https://odb.org/MY/2022/04/10/a-king-on-a-donkey

Today is Palm Sunday, the day when we remember Jesus riding into Jerusalem in a donkey and fulfilling a 500 year old prophesy then that the Prince or Messiah, God’s chosen one, will be riding in a donkey into Jerusalem – righteous and victorious and yet humble and lowly. This event is significant as it occurred just days before His crucifixion on the cross that redeemed us of our sins before God and His subsequent resurrection and victory over sin and death. Like the Jews wanting to be buried facing the Eastern Gate believing that the Messiah will enter by the Eastern Gate, we too are looking forward to the day of Jesus Christ, that all who had passed on before us in the faith especially our loved ones, will be resurrected.

The difference is that to us in the faith the prophesy of the Messiah entering by the Eastern Gate had already been fulfilled 2,000 years ago while the Jews are still waiting for their Messiah. We are instead looking forward to the second coming of Christ and this time Christ will be coming as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, where every name on earth and in heaven and under the earth will bow down to. He holds the Keys of Hades and it is by His name that we will either take our rightful place with God in the place where He will dwell among us or be condemned to the place of gnashing of teeth forever.

As we prepare to celebrate Good Friday and Easter Sunday, also known as Resurrection Sunday, let us today on Palm Sunday acknowledge, proclaim and worship Christ as our King and Lord. Indeed Hossana, Hosanna to the Son of David, Hosanna to the King of Kings, Glory in the highest heaven, Jesus Lord Messiah reigns! Indeed only Jesus has the words of eternal life as Jesus is the Prince of Peace, the Lord of heaven and earth, the Son of Righteousness whom angels bow down before – as Jesus Christ is the Lord!

Have a happy and blessed Palm Sunday, everyone!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/04/08/permanent-address

Those of us who have moved homes will know what a major hassle that is. I moved from my varsity days from rooms to rooms and finally to two rented homes shared with my brother in law when I got married. Later we moved to our own home, bought at a time when new off-plan landed 24×75 link homes were still below RM200k – it was a princely sum then but if we had graduated one year earlier, slightly smaller ones (22×75) were available at the RM150k region. After that we moved to a home with a larger compound in a smaller city where we raised our two boys, and finally to our current home close by in the same city. When we look at some stuff at the store rooms, we straight away knew which era in our lives those things are from and the funny thing, we still have things from our varsity days! We still maintain our address as that of our previous home but for most correspondence, we use our latest address. For us and our children, our permanent address can be at either homes and I think for a few more decades to come.

At the physical side of things, some of us may still be looking for a permanent address. We are still saving for the down payment to our home in our name or we have bought one already but will need a bigger one when the kids come or grow up. There are many permutations depending on which stage of life we are, but we are looking for a permanent address where we can raise our kids and build up our life in God, to settle down and have some measure of stability; where instead of movable furniture, we will be putting up built-ins.

The great thing about our life in God though is that we have a permanent address the moment we accepted Christ in our life. Our address is Jesus Christ and it is as permanent as the Word of God is, that is unchanging from generations to generations as Jesus is the same yesterday, today and in the days to come. His love for us is steadfast and renewed every morning like dew. His faithfulness endures forever.

David spoke of dwelling in the house of God all the days of his life in Psalm 27. He used a similar expression in Psalm 23 that “I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever”. The thing is that David was then on the run and hiding in a cave and he was speaking about dwelling in the house of God. We know that Jesus has gone back to heaven to prepare a home for us in the Father’s mansion. But until the day of Jesus Christ, our permanent address in God is wherever we are in His presence. The place where we stand, where we live – where we worship Him and read His Word and spend time in prayer in our quiet time with Him – that’s our permanent address in God. Our home is an extension of God’s kingdom, an embassy of God. It is also our permanent address in God. As we close our eyes and worship and pray, God’s presence is with us and that’s our permanent address. In fact, wherever we are and may be, and it need not be at home, we can reach out to God and His presence is there, that’s our permanent address.

The beauty and amazing thing about our present relationship with God is that we are actually His dwelling place and as much as we want to dwell in the house of the LORD like David said, we are His dwelling place. As we reach out, God is with us. So wherever we are, we are our own permanent address with God! We carry the glory of God, the presence of God. Shall we fear evil, shall we fear the dark forces of the air? Though He may lead us through the valley of shadow of death, we shall fear no evil for His rod and staff comfort me, for the LORD is my shepherd and He now lives in me! Amen

https://odb.org/MY/2022/04/07/real-hospitality

It didn’t happen often but there were times during my Varsity days when I had to skip a meal or downgrade a meal to something simpler like a packet of nasi lemak or just roti canai because I had ran out of money that month. I remembered that my pastor then was perplexed that I didn’t have RM35 to buy a set of bass strings back in 1988/89 so that I could take the church’s spare bass home and practice. Those were difficult times but we could survive a whole year of public university study on a RM3,500 PSD (JPA) loan plus a monthly allowance of RM100 from my dad – just about RM5,000 a year. Nowadays, 30 plus years later, a local private university student needs at least RM5,000 A MONTH to cover tuition fees, accommodation and food. A plate of mixed rice was RM1.40 then and even though things were relatively cheap, our shoe string budget still meant that we needed to ration our money for every meal. What I’m trying to say is that putting aside the value of money, the lifestyle was also quite different, compared to now. For example, eating fast food or at shopping centres was considered a mini-luxury when nowadays it is just another regular meal.

I was thus very touched when someone offered to buy me a meal. Not likely from a fellow student, usually from a working adult or an uncle or auntie who is a professional. Or just getting to eat a home-cooked meal. This is because for every meal that I need not use my own money, I have extra and that will help me go for a better next meal. It is an act of little kindness but it goes a long way for me the student struggling with limited resources. It is an act that also had lasting impressions that sort of personified the kindness and love of God in tangible form, especially if that person buying us a meal is also a believer.

That is why I truly believe that showing God’s love need not always be about preaching a powerful message or planting a church or reaching out to thousands but just a little act of kindness. There will always a rightful place for the Billy Grahams of the world or for that all powerful ministry of deliverance and healing, signs and wonders to demonstrate the power and reality of God that Jesus Christ is alive today and yet it is those little acts of kindness that are more accessible to most of us and will have a lasting impression on those around us.

Rebecca was special as she offered Abraham’s servant, a stranger, a drink and gave water to his camels. We are special too when we offer hospitality to others when they least expect. Let us become a tangible instrument for God’s love even as we dwell into the finer details of His Word. Faith is real when practiced! It is not a mere concept in the mind or for theological discussion. Practice kindness and see God move in our midst!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/04/06/parking-lot-quarrel

I guess nearly everyone would have experienced this before, some of us more but I think at least once in our life. We were so lifted up during the Sunday worship service, maybe we had a very good time interacting with God and was filled in His presence during worship. Or we were so inspired by the Word that was spoken that we want to make a new start and change the world tomorrow. We want to go out there and live for God, to make a difference. We resolved to read His Word everyday and spend at least one hour in our quiet time. Or we will now be kind and compassionate with our family, friends and colleagues. Then as we leave the church, fortunately not at the parking lot at the church, but further away and pas we were traveling, some car just jumped queue and cut right into our lane without signaling and nearly caused a minor accident. So we blasted our horn and shouted at that car, in language not usually used in church! So there we are, a disappointment after the euphoria. We have failed again to live up to the name of Jesus in our lives. We feel guilty because we have become an embarrassment to God, instead of being His pride and joy.

The challenge to transform our minds and develop the character of Christ in us is constant. It’s a daily affair and is continuous. As mentioned yesterday, God will carry through His work in us till completion. We are all His handiwork – from the days before the foundations of the world till the day of Jesus Christ, God will mould and shape us into the image of His son.

I guess on our part there will bound to be failures and disappointments, snapping at our spouse and kids, at our colleagues and family. Our mood is not always uplifting and good. There will be bad days and bad moments and sometimes those moments come too soon after church! My encouragement to all of us, myself included, is not to give up and dwell in sorrow, guilt, self pity and regret. With God’s grace and help, we can do it. We can change for the better. We can hear and be doers of the Word. We will succeed. We will not always fail. We can and shall be the Psalm 1 believer who delights in His Word and meditates on it day and night and is someone who is like a tree planted by streams of water. Strong, rich in nourishment and always bearing good fruits in season and whose leaves shall not wither and whatever we do for God prospers and grows!

Be inspired, be uplifted! After the euphoria, as we face the harsh biting reality of life, I pray that God’s Word will always be a blessing and a shield to protect and guard our hearts and minds against the ravages of sin and evil. We will stand strong in our faith and composure and maintain our character to reflect His glory and love in our lives. We shall be that balm of Gilead who heals rather than spark raging fires. We will be that person who unites rather than divides, who encourages rather than to destroy. We will be genuine doers and hearers of the Word!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/04/05/a-good-work

Our journey with God begins the day we accepted Christ in our lives. Different ones of us have a different start. Some of us might have started in our teens. Some of us when we were in University. Some of us after we started working and yet some of us later in life, after we married and have kids. For me, it was when I was 14 and later my whole family accepted Christ over the next few years – my sister, my mum then my dad. For some it could have been an immediate transformation but for me, I struggled for quite a number of years before giving my life fully to God and even then, there were ups and downs and times of backsliding and re-dedication.

So indeed our life with God is a journey. Our life on earth itself is a journey. It’s a discovery of the world and ourselves and how we could fit in, earn a living, raise a family and possibly make a name for ourselves and leave a mark and if we knew God already, how to leave a mark for God, make a difference for Christ in the lives of people we interact with.

The thing is our journey with God doesn’t actually begin the day we accepted Christ. It actually begins way, way before. God knew us even before we were formed in our mother’s womb. We were indeed fearfully and wonderfully made, knitted together in our mother’s womb and yet we were made in the spirit even before the foundations of the world. He chose us even before the foundations of the world (see Ephesians 1:4). Thus, even if we were physically formed in our mother’s womb, we were already created as spiritual beings by God much, much earlier.

The message today is that as God created and chose us at the beginning, He will complete His work in us. He who began a good work will carry it till completion until the day of Jesus Christ. See Philippians 1:6. As much as we will always remain work in progress, God will make sure we will be the completed product one day and the process will not be ceased and it will be relentless until we become complete. Only we can stop that process. Only we can mess things up by our rebellion and going against Him. It is not the devil. It is not the world. It is us and the God given free will to choose that will change the course that God wants us to travel on. There will be second, third and fourth chances as the Lord is gracious and compassionate but so long as we still have breath, and we do not know when we will breathe our last! God will carry the work to completion, we just need to let Him do it!

I think there are in essence two extremes in the type of leaders and managers. One who delegates everything and another who takes on everything himself or herself. There are pros and cons to both approaches. The main weakness of the one who delegates fully is he is not hands on and thus could be out of touch with reality. He could be accused of taking the position and not doing anything since all the work is done by his subordinates. However, that could also be the best use of his talents and time and he could correspondingly achieve much more in the process. On the other hand, the good thing about the person who does everything himself is that he is fully hands on. He is a leader who rolls up his sleeves and gets dirty to get the work done. However, there is just so much he can do himself. A team is always able to do more than one person, no matter how talented or efficient that person is.

Moses was the leader who started off doing everything himself. He was the sole person in the company of nearly 600,000 families who had fled Egypt as slaves, who was adjudicating and arbitrating disputes between them. So he heard and administered the law and percepts of God for that fleeing community from dawn to dusk day in and day out. Jethro his father in law immediately saw the absurdity of the situation and advised him to appoint layers of capable and upright leaders so that only the difficult and complex cases reach him. The same thing was also done during the early days of the church following the explosion of power and might after the day of Pentecost with the Apostles withdrawing into prayer and teaching while other capable leaders were appointed to do day to day administration of the community of believers. The record shows that Moses heeded the advice of his father in law.

Are we a leader who wants to do everything ourselves? Will we heed the advice of those around us, our loved ones, to start delegating our work and let others take on the responsibilities and grow?

For the past few months, I had assigned my own cell group members to take turns to lead and teach each chapter in our bible study. In our local church we call these cells Life Groups and I had assigned so far 3 chapters of the 7-chapter study to be handled by them and there are 2 more in the pipeline. So in the end, I would have led only 2 out of the 7 chapters. So far, they have done much better than me in terms of delivery and the use of cutting edge teaching tools like slides, online resources etc. More importantly, my cell group leaders felt empowered and sought God themselves and thus experiencing first hand the spiritual lessons from God before teaching and leading the study.

It’s time to start delegating if we haven’t. It’s time to heed the advice of our loved ones. It’s time to empower others as the best way for others to grow is to let them do the thing themselves. Let more people come into the presence of God to draw strength and inspiration. Let the Lord be the source of all knowledge and inspiration! Amen

https://odb.org/MY/2022/04/03/gods-great-love-2

Different ones of us have a different past before we became a believer in Christ. Some who knew Christ in our teenage years have less of a past and yet as we grow up as a Christian, we were probably not perfect and thus have our fair share of our “past” until one day we truly gave and surrendered our lives to God. Of course those who us who got to know Christ much later may have more issues to contend with as we had less to restrain us as we were transitioning into adulthood and even during our days as a working adult with the “freedom” that comes with spending power. Our lives could have been fully motivated to earn as much money as we can, and to only enjoy the good things in life with no regard to God’s will upon our lives since we didn’t know Jesus yet as our personal Saviour and Lord. Not that we are necessarily evil. Just that we had lived on the basis of a different set of rules as set by society and ourselves, and motivated by a different set of intents. We were once ruled by the worldly worldview and perspective. Unfortunately even if that was the past and before we knew God, it had consequences and some of those consequences may be felt even till today after we had accepted Christ. Just as an example and not to generalise, if we had spent a lot of our young adult life picking up girls at clubs and had multiple unprotected sexual encounters with strangers, we may be suffering from STD and some of those have life long effects

Judah was somewhat like that just before the Babylonian invasion. They rebelled against God by worshipping other gods, marrying women from the surrounding nations, plainly doing evil and oppressing the poor and the widows and fatherless. Even as God reminded them through His prophets to turn back to Him, they were insolent – stubborn and rude. So God allowed the Babylonians to overrun them and take them into captivity and became slaves where life is hard and oppressive. And yet in Lamentations 3, we could see that God still loved them and provided them a return path, a way back to Him. As much as God allowed a calamity in the form of an invasion to occur to bring them back to their senses (meaning to say, sin has its consequences), God will still accept them back if they repented and changed their wicked ways.

I always hold on to Joel 2:25 – God’s promise that He will restore to us the years that the locusts had eaten. The consequences of our past sin may have destroyed some of what we used to have. For example, we may not have saved anything from our years of working due to our over-indulgent lifestyle or had made wrong investment decisions in chasing our dream of being rich. Perhaps after 20 years of working, we do not yet have a property or much savings. Whatever that may be, God is able to give us a fresh start even from today onwards. He is able to restore what was lost in the past, heal what was inflicted in the past, even life long diseases if we give our lives to Him, to serve Him for His glory. The Lord is always compassionate and will be moved by our predicament but most likely by our sincere and genuine repentant heart. God is God, we cannot fool Him as He knows us inside out. He has always been compassionate and gracious. Look at how Jesus moved by compassion fed 5,000 from a few loaves of bread and fish. Repent and He will bring us back to the path of righteousness, the path of restoration. We will be made whole again as He will restore to us what the locusts had eaten, had devoured and destroyed over the years. He is after all our God and Father and also the creator of all things! From now on, from today onwards, put our hope and trust in God and in God alone and He will make our paths straight and His Word shall be a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our paths.

https://odb.org/MY/2022/04/01/witness-marks

I think in the current context of profileration and easy assessibility of information, people are less likely to actually leave behind traces of how things are done on the thing itself. This is because we just need to make a search in Google or YouTube and the answers should be there. Also present age products are not made to last and repaired to ensure continuity of use but are instead discarded and replaced when they break down. In fact computers and phones are getting faster and faster chips and larger capacity memories that even a 10 year old computer or phone will struggle to keep up with the requirements demanded by present day applications and software systems.

However, things which are mechanically based do last like mechanical watches which are of high value despite their age. Older cars can still run as they used minimal electronics. An acoustic piano or guitar made of wood and strings have little issue staying relevant despite the passage of years. For example, I own a car that’s roughly the age of my second son and although I may spend RM1k or two to maintain it past its economic value, it is still better than paying RM1k++ every month for 60 months for a new car.

What’s the message today? The intention of the witness marks is to help the next person down the line on how to repair the product. Rather than having the next guy going through the whole process to find the starting point, it is already marked there. It is borne out of good intention to help, to save time and effort for the next person.

Can we apply this in ministry? I believe so! When we minister or counsel people, we put in our inputs into that person’s life. In reaching out, we do our part to plant the seed of faith. We may not harvest that seed but it’s OK. We do the preliminary ploughing of the soil work. Let the next person down the road do more and ultimately with God’s grace, that seed may blossom one day to be a tree of faith, standing strong for God and the things of God. We plant into the foundation. That is why whatever we do in the faith will always be good and useful, never wasted or in vain. It is not exactly but somewhat similar to witness marks. For example, if someone had already spoken about Adam and the first sin, we need not elaborate on that again and may go straight away into Jesus’s role in the salvation of mankind. Over the years, each and everyone of us will contribute to the spiritual life of a person, whether in reaching out or making disciples. Let’s encourage and build others up. Let’s help toil the soil and water the ground. Really strange if we are a believers and yet we are out to kill and destroy, than to edify, encourage and build up.

https://odb.org/MY/2022/03/31/gods-embassy

One of the things I always remembered when I did Public International Law as a subject in University was that an embassy in a foreign land is an extension of a nation. Meaning to say that the sovereignty of a nation extends to the land upon which the embassy sits although in actual fact that land may be leased. Thus the US embassy in Jalan Tun Razak, KL is US territory like New York or Alaska or Hawaii. That was why Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, had spent a number of years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to evade the clutches of the US authorities. No one can enter an embassy without the consent of the embassy even to enforce a warrant or an extradition order.

The idea of our homes being an embassy for God is thus an idea grounded in reality. Our homes and our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are where the Spirit of God resides. In every believer’s home, Jesus Christ is the Lord of the home and the family. That is why we know evil forces have difficulty penetrating believers’ homes since God resides in our homes, in our families. There is a presence of supernatural heavenly forces in our homes. Where we are is where the Kingdom of God is. Thus our home is the Kingdom of God and an embassy for God for His glory to shine forth and for us to be the salt and light of the world.

Unfortunately, in our modern urban and city setting, less and less people open up their homes for fellowship and interaction whether with friends and relatives or other believers or even non believers. More and more of us are keeping our homes as our private domain and as much as a home is a man’s castle, it should be more open so that it can effectively function as an extension of God’s kingdom, as an embassy of God, a place where people can learn more about our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the creator of the universe.

The message today is thus let’s open up and don’t isolate ourselves. If we are a believer, our homes should be accessible. People should be able to come and see us to pour out their issues of life to us. If we are a leader of a church, it is really ironical if no one in the church has ever been to our home. Why are we closed up when our homes are an extension of God’s kingdom, an embassy of God. Jesus taught about inviting the poor and underprivileged, the crippled, the blind, the lame to banquets (Luke 14:13-14) and yet here we are closing up our homes and isolating ourselves. Let our homes be the door and the stairway to heaven for others to learn about and experience the glory of God that leads to an abundant life, a life eternal!

https://odb.org/MY/2022/03/30/god-cleans-the-stains

In ancient times, during the time of Israel and Judah, God initiated the ritual of a sin offering to atone for the sins of children of Israel. It was a corporate act and the sin offering was needed as man on his own was unable to meet the exact standards of the Law, to be righteous before God. It was done for and on behalf of the nation, the various tribes but limited to those who were descendents of Abraham. Other nations didn’t have that privilege then.

When Jesus came and died on the cross for the sins of mankind, He became the Lamb of God, the final sacrifice to cleanse the sins of man. So the Second Adam rectified the sin of the first Adam, the original sin at Eden that separated man from God and brought in mortality to human beings. Since then, we were denied access to the Tree of Life. With Jesus in our lives though, even though we die, we will live as He is the resurrection and the life. It is now opened to the Gentiles i.e. the rest of the world, all the other nations and tribes. Through Jesus we have the hope of eternal life and one day in the new heaven and new earth with God dwelling among us, we will once again be able to partake of the Tree of Life and live forever in a new glorified body. Even as both my mum and dad have passed on from this world, I know I will meet them again on that day, the day of resurrection. We will all be reunited with our loved ones who had departed if we remain in the faith until the very end – if we had fought the good fight and completed the race.

The thing is whether in ancient times or in the contemporary, the sin offering only works in conjunction with the right attitude of heart. Like what was written in Isaiah 1:2-4, they rebelled against the LORD, they had forsaken the Law. The externals must be consistent with the internal, the heart. We cannot offer the sin offering to cleanse us of our sins if we remain in sin, in rebellion towards God. If we had turned our backs on Him, what use is the sin offering? God is not pleased, in fact God gains no pleasure, it is detestable to Him, it is meaningless. Even in ancient times, the LORD sought a relationship with His people, not the sin offering or the worship. Make yourself clean, stop doing the evil deeds, the wrong stuff. Do the right thing, defend the oppressed, seek justice, take up the cause of the fatherless, the widows.

Therefore, even as Jesus has justified us by His blood, we will be like the ancients of Judah if we continue to sin and then plead the blood of the Lamb. God like in Isaiah 1:18, is compassionate and forgiving. He is forgiving, particularly with the sacrifice of His son on Calvary. But our hearts must be turned towards Him. We must do what is right. We must fight for the oppressed. We must seek justice. In other words, we must be a living sacrifice. With the Lamb having paved the way, we are to be a living sacrifice for His glory, for His pleasure, day in day out, every day so long as we still have breath in us. What’s in our hearts must be the same as what’s outside. We cannot harbour evil, hatred and vengeance and yet claim the blood of the Lamb. Being a believer and remaining in the faith is never just about saying the sinner’s prayer. It’s about Christ transforming our lives, making a change in us. It’s about not conforming to the pattern of this world by the transformation of our minds so we may test and approve the good, pleasing and perfect will of God.