https://odb.org/MY/2022/06/17/planted-in-him

Jeremiah 17:5-8 contrasts those who trust in the Lord as those who is like a tree planted by the water whose leaves are always green and who bear fruit in season with no fear of drought, compared to those who don’t who are like a bush in wastelands, who live in parched places of the desert and in a salt land that no one lives. In other words, a life of prosperity vs a life of desolation. Greenery, flowers and fruits versus dry, abandoned and waste land.

Noah built the ark on instructions from God and waited for the rain. Caleb and Joshua waited for 40 years before entering the Promised Land. Rebekah waited 40 years to have a child. Jacob waited 7 years to marry Rachel. Simeon waited and waited for many years before he saw baby Jesus. Moses was 40 years old after he left Egypt but only heard the calling of God from the burning bush when he was 80. Even Jesus waited until He was thirty before He begin His ministry.

Trusting God and waiting upon Him is very much part of our walk of faith. Things will occur and unfold in His time. But we know that He will make all things beautiful in His time.

The message today and my encouragement to you and myself is that we must keep on trusting God as we wait upon Him. Don’t give up hope and abandon His call for our lives. We will soon see His plans for us unfold. As we pray for certain things, wait patiently for those things to come to pass. If God had impressed upon our hearts for those events to happen, continue to pray and trust in Him. It may take 10, 20, 30 or 40 years or it may come to pass in 3 years. Let’s continue to wait and trust the Lord and look to Christ heavenward even as we serve Him with all our heart, mind and strength. Christ is and will always be our Lord and Saviour, and our Heavenly Father will always be our God and Father!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/06/16/new-dna

I think today’s ODB life example of a bone marrow transplant patient’s DNA is a perfect illustration of what happens to us when we accept Christ. I have verified this and the truth is that once someone takes a bone marrow transplant, he will exhibit the DNA of both himself and that of his donor. He will thus have dual DNA or even the DNA of his donor. I guess the reason is that our DNA is produced by our bone marrow.

Thus when we accept Christ, we are now a new creation in Christ. Physically we are the same but spiritually our spirit has been awakened and we now have Christ in us. We are a new creation, our old self is gone in the sense that we may now overcome our old habits and behavioural traits that make us selfish to become selfless in Christ. Instead of only thinking of ourselves, we now think of others in our actions and decisions. We care for others as much as we care for ourselves. We are willing to give away our money and use our time and talents to bless others as we know our purpose in life is to be a blessing to others and not to keep or hoard things for ourselves only. Our mission in life has now changed to be a blessing to our neighbour. We live for God and His plans and purposes for our lives. We no longer live to only achieve our own plans and ambitions. In everything we do, in all decisions we make, we pray and consult God on what’s best for Him and His kingdom.

The reality however is that like the bone transplant patient, our DNA will always remain with us. As much as accepting Christ makes us a new creation, our old self is still present with us. We need to constantly influence and transform our old self so that our new self in Christ will always dictate our lives. In fact not only make our old self conform to our new self in Christ but transform our old self into our new self in Christ! It will take time but it is possible with Christ strengthening us by the power of the Holy Spirit as we immerse ourselves in prayer and reading of His Word and dedicate our lives to serving God in ministry for His kingdom! It’s a constant and daily affair – never give up on this transformation from within us!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/06/15/the-pudding-guy-2

Luke 16:1-12 the Parable of the Shrewd Manager is perhaps a more difficult parable to understand if we were to just take it at face value. It is somewhat controversial as it appears to glorify dishonesty when a manager who is about to lose his job started discounting the debts of his employer’s debtors to gain a favour from them so that they will treat him well after he is no longer the manager. Jesus did not elaborate on why it was not wrong to do what the manager did (perhaps the debts were grossly inflated by outrageously high compounded interest upon interest in the first place) and we also do not know why the manager had such authority to reduce debts unilaterally, but the point made by Jesus was to use our earthly wealth for eternal purposes.

As a shrewd believer, we should not hoard our wealth in the sense that we should not hold it too tightly even though we need to save for our old age. The reason is obvious. Earthly wealth do not last forever and so is our position and status in life. So why don’t we use our earthly riches, social position and influence to sow into the Kingdom of God and in the process store treasures in heaven where the thief may not steal or the moth or rust will not destroy? Sowing into the Kingdom could mean giving to missions and Christian causes but could also mean just pure charitable organisations that help the needy, poor and downtrodden. It could also mean just helping out our neighbour who is in need or using our influence to help someone out, perhaps someone who had just been laid off and is jobless. We will see more and more of such cases as the economic woes caused by the pandemic and Russian-Ukraine war as well as the Western sanctions against Russia and the US trade war against China all start to kick in over the next few years. The world will go into greater turmoil.

At the most fundamental and basic level, we ought to use as much as we can for the glory of God. Our time and talents and giftings. Our wealth, money, influence, position and status too. That’s the clever and shrewd thing to do. Use them all for the glory of God, for eternal everlasting purposes. It is a privilege to be able to work and earn a living. Just remember that as we earn and have money (and we need not be rich!), we are given the privilege to sow into eternal purposes. Use that privilege to invest into eternal treasures while we still can. We will not live forever here on earth and neither will our jobs and position be ours forever. I believe that is the essence of the Parable of the Shrewd Manager – be a shrewd and smart believer and use all that is within our control for Christ and the glory of God!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/06/14/deceived

John cautioned us to be aware and to beware of 3 things in life – lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). All are equally bad but I think it is the last one that afflicts most of us and have the potential to deceive and destroy us.

I think it is to a certain extent understandable if we do not know God and thus attribute our success to our hardwork, talent and ingenuity. We worked hard to be where we are today, bending the rules whenever it is necessary to achieve our goals as the end justifies the means. No matter what, we want to achieve that position, accumulate that wealth, own that house, drive that car. We did that all on our own and thus it is difficult not to be proud of ourselves or our achievements. Even then, even if our success has nothing to do with God (as perceived by us) pride can make us overconfident and becoming too sure of ourselves that we might overestimate our own capabilites and take on more than we can chew.

But if we know God, there is really no excuse to only pride ourselves for our own successes. For surely Jesus was in the equation, carrying our burdens, rescuing us when we fall, protecting us from the pitfalls of life. And yet we do see Christians being so full of themselves that they forget that God was a major factor in who they are today. Sadly this affliction is not limited to believers who are successful in the world whether business or corporate but also those in ministry. A famous Christian personality can be proud because he believes that he is so special before God that he didn’t need God anymore. He feels he can function and do well in fulfilling God’s plans for him by just relying on the gifting and anointing God gave him when he actually should still be depending on God all the time.

I just saw this phrase in a movie – as extraordinary as everyone else. We may be special before God, so is everyone else. God gives us special talents, gifts and anointing – He also gives the same to others although in differebt measures. Whatever successes we have achieved, always remember that it is by the grace of God. He is the one who put us where we are today to achieve His plans for us. Always go back to the Lord for guidance so that we are able to hear His still small voice all the time. If we go wrong or have strayed, repent and admit it before God and change our ways. Don’t let our own pride come between us and Christ. Let’s be the most humble before God and man as pride of life deceives and destroys.

https://odb.org/MY/2022/06/13/divine-tenderness

We know that God lives within us by the Holy Spirit if we have accepted Jesus in our lives as our Lord and Saviour. Yet there are times when we feel that the LORD is far away in another dimension or in some far flung galaxy. We feel we are all alone going through crisis after crisis in life, tough and difficult situations as though our God is a fierce taskmaster seeking always to train us and make us a better person through the life situations that come our way, from work problems to family issues to children’s future, even to the cleanliness of our homes.

One solution as preached in yesterday’s Sunday service in my local church is to pray and communicate with God. Talk to Him and tell Him all that we are going through. Cast our burdens on Him even as we unload and share with different ones among us that we know like our spouse, our children, family members and pastor.

If you read today’s ODB on how the angel of the LORD woke up Elijah to eat after having prepared and cooked bread for him over burning coals, we know that God in His divine intervention in our lives is gentle and caring. Many believed that the angel of the LORD is the LORD Himself who took the trouble to care for His prophet in times of His prophet’s lowest point of life. Elijah was so afraid of Jezebel that he ran for his life after killing 200 of Jezebel’s prophets of Baal. Elijah had won a great victory demonstrating God’s power and yet when Jezebel vowed to take his life, he was overcome by fear and ran and ran. He was exhausted and told God that he is only one left that was true to God and asked God to take his life (of course Elijah was mistaken as the Lord had prepared and reserved 7,000 who had not bowed down to Baal).

Look to the Lord, look to Christ when we face life issues that appear overwhelming. Look to Jesus in prayer. Like in the case of Elijah the Lord will not abandon us but will come and take care of us. He will feed us to strengthen us so that like Elijah, we may continue with our journey, our walk with Him. God took the trouble to cook two meals for Elijah!

Just recently I had the privilege and honour to experience God’s tenderness and love. Like I shared yesterday, in the Acts of God in our lives, we will know for sure it is God when He intervenes in our lives. When we experience it, we will have the full assurance that He is right behind us watching our backs to make sure that if God us with us, who can be against us? We can then be like Joshua and Caleb, we can be strong and courageous and not be afraid and conquer our Promised Land. Cling on to Romans 8:28 – know that God will work all things good for those who love Him amd are called according to His purpose. Know that the LORD our God will make sure that we will be able to fulfil His plans and purposes for our lives. As we cling to Him, He will not let us go as He is forever in our lives, in all seasons! As we call upon His name, He will hear and answer us!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/06/12/gods-moves

In legal and corporate parlance, when we use the phrase acts of God, we mean Force Majeure which are unavoidable situations beyond the reasonable control of a party absolving the party from fulfilling its obligations under contract. Force Majeure is however broader and is not limited to only acts of God like natural disasters as it covers things like wars, labour strikes and nowadays pandemic and even trade wars as people begin to redefine the term for their contracts in light of contemporary events.

But in the case of the Feast of the Passover, it is celebrated by the Jews to commensurate the passover by the angel of death over the homes of the Israelites when they were Egyptian slaves. On that day, the angel of death took the life of every first born in every family in Egypt whether human or livestock if they didn’t have the blood of the unblemished lamb at their door posts. The significance of the Passover feast is that it was substitutory death, the unblemished lamb became the substitute for the first born’s life and many years later, Jesus Christ became our substitute Lamb of God in exchange for our eternal life in God. As Christians, we now observe the Holy Communion to remember Jesus’s sacrifice as the Lamb of God as Jesus Himself broke bread with the disciples on the Feast of the Passover and commanded us to do likewise in future to remember Him.

The message this morning is that there are acts of God in history that we celebrate and remember as believers in general but there could be past specific acts of God in our own lives that we want to also celebrate and remember. We want to give thanks to God for His grace and mercy in rescuing us in those times, for vindicating us and for standing up for us. We want to give all glory to God for His miraculous work in our lives, for His goodness. God moves and He moves in miraculous ways. Maybe some people will say those were just coincidences but we know deep within us that God was present amidst our situations. We know that Christ had planned it so meticulously so that all the steps just fell into place so perfectly that as we reflect upon it, we know that it was God’s love for us that made the difference, that made it all possible. We can see the Lord’s fingerprints all over the place! It was His handiwork. When God moves, He moves in a spectacular fashion that we will surely know it is Him and no one else!

When we face crossroads or tough or seemingly impossible situations, not only know that He is with us in all seasons (You are forever in our lives) but know that as we look back to the past acts of God in our lives, we stand assured that there will be more acts of God in future in our lives as we live our lives for Him and for His glory! God is good all the time!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/06/10/time-enough

If you read Ecclesiastes 3, you will see that there is a time for everything – whether it is to be born or die, to uproot or plant, to kill or heal, to teardown or build, to weep or laugh, to mourn or dance, to search or give up, to scatter or gather and many more. There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the sun. But the clincher is that God will make everything beautiful in His time. As Paul declared in Romans 8:28, we know that God will work all things good for those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose and I have shared before from the pulpit that “good” there is that despite all that had happened, we will be able to remain true and faithful to Him and His plans and purposes for our lives. We can be like Job or Joseph or Paul or even Christ – we will remain true right to the very end!

God has set eternity in our hearts and thus besides focusing on the things that count for eternity, we should know that for God to make everything beautiful in His time could mean, for some of us, that we will only see the beauty for everything when eternity sets in. Like the parable of the beggar in Luke 16:19-31 who longed to eat off the crumbs that fell off the rich man’s table and who was at Abraham’s side after he died compared to the rich man who was at Hades who just wanted a drop of water to quench his thirst.

I think the message this morning is that although some things may only be beautiful to us when eternity sets in (God promised to make all things beautiful in His time), we must fiercely and fearfully guard our path to eternal life to make sure that we will be on Abraham’s side and not end up on the wrong side of eternity. God has set eternity in the hearts of man, so let’s set our eyes on the things that matter for eternity!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/06/09/driving-through-loopholes

I think there is a fine line between human traditions and divine instructions as a lot of our practices do end up as human traditions. For example, while praise and worship, and preaching from the pulpit are means for us believers to celebrate God’s goodness as a congregation – the sequence of the service and all the items in it like testimony time, announcements, time for tithes and offerings are all human traditions. Even the act of holy communion is a man-made ritual as Jesus broke bread as part of a proper passover meal and we have reduced it to only a piece of corn flake and a little sip of Ribena! That is why I personally think that churches that have a meal together after a Sunday service is closer to the breaking of bread that Christ instituted as that was also practiced during the days of the Acts of the Apostles. Even meeting on a Sunday is very much a human tradition that has pagan origins as the Sabbath or Shabbat is observed from Friday evening to Saturday evening.

Are human traditions wrong? Are church practices ungodly? Are we breaking God’s laws in the process. I think the moral of the story is that in whatever we do whether as a church or as individuals, our hearts must be right before God and we must have God’s heart as our true motivation. So if a shabbily dressed unkempt homeless man from the street wearing worn out slippers enters our church during Sunday worship, do we deny him entry on the basis that he is disrespecting God’s presence? Let’s take it further – what do we do if a gay couple or a gangster or a prostitute comes to church?

The message today is that we cannot avoid human traditions as we are humans and some practices are passed down for generations. The deeper message is that we must not rationalise away what God is speaking to us by hiding behind human traditions. So religious leaders of past devoted their money to God while neglecting their parents. Or we could be faithfully giving our tithes and offerings to our local church while neglecting to help those around us who are in need. My view is that we are not absolved from our responsibility to help others just because we have already given our portion to God via our tithes and offerings to our local church. I think similarly if a person is gay, a druggie, a gangster or a prostitute, we cannot exclude them from the people we are reaching out to just because they don’t fit into our usual profile of a churchgoer. We must always remember that God’s heart is always for those marginalised by society. In fact Jesus came and died for everyone, including and especially those who are weak and downtrodden. I thus think that while we cannot avoid human traditions, we must not allow such traditions to hinder or prevent us from fulfilling God’s desire and intent to reach out to everyone around us.

https://odb.org/MY/2022/06/08/generosity-and-joy

I think as researchers have pointed out, there are people who give because it gives them joy. It makes them happy to give and I think it is true because we are happy knowing that we have done something meaningful. We have helped someone in need. But at the end of the day, I think most Christians still give to meet a need and usually as prompted by the Holy Spirit, rather than using giving as a source of joy. We see a need, God speaks to our heart and we give on the basis that what we have is from God anyway. So we are just a vessel for the Lord to meet the needs of others and if we follow this principle, there is a good chance that the Lord will likewise bless us in order that we may continue to be His vessel to reach out to those in need.

However there is another subtle point we should note when it comes to giving and that is to give with joy. Not so much to get joy in return but to give willingly with gladness in our heart. We must not give grudgingly as though we are forced to. If we ourselves have more pressing needs, then we should not give until those needs are met properly. Like if we need the money to buy medication, we should buy medication first before giving away the money. If we are not healthy, we will not be able to work and earn and thus we will not be able to give anymore in the future. So we need to make sure that the goose that lay the eggs, that is us, is well and alive! A dead goose lays no eggs.

Learn to give with joy to meet the needs of others. In the process, we may derive joy just from the act of giving as we see how our giving may help transform lives. As believers we should give more for Kingdom purposes, to help missionaries, to help God’s work in our local church and elsewhere. Yet we should not limit our giving only to Christian work as the world at large also needs help. Christ came so that the sick, the fatherless, the poor may enter the Kingdom of Heaven. We should likewise help the poor, the needy and the underprivileged.

We need to save and provision for our old age and yet we must give as vessels of God to meet the needs of others. If we are instruments of God, will He not preserve and protect us and care for us in our old age? Trust in the Lord and lean not on our own understanding. God will find a way for us as He uses us as a way for others in need!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/06/07/jesus-is-here

Matthew 28:20 contains a significant promise from Jesus that He will be with us till the end of age. He will actually be with us for all eternity but when He said until the end of age, He meant being with us here on earth. This promise is significant because if the end of age ushers in and the great tribulation as revealed in Revelation occurs during our life time, we have the assurance and promise that Jesus will nevertheless be with us during those 7 years before He returns. Of course this presupposes that we will not be raptured first and will face the great tribulation as believers prior to the 2nd coming of Christ. In Christian eschatology (end times teaching) speak, this is called the post tribulation end times theory. In other words, it is believed that as believers we will only be raptured to be with Christ after going through the great tribulation of presumably 7 years where we will only be able to buy and sell with the mark of the beast and if we bow down to the anti-Christ. Our faith will really be tested and Christians preparing for this occurrence in this lifetime are looking at various means to Iive “off the grid” so that we could carry on living without compromising our faith and identity as a child of God.

The great tribulation is indeed a scary thought and it is scary as we are afraid that after coming so far in the faith, we may be tempted to compromise in order to live a “normal life”. It is not a question of taking a vaccine or using e-payment platforms but taking the mark of the beast is a wilful act of worshipping the anti-Christ. It is wilful and not accidental. If we were to comply, we will do it in defiance to Christ and would have clearly abandoned our faith. So will we risk losing our eternal inheritance in God so we could live like we used to for those expected 7 years of tribulation?

Matthew 28:20 however gives us the assurance that Christ will be with us till the very end, until the end of age. If we stand with Him and refuse to bow down to the anti-Christ, He will be with us, to support and help us through it all. Not a question of putting us to the test and seeing whether we are genuinely for Him or not. Not to see whether we deserve a place in eternity as our salvation is a gift from God, by grace through the blood of Christ and not by our works. That is why proponents who believe in the post tribulation rapture theory also believe that believers when facing the great tribulation will be blessed and empowered by a greater outpouring of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we will see miracles and signs and wonders. In other words, as much as we need to learn and prepare to cope with living without the mark of the beast, we will have Jesus by our side fighting the battle with us. We will somehow be able to live even without the means to buy and sell as the miraculous power of God will be with us and we will live here on earth in His presence while waiting for Christ to return. Jesus promised that He will be with us till the end of age and that may ultimately be what matters most for us to be able to live through the great tribulation if it occurs in our lifetime!