"Best Christian Blog of The Week" Award! Thank you LORD!

Monday, 5th February 2007

I happened to be checking the statistics of my blog and noted to my pleasant surprise that there had been a sudden spike of visits over the weekend.

Then, I discovered that this guy by the name of CybeRanger had left a comment that my blog had just been awarded "Best Christian Blog Of The Week" for the week ended 4 Feb 2007!

I really do not know how he chanced upon my blog, but like I mentioned in an earlier blog entry about there being no such things as coincidences in the life of a Christian, I really believe that this is "divine appointment" and of being "at the right place at the right time".

I take this as the LORD affirming me to continue to declare the great and mighty deeds He has done in my life. This award could not have come at a more appropriate time. Thanks be to God! Hallelujah! It has motivated me to carry on and blog for the glory of Jesus! Amen?

The award has been most timely, especially after getting mixed feedback over the past week or so, which frankly speaking, really made me feel very discouraged, and wonder whether it was all worth the effort.

Yesterday morning, as I was about to partake of the Holy Communion, I broke down and wept, because I felt that the devil was destroying the good friendships and relationships that have been built up, and I asked the LORD whether this was worthwhile because of the gospel of grace and the finished work of the cross. That was when I felt Him comforting me and saying, "My son. This is what being persecuted for the sake of my gospel is all about. Take comfort and continue to stand firm and declare my deeds in your life." After having a good cry, I felt my strength being renewed like the eagle's (Isa 40:31).

The doctrine of the gospel of grace and the finished work of the cross seems to really divide us as Christians, which is to be expected I suppose, because the evil one will not want the people of God to know the truth that will set them free to live out the victorious and abundant Christian life of prosperity, health and every success here on earth.

Christ has not only paid the full price for our salvation, but also for our health and healing (by being striped with the cat-o-nine-tails) and our prosperity (by being stripped totally naked on the cross). The Divine Exchange was not only our sin for His righteousness, but also our diseases for His divine health and our poverty for His riches.

Even though satan has succeeded in keeping this truth from many believers for more than 2000 years, this will no longer be so because we are the Benjamin end-time Generation, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against us who confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God. Amen?

What has also dawned upon me is that suffering for Christ is not being inflicted by sickness or diseases (which is actually the works of the evil one). Rather, "suffering" for Christ is being misunderstood by others (yes, even those whom your hold dear) and yet, still being able to continue to love them unconditionally.

When I had lunch with Rev Wee Boon Hup last week, he mentioned that whenever there are conflicts and disagreements, the way of the world is for the one who is vindicated to tell the other "You deserved it. I told you so." God's way however, is for that person to be around to help the other person "pick up the pieces" and initiate reconciliation and restoration. That truly is a word of wisdom from the LORD.

When Peter met Jesus after our LORD was resurrected, he was full of guilt because he had denied Him three times. Jesus did not condemned him, but instead helped Peter to "pick up the pieces" by asking whether he loved Him three times (one, for each of the time he had denied Jesus). This process of restoration and reconciliation helped Peter to go on to be a mightly apostle, whose preaching at the Day of Pentecost resulted in 3,000 souls being saved!

My cluster leaders Sunny and Yeok Ming put this in another way. At the end of the day, it does not really matter who is right or who is wrong. What matters is that we are right with God. Amen?

Prejudice and Pride

Sunday, 4th February 2007

I am sure many of you out there must have realised by now that I am a big fan of Pastor Joseph Prince of New Creation Church, and to the extent that some of you have started to warn me that I be careful not to make him into my "idol".

Thank you, dear brothers and sisters, because this is indeed a timely reminder that the focus should be always be on the Message of Jesus Christ and not on the messenger. Satan is always finding ways and means to trip up the believer (as depicted in Screwtape's letters to his nephew Wormwood, which is a brilliant book by C.S. Lewis by the way -- thanks, Pastor B for the recommendation!).

What I have slowly begun to realise is that whatever is meant to be a blessing from God, Satan will do his utmost best to turn that very thing against God's people. We read in Exodus 16 about how God provided the Israelites with manna from heaven (which was meant to be their daily bread). Some of them behaved like kiasu Singaporeans and tried to tar pau for the next day, just in case they bo gau chiak. Well, when they took it out the next morning, they were horrified to find that it had gone rotten and was infested with maggots (Ex 16:20)

Having been exposed to the gospel of grace and the finished work of the cross has been the biggest breakthrough in my spiritual journey. Like a beggar who has discovered gourmet food, I have been very enthusiastic about telling others about it. Yet, the lesson I am learning is that what one treasures as a valuable diamond, can instead be considered to be a worthless stone by others, to the extent of it being even seen as an offensive piece of dung! Like myself, some receive this doctine with gladness and gratitude. Yet there are others who are prejudiced against what they consider to be an "over-emphasis" on grace and the finished work of Jesus.

Through this episode, God is also reminding me is that it is futile to "force things down people's throats". It again goes back to WWJD -- "what would Jesus do". Jesus is a perfect gentleman who never forces anything upon anyone. When I examine myself, I realise that there was an element of spiritual pride, because it did appear to some that this beggar was trying to tell the other "beggars" that he now had all the answers, well-meaning as he was. For this, I am truly sorry and seek the forgiveness of all whom I have offended.

Like that book by Jane Austen, prejudice and pride seem to go hand in hand...

This brings to mind a book I read many years ago (I forget the title now, so those who remember, please email me to let me know). The author of that book mentioned that there were 3 incidents recorded in the Bible which King David did that displeased the LORD.

The first two (which are inter-related) were committing adultery with Bathsheba and arranging for her husband Uriah to be killed in the frontline of battle (as recorded in 2 Sam 11). The third (which is lesser mentioned, but equally significant nonetheless since the Holy Spirit saw it fit to be recorded) was him taking pride in how large his army of mighty men had grown, and asking his generals to take a census to count them (2 Sam 24).

In that book, the author mentioned that the sin of pride has greater consequences than the sins of adultery and murder. As a result of adultery and murder, 2 lives were lost, ie. that of Uriah (2 Sam 11:17) and that of the child produced by David and Bathsheba resulting from their unholy initial union (2 Sam 12:18). But as a result of David's pride, 70,000 lives were lost! (2 Sam 24:15). This fact was reinforced by Rev Wee Boon Hup recently when he said that it is actually God Himself who opposes the proud! (James 4:6, 1 Pet 5:5)

Whenever we go through a trial and satan puts worries and anxieties on us, we can always confess that "if God is for us, who can be against us?" or "He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world". However, if satan trips us up by putting pride in us and making us think too highly of ourselves, then we are in super big trouble because God Himself is now against us during those moments of pride!

This is consistent with what happened to David: the death of Uriah and the baby were somewhat the natural consequences of sin, but the death of the 70,000 was carried out by the Angel of the LORD himself! (2 Sam 24:16)

Like Pastor KL said in a sermon he preached sometime last year, pride is something that one is usually unable to see himself; it usually takes others to point it out to him. So once someone points it out to us, confession and repentence need to take place el pronto, so that our relationship with our LORD is restored again, and He is once again "on our side", and we are "on his side", as it were.

Dear Heavenly Father, please remind me at all times to guard my heart and mind from the sin of pride, because I do not want to be in the enemy's camp as a prisoner-of-war. When a brother or sister points this out to me, please help me to be quick to repent and humbly seek forgiveness because you oppose the proud but gives grace to the humble, and I will then once again be back in the territory of friendly forces.

Let's end this blog on a positive note. Ultimately, God works for the good of those that love Him, and called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28). Even though we may offend others intentionally or unintentionally, God can still bring something good out of it (Gen 50:20), just like what He did with Joseph in Egypt.

So what good did God do from the incident of the 70,000 men that perished? When David repented of his sin of pride, the angel of the LORD withdrew His hand. At that moment, He was at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, and David was asked to offer a sacrifice unto the Lord there. This is the passage where David made the famous quotation, "I would not offer anything that cause me nothing", so he bought the threshing floor sacrificial oxen from Araunah. Subsequently, this also became the place where Solomon built the temple :-)

2 Chronicles 3 : Solomon Builds the Temple
1 Then Solomon began to build the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David.

Library of Anointed Messages on the Gospel of Grace and the Finished Work of the Cross

Saturday 3rd February 2007

I have mentioned elsewhere on my blog that I received the biggest bonus of my career in Dec 2006. While seeking the LORD on how to "tithe" on it, He impressed upon me to sow into the ministry of a truly-anointed man of God, Pastor Joseph Prince, whom He has used mightily to bring across the gospel of grace and the finished work of the cross.

Sometime last month, I placed an order to purchase the entire sermon and book catalog of Joseph Prince Ministries ("JPM"). I have also subscribed to his sermons, which means that each week, his latest messages are sent to me via ordinary mail.

I have stored these CD/DVD sermons in chronological order using the albums as shown on the left. Vol. 1 contains #001 to #168. Vol. 2 contains #169 to date. Just yesterday, I received #267 and #268 via post.



These sermons are meant to bless others, so please drop me an email if you want a copy of the sermon catalog (which includes a synopsis of each sermon).

Books and CD albums are being stored in a box, and my collection is shown on the right.

There have been requests to borrow the CDs from various sources, including from colleagues in my department.

Speaking of which, just 2 days ago, I discovered that my company actually has a group of Christians that meet every Thursday during lunchtime, a majority of whom are from New Creation Church! [This is actually not surprising since it is the 2nd largest church in Singapore and has 14,000 members and counting. (Rev Kong Hee's City Harvest being the largest with 20,000 and counting).]

I have been invited to attend the fellowship next Thursday, and intend to make available the JPM Resource Library to them as well. Would it not be a pleasant surprise for the NCC members to realise that someone from another church has a complete collection of their pastor's sermons :-)

Having listened to more than 100 of his sermons, here is my all-time Top 3 favourites:

(1) In Christ All of God's Promises Are Yes and Amen (1 Aug 2003)
No prizes for guessing why this sermon is my all-time favourite. It is based on my favourite verse in 2 Cor 1:20, and it encourages us to take God at His Word and trust His promises of healing, prosperity and victory.

Synopsis: In the passage leading up to the climax of verse 20, Paul reminded the Corinthian church that his message to them was a firm yes, and not a "yes" one moment and then a "no" the next. If he can be so certain in his preaching, how much more certain is the One he preached about, ie Jesus Christ Himself. Hence all of God's promises in Christ are Yes! and Amen! to the glory of God through us.

(2) Shepherd and Sheep - The Secret to the Abundant Life (16 Apr 2006)
This was preached at Easter 2006, when I brought my mom to the 4th service. There were hundreds upon hundreds queuing to enter the Rock Auditorium. In this sermon, Pastor Prince relates the Shepherd's Psalm (Psalm 23) to the Good Shepherd (John 10) and tells us that surely goodness and mercy will "hunt us down" all the days of our life, as long as we keep our eyes focused on Jesus.

Synopsis: The Lord is many things to a believer — Saviour, provider, healer, lover — but most of all, He wants to be your Shepherd. It is when you take your place as a sheep and rely on Jesus as your good Shepherd that the abundant life He came to give you will become a reality. Hear this message and realise all the blessings and privileges that belong to you as a sheep in Jesus’ flock.

(3) Doing That ONE Thing (16 Jan 2005)
This sermon talks about the story of Mary and Martha. Martha was described to be troubled about many things, and Jesus told her that only one thing is needful and Mary had chosen the good part. As we do the one thing to "sit at His feet" (as it were) and feed upon His Word, He will take care of the other things and put us at the right place at the right time.

Synopsis: In a world filled with cares and distractions, Jesus says that only ONE thing is needful. Listen and discover the ONE thing that will help us live the let-go life!

Shalom
Malcolm

Let's take them to our Leader's Son

Friday, 2nd February 2007

Dear Theophila and Theophilae

When I was much younger, I had dreams of being in the music and entertainment industry as a Disc Jockey. Well, so much for dreams. The closest I have gotten (and will probably ever get) is as the MC at my children's birthday parties.

Wishing to be a DJ meant that I would listen intently to the lyrics of songs. One particular song that never fails to bring tears to my eyes is "Take Me to Your Leader" by Newsboys.

In a typical science fiction movie about aliens and outer space, there will be a scene when the flying saucer finally lands on Planet Earth. Invariably, out steps a creature in a spacesuit who points a laser gun thingy at the inhabitants and says, "Take me to your leader".

It was with this concept in mind that Australian Christian band Newsboys, entitled this song. The climax, as it were, comes at the end where we are asked to "take them to our Leader's Son."

The song starts off with a lady who is caught for shoplifting. She is seen by a judge, whose wife had walked out on him, so he takes it out on her by sentencing her to jail.

In jail, she is ministered to by the chaplain. Touched by his care and concern, she wants to know what makes him so different from other people.

The song then goes on to talk about a man who is worried about his health, and resorts to taking vitamin supplements and aroma-therapy. Yet he finds no solution to his anxieties, but notices that his neighbours seem to have a sense of tranquility. One day, out of curiosity, he decides to ask his neighbour's son what his secret is.

The song ends by pointing us to what is special about the chaplain and the neighbour, and the answer is none other than our "Leader's Son", Jesus Christ!

When I hear this song, it reminds me that we are to be witnesses (Acts 1:8) and ambassadors (2 Cor 5:20) for Jesus Christ. There must be an "attractiveness" about us. While others fret and worry about their career or children's education, we display a sense of peace and serenity. While others take revenge on those who have wronged them (like Pastor KL mentioned in his sermon about avenging or "bao chou" being ingrained in Oriental cultures), we choose to forgive and extend unconditional love. This will cause our pre-believing friends and relatives to wonder why we are so different, and these then become great opportunities for us to point them to Christ.

So let's take 'em to our Leader's Son! Amen?



Isabelle is a belly dancer with a kleptomaniac's restraint
tried stealing Helena's hand basket, made a fast getaway, but McQueen she ain't
at the courtroom Joshua judges her ruthlessly on account of Ruth walking out on him
in the Big House Isabelle is a-telling all to the chaplain who's become her friend

she says: I don't know why you care I don't know what's out there
I don't know where or how just take me to your leader now take me to your leader now

Justin is adjustin' to the odor from Theodore's Evergreen Incense
but aroma therapy don't make him any younger than Oliver's All Liver Supplements
his late mate Merrilee merrily said immortality can't be bought in a jar
this just in: Justin's had enough of cure-alls,
gonna quiz the neighbor kid with the fish on his car

he says: I don't know why you care I don't know what's out there
I don't know how it's done just take me to your leader, son
I see you've got the joy I've seen you live it, boy
It's real, it's free, it's fun, so take me to your leader, son

They don't know why we care They don't know what's out there
They don't know how it's done Let's Take `Em To Our Leader's Son
They see we've got the joy They see us live it, oi
it's real, it's free, it's fun, Let's Take `Em To Our Leader's Son



Shalom

Let's talk about Jesus (more and more)

Thursday, 1st February 2007

The term "Jesus Freak" was coined as a derogatory label for Christians who took their faith seriously. When DC Talk released an album with that as the title track, it helped to take the negative connotations out of it.

There is an equivalent label used in countries where Cantonese is spoken -- and that is the term "kong ye sou" or "talk Jesus". When I was a teenager growing up in ACS Secondary, several of my pre-believing classmates would use that term at Chapel on the speaker, or at the boys from the Christian Fellowship. (I did not join the CF until University although I accepted Christ at the Billy Graham crusade in 1978 because I had started to backslide during my Secondary and JC days, but that is another story for another occasion).

Anyway, this "kong ye sou" term is usually said in a mocking tone, and has caused Christians to stop talking about Jesus. This is exactly what the evil one wants to do, because Jesus has commissioned us to "go into all the world and preach the gospel to every nation" (Matt 28:19). We should be honoured to talk about Jesus. In Rom 1:16, Paul said "I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the dunamis power of God unto the soteria salvation of man".

And that has become the inspiration for this design (which is going to be the 21st Christian-themed tshirt in my collection.) Choon Hong, please stand by for my order :-)

[The rest of my tshirt collection can be viewed here]

Just like DC Talk took the negative connotation out of the term Jesus Freak and made it something cool to identify with, my prayer is that the term "kong ye sou" will also be something that Christians can wear as a badge of honour.

Let's not be afraid to talk about Jesus, because He is the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to God except through Him (John 14:6). Instead, let's talk about Him in increasing measure.

Like that children's song we used to sing in Sunday School, let's talk about Jesus more and more!

Let's talk about Jesus
The King of Kings is He
The Lord of Lords supreme
Through all eternity
The great I Am the Way, the Truth,
the Life, the Door
Let's talk about Jesus more and more!

May you have a blessed day ahead!

Shalom