia!

Since the day the LORD, our God, the Great I Am, called Abraham out of the Url of the Caldeans, and since the days of Christ crucified and resurrected, there would have been many saved and rescued for not bowing down to Kings and Emperors and other gods, yet we know that countless many were also martyred on the account of our God and Christ. Church history and the Dark Ages are testimonials of the martyrdom of many early believers. Did the evil one manage to eradicate the faith from the face of the earth? No! The fact that our faith prevailed till today with millions embracing Jesus in their lives is a testament that God saved and rescued many, that the crucified and resurrected Christ could not be contained!

The day may come, sooner than later, when we may be called upon by Kings and Emperors of the day to make a choice. Remember Daniel 3:17-18 and Daniel 6 if we need to face that day!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/10/the-god-who-redeems

A prevailing theme in God for which I have commented before in these pages is one of redemption despite our brokenness. In Isaiah 43, God brought destruction upon the Israelites due to their insolence and yet promised to rescue them. Isaiah 43 is fulfilled in modern-day Israel when indeed the people of God were gathered from the East and the West, the South and the North. In 1947, the United Nations approved the creation of the state of Israel, and on May 14, 1948, Israel was proclaimed an independent state with David Ben-Gurion as the first prime minister.

We come to God as we are. None are perfect or sinless as all humanity has sinned because of Adam. The world is dying and broken. In this fallen world, sin and death prevail for our body age. We grow weaker and more prone to illnesses and diseases as we grow older. Our days are numbered. But as Jesus died for our sins, He broke the sting of sin, which is death. He conquered sin and death when He rose again 3 days after His crucifixion. He thus offers us the way out of this human condition of death with a promise of resurrection in body and spirit to all who call upon His name, who accepted Him as Lord and Saviour. At the trumpet, the dead will one day rise and become whole and live in the new heaven and new earth in the new Jerusalem with God living amongst us and Christ as our King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Every believer looks in expectation of the day of His coming again, and many believe that the creation of the state of Israel in fulfilment of Isaiah 43 heralds the second coming of Christ, with many also believing that it will occur in the generation within the era of 1948. What is the maximum life expectancy of humans in the present age? 100? Thus, it is postulated that Christ will come again within 100 years of 1948 in our present generation, although only the Father knows the exact timing.

Christ can make us beautiful despite our brokenness, despite our past actual sins. Christ takes us as we are and will mould and shape us into the beautiful vessel that He may use for the glory of God. We need to survive and live, but as He is coming again, the world as we know it now will not be the same again once Christ arrives in the scene. The events seen and foretold by John in the book of Revelation will unfold, and as Christians, if we are not raptured prior to the great tribulation, we would need the power of God to live through the great tribulation with our faith intact and unscathed.

This morning, let’s reflect on our life and ask ourselves how prepared we are to face trials and tribulations if indeed they were to become real in our lifetime? Are we ready? Have we allowed Christ to mould and transform us all these years into the person He wants us to be, filled with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit that we are strong and courageous for the LORD our God is with us? Will we be like Caleb and Joshua? Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?

Do present our brokenness to Christ for Him to make us beautiful and strong for God. Now rather than later as the times are pressing.