https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/13/finish-strong

When it comes to our spiritual walk, the natural tendency is to get weary and slack off. Not backsliding but just our fervency or intensity reduced. It could be due to a variety of reasons, among of which, is just plain fatigue. Sometimes we face the same issues over and over again, so we get tired and kind of worn out.

The exhortation by Paul in Acts 20 is thus a good motivation for us to keep things hot. Paul considers his life worth nothing and his only aim is to finish the race and complete the task God has given him. Meaning to say nothing else is on his mind except to finish the race and complete his God given task. He is fully focused and totally committed.

For us, Paul’s 100% focus might not be practical as we have our work, our career, family and other obligations to think about. In fact, for me, my work occupies most of my thoughts most of the time. It is not practical because our job pays our bills and put food on the table. Also as we approach retirement, we who are not on a pension scheme, need to build up substantial savings for our old age.

However, having said that we also know that our life here is temporal and an eternal destiny and inheritance await us in heaven. There is thus also a need to store our treasures in heaven and sow into the kingdom. Further we also need to be focused on fulfilling God’s calling for us on earth, to fulfil His plans and purposes for us so that we are conformed to the image of Christ that we may test and approve His good and pleasing and perfect will for us.

My exhortation for us today is that whatever we need to do to survive in this world, make sure we don’t compromise our destiny in heaven, make sure we stay true to His narrow path and make sure we sow into our heavenly treasures. Treat others well. Treat others with dignity. Give people their due respect. Serve God with all our heart. Work at our character to be consistent with the image of Christ. Fulfil God’s plans and purposes for our lives. Run the race consistently and finish strongly to complete our God-given task! As we dwell in His presence, I know that He will take away all our weariness and rejuvenate us to fight another day for His cause! Amen!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/12/walking-by-a-blessing

I think some of us tend to think that if we give our lives to God, not only accepting Christ but fully surrendering our lives to Christ which is actually the same thing, we will lose out in terms of what we could achieve in the world. So we either refuse to enter into a relationship with God or we have one foot in the Kingdom of God and another in the world. Perhaps some of us feel that spiritual standards are just too high for us to be successful in the world since in the Kingdom of God, we pursue God and His purposes for our lives and not riches or fame.

But have we thought that our lives might actually be better off with God on our side while living in accordance with His percepts? For example, the Israelites need to be in Israel for the Messiah to come. And so God arranged for someone to overrun the Babylonians and free the Israelites in order that the prophesy in Micah 5:2 may be fulfilled. In history, that person was Cyrus the Great of Persia who invaded and defeated Babylon and gave permission for the Jews to return to their promised land. In Isaiah 48, God thus commented that wouldn’t it have been better if they had listened to Him earlier and thus would not need to be exiled to Babylon in the first place?

The point to ponder today is that perhaps our lives would have been better if we had listened to God and had given our lives to Him earlier. Maybe we need not go through all the challenges in making a living and charting a career on our own steam? Maybe we like the Israelites had walked by a blessing that has been staring in our face all this while like that little rock of gold in today’s ODB’s life story?

What is gone is gone. The past is the past. Crying over spilled milk will not bring back the milk. What’s important is the future and the road ahead. Repent and give our lives to God and step fully on to this side of the line. Don’t be half hearted but live our lives fully for God and His plans and purposes for our lives! We need to be like Peter and jump into the water to Jesus, can’t remain one foot on the boat and one foot on the water. Just not possible.

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/11/always-worth-sharing

It is interesting to note that Paul uses the picture of a Roman processional victory with spices and fragrances in 2 Corinthians 2 to illustrate the point that in a way we are like captives and spoils of war that Christ has captured for His glory and purposes. Unlike the real POWs who in ancient times ended up as slaves in return for their lives, we are free people liberated from sin but tasked to share the Good News and serve in the Kingdom based on our calling and gifting. In a way we are bond servants (slaves) to Christ and in a way, we are His property as He had redeemed us with His blood. But He also made us co-heirs with Him with a rich inheritance in glory that is accessible now even here on earth with a greater inheritance awaiting us as our Father prepares a place for us in His mansion of many rooms in heaven. We are slaves with the rights, privileges and authority of sons and daughters that nothing whether on earth or in heaven nor any principality or power of darkness may separate us from the infinite love of God. Christ is proud of us as He puts us through the victory procession – we are the fruits of His victory on the cross.

We therefore have an obligation to preach and share the Gospel to the people we meet so that more will have the privilege to become sons and daughters with Christ, to be co-heirs to the inheritance in glory and in most times, sharing the Good News may require the same tenacity of faith that we expend daily to live out the Christian life. If we have been sharing Christ to our friends and colleagues and family through word and our conduct and character – continue on and don’t give up! Salvation is in the hands of God and that person’s will and yet we must try to facilitate the work of the Holy Spirit as much as we can. Our constant sharing of our lives and word will inevitably leave an impression, the question is whether that impression is pleasant and lasting or ugly and fleeting? That is why it is essential that our life testimony matches the Gospel we preach. As much as we are not the one determining the conversion of faith, we ought to be the instrument that God uses to enhance and augment, rather then degrade and lessen it. The message of the Gospel is strong and powerful by itself as it is the Word of God and yet we may by our negative testimony blunt its impact. Share and live our life as Christ intends and we will see the fruits of our labour and we may have our own victory procession for Christ!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/10/engraved-grief

I just shared a message in church on Romans 8:28 last Sunday that took Job as one of the life examples of what is the “good” or agathos in Greek and my take is one where our faith and His plans and purposes are preserved despite the adverse circumstances we may go through in life. Job who was very wealthy was left penniless, with all his children killed and contending with painful boils and yet he preservered on with his faith in God intact. He refused to curse God and die. In fact he declared that even if God were to slay him, he will still trust God (Job 13:15) and in Job 27 verse 2 onwards, Job declared that even though God has made his life bitter and has denied him justice, he will not say anything wicked. In Job 19:25-26, Job was convinced that his Redeemer lives and after his skin is destroyed, yet in his flesh he will see God.

Job is thus the perfect example for us on how to grieve with God for the losses, disappointments and grief we go through in life whether it is our loved ones or things or positions that are dear to us. We do not fully understand the ways of God but as He is God, He knows best and will only want the best for us. But most importantly and the most precious thing that we have which is our faith in God is preserved and not destroyed in the process. That’s the spirit of Job. Even if God allowed certain events to occur in our lives like in the case of Job, will we remain true to His cause, faithful to His calling for us, steadfast to fulfil His plans and purposes for our lives, continue to allow Him to mould us to be like Christ (Romans 8:29)?

The message today is grieve we must and yet we must learn to grieve with God. Not be angry at God or curse or condemn God or sulk and withdraw ourselves from God. Everything has a purpose and the Lord will reveal His purpose in time to come. He will make all things beautiful in His time. He will carry on and complete His good work in us until the day of Jesus Christ. That we all know as Paul said he knew in Romans 8:28.

Today’s life story in ODB aptly describes the challenge we face as Christians. The planter wants to see his sunflowers bloom while the deer in his neighbourhood seeks to devour their leaves and stems because they are food to them. So it’s a constant battle to see them bloom in spring before the deer eats them all.

It’s a good analogy of our Christian walk as the devil and his cohorts try to devour whatever growth we have in our spiritual life, in our character and personality as we seek to mature in Christ so that we remain as infants, powerless to impact his kingdom of darkness. Worse the devil may distract and tempt us and bring us totally away from God that we end up on the wide road to destruction, instead of still running the race on the narrow road that leads to eternity.

Christ however brings us to fullness by His blood amd God will complete His work in us and bring it to completion as He who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).

It is not stated in the story but I guess the way he would have protected his sunflower crops is to probably fence up the area. But sometimes the deer could find a way through the fence and thus some are lost. Thus a planter’s work is always to care for his plants as well as his fencing. In the spiritual sense that fencing care is what Christ does in us daily even as He has brought us to fullness by His blood. We need to be moulded daily to effect a genuine change in our character as a person and to have real spiritual growth in us. The transformation from head knowledge to life changes take time and that’s the daily grind of the planter repairing and putting up fences to protect his sunflower plants. But unlike sunflower plants who remain static at where they are planted, we humans in our folly may we breach the fences and wander out to see the “world” and get distracted and devoured in the process! The Good Shepherd will come and rescue us but it’s a constant battle, right? If that’s true of us, isn’t that a sad reflection of who we are in Christ that Christ constantly needs to watch out for us to rescue us? If so, aren’t we still infants still drinking spiritual milk? When will be graduating to meat? When will we grow up and start fighting battles for God? Do we remain in the wilderness or are we like Joshua and Caleb entering and conquering the Promised Land for God and ourselves?

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/08/how-great-is-our-god-2

The fact that each of us are fearfully and wonderfully made is not just something that the Scriptures declare with hopeful intent – meaning to say, we are not sure but hopeful that it is true. No, we are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made as each and every one of us although have the same general characteristics as a species, we each have unique identifying elements. Science has discovered and proven that our fingerprints are unique. Later it was discovered that our iris are uniquely made and now it has been proven that our blood vessel patterns are different from that of another. There are probably other unique identifying features that have yet to be discovered in the context of secured identity but we are all certain that we are different from each other even if we are identical twins.

The complexity involved in the creation process to make billions of unique individuals demonstrates the greatness of God as He also created heaven and earth and all the other things in them. Every single plant, tree, vegetation, insect, animal, bird of the air and fish in thr sea are all uniquely made even though unlike man, they do not have a spiritual dimension to their being. Not only that, but God despite the complexity of time and space, is able to relate and communicate with each and every one of us on an individual day to day basis. Each of us have a special and unique relationship with Him, we are all on a separate track to greatness with Him as He moulds us into the image of His Son, our Lord and Saviour. Unlike humans who tend to look at us as another worker in the assembly line to be discarded when we are no longer useful needed or just a statistic and a name in an Excel, the LORD loves and cares for each and every one of us as precious stones – like we are His collection of gems that He wants to look at and admire. We are all beautiful and valuable to Him. No one else can ever replace us in His eyes, we are indispensable to Him, irreplaceable ad we are the only ones who are us to Him! There can only be one Ronnie Lim to God!

As we worship Him today in our Sunday worship service, let’s remember His greatness. Let’s remember His love for us, that we are all unique and wonderfully and fearfully made. We are all special and irreplaceable to Him. Worship Him, give Him our best. Praise Him and let His presence come and envelope us that we may be strengthened and refreshed in Him to do great exploits for Him in the week to come. He is God and He alone is our God!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/07/love-like-mom

One of the things I still remember till this day is my mother sneaking a RM50 note to me before I was going to take the bus back to KL to continue with my University studies. I refused to take her money as she was not a working mother, just a housewife relying on a RM100 pocket money from my dad. Those were back in the days more than 30 years ago when my dad used to earn probably around RM1,500 as a teacher and our whole family had to live based on that paycheck. In fact when she passed away she left behind quite a sum of money although she never really worked all her life!

I’m closer to my mum compared to my dad in the sense that we could joke around. I would tease her and tell her jokes to make her laugh. Communication with my mum was usually easy and relaxed and should I say fraught with less protocol and decorum. Also she is always around when I was growing up unlike my dad who fir a time had to teach in the afternoon session or was away for his refereeing and scouting activities or had gone fishing. So I guess most children are inevitably closer to their mums because their mums are just always around at home while their fathers are busy at work. That should be true for most single income families which was the norm when I was growing up.

Paul used the expression like a nursing mother caring for her children when writing to the church in Thessalonica and that he worked tireless day and night so that he was not a burden to them. There is a sense that caring for our sheep is like a mother caring for her children, protective and yet sacrificial. Mothers will always be the first to eat the squirrel head while leaving all the meaty parts to her children and her husband. I see that in my own wife, who is always putting the needs of our family above her own. Always saving for a rainy day and coming out with most when something major happens. And uniquely so, God answers her simple prayers so quickly, probably driven by her genuine love and sincerity. God somehow magically answers a mother’s prayers and our family experienced just that last week.

As much as we look to the father as the protective and assertive shepherd as the role model for leadership and shepherding, we must never forget the role of mothers who are usually more sacrificial and selfless. Will we lay down our lives and put our needs aside, focusing on the needs of our sheep and those under us? Will we be the ones always praying for our sheep? My mum when she was alive used to pray a lot for me and my family. Can we be like our mothers?

Blessed Mother’s Day, all mothers out there!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/05/our-father

Coincidently, today my late dad would have been 80 if he had not passed on 19th March and tonight we would be having a dinner to celebrate his 80th birthday. Unfortunately, it is not to be. For the living, the lesson is life and death is in the hands of God – He makes the final call the same way He decides when Christ will return to herald the end of times. No one knows, only the Father. For us in the faith, we do not fear death as our Saviour has conquered sin and death. Though we die, we live for we have life eternal. We look forward to the day when we will stand with our Redeemer here on earth though our skin may have been destroyed yet in our flesh we will see God (Job 19:26). We will see our loved ones again.

I’m grateful today to have our Father in heaven – the privilege afforded me since I was a young boy at 14 when I invited Jesus into my life as my Lord and Saviour. I have gone through quite a bit of life all these past years. Studied, graduated, worked, got married, have 2 boys who are now in their young adulthood. All these years at work or in ministry, I have this privilege to call upon our Father in heaven in the name of Jesus. To speak to Him, to pray as Jesus taught us. To experience His hand upon my life, the work He has been and still doing in me, moulding me into the image of Christ. To work all things good for me who love Him and have been called according to His purpose. That through it all, my faith and integrity in Him remains intact. The ups and downs in life do not distract me from seeing His goodness, blessing me that I may be a blessing to others. The LORD is my shepherd and I know that I’m a sheep in His pasture and though He may lead me through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for His staff and His rod will protect me. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me for the rest of my days as I dwell in the house of the LORD forever. I know and am fully confident that He will complete the work that He is doing in me until the day of Jesus Christ.

Take time today to reflect and thank God for being our Heavenly Father, especially if our earthly father is no more. The LORD will always be our rock, our salvation, our fortress and our refuge. He is our deliverer and our protector. He will make our paths straight even as we use His Word as a lamp for our feet. Praise the LORD for His mercies endureth forever, His steadfast love never ceases! He is great and greatly to be praised! Amen

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/04/a-heart-for-service

Serving God is usually in the context of a ministry in church or as part of a mission organisation. It is, at the foundation of it, serving the needs of the people. We are mostly concerned with spiritual needs, the bread of life that is the Word of God less the natural (as opposed to spiritual) bread of physical subsistence.

An interesting sentence in today’s ODB pique me and that is, “our goal is to meet the physical needs of the people to get to their spiritual needs”. The ministry in Carlsbad, New Mexico feeds the poor and hungry by giving 24,000 pounds (roughly 11,000 kgs) of free food every month to local residents. It’s about time the church starts feeding the poor especially in these difficult pandemic hit times. In 2 Corinthians 9, Paul praised the congregation at Corinth for meeting the needs of God’s people and also in many expressions of thanks to God. Feeding the hungry and meeting the needs of the people, whether God’s people or the larger community, is one of the ways, we as a church and as individuals, are giving thanks to God for His grace and faithfulness in our lives. Not to show people how generous we are but to thank God for His generosity and grace in our lives.

That is also a great principle to apply in all our service areas for God. Why are we serving God in doing what we do in church or elsewhere? Why do we serve God in church, in the ministry He has appointed us to, week in week out? For example, why do I wake up early each morning to write these devotionals to help others in their quiet time with God? Is it because I love God and this is the expression of my love and also my duty and calling? Yes, it is all that. But it is also to thank God for His goodness in my life and in the life of my family. For always providing me a way out, rescuing me when I’m about to fall off a cliff into the raging waters of uncertainty. Service is an act of thanksgiving, not a matter of duty. It is the expression of our love for God or if not, how else could we thank Christ for His sacrifice on the cross? How else could we thank God for His goodness and mercy? Paul often used the analogy of a slave having been redeemed? How do we repay the kindness and generosity of the person (Christ) who redeemed us and set us free? Not buying us over but paying the price and setting us free.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ – make our service for Christ our thanksgiving for His goodness and grace and mercy. So long as we have breath in us, serve Him with all our heart, mind and strength! God is good, all the time!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/03/longing-for-a-home

Psalm 62:1-8 brings forth 4 aspects of God that David describes. The LORD is our rock, salvation, fortress and refuge. It means God is our home, our peace, a place we cling on to and yet each of those 4 words have its respective individual meaning that helps us describe an attribute of God.

The rock or tsur in Hebrew means like a cliff and thus not easily accessible as a defensive strategy against our enemies. Meaning to say the LORD is our best defence against the attacks of our enemies. Salvation or Yeshua in Hebrew (the name of Jesus itself) meaning the LORD is salvation. It also means deliverance and thus as Jesus saves us and delivers us from sin and death, God is our salvation to deliver us from the hands of our enemies. Then we have fortress or misgav in Hebrew and it means a place of retreat, a safe place, a place of peace that God gives us. Lastly but not the least refuge or machseh in Hebrew meaning a place of hope and trust. Meaning to say that we could place our complete trust and hope on God.

As Christians and children of God we have this privilege, not given to others, to go to God from whatever we are, at our home, in our room, from our office, in the seat of the plane, as we are driving or in a train commuting to work, just whetever we are, to reach out to God in the spirit. As we close our eyes and pray, God is there with us in His holy presence, listening to our lamentations and supplications and as we speak, we know that He is our rock, our salvation, our fortress and our refuge. Like a snail or a tortoise withdrawing into its shell to defend itself, we may retreat into God for our peace and to recharge our tired physical beings before we rise again to conquer the world and do great exploits for God! The LORD and Christ will always be our place of refuge, our retreat, our hiding place to seek the counsel of God, to strategise and plan our next move.

When we are already in the faith, never run away from God. But instead withdraw or retreat into Him, into our hiding place. For He is our rock, salvation, fortress and refuge. Never run away from our troubles too as they will not go away. But get into God and He will energise us and help amd guide us to overcome our fears. The Lord is able and will give us a solution to break the deadlock, the impasse. He is after all the creator of the universe and all things in it and He is also our God and Father! Amen!