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.

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!