https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/09/the-right-jesus

When I was younger, people used to ask me what religion I was, and I would say Christian. I identified as a Christian because of the Catholic background of my dad’s family. Unfortunately, at that time, I didn’t know much about the religion, but I nevertheless asserted I was a Christian. Partly also because our family celebrated Christmas with Christmas trees and presents. I did ask my dad why we didn’t go to church, and he always answered we will go one day. In fact, the irony of it all was that there was a church just near our housing estate, and yet we didn’t go.

Later, when my dad transferred back to our little town at the East Coast, I got to know a bunch of outstation Christian teachers who offered a few of us guitar lessons. From this fellowship, I learnt about Jesus and then attended a weekly Saturday afternoon bible class, and at the end of the series, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. That was forty years ago.

We all have our respective spiritual journeys. But it is important to know the basic tenets of our faith so that we are on the right path to righteousness. Not a question of vaguely knowing what it is all about but being able to articulate who Jesus is, crucified and resurrected, and its significance to the sins of humanity. How man is reconciled to God and how our spirit man is born-again and is able to relate to God the Father again through Christ’s victory on the cross over sin and death?

But there are other aspects of the faith that we need to know and learn. Don’t just enrol into any course online as there are many masquerading as the truth but may not be telling us the whole truth for their own selfish reasons. There are cults proclaiming to be Christian but who are not.

To avoid being led by false teachers or super apostles as Paul calls them is to follow the teachings of the Bible. But the best way to learn from others is to join a local reputable church, join their Bible study classes, or at least seek their advice if we wish to enrol on an online foundational class. It is important to have a check and balance for our lives, to be sure of where we are heading, and thus not a good idea to practice our faith in isolation without reference to anyone.

As this is a matter concerning eternity, please make sure we are on the right track and we believe in the correct Jesus lest we end up living a delusional lie led astray by the evil one.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/08/more-than-conquerors

It may be cliche, but we have often heard of this phrase, “Christian life is not a bed of roses.” For a good reason! That’s because it’s the opposite that is true – instead expect persecution and trials and tribulations. Not to the extent of Paul’s sufferings for the sake of the Gospel, but nevertheless, it’s not and will not be a fairytale life.

Life itself has its ups and downs, and that impacts everyone regardless of our faith. As a Christian, things are somewhat amplified. We chose the path least travelled, the narrow gate, and although it leads to eternal life, there are obviously more challenges ahead. Not that God purposely imposes more bumps and tests, but just the nature of being true to Him will make things more difficult for us.

Paul wrote in Romans 8:37 that in all these things, we are more than conquerors, through Him who loved us and then went on to postulate that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Thus, nothing can prevent us from being more than conquerors. As much as life may throw curve balls at us and bring us headwinds, we will prevail because Christ loves us. As we look to Him, He will give us strength to continue. If we are discouraged, He will encourage and edify us. Our inner man will also be strengthened by the trials that we go through.

The picture that comes to mind this Sunday morning is that we will not be a servant who is all battered and bruised with tattered clothes and shoeless when we reach the finish line. We will not reach the finish line half dead as though we just barely made it by the skin of our teeth. Instead, we will reach the finish line triumphantly with our heads up high, with the sword of the Spirit held up strong in our arms and clothed with the full armour of God, having honoured God in all that we do and having achieved God’s plans and purposes for our lives. It is our race to complete, and we have reached our finish line with the angelic and heavenly beings cheering us on. We would have fought the good fight and kept the faith, and the crown of righteousness awaits us. Nothing will separate us from the love of God, and thus, we will always be more than conquerors, a believer that will be worthy of our crown of righteousness from the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords! Have a blessed Sunday, everyone!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/07/who-are-you-lord

When it comes to Saul, who became Paul, some people equate his experience to that of a hardened jailed criminal who turned from a life of crime to a life of service in Christ. Such a picture is, to me, somewhat inaccurate as Saul was never lost in the world of crime or drugs or organised crime. Saul was a righteous man all along.

In fact, Saul was a Pharisee who was a member of the Senhadrin, a council for Jews to adjudicate matters relating to their faith. He was thus righteous in the eyes of Mosaic law, a practising Pharisee, and although Pharisees then were regarded as hypocrites, only practising their faith for the eyes of men, it is unlikely that Paul was such a person, seeing what became of him after the Road to Damacus experience. Yes, Paul was murderous when it came to persecuting and prosecuting people of the Way, and some say he was a witness in the martyrdom of Stephen. Yet he was doing what he mistakenly thought was his duty to God.

He was on fire for God but in a totally wrong way as he ended up persecuting Christ. He was righteous before God, but wrongly so as Christ crucified and resurrected had by then became the fulfilment of the law. In other words, the world of faith had moved on from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, from Mosaic law to grace, with the law written in the hearts of man. But note that the Old Testament was not superseded but fulfilled by Christ. The chosen nation has, however, moved on to reach the Gentiles beyond Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.

What is the lesson for us this morning? I think every one of us can be a Saul. Righteous for God but maybe in a wrong way. It will not be a direct parallel with Saul’s experience as we are unlikely to be Jews. But if we are Jewish and have been following the teachings of the Rabbis religiously for righteousness, it is possible to have a direct parallel with Saul. For the rest of us, especially those of us who reject the teaching on the contemporary manifestation of the Holy Spirit, perhaps it is time for us to allow God to bring us through the Road to Damascus experience that we may finally see the light that Pentecost is not a mere historical event but a continuing ongoing contemporary experience. Or if we had been brought up in our faith in the Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions, perhaps it is time for us to focus more on the Word than the experience. Perhaps we may want to consider knowing Jesus more through the Word than finding formulas on how to bring the glory of God and His presence into our midst. Pray and ask the Lord to open up our spiritual eyes to see beyond our own experience and knowledge and ask the Holy Spirit to broaden our knowledge and experience of Christ. Perhaps it is time for us to have the “Saul turning to Paul phenomenon” in our own lives!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/06/made-for-adventure

There is a sense that we are all created for adventure as we are created in the image of God. God created everything else, the earth and all the creatures in it, the vegetation as food for the animals, whether on the ground, in the sea, or the birds in the air but He only created mankind in His likeness. God was indeed adventurous when He created Man in His image as, consequently, Man has a will, the ability to decide and choose. It was a risk that God took, but God was adventurous and was willing to take the risk. Although Man sinned and was banished from Eden, God sent Jesus to die for our sins and has now redeemed us. Thus, we now have the new heaven and earth to look forward to at the end of time, the new Eden where we will all dwell again with God as He originally intended.

We can see evidence in the Bible of the adventure in mankind when we see Abraham responding to God’s call to move out of the Url of the Caldeans to a promised land where his descendants will be as numerous as the sand at the seashore and as many as the stars in the sky. Abraham will raise up a nation that will be a blessing to all the nations of the world. Abraham didn’t know exactly what He was responding to, and yet he took the step of faith to move, he and his entire family (and his nephew Lot) with all their possessions, including their servants and livestock.

Moses also responded to God’s call after he was filled with compassion and indignation, seeing an Israelite being bullied by an Egyptian. He was also adventurous as the task to lead a whole nation of 600,000 men (not counting their women and children yet) who were enslaved to the most powerful nation in the known world then, slaves who were necessary for the economy and wealth of the Egyptians. It’s an impossible task! And if the Pharaoh agrees, the logistics of bringing so many people with all their possessions and livestock out of Egypt, over the Red Sea and across the wilderness into the Promised Land of Canaan. To make matters worse, they wandered about for 40 years!

The early disciples of Jesus dropped everything and followed Jesus when He called them to be fishers of men. They followed Jesus for the whole 3 years across the places He ministered and then into a lifetime of ministry and preaching of the Gospel from the day of Pentecost until their last breath.

Likewise, from the day we knew Chirst and accepted Him into our lives as Lord and Saviour, it has been a roller coaster adventure of living for Christ and fulfilling His plans and purposes for our lives. Nevertheless, there are many new adventures and quests ahead of us as we follow Christ. Be bold and courageous, the Lord said to Joshua as he led the Israelites across to the Promised Land. It is a land filled with milk and honey and yet inhabited by giants (the sons of Anak) and filled with fortified cities protected by strong armies. Yet, with God on our side, who can be against us?

Be adventurous when God calls us! Be strong and courageous! Be willing to step out of our comfort zone and move with God in faith. Don’t over-calculate and over plan. Trust God and move in faith. Be adventurous as that is how God has made us! We are made in His image, and He is an adventurous God! Go on that adventure with the Lord as He leads us to new challenges and new paths in 2023! We will achieve greater heights and conquer bigger lands for the Lord!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/04/new-vision

One of the things that deteriorate as we grow older is our vision. From 6/6 to 6/9 to 6/12 and even 6/15. It’s not something that we can avoid, but with modern technology, it may be corrected by laser surgery. However, even with surgery correction, it will nevertheless become worse as we get older. In this fallen world, age makes our body weaker and prone to disease and infirmities.

In Isaiah 43:18-19, God gave a very uplifting word to the Israelites in captivity in Babylon to not look at the past but the future. The LORD says, “Remember not the former things, nor the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing…. I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” It is a prophesy of a few thousand years old, and we can clearly see this phenomenon a common reality in modern Israel, transforming desert places into oasis estates of greenery and vegetation, bringing fertility and agriculture into arrid, dry and deserted lands. It is not what you have that matters but what you make out of it.

The message today is that as much as our physical vision gets impaired over time, God wants to give us a new spiritual vision. A new vision that will propel us further in His kingdom. A new vision where we will not be limited by our past achievements, our past experiences, but a future filled with new lands to conquer for the Lord. A new vision that we see ourselves in a new light, not that same person for the past 20 years all over again for the next 20 years to come. As God could part waters to rescue the Israelites, He would bring water into desert places and turn the dry and arrid places into fertile grounds filled with greenery and fruits, practically a land filled with milk and honey! It speaks of the new things God is doing in our lives, amidst us and amongst us, His children in Christ.

Pray and seek the Lord for who we may become in Him in the years to come. That we will be living in the glory of His plans and purposes for our lives and becoming the person He had always wanted us to be. Pray for a new vision for ourselves no matter how young or old we are. God chose David when he was in his youth, and yet He called Abraham when he was eighty. Seek that new vision from the Lord! Amen

https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/03/rescue-mission-2

A sheep that was lost and yet still alive after possibly wandering alone for at least 5 years was found to be weighed down with nearly 35 kg of filthy and matted wool. When we picture the scene, we see how it must have been so difficult for the sheep to move about with its layers of dirty, unsightly, heavy, and thick fur. It is fortunate that sheeps are not carnivorous, needing to hunt down other animals for food. If so, it would have died from starvation long ago.

But imagine ourselves like the poor sheep. Moving around quietly but bogged down by our own heavy baggage, our emotional and mental burdens. I’m sure if we are in that situation, our face is not a picture of joy and radiance. Instead, it is more likely to be an unsmiling, painful, even dreadful face, full of pain and sorrow. Or if we are good at camouflage, perhaps our face is just a picture of indifference as though nothing in this world bothers us.

The Lord is saying to us today that if we be like David lamenting for the Lord to come and save us as we wait for Him, He will indeed come and take away all those burdens and replace it with His yoke that is light. Jesus said exactly that in Matthew 11:28-30. “Come to me all who labour and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Is it fair for Jesus to carry our burdens for us? Most likely, our own doing? No, it’s not fair. Yet Christ is willing like He was when He died on the cross, crucified for us. Was it fair to Him when He was sinless and yet took the burden of the sins of mankind on His shoulders? He was beaten, and His flesh ripped for our transgressions. No, it was not fair, but He did it anyway. Because He loved and cared for us and had compassion for humankind. He is our Lord and Saviour, exactly as said by David in Psalm 38:22.

You are my Lord and my Saviour, and I bow down to worship You and praise Your Name for You deserve all glory and honour and all power! Amen!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/02/a-small-start

When we look at the Bible, we will see that God raises people out of the weaker or smaller tribes or smaller cities. In the case of Jesus, He was from Bethlehem Epharathah, a small tribe among the clans of Judah and also a small village near Jerusalem. But because of who Jesus was and is, Bethlehem became famous throughout the world. In fact, I stayed in Bethlehem during my previous trip to Israel, nearly 8 years ago.

It was the same with King David. God selected him even though he was the youngest and thus considered the weakest then among the 8 children of Jesse. David was still in his youth when the LORD through the prophet Samuel chose him to be King to succeed Saul, and it is through the lineage of David that Jesus, the Messiah, was born. As history has shown, David became the greatest king Israel ever had. The era of David is regarded as the golden era of the kings of Israel and Judah.

Even in the world, it is the right path to start small, to be unknown among many. Like a fresh graduate entering a company as a management trainee starting at the bottom of the corporate ladder in terms of influence, authority, and pay scale. If we are into business, we should start with a simple business before venturing into large capital investments. That is why most successful businessmen are those early entrepreneur adopters. Rarely are those who succeed in business those who had worked many years and then invested their savings or work severance packages into a new venture. There are many lessons in business one can only acquire through trial and error as an investor of your own money and not as a salaried person.

Wherever we are and whatever sphere of influence we have, start there as our ministry. We will never be Reinhard Bonke or Billy Graham overnight. God will not zap us with some magical powers and transform us overnight into a powerful and effective evangelist. Tradition has it that after the Road to Damacus Experience, Paul spent 10 years in Arabia and another 3 years in Jerusalem with the other Apostles before starting on his ministry to the Gentiles, kings and the children of Israel as commissioned by Christ to him in Acts 9:15. Jesus Himself spent 30 years living as a normal human and working as a carpenter in adulthood before embarking on His ministry.

In our service for God, start small but start somewhere. It doesn’t matter that we are unknowns in ministry, although we could be giants in our field in the world. Start small, God sees our heart. In the end, what matters is our obedience to the call and not the magnitude or size of our ministry. For example, even if only 10 people read my blog writings, I will still keep on writing if this is what the Lord wants me to do. Hopefully, I will reach 100 people one day. The effort required is the same, so the more reading, the better, but it’s ok to start small and to continue with the effort as there is much to learn from the Lord in the process. When it comes to the things of God, most often than not, the journey is more beneficial than the end result.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/01/choose-joy

I recently asked someone how she is doing in terms of work, ministry, and family. Her answer was there are ups and downs. I interjected – and there is Jesus, the rock of our salvation. He is the constant in all these ups and downs.

Whether at work, ministry, or family, there will always be ups and downs. There are montain tops and there are also valleys. There are good days, and there are bad ones. Some days are uneventful, and yet some days are just so dramatic.

Over Christmas, I joined a family gathering and heard about my cousin having late stage colon cancer. It was shocking as he was a very fit runner. Two days later, we heard that he had passed on the night before, meaning he passed away on Boxing Day. I have not met him for about 35 years, and then out of the blue, we heard about this devastating news. At the wake, I met up with his brother, and we had a wonderful time talking about our childhood days and about him and his family, who are now based overseas. Sometimes life is such that we meet people from our past only during weddings and funerals.

2022, for me, has been eventful. I contracted Covid-19, my dad passed on, my eldest son graduated from university, and we went to the UK for a vacation as a family. My younger son started his first year in university. I left my previous job where I had spent my last 27 years of worklife and joined a startup of an established telco and as a result, I’m back to doing more legal work than my past 10 years. How was 2022 for you? Was it full of drama or just plain smooth sailing?

We don’t know what 2023 lies ahead for us, but we hear that it will not be a good year economically. A downturn or a recession could be forthcoming. In other words, it is expected to be a challenging year to earn a living, for ourselves, and for our companies. The advice is thus to save more, rather than spend and splurge. With the opening of borders, the temptation is to travel and spend with vengeance, but perhaps we should exercise caution and self-control?

The message today is to choose joy, no matter what we are going through. Choose to rejoice in the LORD despite our situation. It’s a verb, an active choice. Not as a result of, but notwithstanding. We rejoice in God because He is good, and His love endures forever. We can rest in the shadow of His wings, and as we wait upon Him, we may be able to have wings and soar like the eagle. Let our joy be in the Lord come 2023! Find the joy of the Lord in all that we do and are going through. Blessed 2023, everyone!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/12/30/grace-amid-the-chaos

The exhortation in Psalm 107:23-32 of the LORD saving the seagoing merchants from the raging storm that melted away their courage has a parallel in the New Testament story of Jesus calming the storm. This account can be found in all 3 Synoptic Gospels (see Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:27-31, and Luke 8:22-25). Both speak about the ability of God to control the elements, in particular, a very strong and violent storm, which, if nature was allowed to take its course, would have devoured and drowned the boat and everyone in it.

I believe the accounts have a deeper meaning in the sense that God can and will save His people in times of such storms. None of us will doubt that He can do it. That’s because, as believers, we know He is the Almighty God. If He created the heavens and the earth and everything in it, what is calming a storm? Surely He is capable. Surely He can do it.

The issue is will He do it for us? The Scriptures in this respect point to the fact that He can and He will. Even a literal physical storm – He can and will do it for us.

As a figure of speech and allegory, we can be sure that God can and will calm the storms of our lives. He is the rock that will bring stability to the chaos that comes with storms that, as humans, we can not avoid forever. Even with God in our lives, we could face storms and chaos and a sea of uncertainties; but like Psalmists did, if we were to cry out to the Lord, surely He will hear our cry and rescue us, for His steadfast love endureth forever.

If we were to read the account of Jesus calming the storm, we would see that a violent and life-threatening storm was turned to a gentle whisper of a wind by just a few words. Like a raging lion turned into a docile pussycat. Isn’t it wonderful and reassuring to have Jesus in our lives? Honour Him, worship Him, for He is worthy to be praised! He is our true shepherd, the shepherd of our soul, our rock, and our salvation!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/12/29/just-as-i-am-3

I think one of the things we must always remember when dealing with Jesus is that He takes us as we are. Not only at the point of our conversion and for salvation but even as we progress in the faith. He takes us as we are even as we mature in Him. That means not only our unique personality and talents but also our idiosyncrasies and weaknesses. It’s also our own peculiar journey of faith in Him. Our personal struggles and challenges, the life issues we face, our jobs, our families, communities, and the environment we are living in or brought up.

He takes us as we are, the whole package of who we are. We can see it in the life of the disciples. They were mostly fishermen with one tax collector. They were not educated people of the Temple, schooled in the traditions of the Mosaic faith and law. Just ordinary average people who were called by Jesus and responded with hearts full of faith, leaving everything behind and followed the Lord in His ministry for more than 3 years and after the Lord’s death and resurrection, carried on the torch of faith until their dying days.

But see what they became, especially after the Day of Pentecost. Look at the transformation of Peter, James, and John – speaking to the crowds, preaching Christ crucified, and resurrected. John wrote the Gospel of John and Revelation. In John 1:1, when he wrote about the logos of the Word in describing Jesus as God, he was countering Greek thought then on what logos was, the force in the universe that created even Zeus. But John went one step further and confounded Greek thought then by declaring that logos was Christ and He was with God and is God and is thus the creator of everything from the beginning.

Accept ourselves as we are in Christ, our journey of faith with all our diversions and side tracks, our weaknesses, our challenges, and struggles. Christ accepts us as we are. Commit our whole life before unto Christ and let Him guide and help us along. Give our life and our future to Christ. He will not only make the most but the best out of what we offer. We are all unworthy, but Christ can and will make us worthy, worthy of His service. Not just salvation for our life hereafter but everlasting life here on earth, as we pray for and endeavour to work for His will to be done here on earth as it is in heaven! A life in Christ is a life living in the power of His glory and grace even if we may encounter sufferings, trials, and tribulations.