https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/25/run-away

When I was in my teens I joined in to listen to a conversation between my dad and his brother (my uncle) who was a martial arts instructor. This uncle shared that the purpose in learning martial arts and to train is not to prove who is the better fighter but to be able in a life threatening situation to throw the fastest punch and run. Not to stand your ground and fight. I remembered that advice till today even though I have never personally trained in self defence. In the course of my life I had however heard of two real life stories of people getting into fights and got killed. One was a black belt holder confronting a few armed robbers and was in the process slashed and killed.

The best defence in self defence is to run. Thus it is good to be always physically conditioned to run in terms of our fitness and attire – better to wear shoes than slippers when going out and for ladies, be prepared to discard your heels.

In fact, the best defence even in a verbal argument is to retreat and lose the argument. This is counter intuitive and I need to practice this more when it comes to my wife but it’s the truth. The principle is that it is OK to lose the argument to preserve the friendship and the relationship because in the heat of the moment if we continue arguing, we may end up really quarrelling with heated words exchanged and bad vibes flowing. We may not be friends again after that. Why? Because we wanted to win the argument, because we wanted to be right, because we wanted to show we are better and cleverer. But is our self assertion worth the relationship at stake? It is thus better to retreat and revisit the issue if it’s important enough when cooler heads are present. Logic do not usually go hand in hand with anger and hurt!

I think when Jesus taught for us to offer the other cheek if someone were to slap us, He meant that we should always think of the bigger picture. What’s at stake and what’s more important? Not that we should never fight back or stand for justice or righteousness. Not that we must always retreat and surrender. Our principles are “right side up” but there is always a deeper meaning to what appears superficially. As believers, we are not cowards but are bold and courageous but for the right reasons. If Jesus had fought back, He would not have been arrested and crucified and would not have died for our sins. The events were allowed take place so that what was written in the Scriptures previously may be fulfilled. Ultimately in all that we do, our intent must be for the will of God to prevail, here on earth as it is in heaven!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/24/generous-giving

One of the things we can never avoid as people of the faith is to emulate the character of our Heavenly Father. In other words, we cannot avoid becoming more Christ like if we truly love Christ as God’s goal for us is for us to be more Christ like – see Romans 8:29.

Thus if God is loving and compassionate, we cannot say that we don’t want to be loving and compassionate. Since God is forgiving and very patient, we likewise need to be patient and forgiving. If we are not, then we need to ask ourselves whether our acceptance of Christ is real? Whether our relationship with God is real or make believe? Is Christ really with us? Is God living in us through His Holy Spirit? Are we getting the prompting of the Holy Spirit in our lives? Are we being transformed by the renewing of our minds not to be conformed to the pattern of this world?

It is undoubtedly true that God is generous. It can clearly be seen in the law requiring farmers not to be too efficient in harvesting their crops so that the inefficiency may benefit the poor, the widow and the foreigner, basically, the under privileged segments of society then. The principle is that as the various clans and tribes are each given land, and fertile ones at that to cultivate at the Promised Land, no one that are living in their midst are to be left behind. This principle include the law for those given land to tithe their harvest to the Levites that are dedicated only to take care of the temple.

I think for our application we must likewise be not too efficient in managing our finances that we count every ringgit and sen. If our food order comes up to RM17.20, nothing wrong to give the Grab rider a RM20 note amd for him to keep the change. There is no need for us to be so efficient as to help him manage his finances by giving him the exact amount so that he has the exact amount to account to his bosses. It is OK to tip the waiter generously. It is OK not to bargain too much at the wet market. Let the vegetable seller earn a little more to feed his family. Being good stewards of God’s money means for us to be generous too.

Do we need to be well off to be generous? So long as we have income, we can be generous. In fact even a dog can be generous. I saw a video on YouTube recently where a dog when given a choice between a bigger and smaller piece of food, chose to take and give the larger portion to his friend while taking the smaller portion for himself.

Be generous whether as individuals or as a church. Because that’s a characteristic of the God we live, worship and serve. If He is generous and His heart is with the widows, the poor and the foreigners, why aren’t we the same? Giving is better than receiving and we know that God will always bless a cheerful giver! Those who preach the prosperity gospel manipulate this principle to their benefit but the principle remains. No matter how much we give, we can never outgive God. In fact I believe that if we are determined to help out others, I’m confident that He will make sure our pots are never dry. Look at how the widow could continue to feed Elijah and her son and herself with just a little flour and oil and for months!!!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/23/in-the-end

It is every believer’s aspiration to be able to sincerely and genuinely say at the end that we have fought the good fight, we have finished the race and have kept the faith. We will know ourselves where we stand with God as over the years we would have communicated and interacted with the Lord and thus will by then be able to feel His heartbeat. We would have developed a relationship with God that is both unique to us and God with our own nuances. A relationship that is intimate and close. We understand and know Him as He knows us inside out. We would have been able to put our trust fully in God, totally reliant on His prompting for the major decisions in our lives, even minor ones. We would have been always guided by the Holy Spirit on who to reach out to, who to speak about the goodness of God. We would have had a deep sense of knowledge and appreciation that we are all wonderfully and fearfully made and we know deep in us that God will complete His good work in us as we place our yoke on Jesus Christ our Lord and draw upon Him as our bread of life and the river of everlasting waters that we will never go hungry and thirsty again.

Stephen Covey’s 2nd habit of his 7 habits of highly effective people teaches us to begin with the end in mind. In whatever we do, we imagine and envision what the end result will be as we start our work or project. In terms of life, we want to always journey with the end in mind – what will our eulogies be like? What will be written on our tombstone? Will it be 2 Timothy 4:7, the literal last written words of Paul?

Unlike how the world perceives things and evaluate success, our race in God is always something between us and God. The fight is always one with spiritual forces trying to distract and draw us away from God. The race is one where we are racing in our own lane to our own finish line. The treasures in heaven we are storing are all our own. The plans and purposes God has for us are unique to us the same way we are uniquely made. There is no question of looking at what he did for the Lord! The many churches he planted, the many lives he touched, the many powerful messages he preached or the many people healed through him. Our fight is our own and our race is our own to complete. The only question is, at the end, have we kept the faith? Have we remained true and faithful to God and His cause for us? Only we alone can answer that question on that day, not our parents, not our pastor or our cell group leader. Jesus will be our advocate. But if we had been close to Jesus all these years, will He even need to ask us the question? Will He not straight away welcome us with open arms and say well done, my good and faithful servant, come now into your rest?

Begin with the end in mind, and we will be able to plan our lives accordingly – making the right choices, putting God first in all things, making God’s plans and purposes for us our fundamental goals in life. Cast our eyes on things eternal even as we carve a slice of this world for ourselves. Begin with the end in mind!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/22/something-deep-and-binding

The fundamental difference between us humans and other living beings on earth is that we have reasoning power and a will. That’s the intellect part. And yet emotionally we are also different as animals although they too experience emotions, are driven by instinct while we may act based on our emotions rather than intellect. Thus we follow our heart instead of our head when it comes to God, to love and things of beauty and marvel. Some of our actions and decisions are irrational as they are driven by our emotions. That is why we must never discount the power of words and tone when dealing with people. The more polite and respectful we are and the softer our tone especially when faced with hostility, the better will things likely turn out. The fact that we are emotional beings also means that we may be swayed by a compelling sob story although it may actually be just a tall tale.

As Christians and thus people who are acquinted with God’s Word, we know that the difference between us and other living things here on earth lies in the fact that we were created in the image of God. That explains why we have the intellect as well as the emotional dimension in decision making as the other fundamental difference we have with other living creatures who are driven by instinct is the will. We may decide not to live for emotional reasons but an animal will be instinctively driven to survive no matter what. Or we may be driven to sacrifice our lives or our own self interest for others which wild animals will not but domesticated ones may still do perhaps having trained to do so by humans.

Of course as Christians we also know that the other fundamental difference between us and other living creatures is that we are spiritual beings like God since we are made in His image. As much as we are physical beings of flesh and blood, we have a soul that lives forever.

The message today I believe is that as much as God tells us that we have been created in His image and thus we have intellect, emotions and a will and as much as we are flesh and blood, we are spiritual beings with a soul – therefore, use the most important distinction we have wisely. Ultimately, man have the will to decide whether to follow God or to go his own way. Use our will wisely in all aspects of our lives. Always decide in the best interests of God and His kingdom. Always put the interests of others first above our own. When we exercise our intellect and emotions in that manner, we will never be far from the will of God and thus will be assured of a good ending. If we do our best for God and for others, we will never go wrong.

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/20/refreshed-at-simons-house

A ministry showcased in today’s ODB which highlights Paul’s commendation in 1 Corinthians 16 is that of hospitality. Paul and others were refreshed in their spirit even as these people devoted themselves to the service of the Lord’s people.

Ministry and service in the Kingdom can take many forms and we need not always be looking at preaching and worship leading. Ushering and cleaning are examples of how we could serve God. Some actually cook meals for church lunches or create and design beautiful bouquets of flowers. There are just many ways we could serve God in our lives while working for our living and just living life. And like Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus, we could likewise devote ourselves to the service of the Lord’s people whether meeting the needs of passing missionaries or just providing a place of rest for visiting pastors and preachers. I know of someone who started by hosting ministers and missionaries in her home and ended up becoming a missionary herself.

What are we devoting ourselves to in the service of the Kingdom of God? Is there an area that the Lord has impressed upon our hearts? Could it be hospital visitations or just plain visitation to church members homes as we tag along with the pastor to do home visits? Whatever it is, it is time to start doing and to do it now. Don’t wait until our job is less hectic. Don’t wait until we are retired. Serve God now. Devote ourselves to a ministry now. Time waits for no man. We hesitate, dither and pause and deliberate – we will get no where. Step out and start devoting ourselves to the thing God has impressed upon us. Start today and start now!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/19/food-from-heaven

The manna from heaven that the LORD provided for the Israelites in their 40 years in the wilderness was an active demonstration of the supernatural penetrating into the natural as it would have been impossible for a nation of nearly 2 million people (600,000 men plus women and children) to live in the dessert for such a prolonged period of time that spanned at least one generation. In fact a whole generation of adult Israelites who were divinely brought out of Egypt by God through Moses and entered the desert died there, except Caleb and Joshua. Only the children of the former Egyptian slaves and those born there in the wilderness together with Caleb and Joshua finally entered the Promised Land 40 years later.

Besides the manna being supernatural, God’s presence was with them all the time as He resided in the Tent of Meeting (Tabernacle) and led them by a cloud in the day and by a ball of fire in the night. Wherever they stopped amd camped, they were able to find a water source with the staff of Moses leading the way. Thus their lives and sustenance were fully dependent on the supernatural.

I always believed that God leaves behind a historical narrative or story in His Word as a way to proclaim His goodness and love and also to guide future generations on how to relate to Him by Him showing examples of how He related with His people in the past.

Thus we know that, if necessary, God can and will bring the supernatural into the natural even for long periods of time as evident from this example of 40 years in the desert. In the case of Elijah and the widow at Zarephath, God also provided food for the 3 of them during intense famine in the land from just a little leftover of flour and oil that the widow was about to prepare for her son and herself to die. Elijah was also fed by ravens before God led him to the widow. All these real life stories of the ancients demonstrated God’s usage of the supernatural into the natural to preserve life.

The lesson this morning I believe is not the repeated theme of bread of life (like yesterday’s) but more of God telling us today at this time and hour and this present age that He is able and will do the necessary for us in order that we may live. He had ensured the survival of a nation in the harsh and unhabitable wilderness for 40 years. He had ensured the survival of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath despite the raging famine. He will thus ensure the survival of each and every one of us notwithstanding the expected recession, rising prices, reduced purchasing power, scarcity of work, slowdown in businesses and the economy in the days to come post Covid, post the Russian-Ukraine war, post US-China trade war. Perhaps it is true that Christ will return this generation and perhaps we believers may be raptured. But until then, the LORD our God, Jesus Christ our Lord and the Holy Spirit will ensure that we get to live to fight another day! Yes, life is fleeting and we can be like the flower that bloom today and is blown away and forgotten the next day. But the picture that came to me is that we as people of the faith will be like the sunflower which grew and stood tall in a lonely forsaken desert highway. We could live and thrive despite the adverse and unfair conditions life brings us. Why? Because if God is with us, who can be against us?

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/18/crave-him

Bread represents food. At the minimum, we must eat at least bread or rice or noodles (in our context, maggie mee!) even if it’s plain and empty of egg, meat or vegetables. At times of war or famine, just a scoop of raw rice or flour to cook into a pot of rice or bake into a loaf of bread will do. Some people live to eat but the truth is we need to eat to live, like all animals and living creatures. We are made such that continuous sustenance is a prerequisite to survival. Food and drink is essential and necessary for the living.

Before Jesus started His ministry, He spent 40 days in the wilderness and one of the temptation He faced was the challenge by the devil for Him to turn stone into bread, the devil knowing that He was hungry and His body was craving for food. But we know that Jesus rebutted the devil by quoting Scripture that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. The question then was not whether Jesus could do what the devil challenged Him to do, but whether He should abandon His goal of a 40-day fast to prove to the devil He could do that. Sometimes we let pride take control and forget our goal in life. For example, we ended up doing something we regret because of pride forgetting at that moment that we are to be a mirror image of Christ. We are challenged and we let go our burst of rage or conniving heart to manipulate a situation as though we are playing devil’s advocate when we are really being the devil!

The main message this morning is however that as much as bread or rice (meaning to say, in context, the means in which we put food on our table) is essential to our survival as human beings, God is still more important. Jesus is the bread of life that as we eat and drink, we will never ever grow hungry or thirsty. There is the eternal dimension in the sense of the upcoming tree of life that we will enjoy one day as revealed in Revelation 21 but more importantly, even here on this earth, we will never go hungry and thirsty if we put our trust in God. The devil will always say that we need to do what’s necessary to survive (turn stone to bread to break the hunger and fast) but the truth is man need not live on bread alone as God will ensure that we as His children will live even as we put our trust and surrender our lives fully to Him. God brought manna from heaven during the 40 years the Israelites were in the wilderness, will He not make a way for us to continue to serve Him? We need not bow down to any other gods and idols and we need not test the LORD our God. Place our trust in Jesus the Bread of Life and He will give us rest and we will never ever go hungry or thirsty!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/16/the-fierce-struggle

Even as we were created in the spirit before our physical bodies came into being, there is actually in parallel an immense world out there in the spiritual realm that are unseen to us. Our physical human senses are not able to see, hear, smell, taste or touch that world because our 5 senses are made for this physical world. Yet we know they exist. There are occasions when the spiritual realm are able to penetrate into the physical realm like when we pray and God moves in signs and wonders, through healing and deliverance. Or there are people bestowed with a 3rd eye or a 6th sense to see the spiritual world that exists side by side with us. However, as much as the spiritual realm exists in parallel with us, it is not a world inhabited by departed spirits. When we pass on in this physical world and give our body back to the soil that it was created from, our spirit goes back to God and all will be resurrected on the day of Jesus Christ. The question then is whether we will go on to enjoy the new heaven and new earth and live with God as revealed to John in Revelation 21 or will we banished to a place of gnashing of teeth?

The final destination of the human soul is determined by what it does here on earth while its human body still have breadth. That is why many have described the believer as only being a pilgrim passing through the earth on the way to eternity. It’s a pilgrimage fraught with trials and challenges, and yet we are also empowered with the grace, goodness and power of God to overcome and cone out victorious.

That is why Paul reminds us that our fight is not against flesh and blood but against the principalities of the air, the dark forces, the evil rulers and authorities that are in the heavenly realms. They are always fighting with our heavenly hosts and angels to take control of the spiritual realm so that the souls of humans are either drawn to the world or to God. Prayer is our God-given weapon to call upon the heavenly hosts to fight for us against the vile and evil schemes of the evil one.

The fight is always for the souls of mankind. That is the real fight. All others are just peripherals. What we go through in life is just like a play although it is real to us. Because in the end, we will live for eternity. The physical is only temporal, but the spiritual is eternal. Thus whatever we do in the physical to survive amd continue to live in the physical, we must always bear in mind and give emphasis to and prioritise the eternal. Are we storing up riches in heaven? Are we doing what God had planned for us before the foundations of the world? Can we be like Job who look to the day when he knows that his Redeemer lives and though his skin be destroyed, he will see God. Job was an excellent picture of what happened in the spiritual realm having affected the physical and yet the soul of man (Job) was intact as his faith for God was unwavering.

The message today I believe is to look beyond the physical when we face issues in life. There is more to life than that, much more. The battle is being fought in the spiritual realm and we can help out by praying for our heavenly hosts to always protect and preserve the souls of man. We serve God in church to meet the physical and spiritual needs of our fellow brethren but always remember to pray and intercede in the spiritual realm as there is where the real fight lies.

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/15/monkeying-with-the-cosmos

When we do our daily devotional with God based on ODB, we can not avoid seeing repeated subject matters as there are 365 days to a year. In other words, certain themes may be spoken about again and again, although the writing or the content may be fresh. We face the same issue with satellite pay TV when compared against user generated content in YouTube. We in pay TV used to be the Goliath with more than 100 channels compared to terrestrial TV, but now we are the David when compared against the sheer immensity, depth, and how current YouTube content is. Totally no match!

Thus today’s ODB speaks about the fact that the universe has a creator and the creator is God. However the twist is that Jesus was also there at the beginning. That God created the universe and entire cosmos together with Jesus Christ the Son. So even though Jesus appeared on earth through the virgin birth of Mary about 2,000 years ago, He existed well before the foundations of the world.

Which brings us to the question this morning? When were we created? Did we only come into existence when our father’s sperm and our mother’s egg became one? Did we come into existence only at conception? Our physical human body only came into being at conception, which is undeniable. However, our spirit was created only then, too? Is it at the point of the conception of our human physical body?

In Ephesians 1:4 Paul declared that God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. Meaning to say that even before the physical world, the universe and the cosmos, were created by God, He had already created us in the spirit. Our existence as spiritual beings even predates the creation of the first physical man, Adam that even as God gave him breadth after making him from the soil of the earth, his spirit had already existed in the spiritual realm. We will one day be sure of this when we meet God.

In the meantime, I just like to encourage everyone again that we are all special and unique in the eyes of God. He loves each and every one of us like a father and mother love every single one of their children. We may have a few offspring but God has billions and yet He loves each and every one of them.

Blessed Sunday, everyone! As we dwell in God’s presence today, know that you are loved dearly by God and there is nothing that He will not want for us if it is in His will. He always wants the best for us. Trust Him with all our heart, our mind and our strength for He is our God and we are His children!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/14/the-gift-of-repentance

When we accept Christ, what’s usually emphasised is the eternal life that salvation brings. That salvation is God’s gift to mankind as God loved the world so much (Joh. 3:16) that with the death and resurrection of Christ, we are redeemed from sin and the sting of sin which is death. So although we die, we live for Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life (John 11:2).

But salvation although it’s free (it is not by our own effort or good works), it is not without a cost. It cost Jesus His life. It will also cost us our lives as much as we are saved by grace. Fundamentally, salvation comes with the repentance of the heart. We need to repent from our sins. There must be a transformation of our minds to not conform to the pattern of the world. Our old self must be crucified daily as it tries to assert dominance over our new self in Christ. Our lives must then be a living sacrifice for God since Christ has redeemed us with His blood. There is a cost to following Jesus as we need to carry our own cross daily even as we may ask Jesus to carry our yoke for us and put on His yoke which is light and easy (Matthew 11:28). Using legal terminology, although there are no conditions precedent to accepting Jesus – Jesus accepts us as we are – there is a condition subsequent and that is the repentance of our hearts and it will permeate us thecrest of our lives.

In the ancient days, God will punish His people if they sin and rebel against Him and yet when they repent, He will relent and forgive them as He is gracious and compassionate and slow to anger. He is still the same and what more since the blood of the Lamb has erased our sins.

We cannot be saved if our hearts have not repented. That is why Paul advised in Philippians 2:12 that we each need to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. James even went further and asked – what does it profit if someone says he has faith but does not have works. Can faith save him?

As much as some say that Christian life is not a bed of roses, it is also not paved with gold. But we are assured of a better life in God on earth as in heaven – because if we were to ask our Father in heaven for bread, will He give us a stone or if we were to ask for a fish, will He give us a snake? (See Luke 11:11).

In God we will live our optimum life. We will fulfil our potential in Him and become the person He had planned us to be since the foundations of the earth. We will become the best we could be if we are with God by being able to realise our fullest potential in Him. He will restore what the locusts had eaten and complete His work in us till the day of the Lord.