https://odb.org/MY/2023/05/21/our-choices-matter

As we go through life, whatever age we are, we need to make choices. Some choices are easy, and some are difficult. But we usually choose something that in our view is the best choice for us. So if we were to choose a job, we would choose one that pays the best and gives us the most in career prospects. The ease of travelling to work is sometimes measured in terms of time and expense. Thus, for example, it’s ok to travel long and far if the pay and prospects are good.

But as believers, we ought to have another factor to consider when making choices. Is the choice we make in the will of God? Or put it another way, will the Lord be pleased with our choice? In this respect, there should be both the general as well as the specific will of God that we should look into. The first is our call to righteousness and holiness and the latter more His calling for us personally. Thus, in the case of Joseph, he wanted to remain upright before God, and thus, he avoided advances by Potiphar’s wife, and we know that, as a result, he suffered the consequences. But as the LORD was with him, God turned around his situation. Although Joseph landed in prison as a consequence of his choice to remain upright before the LORD, it became a place of opportunity for him to interpret the dream of Pharoah and, in the end, saved Egypt and his family back in Canaan from the coming 7-year severe famine.

As for God’s calling for our lives, besides the vocation that He had chosen for us, I think His call has more to do with His work than purely our physical well-being. We will not purposely be harmed or afflicted as a result of our choice for Him, but we probably can not avoid some hardship. In other words, a choice for His specific will for our life is not necessarily a choice for a tough life but will likely not be the one that is the most comfortable. Thus, if it involves a few hours of travel to another city on a Sunday to help out a work compared to another church just 15 mins away from home, the latter may not be the obvious choice to make.

As we grow in maturity in God, may we always have Him in our hearts for the choices we make, both in relation to His call to us to righteousness before Him as well as His plans and purposes for our lives. Always make a choice that puts us in the centre of His will so that we are always living in the glory of His presence while waiting for Jesus’s second coming.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/05/19/you-are-heard

The question asked in the book Physics is whether there is a sound if a tree falls in a lonely forest with no animal nearby to hear it? The obvious answer is, of course, there is – a sound is a sound, even if no one hears it. But is it that obvious? If we think deeper, what is a sound if no one hears it? Will there be such a thing as sound if everyone in the world is deaf and devoid of hearing? Will the word ‘sound’ even exist as part of the human vocabulary?

It is the same with vision. We ‘see’ because there is light, whether natural sunlight or artificial light that is powered by electricity. But if there is no light, then everything is darkness, and we see nothing. We ‘see’ things because light is reflected by the things the same way we see colours as the colours of the rainbow are reflected to us.

The aforesaid are all very philosophical. But thankfully, the LORD hears even if we are all alone in a sea of humanity. He is God, and He is omnipresent and omniscient. He knows everything, and also everything about us. He knew us before we knew Him. He knew us even before the foundations of the world. So long as we call upon Him, He will hear us – even if we are non-believers, He will hear us. He loves all humankind. Many may be called, but few are chosen. Salvation is only for those who believe in and call upon the name of Jesus Christ, God’s one and only begotten Son sent by Him to the world so that we may not perish but have life everlasting (John 3:16).

The tree may fall in the lonely forest, and perhaps there are no animals nearby to hear it. But God hears it. He hears and sees every occurrence and detail in all creation. Call upon Him, and He will heed your call. If you are His and He is your God, He will have a responsibility to take care of you like fathers and grandfathers do. He is our Shepherd if we are His sheep of His pasture.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/05/18/grandmother-research

It is a common perception in Malaysia that if we leave our children to be taken care of by their grandparents, they will be spoilt. In other words, overly loved. Zero chance of abuse and neglect but 100% likelihood of too much caring and love. It is thus good and bad, but nowadays, as most parents are working to make ends meet, this situation is pretty much unavoidable. There are babysitters we can send our children to, but our family homes will always be the preferred choice if available.

I think one of the reasons why grandparents dot on their grandchildren is that they see it as their renewed chance of parenting. Most didn’t have that opportunity when they first raised their own children as they were busy working. When they were parents, they could have left their children to be cared for by their own parents or babysitters, and thus, now that they are retired and are grandparents, they get to relive those moments they missed when their own children were growing up. Also, I think grandparents are less concerned about character building of their grandchildren (perhaps they think that should be the responsibility of the parents) and thus will likely not want to see their grandchildren learn anything the “hard” way. Grandparents will tend to “facilitate” the learning process more than parents.

It is thus interesting to know from Zephaniah 3:17 that the LORD takes great delight in us. Zephaniah is one of the less known prophetic books in the bible, a minor prophet, and yet speaks of God’s delight in His people, His children, a picture, I think most will have trouble imagining. To many of us, as much as we are now able to interact with God, He is still like a headmaster, making sure we are all good and obedient and do as instructed. Although we know that God shares in our joys and sorrows, we are less inclined to think of Him like our grandfather.

I never knew my paternal grandfather as he had passed away just before I was born. My maternal grandfather was kind and loving but passive when it came to the many grandchildren he had. When young, we always ran to him to give us a dime or two to buy some sweets or snacks. Other than that, he was not much involved in our lives.

Our Heavenly Father is like a grandfather to us, not a headmaster. He is overly loving and caring and may even spoil us. That is why, as much as He is a disciplinarian and may discipline us, He gives us many chances to repent and return to Him. He is most happy when we are doing well in Him. He takes delight in our achievements and progress in Him as we allow ourselves not to conform to the pattern of the world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. He will make all things for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Do not be afraid. Return to Him if we have strayed. Remember the parable of the Prodigal Son taught by our Lord Jesus? God is just waiting for us to return so He may throw us a feast and give us new robes and a new ring to wear.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/05/17/god-remembers-names

In Isaiah 43, the LORD declares that He knows Israel by name. “He who created you, Jacob. He who formed you, Israel. Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name. You are mine.” In verses 5, 6 and 7, the LORD assured Israel not to be afraid, for I am with you. I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. The LORD reiterated that He will say to the north, “Give them up” and to the south, “Do not hold them back”. “Bring my sons from afar, my daughters from the ends of the earth – everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made”.

Isaiah 43 was proclaimed after the invasion by the Assyrians of Samaria and the exile of the northern kingdom of Israel in 772 BC, as well as the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of Judah by the Babylonians in 586 BC. God punished the Israelites for their insolence and yet promised to redeem them in the future. In the later years, the Israelites returned and rebuilt the ruins of Jerusalem, and this culminated in the creation of Israel in 1948 when the whole diaspora of Jews finally had a state, a homeland – in the present day, nearly half of the world’s Jewish population live in Israel.

At the spiritual level, Isaiah 43 speaks of the calling of God of His children in that He knows each and every one of us by name, the same way He knew Israel by name. The way God interacts with ancient Israel as depicted in Scripture is representative of how He interacts with us individually as believers in Christ. Thus, as much as He may discipline us, His love for us remains steadfast; it never ceases. He is determined to see through His plans and purposes for our lives. We are called by His name, He knows us by name, and we are all created for His glory.

The message this morning is that if we believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, that He died for our sins and is our Lord and Saviour, we have the assurance that God who knows us by our name, has already written our name in the Book of Life. He knows exactly who we are. When we face Him on that day, we need not identify ourselves with our IC number or the address that we used to live in or the job that we used to work or the service that we used to do in His Kingdom. We need not say I am so and so who used to lead your bible study in that life group, that house fellowship, who used to work in that company, who married who and had how many children etc. He sees us, He knows who we are by name and deed, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, where our name is already written in the Book of Life. To me, that is the ultimate significance that the LORD knows us by name. We need to pray and work hard and make sure that Matthew 7:21-23 does not apply to us on that day.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/05/16/who-am-i-4

It’s the first time I have read of someone self declaring himself as the Emperor of the United States, as mentioned in today’s ODB posting. He was Joshua Abraham Norton. He printed his own currency, wore royal clothes made by local tailors, and even wrote to Queen Victoria of England to marry him so that their kingdoms may be united. People laughed at him, and because he didn’t have an army, he was not considered a threat to the government of the day. In Malaysia, we have also seen self-proclaimed Sultans attempting to trace their lineage to the Malacca Sultanate of old, but as we have more than nine royal houses in the nine Malay states, the government clamps down on such claims.

Unless we are born of royal blood like Prince Harry or William, we will never get to be royalty. We could, however, if we marry into a royal household like Meghan Markle did. But still, we are not considered as a full blooded royal, and although we may carry royal titles, we will not be part of the succession line. The ancestry is essential as it establishes our credentials as a royal, and even if we are not wealthy and do not exercise any royal functions, we are proud of our bloodline and heritage.

It is interesting that God uses the same approach for us as His spiritual children. Matthew began his book by tracing the geneology of Christ to David, the greatest King of Israel, and declared that He is of Son of David as well as the Son of Abraham. This means that as much as Jesus is the Son of God and was the Logos at the beginning, His birth on earth, although humble, is of royal human origins and ancestry. He is thus a king in His human bloodline and is also an Israelite, a Jew, being part of the many descendants promised by God in His Covenant with Abraham.

In John 1:10-13, John declared that He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognise Him. He came to that, which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who receive Him and who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

In 1 Peter 2:9, Peter exalted that we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people. Likewise, Paul wrote in Romans 8:17 that if we are children, we are heirs – heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ.

No matter who we are born as, no matter how humble our beginnings, if we are in Christ, we have a spiritual heritage to King David and Father Abraham through Christ Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. Even if we are a slave owned by another human like a chattel, we are nevertheless of the royal house of David through Christ.

So who am I? I think it is less important that we define ourselves than to allow God to define us. We are all children of God as we believe in Jesus Christ. Let our Heavenly Father shape and define us in accordance with His will that we may be the person whom He has always wanted us to be. Let us live in the glory of His presence, in the centre of His will, that our heritage in Him may always be protected and preserved for eternity.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/05/15/exploring-the-stars

I am an ardent fan of documentaries, especially those concerning nature, whether animals or just earthly or even extra terrestrial phenomenon. Even the deep sea is not accessible to most. There are interiors of jungles that humans have not explored and high mountainous regions and vast deserts that we have not fully understood. It was only through the disappearance of our MH370 that I learned about the Indian Ocean and that it is a piece of open waters that people do not venture to due to its treacherous nature. As I grew older, I only knew that even in the high seas and 40,000 feet up in the air, there are predefined paths of navigation that everyone follows.

I guess I prefer facts to fiction, although the make-believe moving pictures world of movies, tele-dramas and soap operas have a function to play for the human psyche – as a source of momentary entertainment and fantasy out of this world. We sometimes live out our own fantasies through the movies!

There is just so much to learn and discover out there. With the accessibility of YouTube and user-generated content, we realise that there is just so much that we ourselves do not know. A whole body of science and probably a few million people are dedicated towards providing health care to human beings as a whole, and yet, despite the billions of dollars poured towards cancer research, we have not been able to find an antitode to cease the metastasis of cancer cells.

The more I learn and discover about new things, whether in relation to our own human bodies or that of nature, the more I marvel at the hand of our creator God. The complexity of all things from the invisible world of microorganisms (invisible to the naked eye and yet physical) to the atomic building blocks of our human and animal cells, to the chemistry composition of various minerals and soil and many other living and non-living things in this world, and the existence of a whole spiritual realm as evidenced by para-nornal activities all point to a force infinitely more powerful and all-knowing than us. The Greeks call this force Logos (translated as the Word), and John starts his book by declaring it to be Christ, who was with God at the beginning.

But the greatest thing ever, to me, is that this Creator God who created all things in all their intricacies and complexity is also our own very God. He is our Lord and Shepherd. He is accessible to us. His presence comes and dwells in the praises of His people. He is our God, and we are His people.

What’s the message this morning? Be assured that nothing that we will go through here on earth can compare to the glory that awaits us in Christ Jesus. No matter how challenging the world around us may become to us, for all the injustice that we face, for all our inadequacies and weaknesses and shortcomings, be thankful that the Creator God, our Heavenly Father, has chosen to take us to be part of His family, His Kingdom. Do good even if others were to harm us. Is that stupid? No, because that’s what Jesus taught us to do. Be thankful that we know Jesus and have Him in our lives as our Lord and Saviour. Do everything possible within our own power and might, to make sure that we are on that narrow path to eternity. We have the ticket already. Don’t drop the ball or let the devil and his evil cohorts take it away!

https://odb.org/MY/2023/05/14/loving-leadership

When I accepted Christ, the first church I joined was a Methodist outreach in my small town of Pasir Puteh, Kelantan in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. There were 3 of us local students who accepted Christ during those days through efforts of outstation Christian teachers stationed in our small town. It was a memorable experience, and I was there for around 2 years before my shepherd introduced me to the charismatic movement.

My second church, which was based in the capital city of Kelantan, had a more teacher-disciple or master-student leadership style. It was a branch of a group of churches headquartered in Petaling Jaya. The motto of this church is that as believers, we are an army of God. Thus, discipline and obedience were core. While most churches comprise of 20% core and 80% peripheral in terms of commitment of members, this independent church believes in 80% committed and 20% peripheral. I recall, for example, that it was mandatory for those in the core to pledge 20% of their income to the church, 10% for tithes, and 10% for offerings as the former was exclusively for those in full-time work, while the former was to cover overheads and incidentals like rent etc.

During my 8-year stint in the second church, I learned a lot about God, at times appeared forced or in conformity to the in crowd, but which I still cherish till today; for example, being faithful to a given task no matter how small or insignificant it might be. We used to take turns preparing communion, from the cooking of the unleavened bread to the preparation of the fruit juice. Or cleaning up the worship hall and arranging the chairs for the weekly worship service. There was no need those days to hire cleaners as we had a significant core who did all those work for the church.

Later, a group of us left the church and started our own, and as a breakaway group, we had to do everything ourselves. With all of us, then holding day jobs, we worked for the spiritual good of ourselves and our fellow members in the congregation. It was certainly not to the extent of Paul working tirelessly to provide for the needs of the Thessalonians as was stated in 1 Thessalonians 2:7-12, but we had to fend for ourselves with no more support from the mother church. Any independent startup church will go through this phase, and I will not be surprised if they need to support the church lile Paul did – working tirelessly so that we may provide for the needs and survival of the new church.

I think there are pros and cons to the different church leadership styles, whether authoritative and even dictatorial or conciliatory, and by consensus. In the present day, the latter appears to be more prevalent as people are generally more educated, well informed, and exposed even if we are new to the faith. But too much flexibility means slower transformation of our lives as people tend to postpone and delay making faith commitments even to God despite hearing the call and prompting of the Holy Spirit. A firmer push by the church leadership may sway things a little quicker, but in the end, it is still the work of God and the Holy Spirit in our lives.

I am touched by Paul’s love, resolve, and determination in the way he cared for the congregation in Thessalonica like a mother loves her child, giving everything he has to see them through their spiritual journey. I am sure there are still leaders like that in our midst, and I pray that more of us will be like Paul when we care for those under us.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/05/12/hows-my-driving

I think some of us become ‘transformed’ persons when driving, and I myself am no exception. Changed, but not in a good way! While in day to day life, I’m less confrontational and usually conciliatory, I can be fairly aggressive when driving. For example, I hate queue cutters. Sometimes, if at all possible, I will not let them pass. My wife will nearly always say, “it’s OK, let them pass – maybe they made a mistake and were not intentional.” I, for one, believe 9/10 of them had evil intentions! Or if someone suddenly cuts into my lane without signalling, it can give me a shock, and I will honked at them, not loudly – usually just to tell them off but if it was a dangerous manoeuvre I can blast my horn at them for driving so dangerously. Another are the road hoggers who do 80 km/h on the fast lane of the highway, causing a long queue or those who drive on the emergency lane. There is nothing much we can do about such irresponsible people, but it still gets to me sometimes. There is, therefore, a gap between our actions and our convictions when some of us drive, and that includes me, and it’s not a good testimony of our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

In James 1:19-20, James advised that we should be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to become angry as human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. The background to that verse is actually about the disparity between the rich and poor; that is, the anger of the poor will not bring about righteousness (better translated to justice in the context). It is true because our anger against any ill-treatment by the government or our employer organisation will not bring justice. We only hurt ourselves when we get angry as we will harbour retaliatory actions or vengeful thoughts, all of which are useless against entities much larger than ourselves. True justice can only be achieved by God, in His time, and whether in this world or thereafter. It’s better to commit such matters to God, or else we will be like taking poison hoping our adversaries will suffer the consequences. The idiom says revenge is a dish best served cold, but as believers, our God is our vengeance, and justice will prevail one day through Him!

Driving is actually a good way to test our righteousness in God as my wife always reminds me. If we are more forgiving and more patient on the road, we will truly become a better person in real life, a better child in God, a better servant of our Lord Jesus Christ.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/05/11/god-sees-understands-and-cares

In general, most of us are anonymous in a crowd. Unless we are a well-known person like a celebrity, a prominent politician, or a famous sportsperson, we will just be an unknown someone in the crowd. It is only when we are placed in a social group like our workplace, our school, or our church that we have a name to our face. We then have an identity. That’s just how human beings have evolved. Everyone’s a stranger unless we have known him or her from somewhere. There are also just too many of us for everyone to know each other.

Although we are anonymous to each other, if we were to take a bird’s eye view and break down each and every one of us, all of us are going through something. In a crowd in a mall, some may be there to window shop, some to buy something, some to eat a meal or a snack, some to meet someone. But everyone is going through something or on a journey. Thus, anonymous we may be, everyone is a precious soul trying to cope with the demands of this natural life, and hopefully, make it past this temporal world unto the realm of eternity. We are too complex a being of our spirit, soul, and body to just live this life on earth only. There must be more to life after death.

The beauty of this whole scenario is that as much as we are anonymous in a crowd and no one from outside is able to see what’s going on behind closed doors and drawn curtains, God sees each and everyone of us whether we are His children or not. He sees understands and cares for each and every one of us. If we don’t know Him yet, He will give us many chances to know Him. If we are superficial in relating to Him, He will draw us deeper to Him. Jesus will draw us closer to His Father, our Father. The Holy Spirit, the Helper given to us after Jesus ascended to heaven to be with the Father, will convict and guide and strengthen our faith.

We are never and will never be anonymous to God. Our entire history as a natural being born into this world is at his fingertips. He knows us inside and out. In fact, our future is also known to Him. Our struggles, our trauma, our sufferings, our tears and sorrows are known to Him, and He sees, understands, and cares for us. In fact, He was right there with us through our valleys and mountain top experiences in life. He sees and knows all those moments when we honoured Him by not doing evil, all those moments when we did good and helped another person in need despite our shortcomings. He saw those times when we sent money to people in need, and those people experienced that God cared for them through us.

Sometimes, we feel we are anonymous and all alone in this world fighting our own battles on our own. We are never alone, for Jesus is always with us, right there beside us to support and help us along. His presence is always only a prayer away. Put our trust in the Lord, and He will make our paths straight.

https://odb.org/MY/2023/05/10/stolen-gods

Before I knew Christ, my family dabbled a little in idol worship. My dad was from a Catholic background but wasn’t a practising believer. My mum was from a Taoist family. In fact, my maternal grandfather was a Taoist medium with a large altar at home. A few things I still remember till today is the smell of joss sticks at that house (we call it 239) as well as the distribution of roasted pork on days of festivities. I recall that my mum’s side of the family loved to buy numbers, and like most Chinese families, the pursuit of wealth and success via wealth were a major preoccupation in their lives.

Thus, inevitably, worshipping idols or the deities behind those idols, especially in the Malaysian Chinese community, is very much about riches and making it in this world. Life was hard then, and although my maternal grandfather earned quite substantially as a medium and Chinese medical practitioner, he never actually owned any property and passed on without much. Money that came by easily was also lost easily. But nevertheless I would say that he lived quite well, having had two wives and raising 18 children.

As Christians, we are also concerned about whether we can make it in this world as most of us are not born with a silver spoon. In fact, even if we are educated and hold good jobs, very few of us could afford not to work. Few of us own high-income generating estates or vast lands like the upper class in England.

However, as believers, I think most of us are less focused on making it in the world than making it in God. As much as our salvation is a gift from God by His grace and our faith in Christ, we know we have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. There is a sense that we need to work at staying on the narrow path to salvation and not be distracted or tempted to take the broad and easy road, which leads to destruction. Riches will help us live this life more comfortably, but as believers, we know that whatever sufferings we go through here on earth can not compare to the glory that awaits us in eternity. Because Christ died for our sins to save us, we are eternally grateful and indebted to Him to serve Him in His Kingdom. Thus, what should be upmost in our minds is whether we are living in the centre of His will, whether we are fulfilling His calling for our lives – His plans, and purposes for us.