Commanded Blessings

Sunday, 30th September 2007

On 13th September, a couple of churchmates and I went to attend the midweek service at NCC.

Pastor Prince was expounding on Lev 25, and in particular highlighted verse 21 which says, "Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. (KJV)".

In this particular passage, the Israelites were taught the principle of tithing in terms of allowing the land to rest every seven years. If they trusted God and took Him at His Word, God would command His blessings in the 6th year, such that they would have harvest enough to last them for 3 years.

The Hebrew word for command is "tsavah" which depicts a charge, an order, a commission.

In other words, "commanded blessings" implies that the recipient is not given a choice, he has to receive it!

Here are a couple of examples of "commanded blessings":

(1) Shunammite Woman

2 Kings 4:16-17
16 "About this time next year," Elisha said, "you will hold a son in your arms." "No, my lord," she objected. "Don't mislead your servant, O man of God!"
17 But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

There was this elderly couple who lived in Shunem who set aside a room in their house for Elisha, so that he could stay the night whenever he passed by that area. When Elisha prophesied that the woman would be with child, she did not have the faith to receive but instead asked Elisha not to lie to her. In spite of her unbelief, she still became pregnant, because it was a "commanded blessing" and hence, she had no choice but to receive it.

(2) Lame Man by the Pool of Bethesda

John 5:6-8
6When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
7"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."
8Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

In this incident, Jesus saw a man who had been lame for 38 years and asked him if he wanted to be healed. In response, note that the man did not say yes, but gave excuses about not being able to get into the pool. Yet Jesus gave him no choice and healed him nonetheless. It was another example of a "commanded blessing".

May we experience God's commanded blessings in every aspect of our life -- be it our marriage, or family or career. The Christian's version of the maxim by Candid Camera should be, "Sometime, somewhere, when you least expect it, an angel may step up to you as say, "Smile, because God has just commanded a blessing upon you."

Surely goodness and lovingkindness will hunt us down all the days of our lives. Amen?

Grace Like Rain

Saturday, 29th September 2007

The other day, my wife pointed out to me that way before I began to embrace grace teachings, this was already placed into her heart...

...and she is right.

God's grace in Mandarin is 恩惠 (en hui).

She named our daughter 惠娴 (hui xian) which means "gracious" and "elegant", eleven years ago. She named our son 恩乐（en le) which means "gracious" and "joyful", ten years ago.

And a decade later, God's grace has become more and more relevant in the life of our family.

Arguable the most well-known (and easily-recognisable song) ever written that depicts the extent of God's grace is the hymn by John Newton entitled "Amazing Grace". He was an infamous slave trader, and wrote the song upon his conversion to Christianity, after realising how much God loved him, even when he was still a wretched sinner.

John Newton's timeless classic was given a modern upbeat flavour in 2003 by Todd Agnew. Check out this contemporary version on YouTube



Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I'm found
Was blind but now I see so clearly

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, they're washed away

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

Chorus

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We've no less days to sing Your praise
Than when we first begun

Restful Warfare

Friday, 28th September 2007

My Proverbs 31 woman never ceases to amaze me :-)

The other day when I went to pick up my autographed copy of Destined to Reign from the church receptionist, my wife and her colleague happened to also be in Suntec City. So I told her that I would meet her in the Rock Gifts and Book Centre.

When she was in there, she was browsing through various books and the one on Spiritual Warfare caught her eye.

She told me that she liked the cover of the book, as it shows a person lying on a deckchair with his hands clasped behind his head and admiring the clouds and ocean.

In other words, a person at rest.

What a revelation from my Beloved Lord to my beloved wife!

I happen to have bought the book many months ago, but this never occured to me. Maybe the remnant of Adam (ah dumb) was manifesting in me...

Most books on warfare would depict someone in full battle order (ie. helmet, rifle, etc). But our warfare with the devil is different, because the battle is over. Jesus has already defeated him on the cross 2,000 years ago.

Anyway, here is the write-up on the book

Mention the words “spiritual warfare” and fierce battles with the devil come to mind. While it is true that Satan tries to put sickness, depression and strife in our lives, God does not want us to fight the devil in long-drawn battles. God’s Word tells us to rest instead. In the spiritual warfare passage in Ephesians 6, the word “wrestle” appears only once, whereas the word “stand” appears four times! This means that in spiritual warfare, we are to stand or rest in the victory of Christ. Jesus has already defeated the devil and put us on victory ground. And to help us stand our ground, He has given us His seven-piece armour. So stop trying to defeat a defeated foe. Just put on His armour and rest in His victory!

As His co-heirs, we can actually rest in His finished work, just like the guy sitting in the deckchair. Amen?

My wife is currently reading my copy. After she is done, any of you who wants to borrow it, please drop me an email.

Appetite for the LORD

Thursday, 27th September 2007

I was checking out the blog of my previous pastor recently and noticed that he has just migrated it to Wordpress. I saw an entry he wrote about Appetite.

When I read it, the LORD immediately brought to mind the scene that beheld me on 5 August 2007, where people were willing to queue-up for hours because of their hunger and thirst for God's Word.



I left comments on his blog, encouraging him and the readers of his blog to attend the midweek services on 26th and 27th Sep, so that they could see for themselves the amazing phenomenon and be likewise inspired.

It's been several days since, but somehow, those comments of mine have still not seen the light of day. Maybe Wordpress has a feature that prevents "severely disturbing" content from being published :-)

Anyway, a couple of churchmates of mine went for the midweek service on 13th Sep and we now all have a common faith picture to bring back to PLMC. God has no favourites, so may He continue to add to that number, so that we see a mighty revival and awakening all across the island. Amen?

A Joy to Behold

Wednesday, 26th September 2007

A week back, I blogged about my son being named Mark by my dad, which means "mighty warrior" in Greek (markos).

His Chinese name, which was given by my wife, is 恩乐, which means God's grace and joy.

This name of his is equally prophetic, because years down the road, we would come to the stage where the gospel of grace becomes an increasing reality in the life of my family. At the same time, he is also a source of great joy to both his parents, and all who come into contact with him.

He is also very joyful and playful by nature, and likes to clown around when photos are being taken. At first, we would request him to be serious, but over a passage of time, we have begun to treasure this particular characteristic of his.

I have actually compiled photos that were taken of him over the past few months and made it into an A3-sized poster which I have placed just next to where I sit in the workplace.

Whenever I need cheering up, I will take a look at it and it never fails to bring a smile to my face.
(1) The Caped Crusader
Taken during my grandma's birthday, Mark pulls his shirt over his head, just when our domestic helper snaps the shutter.

(2) Don't Mess with Me
Taken by my wife when we were all seated on the Sentosa Skyride similar to the one you see on the left. You can see me smiling in the background, but Mark prefers to put on a stern face.

(3) Miya-hee Miya-hoo
Mark attempts the Chicken Little dance .

(4) Balanced Diet
While sis and maternal grandma smile at the camera, Mark chooses to stick out his tongue and even places an orange on his head.

(5) Shake Rattle and Roll
(6) Salutations and Greetings
These two photos were taken at Rachel's birthday party. The left one shows him celebrating when his team answers a question correctly during the games segment. The right one catches him doing a salute as the other kids poses in front of Rachel's birthday cake.

Saying So

Tuesday, 25th September 2007

On 13th September, I went to the midweek service in New Creation Church with a couple of churchmates. They were in awe when they saw with their very own eyes the queue that had formed. We now have a common faith picture to bring back to PLMC.

The next midweek services will be on 26 Sep and 27 Sep, so do drop me an email if you would like to attend it, and we can go together. God has no favourites -- what He is doing in NCC, He can also do in PLMC. Amen?

Anyway, the worship session started with an extremely catchy song entitled "Say So". Straightaway, one of them who was with me said "Reflections of one that Says So", which is what I have entitled my blog because I am one who has been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and I say so...

...and so is everyone of you out there who profess to be Christians, because Jesus' blood has redeemed you as well.

I did a Google search of this song, and discovered that it is a brand-new release by Israel Houghton and the New Breed. It is track 4 on the album entitled "A Deeper Level"

You can watch them perform it at the Hillsong Conference 2007 here:




Verse One:
What does it mean to be saved?
Isn't it more than just a prayer to pray?
More than just a way to heaven?
What does it mean to be His?
To be formed in his likeness?
Know that we have a purpose.

Vamp:
To be salt and light in the world,
in the world.
To be salt and light in the world.

Chorus:
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, say so, say so! (repeat)

Verse 2:
Oh that the church would arise.
So that we would see with Jesus' eyes.
We could show the world heaven.
Show what it means to be His.
To be formed in his likeness.
Show them they have a purpose.

Vamp:
To be salt and light in the world, in the world.
To be salt and light in the world.
To be salt and light in the world, in the world,
To be salt and light in the world.

Chorus:
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, say so, say so! (repeat)

Bridge:
I am redeemed, I am redeemed
I am redeemed, I am redeemed
I am redeemed, I am redeemed
(repeat)

Vamp:
To be salt and light in the world in the world.
To be salt and light in the world.
To be salt and light in the world, in the world.
To be salt and light in the world.
To be salt and light in the world, in the world,in the world, in the world, in the world!

Chorus:
Let the redeemed of the Lord rise up!
Let the redeemed of the Lord rise up!
Let the redeemed of the Lord rise up, rise up, rise up!

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, say so, say so!

Bridge:
I am redeemed, I am redeemed
I am redeemed, I am redeemed
I am redeemed, I am redeemed

Chorus:
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, say so, say so!

The Icing on the Cake

Monday, 24th September 2007

What I have become more convinced recently is that the way we view our Abba Father affects the way things happen around us.

If our opinion of God is that He is conditional in His love for us, then we would not expect good things to happen to us because we get tripped up by the devil practically every single day.

On the other hand, if our opinion of God is that because He has already extinguished all His righteous judgement on the body of His Son 2,000 years ago, and because of that, He can justly love us as depicted in the story of the Prodigal Son, the strange thing is that somehow, things line up wonderfully in our life.

I believe all of you already know by now that I was removed from cell leadership as well as serving as the Treasurer of my church because of my overt stand on grace teachings. In spite of this, my opinion of God was not negatively affected and I even told my senior pastor a couple of times that I hold fast to Rom 8:28 -- that somehow God will cause all things to turn out well.

And indeed He has!

I have blogged about the wonderful things that have happened as a result of that incident here, so I won't go into details here again.

Even though a window has been shut in terms of my being able to serve the LORD in a leadership capacity in my church, God has opened several doors in that I have gotten to know several other wonderful brothers and sisters in the LORD!

In another earlier post about doors, windows and a good opinion of God, I mentioned that a pastor of a mega-church in Singapore had seen the YouTube video I put up, and invited me out to lunch. I said that I would get down to blogging about what happened, so here we go...

This pastor had initially assumed I was from his church, but after reading my blog, he discovered I wasn't. Anyway, we had a wonderful time of fellowship sharing our own spiritual journey with each other. For the longest time, I had not had a mutually-edifying conversation with a shepherd of the flock, so I really treasured the one that I had with this pastor, because we were on the same frequency throughout regarding the grace gospel and Jesus' finished work!!!

He expressed surprise that I was removed from leadership because he thought that PLMC would be receptive to grace teachings, since Rhema Bible College is operating from our church's premises. I explained to him that this arrangement was set up by the previous pastor-in-charge, who has since been promoted to become the President, overseeing all the English-speaking churches.

I also shared with him that I see the LORD asking me to remain in PLMC to change things from the inside, and asked him to pray for me because in the natural realm, this task seems quite a challenge, now that my "circle of influence" among the church leadership has been reduced. But I take comfort that our God is a supernatural one, so that when the spiritual awakening happens, people will give all credit to the LORD and not to any individual person. I must decrease and God must increase.

Anyway, at the end of that lunch, I requested a favour from this pastor. I passed him my personal copy of Destined to Reign for it to be autographed.

Which brings me back to the subject of today's post. The culmination of great happenings thus far is that I just got the book back, and this is the icing on the cake...

What really moves my heart is that the autograph Pastor Prince signed was not just a generic one. He actually took the effort to make it personal (and even spelt my name correctly some more -- many people still mis-spell it as Malcom rather than Malcolm)

I am humbled that a shepherd of a flock of now close to 16,000 took such an effort!

Meanwhile, I have been trying to fix up a lunch with my own senior pastor for the past 9 months since Jan 07. I am not giving up on this though, because my opinion of God gets better each day, and I am sure that He will allow this to come to pass. Amen?

Focus on the Message, not the messenger!

Sunday, 23rd September 2007

My dad and several others had warned me to be careful not to emphasise the teachings of Pastor Prince too much, because ultimately, he is only God's messenger and not the Message.

The devil can pervert something that is good into something bad, and I have to constantly be on guard that I do not hero-worship Pastor Prince or make him into my idol.

That is why I have started to listen to sermons by Peter Youngren from Canada, Andrew Wommack from USA and Age Aleskjaer from Norway.

And I thank God that the very same consistent message of God's abundant grace and the finished work of Jesus on the cross come across from all these anointed man of God.

By the very same token, we as Methodists should also not elevate our founder John Wesley above the message of Jesus Christ. I like what one cell leader in PLMC told me: we are first Christians, and then Methodists second.

John Wesley may have been an Arminian, but George Whitefield (another Methodist pastor) was a Calvinist.

When a person insists that a Singaporean Methodist *must* be Arminian because the roots of Methodism in Singapore is traced back to John Wesley, it sounds very much like a Jew insisting that the offspring of Messianic Jews *must* be physically circumcised because their forefathers were circumcised or that Jesus Himself (the founder of Christianity) was circumcised.

Sorry, but no can do :-)

Denominations are after all man-made. When we go to heaven, it does not matter one single bit whether we are Methodist, or Lutheran, or Baptist or Anglican. What matters is whether we are followers of Jesus Christ or not.

Then, there are yet others who insists that good Methodists should study and understand the life of John Wesley. For other religions like Buddhism and Islam that may be nobly so, but as Christians, our example should be none other than Jesus Christ Himself and not the founder of any of the denominational sects!

Rather than study the life of John Wesley, or Martin Luther, or Kenneth Hagin, or Joseph Prince, for that matter, we should spend time getting to know the very Author of the Book of Life Himself and not the vessels that He has been using down through the ages.

Let's focus on the Message and not the messenger. Amen?

Appreciating the New Covenant

Saturday, 22nd September 2007

I don't know about you but, I've been a Christian since 1978 but it was only very recently that I began to appreciate what the New Covenant means.

Previously, I had this rough concept that the Old Testament = Old Covenant and the New Testament = New Covenant.

I now realise that this is not quire accurate, and that it is important to be aware of the distinction so that we can rightly divide the Word of God, as Paul advised Timothy in 2 Tim 2:15.

In fact, the Old Testament actually mentions 3 covenants:

(1) Gen 9: the covenant with Noah where God promised not to flood the earth again.

(2) Gen 15: the covenant with Abraham where God promised him and his descendants a land flowing with milk and honey.

(3) Exodus 24: the covenant with the Israelites via the Mosaic Law, where God promised to bless them if they obeyed Him, but allow them to be cursed if they disobeyed Him.

The first 2 covenants were based on God's grace. That is why Noah was not punished even though he was drunk and naked as recorded in Gen 9:21, nor was Abraham punished when He lied about his wife being his sister as recorded in Gen 12:13 and Gen 20:2.

Like I mentioned in yesterday's post, no Israelite died even though they grumbled and complained between the Passover and Mt Sinai because they were still operating under the Abrahamic covenant based on God's grace.

But once they agreed to be placed under the Mosaic covenant based on their good works, then we read of people dropping like dead flies left, right and centre.

When we come to the New Testament, we have to bear in mind that the people were still under the Mosaic convenant until the point where Jesus was crucified. When His blood was shed, that was when the New Covenant was cut. Hence, the Acts of the Apostles and the other epistles by Paul, Peter and John have taken on new significance because they were written in the context of this New Covenant, this side of the cross.

And what makes this covenant so wonderful is that unlike the earlier convenants that was cut between God and men, this one was cut between God the Father, and God the Son (as man's representative), both of whom are infallible and unshakeable! That makes the covenant fool-proof and water-tight.

But what is even more awesome and wonderful is that WE are the beneficiaries of this New Covenant cut between the Father and the Son! The benefits include right standing before God (righteousness), prosperity, health, and all the promises of God which are yes and amen!

Grave Consequences

Friday, 21st September 2007

Consider the following passages of Scripture which talk about the grumblings of the Israelites:

1. So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?" (Ex 15:24)

2. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. (Ex 16:2)

3. But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?" (Ex 17:3)

4. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! (Num 14:2)

Now consider God's response to the people's grumbling...

1. He caused the bitter water sweet so that the Isralites could drink it (Ex 15:25)

2. He fed them with quails and manna (Ex 16:13)

3. He caused water to come out from the rock (Ex 17:6)

4. Those who grumbled ended as corpses in the wilderness (Num 14:29,32)


In the first 3 incidents, God responded to their complaints by providing for them in terms of food and water.

Yet in the 4th incident, the response was one of judgement for disobedience.

What happened between Exodus 17 and Numbers 14 to cause such a drastic change of response?

The Mosaic Convenant!

Even though the Israelites murmured and grumbled between the Passover and Mt Sinai, no one died because the convenant that was in effect at that point of time was the Abrahamic one where God promised Abraham and his descendants a land flowing with milk and honey.

But once the Israelites were under the Mosaic covenant based on their law-keeping and obedience, the stakes were different, and many a times, fatally so.

A person who was found to be gathering wood on the Sabbath was stoned to death! (Num 15:32-36)

The earth opened and swallowed up Korah, Dathan and Abiram and their family because they had grumbled against Moses and Aaron (Num 16:31-33). Another 250 men were consumed by fire because they were offering incense to the LORD, but the Law only allowed Levites to do so (Num 16:35) . And 14,700 others were struck dead by a plague because they blamed Moses and Aaron for the earlier mentioned deaths (Num 16:49).

I thank God that we as New Covenant believers are no longer under the Mosaic Law of "Do good, get good. Do bad, get beat". Jesus has fulfilled all those Laws on our behalf, as well as taken upon Himself all the curses that pertained to the Law, and we are now redeemed from them. Praise be to God that we only enjoy the blessings. Amen?

Penetrating the World and the Marketplace

Thursday, 20th September 2007

I am about to complete sending out the final batch of Destined to Reign to those who have subscribed to the ROOTSS mailing list.

This time around, the books have been requested from folks in Singapore (of course), as well as to oversea countries such as USA, Australia, UK and notably Holland and Philippines.

In fact, 5 of the books are being sent to a town called Iloilo City, located southeast of Manila. It seems that Pastor Joshua of New Creation Church went to preach there sometime in October 2006, and as a result of that, a seed of awakening was sown amongst the people. There is now a strong hunger and thirst for the unadulterated gospel of grace and Christ's finished work...

... and I thank the LORD for the privilege of playing a part in this gospel revolution by blessing the folks over there with the books.

Even here in Singapore, Destined to Reign has reached tens of thousands of people. I was just informed that it is currently number 2 on the bestsellers list (the number 1 being Harry Porter's The Deathly Hallows).

In fact, just the other day, I played chaperone to my daugher and her 2 classmates. While they were watching the movie Hairspray at Golden Village Plaza Singapura, I took the opportunity to do a bit of window shopping in the shopping complex.

I happen to step into Times the Bookshop and was amazed to see an entire stand dedicated to Pastor Prince's books and CDs! And this is a secular bookstore, mind you! Even J K Rowling and Dan Brown did not have an entire stand dedicated to them.

I did not bring my camera with me, so please make do with this picture that I took with the 2MP camera of my Dopod C800 PDA phone.

I was having lunch with my churchmate Philip and he told me that he saw Pastor Prince's books in SKS Bookstore, which is owned by an Evangelical Free member, and does not usually carry Word of Faith books.

God's favour is indeed upon this anointed man of His.

Praise be to God that the grace message has penetrated not only the churches and church circles around the globe, but have now even extended into the secular marketplace!

May He continue to prosper the ministry of His anointed servants so that even more people will know what the true gospel of Jesus is...

...which is the very same gospel that the apostle Paul preached; and he even pronounced a double curse on anyone who preached any other gospel as recorded in Gal 1:8-9.

...which is the very same gospel that liberates us New Covenant believers to live the abundant and victorious life that Jesus came to give us.

Hallelujah!

Agents Provocateurs

Wednesday, 19th September 2007

As a teenager growing up with a face full of acne, I was an introverted person who withdrew into the world of secular pop music. I am not advocating that you do that also, because that is definitely not the abundant life He has for us :-)

Anyway, one of the great ballads that was frequently heard on the airwaves in 1984 was a song by Foreigner called "I Want to Know What Love Is". It was taken from their album entitled "Agent Provocateur", which was the first time I came across this French-derived word.

Wikipedia defines "agent provocateur" as someone assigned to provoke the awakening of a new order within a group. This assignment can be either covert or overt and predominately represents the interests of others, outside the group.

This phrase was brought to my mind again (after 23 years!) when I listened to a sermon series entitled "Life in the New Covenant" by Pastor Age Aleskjaer, the pastor of Oslo Christian Center, which is the fastest-growing church in Norway.

In the 1st sermon based on Gal 4, "Cast Out the Slave Woman and her son", he tells us that we need get rid of the Law and the ministry of death (represented by Hagar and Ishmael) and only operated by Grace alone and the ministry of life (represented by Sarah and Isaac).

Pastor Age said that he grew up in a Lutheran setting (90% of Norway's Christians are Lutherans), and used to preach very fiery Mt Sinai law-based sermons. In one of his sermons entitled "You Cannot Fool God" where he spoke about God being aware of "hidden" sins, 80% of the congregation responded and went forward for prayer. The remaining 20% who stayed seated were made to feel condemned.

God then began to reveal to Him about where his emphasis had been misplaced, and he started to preach Mt Zion grace-based sermons. This made the other pastors in Norway "nervous" because they were afraid that it would give people the licence to sin. I would even go so far as to describe Pastor Age as an "agent provocateur" -- assigned by God to provoke an awakening of a new order within the group of Norwegian Christians".

The story about what happened in Norway reminds me of a similar situation here in Singapore. On a national scale, there is a sense of nervousness and wariness that pastors and the religious establishment have towards New Creation Church. Here in my own church, I have been removed as cell leader and treasurer because of my overt and unapologetic stance about grace teachings.

But I take comfort because we are all in good company. If we go back to Biblical times, we see how the religious teachers of that day felt nervous about the teachings and ministry of Jesus because it went against what they had been taught by Moses -- such as not needing to fast when others did, or allowing work to be done on the Sabbath, or allowing the woman caught in adultery to be let free instead of being stoned to death. Just imagine the reaction on their self-righteous faces when they saw Him touching a leper, or allowing a woman to wipe his feet with her hair!

In fact, I stumbled across an article about this same theme when reading a dear sister's blog about "Jesus being the first change agent".

May God raise up more "agents provocateurs" around the globe in these last days to reveal His true unadulterated gospel of grace and finished work on the cross. Amen?

Happy Birthday, Mighty Warrior!

Tuesday, 18th September 2007

The observant among you would realise that I skipped the 18th of September in my "forward" log :-)

That's because a decade ago, the LORD blessed us with a mighty warrior to carry on the Loh family name.

It was between the names Matthew and Mark, and my dad preferred the latter.

And what a prophetic name, because he is indeed a mighty warrior for the LORD.

He is a big soccer fan and supports Chelsea (could not get him to follow his dad to support Aston Villa, but that's another story for another day).

Anyway, he has been wanting a pair of goal posts for the longest time. I did a Google search and found merchants in both USA and UK selling it, but not in Singapore. I also discovered that the freight charges was as much as the cost of the goal posts themselves!

Thank God therefore for an arrangement called VPost that is offered by SingPost. What happens is that they provide a physical location in USA (and Japan) where the items ordered can be shipped to.

SingPost will every now and then consolidate all the items that are delivered to that location and ship them "enbloc" to Singapore. This reduces the freight cost per item because of economies of scale. The customer then arranges to pick up the item from a post office outlet convenient to him.

Well, that's exactly what I did, and discovered that the freight cost was only about 20% of what it would have been if I had wanted it shipped directly to my home!

I had placed the order on 5 Sep, and it was ready for collection at SingPost Building on 14 Sep, just in time to be set up in the garden for his 10th birthday party on 15 Sep.

Really want to thank the LORD for the wonderful weather. It was raining pretty heavily in the morning, but it stopped in time for the party, which started at 2pm.

Here is a video of Mark enjoying a game of soccer with his friends. In the attached video, he set up a goal and scored one himself...




Happy Birthday Mighty Warrior! Daddy and Mummy love you very very much! May you continue to claim the victories that Jesus has already given to us via His finished work on the cross!

The Yearbook Version

Monday, 17th September 2007

On 2 September, we were having our evening family devotion using the Keys for Kids materials supplied by the church.

The devotion for that day was called Yearbook Memories, which I have reproduced below...

"So how was your summer vacation?" Tim asked his friend Jackson.
"Terrible." Jackson groaned. "We spent a week at the beach, and all it did was rain the whole time. On the day we were going to the amusement park, my little sister got sick right before we were supposed to leave, so we couldn't go. The whole summer was wasted."

Tim knew Jackson had a tendency to complain about things, but he figured there must have been something his friend enjoyed during the summer. Tim smiled to himself. I'll see how soon I can get him to say something good about it, he decided. "Did you play much baseball?" asked Tim. "Before school got out last year, you told me you were going to play first base on a summer team."

Jackson shrugged. "Yeah, but the coach made me sit on the bench a lot more than I wanted to. He said the other kids had to have a chance to play, too."

Tim shook his head. Getting Jackson to say something positive was even tougher than he'd expected. Then he got an idea. "Come on, Jackson! Give me the yearbook version of what happened," said Tim. Jackson turned toward his friend with a confused look. "Yearbook version? What are you talking about?"

"You know. Every year the school issues a yearbook-a bunch of highlights from the school year, right?" asked Tim. Jackson nodded, still confused. "Well," continued Tim, "when's the last time you saw something in there about all the bad things that happened? Did you see anything about the window that was broken in the back of the building?" Tim grinned. "Did the yearbook mention how many times Susan Walters told you to get lost when you smiled at her in gym class?" he teased.

"Very funny," grumbled Jackson. "Why would I-or anyone else-want to remember those things?"
"Exactly!" exclaimed Tim. "I figure we should think more about the things that went right. Most of the other stuff isn't worth remembering anyway. That's why I want to hear the 'yearbook version'-the good things-of your summer vacation. So . . . let's hear it, okay?" He grinned at his friend.
Jackson grinned a little, too. "Well . . ." he began, "I did have fun at camp . . ."
HOW ABOUT YOU?What do you dwell on-things that go well or those that go wrong? Which ones do you think God would like you to think-and talk-about most? When you're tempted to grumble about something, stop and ask God to help you find a good thing in that situation. Ask Him to show you what good can come from it, and to help you learn from each thing that happens. Then give yourself and others the "yearbook version" of what took place and praise God for it.
TODAY'S KEY VERSE:I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Psalm 34:1

The point that the writer was making was that we should focus on the positives and not the negatives. When one looks at a yearbook, one would notice that only pleasant memories are being recorded.

As we reflected upon the devotion, I shared with my family the example of Abraham, who was described in stellar manner as a man of great faith in the New Testament epistles such as Romans 4 and Hebrews 11. Yet, in Genesis 12 and Genesis 20, we read about him displaying a great lack of faith on 2 separate occasions in not believing that God would protect him from kings who wanted his wife as their harem.

So what made the difference? The finished work of the cross!

The Holy Spirit only saw fit to record the pleasant things about Abraham in the New Testament!

The Old Testament was a historical record of what the partriachs did. We read about how Noah became drunk and laid naked. We read about how Moses killed an Egyptian in anger. We read of David committing adultery with Bathsheba.

Yet, all of the above were described as great men of faith in Hebrews 11!

We as New Covenant believers have this wonderful privilege because God only keeps the "yearbook version" of our life's journey. Because God's full judgement has already fallen upon Jesus, He swore that He would no longer be angry with us or remembers our sins. Because of what Jesus has accomplished, He does not record our failures, but only our victories.

It is like playing snakes and ladders without the snakes, which I blogged about here.

A Happening Day

Sunday, 16th September 2007

On 26 August 2007, my entire family experienced a close encounter with the Third Person, which I blogged about here.

Anyway, that evening's sermon was based on Ruth, and in particular, Ruth 2:3 mentions that Ruth "went and gleaned in the field of the reapers; and she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz..."

When I left the service, I had this blessed assurance deep inside of me that as new covenant believers, we ought to have an excellent opinion of our God, who just cannot wait to bless us exceedingly abundantly over and above all that we can ask or imagine. As such, we should wake up every day with this expectation that God will fill it with "happening" divine appointments, as He puts us in the right place at the right time to receive those blessings.

Well, one such "happening" day was 3 September. During lunchtime, I sent my daughter to the YMS Arts Centre in Waterloo Street to practice the piano in preparation for her exams to be held there a week later. After dropping her off, I went to the nearby post office at Bras Basah Complex to run some errands -- ie. to mail out the first batch of copies of Destined to Reign to those who had subscribed to the ROOTSS mailing list.

I had been to this SingPost outlet a couple of times before (Tecman, which is where I bought the books from, is located on the 4th floor of the same building). So it took me by surprise when the gentleman at the counter asked me a totally unrelated question -- as I was filling out a form to send one of the books to USA -- which was whether I was interested in making investments! I said I was open to it, and he then referred me to a financial consultant who was stationed there in the post office...

I had sometime in July 2007 cashed out of a unit trust (which I purchased in February 2006) at a 35% profit (not because I had timed the market right, but because of the Holy Spirit's prompting), which I blogged about here. Since then, I had been considering when would be the right time to re-invest...

... and the LORD gave me the answer in the most unexpected way, when I was not even looking out for it! This is what one would term as "serendipity" (Pastor Prince talked about this in his sermon "doing the one thing", which has been made available for listening on this blog).

Anyway, to cut a long story short, SingPost has tied up with Prudential, and the latter has just launched a new unit trust fund called Global Balanced Fund at the initial price of $1.00 per unit. This unit trust is considered so safe by the Singapore Government that one can use even use one's CPF Special Account to purchase it. It is considered "global" because the underlying investments will be placed in USA, Europe and Asia, and "balanced" because it is to be made up of both equities and bonds.

As I signed the purchase forms, I gave thanks to the LORD. Here I was sowing into the lives of others with a copy of Destined to Reign, and there He was putting me at the right place at the right time, providing me with the answer to what to re-invest in (and at the same time, giving business to that financial consultant).

But that was not the only happening thing that happened that day. In the evening, I brought my daughter shopping at VivoCity (and sponsored everything that she bought because she has been faithfully giving beyond the tithe -- which I blogged about here).

After shopping, I decided to pay a visit to Stanley, who runs a dessert stall called "Dessert Tree" located at #02-139 of Bukit Timah Market Food Centre, and whose spiritual awakening testimony has been reproduced here.

His stall was supposed to close at 10pm, but since I took the trouble to visit him, he decided to keep it open, and even treated me to a bowl of Mango Pudding Ice Jelly (which is one of his 2 specialities -- the other being Red Rubies Ice Jelly). It was very delicious. My daughter is not a mango fan, yet she took several helpings of it...

While we sat there talking with him keeping us company, he had to be interrupted numerous times because there was a steady stream of customers (even though it was already past his stall's normal closing time). I felt very "paiseh" and had to excuse myself at about 11pm, even as he attended to yet another customer.

As I drove back home with my daughter, I pondered over the day's events and felt a deep appreciation of the love of our Abba Father. His unmerited favour is available to all of His children. The question is whether we believe that He can be that good. If we do, then we put ourselves in a "receiving mode" to enjoy those blessings. Amen?

Starting Them Young

Saturday, 15th September 2007

I have mentioned elsewhere on this blog that my daughter has learnt the principle of sowing and reaping. I give her $30 a week, and she has on many occasions put $10 in the offering bag. That represents 33.33% of her allowance, and as her earthly father, I feel compeled to bless her such that the $10 becomes 10%. So I will top-up her prepaid handphone, pay for her friends' birthday presents, etc.

If I who am evil can be moved to do this for my daughter, how much more our Abba Father who loves His children?

What I have discovered recently is that my salary has been increasing beyond my wildest dreams not because I am a great employee, but because God always adjusts it such that what I give to church becomes 10%. God has granted me favour with my employer, as a result of my faithfully going beyond the tithe.

This godly principle that has been incalculated in my daughter from young will put her in good standing, so that she will avoid the financial pitfalls I went through during the years when I was not tithing.

Even at the tender age of 11, she already has no problems putting $10 (or even $20 on one occasion) into the offering bag each week. May she be put in a position one day where she can put $100 or even $1,000 in the bag each week. Amen?

It has been a different story with my son. He tends to spend the entire $15 that he is given. Several weeks back, when I was having lunch with my son in KFC, I challenged him to put aside $1.50 each week. If he faithfully did so each month, I would reward him with a Maple Card.

Well, praise be to God that he gave a total of $8 to church in the month of August 2007 (which represents 13.33% of his allowance for that month).

I thus gave him a "Lunar Pixie" maple card that you see on the right, and he was thrilled to have received it.

May he also start to go beyond the tithe! Amen!

By the way, just in case you are wondering, tithing actually took place before the Law. My churchmate Philip has written wonderfully on this topic, which you can read about here.

May our children be taught the principle of tithing from young, so that they will have financial abundance all their lives. They can start by putting aside 10% of their angpow money to be given to the church.

Reflections and Thanksgiving

Friday, 14th September 2007

The month of August 2007 has been a tremendously memorable one. Much more has happened in that 1 single month than the past 2 years put together.

It started off rather uneventfully actually. The 1st 3 days went by without anything major, but 4 August was the "day of reckoning" so to speak.

That was the day I was relieved of my leadership positions as cell leader and treasurer of my church, which I blogged about here. To be fair to my pastor-in-charge, he had sounded me out as early as January 2007 that he would take the appropriate action if I continued to propagate grace teachings.

However, having sought the LORD, I felt the peace that I should not compromise my beliefs, and just like Daniel who refused to bow to the king, I was prepared to be thrown into the lions' den, as it were :-)

Well, it's been a month already, but I am not only very much alive, I am kicking even more fervently!

Not only has the LORD protected me from being devoured by the lions (of bitterness, regret, etc.), He has caused many good things to come about from something bad. And I want to give thanks to the LORD because He makes all things work for the good of those who love Him, and makes everything beautiful in His time!

For a start, the visit to ROOTSS increased fivefold. While it used to average about 300 to 400 each month, it reached 1,931 in the month of August. And I am humbled that He considers me worthy to be His instrument to bring good news of what He has done in my life.

Secondly, I have begun to realise that there are many other PLMC members (including leaders) that embrace grace teachings, but have to do so discreetly lest they get picked up on the "radar" as well.

Thirdly, it has heightened the awareness of the gospel of grace and finished work of Jesus on the cross. What PLMC sorely needs is a spiritual awakening, not a spiritual cleansing. We should not be barking up the wrong tree.

Fourthly, colleagues, friends and churchmates have begun to ask me why I was willing to give up my "titles" as cell leader and honorary treasurer, and this gives me the opportunity to share with them what the LORD has done in my life ever since I started listening to grace teachings.

They now have the opportunity to go and listen to Pastor Prince on 12th, 13th, 26th or 27th September, and then decide for themselves whether what is being preached is truth or heresy.

Fifthly, complete strangers from NCC have sent me emails to share their own spiritual awakening journey, and it is obvious that the LORD is doing a mighty work in these last days. I have published a couple of testimonies on my blog, which you can read about here.

Sixthly, I have discovered that God has raised several grace preachers throughout the globe - including Canada, USA, Australia and Norway. I have blogged about this here. This wave of awakening is taking the world by storm, and when God opens a door, no one can shut it.

Seventhly, I sense the hunger and thirst out there for the unadulterated word, and thank God for giving me the privilege to bless these dear brothers and sisters in Christ with a copy of Destined to Reign.

Eighthly, doors have been opened for me to meet up with godly couples such as Joshua and Florence Lye, and also one of the pastors from one of the mega-churches in Singapore. When they shared their spiritual journey, it again confirms that God is moving in this direction.

Ninthly, the LORD has been showing me that I need to submit to those whom He has placed in authority above me. In so doing, His favour will flow. I blogged about that here.

And last but not least, the LORD allowed my entire family to worship at NCC on 26 Aug to have an encounter with the Third Person, so as to bring back to PLMC a faith picture of revival. I blogged about that here.

These are exciting times. Everyday when I wake up, I look forward eagerly and expectantly to what the LORD has in store for me. Praise be to Him!

Anointed Messages on Demand

Thursday, 13th September 2007

On 22 Aug 07, I blogged about an application that I discovered on my daughter's blog called Imeem.

Imeem actually enables the streaming of both video and audio.

I have now made available a playlist entitled Most Anointed Messages - The Best of the Best, which are what I consider to be the best sermons by Pastor Joseph Prince.

For a start, I have uploaded my 3 favourite sermons, namely
1. Yes and Amen
2. Shepherd and Sheep
3. One Thing

I have blogged about why these are my favourites here.

The messages are based on familiar passages of Scripture. Yet Pastor Prince brings out nuggets of truth that can be applied to our practical daily living immediately.

If this causes any copyright issues, please do let me know. I am willing to pay S$8 for every time that a sermon on this playlist is being played.

UPDATE:

I have received an email from a someone who works in Joseph Prince Ministries that this causes copyright concerns, and regret that I have to remove this particular playlist from my blog. They have plans to put up official podcasts of sermons, so do stay tuned :-)

There are however no copyright issues with sermons from my pastor Pastor Reuben Ng, so those will still be made available here.

Our Beautiful Lord Jesus

Wednesday, 12th September 2007

One question that was constantly at the back of my mind while growing up as a Christian was what Jesus was like before He began His ministry at the age of 30.

The 4 gospels bring out the 4 "faces" of Jesus (Eze 1:10, Rev 4:7)
- Matthew portrays Him as the King of the Jews
- Mark portrays Him as the suffering servant
- Luke portrays Him as the Son of Man
- John portrays Him as the Son of God

Because of the difference in emphasis, the gospel of Matthew only mentions Jesus' until the age of 2 and then fast forwards to the age of 30, while the gospels of Mark and John do not even mention His virgin birth at all.

Only the gospel of Luke mentions about His growing-up years, since the emphasis is of Jesus as the Son of Man.

In particular, Luke 2:40-52 offers a glimpse into the life of Jesus before He began His ministry.

Yes, Jesus was fully God. Yet He was fully man as well. As God, He was there in the very beginning as the Creator of the universe. As man, He had to empty Himself and become a vulnerable little baby. He had to go through what you and I as humans have go through, so that He could be our representative and kinsman-redeemer. The only difference was that He knew no sin.

Which brings me to another excerpt of the DVD compilation called Humorous Bible Illustrations, which I blogged about back in January 2007. This one is entitled "Our Beautiful Lord Jesus".

Close Encounter with the Third Person

Tuesday, 11th September 2007

Back in the 1980s, there was a popular movie entitled "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".

Today, I shall blog about my close encounter with the Third Person in the Trinity.

On 5th August (the day after I was relieved from leadership), I had, out of impulse, gone to New Creation Church to join 15,000 in worshipping the LORD.

However, as I sat there waiting for the service to start, the LORD impressed upon me that I had gotten ahead of His timing because I was there without my family members. I repented, went home and ended up going to PLMC with them.

You can read more about that incident here).

Well, in just a matter of only 3 weeks after that, the LORD has allowed that wonderful day to come to pass! Hallelujah!

On 23 Aug, I was invited by a Pastor of a mega-church to a meal at Pepper Lunch at Suntec City. That evening, I shared with my family that the food was fabulous and told them that I would take them to one of the outlets for a meal some day.

Three days later (on 26 Aug), I received an sms at about 12.45pm from churchmate Philip Ng (who happened to be attending NCC's 2nd service), that he found the sermon on Ruth to be so wonderful and edifying. I told him that I would try to persuade my family to attend the 4th service that evening and to commit my entire family in prayer.

I went on to ask my wife and kids whether they would like to attend the 4th service, after which I would then bring them to Pepper Lunch for dinner.

Thank God for answering our prayers in the most wonderful of ways!

At about 4.30pm, nothing was confirmed. Then suddenly at 4.35pm, my daughter told me she would go. Three minutes later, my son (who was on the computer) said he wanted to tag along as well. And then my wife came into the car as well, so at 4.45pm, we made our way to Suntec City!

After parking the car, we were already about 10 minutes late for the service and were prepared to sit in one of the overflow rooms. But the LORD's favour was upon us, and we were ushered to four seats right in the centre of the Rock Auditorium, located just behind the AVA crew!

The next 2.5 hours were just so wonderful and awesome. It was truly a close encounter with the Holy Spirit. The anointing was so strong that I wept during the worship (even though the songs were not familiar to me). I wept when we partook of the bread and wine. I wept during the offering. And needless to say, I wept during the sermon on Ruth. At the end of the service, I felt so refreshed and uplifted, as though my spiritual batteries were fully recharged to face the week ahead.

We then proceeded to Pepper Lunch for dinner.

As I sat there pondering over what had just happened, the strange thing is that the desire that God has placed in my heart is not so much to go back to NCC every week for another close encounter with His Holy Spirit. Rather, the desire is to have a similar encounter take place back in my own church!

I felt the LORD telling me, "Son, can you see my favour upon NCC? I bestow my favour, but I have no favourites. Now, would you like to see my favour upon PLMC as well?"

It was as though the LORD was allowing me to catch a glimpse of what an anointed close encounter with the Third Person is supposed to be like, so as to have a faith picture to carry back to the church of my own forefathers.

The day I had lunch with that Pastor was also my dad's birthday. That very evening, I passed him a copy of Destined to Reign as a birthday present. It moves my heart to find out that he has started to read it. Perhaps he is doing so because he is curious to know why his son would be willing to give up his positions as cell leader and treasurer. But it does not really matter, so long as he gets exposed to the grace gospel.

It is going to be wonderful and exciting times ahead for me in PLMC, and I will allow the LORD to lead me one day at a time. Even though I no longer hold leadership positions in church, I strongly believe that the LORD can still make use of me to make a difference. The LORD has given me a flair for writing, and I intend to use it to blog for His glory. Amen?

Other Anointed Grace Preachers of the Gospel Revolution

Monday, 10th September 2007

Several of you guys out there have warned me about over-emphasing the teachings of Pastor Joseph Prince, making it appear as though the messenger is being exalted above the Message.

Thank you for the timely reminder, and also for recommending other anointed ministers of the gospel of grace, which include:

From USA:
Andrew Wommack (Charis Bible College)
Steve McVey (GraceWalk Ministries)

From Canada:
Peter Youngren (Celebration Churches in Niagara, Hamilton and Toronto)

From Norway:
Aage Aleskjaer (Oslo Kristne Senter)

From Australia:
Peter Wade (Positive Word Ministry)

Then, there is another group of guys out there based outside of Singapore who have requested me to email you my collection of JPM MP3 sermons. As much as I would like to, I believe there could be copyright issues involved, so let me explore whether there is a means of streaming the audio across.

Meanwhile, those who hunger and thirst for God's unadulterated Word but have budgetary constraints will be pleased to know that grace teachings have been made available at no cost at the websites mentioned above.

Praise God that He has raised anointed grace preachers all around the globe during these endtimes, so that this generation of ours can enter and remain in His rest. Amen?

New Wine and Old Wineskins

Sunday, 9th September 2007

I have received another email from a total stranger about his spiritual awakening journey. He has allowed me to publish it in full as a means to encourage others out there who are also seeking.

This makes it the 3rd testimony, the earlier two being blogged about in
The Path Already Taken
The Aftermath Part 1

If there is anyone who has made the journey in the opposite direction, please do write and let me know so that it does not appear that this blog is biased :-)

-----Original Message-----
From: Stanley Wong
Sent: Friday, 24 August, 2007 1:05 PM
To: Malcolm Loh
Subject: "Nearly Attending NCC" - My own experience

Hi Malcolm,

My name is Stanley Wong, and I have been attending NCC since 19/10/2003. I stumbled upon your blog a few days ago when I was searching you tube for videos of Pastor Peter Youngren (who preached in NCC on 1/8/2007 and 2/8/2007) and Pastor Prince. I saw your video of giving away 25 copies of "Destined To Reign". Only someone who is overwhelmed by God's grace can open his heart and wallet to pour out more grace on others, just like the tax collector Zacchaeus after his encounter with Jesus :-).


Anyway, I started browsing your blog and read about your being removed from leadership and almost attending NCC. I am not writing to encourage you to come over to NCC but just want to share my personal experience.

Before NCC, I had been attending an AOG church for about 30 years. I attended the church's Sunday School as a little boy and graduated to the main worship service as an adult. I also got married in the church. The then senior pastor knew my whole family (my mum, brother and sisters).

I first visited NCC on 19/10/2003 because my father was very ill, and my sister's sis-in-law recommended NCC and we went hoping for a miracle cure. Sadly, my father passed away 2 weeks later. Now, I regret that I have not come to NCC earlier and learn the proper teaching on healing and divine health - my father would still be around today.

However, after the funeral, our families (my own family, my sister's family, my mum and another single sis) started attending NCC regularly. It was just a natural thing to do because we were stunned by the message being preached. The bible was explained in such a different light that it so fed our inner hunger and yet stirred up more hunger in us.

Although we have been Christians for decades, we were spiritually in coma. We were not hungry for God, just glad that we are not going to hell that's all. Going to church every sunday was a chore, a duty so we ended up always arriving late. The sermons did not nourish us, only serving to make us feel guilty that "we are not living up to God's standards". My sisters stopped attending church after graduating from sunday school, only my mum and I continued.

That morning of 19/10/2003 was the first time my sisters attended church in almost twenty years. After the service, my sister was so excited about the Word preached that she carried on a discussion with my mum about the sermon. I was actually reluctant to attend other churches (partly I was lazy and partly I thought I should be faithful to my church) but I went for my father's sake.

Now, our families look forward to sunday every week, it has become the highlight of the week. Yes, we go hours earlier to get priority queue tickets, and buy cds and dvds to listen some more at home or in my case at my stall. I was working in a bank four years ago but I am now a hawker. I have given away quite a few cds to customers who showed interest in the sermons they overheard at the stall.

Anyway, my point is that we came to NCC because of the good spiritual food served to us. Those who are hungry will naturally seek out the place where good food is served. The ones who can stand the hunger no longer will move. I have heard accusations that NCC grew to be so large by poaching Christians from other churches. To me, this does not matter at all because I came to NCC by "accident" (not poached) and stayed because I benefited from the food served. My whole family is closer knit than ever before and greatly blessed (you should know ;-) )!

After I came to NCC, I discovered that several of my former church's ex-leaders were already attending NCC regularly! One of them was an ex-honorary secretary of the church board and another was a interpretor for the senior pastor (my former church had combined English and Cantonese service). They don't hold leadership positions in NCC but are very happy here because of the good food.

About your being removed from your church leadership, I hope I can encourage you that your acceptance of it with grace will be a great testimony for the gospel of grace. Pastor Prince once preached on Issac who was mocked by Ishmael, meaning children of grace will be persecuted by children of law. So your facing difficulties in your church should be expected, don't be discouraged or bitter.

You don't need to be a church leader to influence others. Your own personal life with its great blessings and joy and energy will provoke others to "jealousy". They will seek you out and ask you for the "secret", just like Nicodemus sought Jesus for the secret of eternal life.

Some people think the gospel of grace is heresy but I have found that when the bible is preached in the light of grace that everything gels together, there is no contradiction. I have heard Pastor Peter Youngren and Pastor Aage (from Norway) preach and their sermons gel together. I recommend the website peterwade.com where there are many articles from men of God past and present on the pure unadulterated grace of God and they all gel! I have attached the article "Righteousness" by Peter Allard for your enjoyment.

God bless you richly,
Stanley

1 + 3 = 4

Saturday, 8th September 2007

On 23 Aug, I was invited by a pastor of a local mega-church to dine at Pepper Lunch at Suntec City (which I will blog about at a more appropriate time).

As I was slightly early for my lunch appointment, I decided to go Rock Gifts and Books Centre to buy some Hokkien/Mandarin sermons. As I was paying for them, I saw this beatiful pendant with a cross made up of 3 nails. I had seen my previous pastor Pastor B wearing something similar, and just had to get one for myself as well :-)

There is a car bumper sticker that reads 1 cross + 3 nails = 4 given.



When Jesus hung on the cross, He had 3 nails driven into Him -- 1 on each of His 2 open outstretched hands, and the 3rd on His overlapping feet.

The tetragrammaton YHWH (yodh-he-waw-he) when written in picture form is "hand-window-nail-window".

The window is also interpreted as something open or the grace of God.

Hence, it speaks of open hands nailed in grace.

The evil one had inspired mankind to invent crucifixion as the most henious, cruel and shameful form of capital punishment. Yet the LORD has transformed it to become the symbol of the greatest event ever in the history of mankind.

At the cross, Jesus took our sin, sicknesses, stress, poverty, rejection and separation from God, so that in exchange, we can have His righteousness, health, peace, prosperity, acceptance and fellowship with God.

Praise be to God for His gospel of grace, and finished work of Jesus on the cross. Amen?

Expanding the Collection

Friday, 7th September 2007

I recently checked out New Creation Church's website and discovered that some more JPM sermons from 2001 and 2002 have now been made available in MP3 format.

No prizes for guessing what I did next... yep... sow some more into the ministry of this truly anointed man of God. :-)

My collection to-date now stands as follows:

• 83 sermons in MP3 format (Jan 2001 to Dec 2002)
  
• 294 sermons in CD audio format (Jan 2003 to Aug 2oo7)
  
• 15 CD albums and books (including the latest Destined to Reign)

Please feel free to borrow from this expanding library, because it is meant to bless others.

Keeping in Step

Thursday, 6th September 2007

How many of you have seen the familiar scene where a person is teaching another person to dance, and because the other person does not keep in step, the first person gets his foot stepped on.

In the same way, we also need to keep in step with the LORD, and not to go ahead of Him, or fall behind.

One of my cluster leader's favourite verse at the moment is Psalm 32:8, where the LORD says ......

8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.

The very next verse tells us how to we can be guided with His eye...

9 Do not be like the horse or like the mule,
Which have no understanding,
Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle,
Else they will not come near you.

In order to be able to be guided by His eye, we need to keep in step with Him. We are only "eye to eye" if we keep pace with the LORD. We should not run ahead of him like the horse, or fall behind like the mule.

I tend to be like the horse, always eagerly wanting to get things done. And as a result, end up stepping on people's toes...

... or end up outside the will of God.

Like when I decided to attend NCC by myself on the morning of 5 August (which I blogged about here)

Which brings me to another excerpt of the DVD compilation called Humorous Bible Illustrations, which I blogged about back in January 2007. This one is entitled "The Unforced Rhythm of Grace".

Sowing Another 25 Seeds

Wednesday, 5th September 2007

A couple of weeks ago, the LORD placed in my heart to set aside part of my year-end bonus towards blessing the ministry of Pastor Joseph Prince, as well as to those who hunger and thirst for the gospel of grace and finished work of the cross. So I decided to give away copies of Destined to Reign to the 1st 25 persons who emailed me requesting for it.

I have since received emails from these 25 recipients thanking the LORD for allowing me to invest this seed into their lives, and I know that God will cause a bountiful harvest to come forth. I look forward to receiving their testimonies, and with the necessary required permission, will publish them on this blog as a means to encourage and edify other readers.

Following the email I received from Rev Wee Boon Hup regarding Gal 6:6 "Let him who receives instruction in the Word [of God] share all good things with his teacher [contributing to his support]. AMP" (which I blogged about yesterday), the LORD has now placed in my heart to set aside a portion of my Annual Wage Supplement ("AWS") as well to carry out this ministry of His.

So I went to Tecman to buy another 25 copies of Destined to Reign :-)

If you want to be one of the 25 blessed winners, simply subscribe to the ROOTSS Mailing List by 31 August 2007.



A draw will be conducted some time in September 2007, so stay tuned!

The Storehouse Dilemma

Tuesday, 4th September 2007

One of the persons that I have grown to admire and respect as a great man of God (no, not Pastor Joseph Prince lah, even though he is another one of them) is our TRAC President, Rev Wee Boon Hup.

When my marriage was going through a very rough period back in 2002/2003, my dad asked us to see him (he was our PIC then) and his wife, Catherine.

Since then, whenever I have tough spiritual issues to grapple with, I would turn to him for advice.

In January 2007, for example, churchmate Philip Ng and I met him for lunch and shared with him about our spiritual journey during which the LORD had progressively revealed more and more of Himself to us, and how we were feeling like "new wine in old wineskins".

Then on 4 Aug 07, when I was relieved of my leadership commitments in church, I started to struggle with the definition of the word "storehouse", and so I wrote the following email to him three days later at 4.57am...

To: Rev Wee Boon Hup
From: Malcolm Loh [mailto:mloh77@starhub.net.sg]
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 4:57 AM
Subject: Storehouse

Hi Rev Wee

I suppose by now you must have known already about my being relieved from official commitments in PLMC.

Personally, I was hoping to take a sabbatical at NCC (until either PIC changes his mind about grace messages or he finishes his term), but my family is still not ready to move yet.

I am now in a dilemma, which I hope you can help me to resolve.

It was your sermon in Jul 2005 that revealed the truth about bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. Even since then, it has been one financial breakthrough after another, which I have blogged about here
http://rootss.blogspot.com/2007/08/making-investments-gods-way.html

Now, the struggle I am facing is the word “storehouse”.

Some have defined the storehouse to refer to one’s local church. Yet others define the storehouse as the place where we draw our spiritual food and nourishment from.

When you were PIC, this was not an issue because both definitions referred to the same thing.

Your advice on this matter is deeply appreciated.

Thanks!

Shalom
Malcolm
http://rootss.blogspot.com
"Reflections Of One That Says So"
- awarded "Best Christian Blog of the Week", 4 Feb 07
- described as having "severely disturbing" content

This was his reply to me, which I found to be so spiritually mature and biblically sound...

To: Malcolm Loh
From: Rev Wee Boon Hup
Sent: Tuesday, 07 August, 2007 11:41 AM
Subject: RE: Storehouse

Hi, Malcolm,

Yes, read about it, and heard about it. And I am glad that you are responding to the Lord’s timing. If there’s anything that our growth in the Lord should help us do is to be a solution, and not the cause, of problems we face in church. The Lord surely, and the church sorely, need Spirit-filled and faith-filled people who can change and influence situations with the power of His love.

Try not to look at the meaning of storehouse too rigidly as you describe below. Remember the storehouse is not something personal. In many cases in the ancient world, it was a communal storehouse. What was stored was for the benefit of the whole community. In fact, the rich man who stored only for himself (Luke 12:13-21) was labeled a ‘fool.’ So don’t think of drawing from the storehouse just for yourself. There are others who need what we can give, and we need not expect to get anything in return for that pool.

And don’t think only about the tithe. The generosity that the NT encourages is of the cheerful kind, and I am sure that means going beyond the 10%. If your membership is still with PLMC, then that is where your tithe should go to.

At the same time, we must remember Gal 6:6 - Let him who receives instruction in the Word [of God] share all good things with his teacher [contributing to his support]. AMP We can give to such of our teachers beyond our tithe. That makes it even more meaningful.

Hope that helps.

Shalom.
wbh

As a result of his email, I decided to continue to tithe to PLMC (as a matter of fact, I am giving more than 10% to my local church). At the same time, I am also sowing into the ministry of Pastor Joseph Prince by getting all his sermons and books, and also by blessing others with his latest book "Destined to Reign".

Anyway, subsequent to taking this step of faith, the LORD addressed my "storehouse dilemma" on 14 Aug 07 in a most pleasant and unexpected way (yet another example of God's ways and thoughts being higher than ours). I wrote to Rev Wee the very next day to let him know accordingly...

To: Rev Wee Boon Hup　
From: Malcolm Loh
Sent: Wednesday, 15 August, 2007 1:27 PM
Subject: RE:Storehouse

Hi Rev Wee

Thanks for your most wise and enlightening answer!

I sent you that email at 5am because I was grappling with issues that have been keeping me awake at night.

Anyway, the dilemma about the definition of storehouse is no longer relevant, after I downloaded Pastor Reuben’s debut sermon to listen to last night. :-)
http://www.plmc.org/sermons/TNG11Aug07.mp3

After crying like a baby, I slept like a baby…Psalm 4:8

Thanks again for your love for PLMC…

Shalom
Malcolm
http://rootss.blogspot.com
"Reflections Of One That Says So"
- awarded "Best Christian Blog of the Week", 4 Feb 07
- described as having "severely disturbing" content

Of Doors and Windows, and a Good Opinion of God

Monday, 3rd September 2007

Let's get back to the topic of the "counsel of the ungodly".

If a saying gives you a good opinion of God and causes your faith to rise, then by all means embrace it. But if a saying gives you a poor opinion of God, then reject it!

When something not so pleasant happens, one often-quoted phrase that is being used to cheer us up is "When God closes a door, He opens a window".

But is that really the case? First and foremost, is it really God that closes the door? And even if that "door" gets closed for some reason, does God only open a "window"?

A door is big enough for a person to walk through, but a window is not. So it sure sounds like we are getting shortchanged by God, isn't it?

I am reminded of a song that we sang in the army, which goes like this..

They say that in the Army, the pay is mighty fine
They give you hundred dollars, they take back ninety-nine

Even in the above scenario, at least one was still better off by 1 dollar!

But in the case of the closed door and opened window scenario, one is actually worse off!

Does it give you a good opinion of God? If not, then it is alas the "counsel of the ungodly", even though the word "God" is mentioned in it.

If anything at all, the saying should read, "Should a window be closed, God opens to us a door."

Now that should be our perpective of our Abba Father. A Father who wants to bless and prosper us exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or imagine (Eph 3:20). A Father who did not withhold His only Son from us, but freely gives us all things (Rom 8:32). A Father who lavishly and unashamedly sprints to embrace and kiss us repeatedly (Luke 15:20).

Which brings me to the latest testimony of the LORD's goodness.

Being unable to serve in my own church has made me feel like a labourer without a harvestfield. It was like a window that has been shut in my face.

But God has better plans for me -- to prosper me and to give me a future and a hope (Jer 29:11) -- and has just opened a huge door before me!

When I last checked, more than 700 persons have viewed the YouTube video about blessing others with a copy of "Destined to Reign". I have now given out 35 books altogether, including to brothers and sisters from Australia, Malaysia, Philippines, South Africa, Panama and USA!

The Holy Spirit is doing a mighty work amongst God's people in the last days, and I am humbled to be considered worthy enough to be used as His instrument to propagate the grace message not only to those within my oikos, but now even to those without.

Anyway, the seeds sown in terms of investing the book in the lives of others has already started to reap a harvest. I have just received an email from one of the pastors of NCC. He saw the video and has invited me out for lunch... and to think that I am not even one of the 15,000 (yet anyways) :-)

Even though a window has been shut, God has opened a huge door before me, and I eagerly anticipate what He has in store for me.

Life is certainly worth the living, especially when we have a good opinion of our Abba Father Daddy God. Amen?

Abundant Life Refers to the Here and Now

Sunday, 2nd September 2007

When I was much younger, I used to equate the eternal life in Jn 3:16 with the abundant life in Jn 10:10.

Christians were supposed to have this attitude that "this world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue". So while we were in our mortal bodies, we were expected to go through much pain and sufferings. After all, temporal hardships were nothing compared to eternal blessings.

Now I understand the context of John 10:10. The devil will not be able to kill, steal and destroy us when we are already in heaven. but while we are still here on earth. It thus follows that the abundant and victorious life is meant to be enjoyed this side of heaven as well!

The devil will try to push God either into the past or into the future, when He should actually be relevant to us right here in the present.

Which brings me to another excerpt of the DVD compilation called Humorous Bible Illustrations, which I blogged about back in January 2007. This one is entitled "God, Our Very Present Help".

Happy Birthday Dearie!

Saturday, 1st September 2007

Some of you out have pointed out that the date of my blog is not correct. This is because I have a "forward"-log of about 2 weeks. I had planned to have a blog entry per day, but am currently in the situation where I have more to blog about than there are days :-)

Anyway, I wonder if anyone noticed that I had skipped the date 1 September 2007.

No, it's not because it's Teachers' Day; it's because it is my wife's birthday!

I want to thank the LORD our God for giving her to me. She has indeed been my Prov 31 woman, and a long-suffering one at that, having to put up with my idiosyncrasies over the past nearly 15 years that we have been married.

She has seen the best and worst of me. When I first started courting her back in 1988, she probably thought I was an angel that the LORD had sent from above. When our marriage was going through a rough patch in 2002/2003, she probably saw me as the devil incarnate.

More recently, my being asked to step down from leadership in church has also affected her to a certain extent. I seek your prayers that our marriage remains strong and grounded in our LORD Jesus, and that we see our identity and worth as the righteousness and beloved of God in Christ, and not based on any titles that man may bestow upon us.

...and now, she has to put up with my many hours of blogging :-)

Today is a special day for my special one, and I want to thank the LORD again for providing me with helpmeet.

Happy Birthday Dearie! I seek your forgiveness for the times I have not loved you the way Christ loves the church.

May the LORD satisfy you with good days, long life and a victorious and abundant life!