Happy Jubilee!

Sunday, 5th July 2009

Today marks a day of significance in the life of my church, Paya Lebar Methodist Church.

Ps Reuben Ng, our youth pastor, preached his 50th sermon since being posted to my church in August 2007.

Entitled "God's Family", Ps Reuben expounds on the passage Mk 3:31-35

Mark 3

Jesus' Mother and Brothers
31 Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him.
32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you."
33 "Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked.
34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers!
35 Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother."

When I was much younger, I used to be very puzzled by this passage because Jesus appears to be "snubbing" His own physical family members by considering those seated around Him as His family members instead of them.

Well, hear how Ps Reuben debunks the above by clicking on the link below...
http://www.box.net/shared/uzk6xg3r1q

You can also download to hear all his previous 49 sermons at the following link:
http://www.box.net/shared/uzrv6pnyo8

As I look back, I realise that God's timing is indeed perfect.

There was a time when the entire pastoral team was vehemently against the grace message.

Rev Peter Koh, the senior pastor has officially disallowed Ps Joseph Prince's materials (although he allows Rev Kong Hee's and Ps Edmund Chan's), so church members have to resort to distributing such materials amongst themselves on the sly. He even "wrote" an article on antinomianism, which was critical of the grace message.

Rev Tay Kay Leong, the assistant pastor, has on several occasions criticised New Creation Church, saying that it preaches "cheap grace" and that he is unimpressed by its phenomenal growth since it has "stolen sheep" from other churches.

Rev Barnabas Chong, the youth pastor until July 2007, even had the audacity to round up the youth leadership to tell them that they were forbidden from attending that church's midweek services, failing which he would strip them of their leadership positions. He also frequently preached law-based sermons that caused them much hurt and confusion.

But God in His tendy mercies, sent Ps Reuben to us. He is truly a breath of fresh air, and the one main reason why I have not given up my 42-year church membership to follow the tens of thousands who now regularly worship at the Rock. I know that one fine day, my church is going to discover and embrace the grace gospel for herself, and our church membership will also explode the same way NewCre has, because ALL my pastors are unveiling the person of Jesus and His finished work, week in week out.

HAPPY JUBILEE, Ps Reuben!

May God continue to bless and prosper your ministry!!!

Don't Settle For Anything Less!

Saturday, 4th July 2009

A couple of weeks back, I blogged about getting a Sony Vaio VGN-P25G in pyrite gold.

Well, I was looking for a handy carrier for the Vaio which offers it protection not only when being carried around but also during use. I checked out the official Sony Style online store and discovered to my dismay that all the ones that they had were merely "carrying pouches".

In other words, one still would have to take the pocket netbook out of the carrier in order to make use of it.

Undeterred, I did a Google search on "Vaio carrying case" and stumbled across an online store operating out of Hongkong known as IDS Company. It is a manufacturer of accessories for electronic products such as notebooks, PDAs, mobile phones and MP3 players.

I found one that had both capabilities -- a carrier as well as an all-time protector, made of leather to boot -- at a price of only US$30 (or about S$45). Even after adding postage, it would cost less than half the price of the official pouches that Sony themselves were selling. Just imagine that, twice the functionality at half the price :-)

I placed an order and the package arrived in the mail yesterday.

As I dressed up the Vaio, the Lord brought a spiritual parallel to mind...

All of us Christians are aware that Jesus died for our sins. As a result of accepting Him, we have a place in heaven reserved for us when we pass on from this world.

In other words, we know that Jesus took on our sin.

But way, way too few of us know also that in turn, we have taken on His righteousness. As a result of that, we are unaware that we are supposed to reign in life (Rom 4:17) and be victorious in everything that we undertake.

The reason for this is that traditional mainstream churches everywhere have been preaching to us only the former and neglecting the latter. Consequently, we have this wrong concept that it is perfectly all right for Christians to be sick or to be in lack. That it is okay to suffer here while on earth, since we will be enjoying our time later in heaven. Some even quote the Chinese saying 先苦后甜 (xian ku hou tian) which means "to encounter bitterness first in order to obtain sweetness in future".

Well, my dear friend, if you believe the above doctrine, YOU HAVE BEEN SEVERELY SHORTCHANGED!

Jesus said in Jn 10:10 that the thief came to kill, steal and destroy; but He has come to give us life, and life more abundantly. He was not referring to life in heaven because the devil cannot be killing, stealing and destroying there.

Rather, He was referring to the life here and now because that is when the battle is taking place. The devil is killing and destroying health, marriages and families and stealing resources and wealth right here and now!

It is truly sad that the "official" mainstream church is preaching only half the gospel, just like how the official Sony Style is carrying pouches that offer only half the protection. The appearance of legitimacy has made us settle for less.

I therefore thank our LORD God for helping me to discover the grace message that is being preached by the pastor of an unconventional and radical church, just like how the IDS website is carrying pouches that offer the netbook the full protection throughout its use.

Dearest brothers and sisters, let us not settle for anything less than the fullness of what God has given to us as beneficiaries of the New Covenant that was cut between the Father and the Son. Not only has our sin been imputed to Jesus, Jesus' right standing before Abba Father has also been imputed to us. Amen?

500 Liao! PTL!!!

Friday, 3rd July 2009

On 29th June, I typed the above as my Facebook status.

One of my son's schoolmates, Nethaniel (who attends NewCre, by the way) commented:

Good thing you were not talking about H1N1 :)
Anyway the more friends the merrier PTL!!! :D

Yep, praise the Lord indeed for enabling me to reach another milestone on Facebook. This may not be that big a deal to some of you out there, but those of you who have been following my blog would have read about how some churchmates (who grew up with me in Sunday School and in the choir) had removed me as their friend when they discovered that I had embraced the grace gospel (which Rev Peter Koh, the senior pastor of my church, is vehemently against).

Rev Barnabas Chong, previously a pastor of my church, has even gone to the extent of preventing me from seeing him on Facebook. You can read about that here.

But hey, God is indeed so good. Amen?

Oh ya, since then, the number has climbed to 502 :-D

His Death Brings About More Value

Sunday, 28th June 2009

Yesterday, I reproduced an sms from Jeff in which he did a compare and contrast of MJ and JC.

An article in today's papers says that the irony is that MJ is worth more by his dying than his staying alive! He was saddled with debts that would have taken years to pay. But now that he is no more, the value of his music has suddenly multiplied in value.

As I pondered upon this, I realise that holds true of our Lord Jesus Christ, and all the more so. When Jesus physically walked on earth, His ministry was primarily to the Jews. Yes, the occasional Gentile like the Samaritan woman at the well, or the Roman centurion's servant, or the Syrophoenician woman whose daughter was demon-possessed would be recipients of His blessings, but He was sent to His own fellow Jews. His ministry then was limited, so to speak.

It was only upon His death at the cross, that much more was accomplished. The New Covenant was established. The temple veil was torn in two. Our sins were forgiven once and for all. The Holy Spirit is made available to every believer and we are now considered sons and daughters of the Most High God.

Indeed, the irony is that Jesus' death has brought about much more value to mankind than if He had remained in heaven or while He physically walked the earth as a mortal man. God has achieved much more by redemption that He has ever done by redemption. Hallelujah!

MJ vs JC

Saturday, 27th June 2009

Yesterday, I checked out Facebook and saw statuses such as "RIP MJ" and "Long Live the King of Pop". Putting two and two together, it was not difficult to conclude that Michael Jackson had passed on to the next world.

I grew up on the music of the 1980s, of which Michael Jackson was a big part. His album Thriller which was released in 1982 is the best selling album of all-time, with sales of some 109 million copies. In fact, I read somewhere that it was 1 out of every 4 albums that was sold that year.

However, I was never a big fan of his. I prefet Britpop, and count among my favourite Cliff Richard, Big Country and the Style Council. The song that he wrote "We are the World" contains the lyrics "God has shown us by turning stones to bread" is definitely not in the Scriptures. If anything, it was the devil who tempted Jesus to turn stones to bread, and Jesus replied that man was not to live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from God's mouth.

As to whether MJ is now in heaven or otherwise, that is not something for me to speculate. That decision lies with our creator God Himself.

Fellow brother-in-grace Jeff Teo sent me the following SMS which sums things up rather nicely...

MJ was the king of pop
JC is the King of Kings

MJ sang "wanna be startin somethin"
JC cried "it is finished!"

MJ said "beat it!"
JC said "come unto Me."

MJ died of a heart attack
JC died of a broken heart for the sins of the world.

MJ was THE singer
JC is THE Saviour!

Yes and Amen!

Friday, 26th June 2009

I was on Facebook recently and came across a quiz entitled "Which Singapore church are you best suited in.

The questions asked were kind of loaded and not really very flattering to say the least. They actually perpetuate the stereotype that others already have about particular churches.

But I went along and got the answer that was expected. Lol.

Yes and amen, brothers and sisters!!!

Happy Daddy's Day!

Sunday, 21st June 2009

Decided to go to NewCre again today since Ps Prince was preaching.

It was a wonderful sermon expounding on Rom 5:17 -- about reigning in life via the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness.

The focus today was on the gift of righteousness, about how we are blessed because God does not impute sin to us, having already imputed it upon the body of His Son Jesus on the cross.

Thank you Daddy God for your wonderful gift to us.

On the way out, all fathers were given a wonderful Fathers' Day present -- a watch holder.

My kids gave me a present each too. The card is from the boy while the Mr Happy water bottle is from the girl.