https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/02/father-of-lies-2

Part of the process of living the life of faith is to contend with voices that seek to divert our attention away from God. It could be the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes or the pride of life. Or it could be the pure temptations of the world, to find our place in the world and not in God. To focus on earning a living than to build our spiritual lives or to do well in our career and forgoing our ministry and service for God.

The voices could be our own self talk with our old self trying to assert dominance or the devil planting sinful and unrighteous thoughts in our minds. The devil is not able to read our thoughts but by observing our behaviour and speech and what we read and see on the Internet or TV, he could guess where we are headed and thus plant thoughts to lead us along the pathway of destruction. So if we watch porn, the devil can see that and will plant lustful thoughts into our minds so that we continue to indulge in this habit and then condemn us for our unrighteousness and thus bring us on a guilt trip of self condemnation. The devil is a bit like Google analytics, just that he is much craftier and much more experienced as he has seen and observed human behaviour for thousands and thousands of years. And I believe that Job was indeed one of the rarest of our species. In fact no one can beat the devil at this game since he is the one that led man to his first sin. He created this misery for the human race and is hell bent to make us hell bound.

Unlike Google analytics or other recommendation engines that track our behavioural patterns for commercial benefit or the espionage agencies for national security interests, the devil’s intention is to draw us away from God. Period. Once we are on the indulgent and guilt cycle, we will be less effective for God. We will be demoralised as we demonise ourselves. We will end up being our own accuser. We condemn ourselves even as we know there is no condemnation in Christ as we are washed clean by the blood of the Lamb. We will become less and less the person God wants or has planned for us. We will be distracted from God’s plans and purposes for our lives. In fact, if we continue to indulge in the vile thoughts of the devil, we might end up on the wider road to destruction. We will choose not to go on in the more difficult narrow path. We will slowly but surely take the path of least resistance. We will become like water streaming with the flow of the river rather than salmon swimming upstream against the currents as Christ fills us with the waters from His everflowing and overflowing river of life.

Do not believe in or be taken in by the lies of the devil. Do not be captivated by his pretty and enticing landscape. It is a deception and a facade as underneath all that is darkness and gnashing of teeth. The devil will present the world like a holiday resort but the reality of life is actually more like that of the resort workers. It’s a daily struggle meeting ends meet, raising families, putting bread on the table. Life is not always enjoying the sunrise and the sunset while sipping champagne at the pool! It’s an illusion and a lie!

God’s promises of the new heaven and new earth and the new Jerusalem are however real and for eternity. If we are already on that train to eternal life having been given the ticket by the death and resurrection of Jesus, why disembark now and start all over again? Read the Word, serve Him, give our time and attention to Christ, busy ourselves in God’s work and we will have no time to entertain and indulge in the deceptive illusionary fancy world of the devil. Focus on the fundamentals of our faith, keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, not on the father of lies! Resist the devil and he will flee from you!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/05/01/light

We know from science that darkness is the lack of light, meaning to say that without light, our natural eyes are not able to see. Darkness does not make objects or things go away, they still exist in the physical realm. It’s just that as humans we need to use our other senses like touch and hearing to feel or hear them, rather than “see” them. The obvious limitation is that without sight, our visibility if we could still use that word, is what’s within our finger tips. We could extend that a little by using a cane but that’s about as far as we can go. Our mobility and speed will thus be limited without eyesight. There is a Jason Momoa movie called “See” that tries to explore what it’s like to live in a world where humans are without eyesight.

But with light, we can see (actually in contemporary technology, we can actually see in darkness using infra ray but I’m not sure whether it works in complete darkness or it still needs some little light). The wonder of light is that we can actually see colours too! Colours are also a reflection of light as all the colours in the world are a combination of the colours in light itself (we learn about the colours from the rainbow). Thus it is pertinent to note that even God created light first after creating a formless, dark and empty world. Although it would have been possible for God to create physical things and objects first before creating light, He created light first. Even God wanted to see the beauty and splendour of the natural world, the animals, birds and life in the sea, the trees, the hills and the mountains, the fauna and flora as He creates them.

Spiritually, without light, we are in darkness. Our eyes are shut to God, the reality of God and the things of God. The scales covering our spiritual eyes need to be lifted up before we could see and understand the things of God. That is why conversion is never an intellectual discourse. It is a more a thing of the heart than mind, a matter of faith in believing in things unseen. Only the Holy Spirit can convict and convert.

The message today I believe is that as much as light is important to help us see in the natural beyond our physical reach (imagine if we were blind), light also plays an equally important role in our spiritual life and the light for our spiritual journey is His Word and the Holy Spirit. Without the Word and the Holy Spirit, we will not be able to see God, or relate to Him. We will not be able to see what God wants out of our lives, we will not have the vision of His plans and purposes. Like the blind man relying on his hearing and sense of touch, we will start to rely on our mind to relate to God. We will depend on our natural senses to reach out to Christ and not on the Holy Spirit and His Word. We will then make decisions or take action based on our feelings or what’s in our mind, forgetting faith and the leading of the Holy Spirit. So the implication is that we will be ultra conservative and dare not move or spend or use money. We will unable to take leaps of faith outside of our comfort zones. We need the power of His Word and the Holy Spirit as our light to maneuvere ourselves through the darkness. In fact with His Word and the Holy Spirit, we could even have the eyesight of the eagle and see much, much farther and further away!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/04/30/servants-of-the-night

In all of my working life I’ve only worked normal working hours. Of course I’ve worked late and long hours but they are still just stretched versions of the 9.00am to 6.00pm cycles. Nowadays more are working from home and the hours become less predictable – sometimes we start early like at 7.00 am and sometimes we end late like at 10.00 pm or 11.00 pm. In the corporate and professional sectors, work hours are less important than deliverables. In the end, we do what it takes to deliver our piece of work, whether it’s a contract, a board paper, an analysis or even a letter of offer. It’s not the hours you keep but your timely output that counts!

But there are people who work shifts like the police and health sectors although they usually take turns to work the so called “graveyard shift’. There are also people who work the night shift permanently like a member of my cell who leads call centre teams for foreign clients who are on a different timezone. More advanced countries do outsource their businesses’ call centres to Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) vendors in Asia like those in India, the Philippines and Malaysia. It’s a different world altogether for people earning such a living as our sleep patterns are out of sync with the general population but it’s still worth it because the pay is good. Yet on the other hand, there are hawkers, farmers, wet market people who need to sleep very early to wake up at 2.00 am to start their day preparing for their day’s work or sales.

What is the spiritual dimension to all this? I believe that first we need to be aware that some people need to stay awake while others sleep to make sure our airports, utilities, infrastructure run smoothly. There are sacrifices made by some for the convenience of and for the amenities enjoyed by all. Like for example, when we dispose household waste into trash bins, there are people working to take them way from us. Likewise in the church and ministry, there are a lot of preparations made and work done by various ones in the background for us to be able to be a part of a Sunday service. As a whole, in the Kingdom of God, many are at work praying at all times for God’s work to run smoothly all over the world or doing things unseen by us in the background so that our faith can prosper and continue to grow to reach out to many around us.

Can we work in the night, in the background, away from the limelight for the good of the brethren? Not in the shadows where we want to be hidden but in the night, in the background where only God sees. Will we serve God nonetheless when no one notices, acknowledges or praises us? Can we be servants in the night for the Lord? That I believe is the question this morning.

https://odb.org/MY/2022/04/29/spiritual-diagnosis

Some of us may have a tried and tested method of a past formula or a past practice that had brought us good results in the past. Maybe it brought us a better well being or prosperity or good business or career prospects and promotion. Since accepting Christ, things have not become better and better but due to the recent Covid pandemic, our situation may have become worse. We know that it has nothing to do with our decision to accept Christ or to give our lives to Him as the pandemic had far reaching consequences and affected nearly everyone, one way or another. And yet we are tempted to go back to our old ways, our past formula, our past practice. In the hope that there may be a change in our circumstance – desperate times require desperate measures.

The people of Judah during Jeremiah’s time did exactly that. They burned incense and gave offerings to the gods of Egypt, the Queen of Heaven (possibly, Isthar) and other pagan gods in clear defiance to the warnings from His prophet Jeremiah. But their situation turned worse because the LORD deserted them and allowed calamity to befall them.

In the modern day context, perhaps, we have gone on to try to adopt Feng Shui guidances. Or have looked into some new age practices, going into crystals and other stuff. Rationalising that all these are natural phenomenon, are faith neutral and thus do not compromise our faith.

The truth of the matter is that it was never a question of whether something else is of another faith or doesn’t bring us into another spiritual dimension or is part of nature. It is instead always a question of where does my help come from? Is it the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth? Are we relying on the One who watches over Israel, who neither slumber nor sleep and thus the sun will not harm us by day nor the moon by night? See Psalm 121.

Desperate times require desperate measures. If we are in a really bad situation, desperately reach out to Christ. He will surely hear us and help us. Don’t ever turn to other gods or other questionable practices especially those with a spiritual slant. Ultimately why lose our soul for temporal relief when we know very well that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance produces character? Let God be God in our lives, let Him truly be our God, our shelter, our stronghold and fortress. Let there be none other than Him in our lives!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/04/28/growing-in-faith

Every believer knows that trials and tribulations is part of Christian life. They are very much part of life as life is not a bed of roses ever after as in “happily ever after”. Life is life. It is not a fairy tale and neither is it a fantasy in our heads. Things happen, people get hurt, we get hurt. People get sick, people die. We suffer illnesses. We suffer losses. There are ups and downs. It’s never smooth sailing. Its waters can be as calm as that of a lake or as turbulent as the Indian Ocean.

Christian life is however fraught with more trials and tribulations, mainly because we are not to conform to the pattern of this world. We live our Christian life based on a different set of standards (right-side up) and sometimes we go through some trials because of the stand we make for Jesus. For example, we disagree with certain practices of our work organisation and we resign for ethical reasons. Some resign only after they found another job. Some resign immediately without a next job. Some resign for a lower paying job. But suffice to say, we will go through some hardship and suffering for making our stand for God. Or we follow God’s leading and there is a price to pay to be a working missionary in a spiritually closed or dark country.

I think the message today is that even as we go through life with probably more trials and tribulations as a believer compared to the man in the street, those suffering and hardship have some meaning for us in our Christian life, itt is not in vain. As a believer, God does a work inside us as we suffer but persevere. Bitterness in life makes everyone stronger but as a Christian, we will also grow in maturity in Christ. To be matured as a Christian is to live wisely and faithfully and that means we live harmoniously with our beliefs i.e. our actions are always consistent with our faith. We live as Christ would want us to. We are the same inside and out. We don’t be nice in front, but stab at the back.

We see pillars of faith, great men and women of God and we marvel at them. That’s on the surface. More often than not, there was much that had gone on before and unseen to the public. It’s like the 50 takes to make that perfect 30 secs clip. So much work and perseverance. To have maturity in our faith – we cannot avoid the hardship and suffering that comes with it. Persevere through, let God work in us and we will see the results in us in time to come. We will one day be the person God wants us to be. Amen!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/04/26/age-is-just-a-number

I’m now in mid-fifties and having been a youth and a young adult before, I can testify that there are differences in the things we could easily do when younger and which we could still do now but with more effort. I recalled I could spend the whole day shifting house on my own, loading and unloading stuff, packing and unpacking boxes. But now I dread the day when I have to move house again. Of course, we accumulate more things along the way but the energy to work at it the whole day is possibly no longer there or even if still there, will take a much longer time to recover. Or working late to finish a report, paper or an agreement. If I were to sleep at 3.00 am now and wake up at 5.30 am, the next day will practically be ruined! In the past, I could do that the whole week! Those who have done IPO projects will know what I’m talking about.

So age is not a mere number. But being young doesn’t mean that we cannot be spiritual and a leader and being older doesn’t mean that we can only be pew Christians or arm chair critics. Being young, we will have all the energy in the world but not the time as we balance our career with ministry. We may not have the experience, confidence and boldness but that’s really a “chicken and egg” situation. With practice, we can only get better.

But being older and retired, we may have all the time in the world but not the energy or the motivation to serve God with all our heart. Perhaps it is easier to become lazy and complacent, relying on our past contributions to justify our position or just an excuse not to contribute anymore. After all, salvation is not by works but by grace and our faith in Christ and yet we forget that we must love God with all our heart soul and mind and loving God means serving Him and living life as a living sacrifice unto Him.

Without belabouring the point, I think as much as age plays an important role in terms of experience and spiritual maturity and physical energy, we must always give our best whether we are younger or older. It is not right to say leave it all to the younger folks and just be a spectator and neither it is correct to say leave it to the more experienced and spiritual (meaning older) folks as they are better at it having done that for years. We know spiritual maturity and age don’t necessarily correlate. But that’s not the point this morning. The message today I believe is that we should all serve and do our part while we can no matter what’s our age. This is because there may come a day when we are afflicted with a serious illness and thus incapacitated or we are severely diminished in our ability to serve. Or we may be called home to be with the Lord. Serve God now while we can. Don’t wait till we retire or after we have achieved our career goals. And if we have retired, continue to serve God, don’t leave the work to the younger ones. Serve Him while we can, while we still have breath.

https://odb.org/MY/2022/04/25/pulled-to-safety

In my eulogy for my father, I wrote of two instances where my father had pulled me up to safety. Once when I nearly fell into a fast flowing monsoon drain during a downpour, that was just about 50m from a river and another time when I fell into a fresh water pond. Today’s ODB story reminds me of those two times my dad had saved my life. It also reminds me of Peter who was walking on water suddenly overcome by doubt and fear and began sinking and Jesus pulled him to safety.

I’m sure there was divine intervention when my father pulled me to safety in those two instances. Or those times when I was travelling on the PLUS highway (I have been doing this daily for the past 21 years except since WFH due to MCO etc) and had averted a serious accident after being able to avoid the car in front by a whisker. I remembered clearly even after nearly 20 years when the car in front suddenly jammed its brakes and pulled to a full stop, but I managed to swerve to the left to avoid colliding into it, by just a mere split second. It was a multi car collision but I was saved. Praise the Lord! It was really good that there were no cars at the left lane then. Or that time when a car had turned in to the left lane to let me pass to suddenly turn back into my lane! Fortunately, I managed to react in time. Surely God was in those situations alerting me quickly to the situation at hand so I could take immediate remedial action.

There were also instances in the past when the Lord helped me out of a crisis at work by giving me an idea out of a difficult situation or helping me to come out with a viable compromise to break a deadlock. Or rescuing me when others had abandoned me at the pit. Sometimes we become casualties due to structural changes in the organisation or just plain personal agendas or political games at play. But if we love God and are called according to His purpose, He will make all things work out for good. If He has a plan for us, He will make sure His plan is fulfilled and not derailed by human machinations. Humans may manipulate situations for their own purposes but God is sovereign and above all things. He will protect His flock and will rescue us.

The point I like to make today is that the Lord does rescue people as we can see of countless examples in the bible as well as my own experience in life. Christ is alive and real. He rescues even if it was our stupidity and naivety that had put us into that delicate situation in the first place. Look at the big picture – it could all be part of an elaborate plan of God for our lives. Just flow along and go with the flow. Put our trust in Him as even the waves and wind still know His name! Let go my soul and trust in Him, even the waves and wind still know His name! Amen!

https://youtu.be/YNqo4Un2uZI

https://odb.org/MY/2022/04/24/feeling-dusty

I guess one of the unavoidable circumstance in life is aging. Two things are certain in life – death and taxes. But the latter will figure less and less prominent in our life as we age and retire from gainful employment. Aging and death are part of our human life because of the sin of Adam and Eve at the Garden of Eden at the start of creation. Man lost his immortality due to sin but Jesus restored it by dying on the cross for our sins and in the process, through His resurrection, defeated sin and death and as the first fruit of His victory, we look forward to that glorious day when we will all be ressurected like Jesus and sin and death will finally lose its sting over us. Though we die, we will live as Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life!

Until that day comes, we will, as the ODB writer puts it today referencing Warren from his ministry team, feel dusty. Feeling dusty or old is a natural progression in life. As we age, we get illnesses and diseases. We need to take medication. Our memory becomes worse. We are not as quick as before. We tire more easily. Few will sympathise with our cause because the world only looks at what you can give them. That’s the rhythm of the world. So if you don’t meet their expectations, they will show you the door. That’s the world.

But God is not the world. He is used to His people not meeting His expectations and standards. During ancient times and even today. God recognises that man is inherently weak, due to sin. With Jesus dying for us, He overlooks our sin with the redeeming blood of Christ covering us. Yet, if He were to pierce the veil of Christ, He knows we are not as holy and clean as we would like to be. Yet the LORD is compassionate and loving. He gives us a way. As we follow Him and obey His law, He will transform and mould us as His Spirit lives inside us. Despite our age and that we are aging on the outside, we are renewed snd strengthen on the inside. That is what that matters in eternity, our inner man. Also God’s love and compassion are not dependent on how we can be of use to Him, how much we contribute to His Kingdom. What we do is always important in the larger scheme of things, but it will never detract us from His love and compassion. So long as we trust Him and put our faith on Him, He will be there for us.

So are we feeling dusty? Don’t let that discourage us from continuing our fervent walk of faith. Don’t let that stop us from fulfilling God’s plans and purposes for us. We can still serve Him and do His work even as we age and get dusty. Strive on and serve Him! Don’t give up, ever!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/04/23/what-counts

Whether in church, at work or at home, we will encounter differing views. At work, it is less of an issue as there is a clear line of command. So even if we disagree, the boss makes the call and takes accountability for that decision. At home, the husband or the father is the head of the family but in practice, decisions are usually by consensus. Thus, it means that if the wife or the mother disagrees, it is rarely carried. Even though in church, there is also a chain of authority as in the elders, pastors and committee or board, differing opinions may be more difficult to deal with. This is because everyone serves on a voluntary basis and are ultimately answerable to God. In fact, attending church itself is voluntary and thus if a person with a different opinion gets ostracised, he or she just leaves and moves on to another church and there are many churches out there.

How do we deal with differing opinions? Paul advises that let peace prevail. In Romans 14, Paul teaches that we should go on a path that leads to peace and mutual edification. In a way, it means trying to accommodate everyone’s point of view and if someone will be stumbled by our decision, then we refrain from taking that action. That’s rather radical because prevailing wisdom is to go with the majority. But a path leading to peace and mutual edification is not necessarily the path of the majority. In fact it speaks of accommodating the dissenting view.

I think at the base of all decisions, we should always follow Paul’s advice to go for peace and mutual edification. What’s the point of pushing through the view of the majority if it stumbles a few whom Christ has saved? Unless not taking that action endangers the spiritual health of the whole group or church. In which case, it is for the overall good and benefit of the whole community of believers. If that’s not the case, then I think it’s better to just act in the path of peace and mutual edification, bearing in mind the spiritual well being of the dissenting voice.

At the personal level, I think a much easier approach to peace and mutual edification is to hold on to the belief that everyone is entitled to his or her opinion on a variety of issues and it is not for us to impose and neither must they conform to our way of thinking. So if someone supports BN or PN or PH, they are entitled to their viewpoint. We are not to condemn or ostracise them.

What’s the message today? Always go for the path of peace and mutual edification unless everyone is jeopardised. That should be the basis of our decisions as I believe that is the path that will be pleasing to God and glorifies His name. If possible, no one should be left behind. We should run as fast as the last man running as we want to bring everyone along if that is possible.

https://odb.org/MY/2022/04/22/earth-day

God created the universe and the earth and all things in them. God then created man (humankind) and placed him in the Garden of Eden and it was man’s responsibility to work and take care of the Garden of Eden. Two distinct trees existed in Eden, the tree of life for which its fruits will ensure the immortality of man and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil whose fruit is forbidden for man to eat because if man eats it, he loses his immortality. But the serpent came into the picture and created doubt in the mind of Eve whether it was really true that if they were to eat the forbidden fruit that they will surely die and as the fruit looked good (anything forbidden will look good!), Adam and Eve ended up disobeying God and was banished from the Garden of Eden, the land that they were supposed to work and take care. In the process, man was separated from God and had to toil hard on the soil at where they were.

We will now have the opportunity to return back to “Eden” one day in the new heaven and new earth promised in Revelation 21 if we accept Jesus Christ into our lives as Jesus as the second Adam, the Son of God and yet the Son of Man, had redeemed mankind by dying on the cross as the unblemished and pure Lamb of God.

What is our land? Where is our place of influence? What has God appointed us to be? Where is this place that we are to work at and take care of? Where is the Garden of Eden that God had prepared for us?

I have shared before that the Kingdom of God is where we are. Our homes are embassies of the Kingdom. We are an extension of the presence of God as the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit lives in us. Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. So our business, our place of work, our school, our college – those are our sphere of influence. That is our land, the place God has appointed us to work at and to take care.

Is our land a permanent physical place? Should we remain at the same place of work till we retire? Should we reside only at one house for our entire life? Should we only do that one business for our whole life and for generations to come? Our land is where we are and if God has placed us at our present work location, then that is our land. We work at it and take care of it. But be open to the prompting and the still small voice of God that doesn’t usually come in the thunder and the fire and storm but just a still small voice. Listen to the voice of God and like Abraham He may call us out of our land to another land far away, the Promised Land that He will raise generations of descendants that are as many as the sands at the seashore and as numerous as there are stars in the sky, out there in the vast universe. Like Moses, He may call us out to rescue His people from slavery and captivity or like Joseph make us go through various difficult situations before settling as the deputy to the most powerful man in the most powerful nation then, in order that the few generations of the Abrahamic may survive the great famine and live on. Or like Joshua, He may call us out to conquer our Jerichos and do battle with the sons of Anak, the fortified cities and strong armies of Canaan.

Work our land and take care of it! If like Adam and Eve we have been banished from our original land, we now need to toil and take care of the land where we are now at. Work at it, take care of it. In the end, our land is where God places us!