Home 2015 July (Page 2)

Month: July 2015

Preparation For The Coming Economic Flood

I have been sharing about the coming global economic collapse since 2011 in Indonesia, Philippines, China and also here in Singapore in pastoral conferences and church worship services.  Before I received the third vision in Jan 2013 to complete the message God had given me since 2001,  I went about sharing about the inevitable collapse of Europe and America due to the point of no return of their dire financial situation.  In my book, The Coming Economic Flood, I advocated mainly spiritual preparation and getting out of debt and godly stewardship as part of the physical preparation.  It is so heartwarming to hear the same message “Weathering the Coming Storm” from Chuck Missler, founder of the Koinonia House ministry. Part 4/6 gives the personal physical preparation.

 

Another Screwtape Letter – The Battle For Souls

(A senior devil writing to a junior devil)

My dear Junior,

First of all, I would like to commend you on the success of your various strategies in deluding many into thinking they belong to our Enemy but in no way have they really paid attention to the propaganda of our Enemy. Your “Mcdonaldization” strategy is extremely brilliant that the so-called salvation given by our Enemy can be had like fast food burgers and they can churn out at will. You have misled well that their salvation is simply a prayer without the so-called demand of discipleship. You have twisted the message of “once saved always saved” so well to our advantage. You have done well also to continue to delude them with chasing after wealth. In the past, our senior commanders have deluded Solomon, one of our greatest prize because he claimed to be the wisest with wisdom given by the Enemy. The Enemy had repeatedly warned Israel that their king must not accumulate silver and gold (*) and they have done well to delude the wisest man on earth of which our Enemy had boasted. Now continue your good work to delude these professing “believers” of our Enemy that they are wise and can continue to accumulate silver and gold with our Enemy’s blessings.

Your other strategy, of deluding the believers of our Enemy that their God’s method of discipling a small number is outdated and a waste of time and effort, is also brilliant. Never let them know the power of the law of multiplication or the so-called discipleship method (^) pioneered by the Son of our Enemy.  Our seniors had failed to stop Him in training 12 unruly and dim-witted hardcore disciples 2000 years ago. These uncouth 12 or 13 had turned the world upside down then to our detriment when they in turn discipled another few each and so on. Never let them understand this law of multiplication otherwise we will be in deep trouble. Now continue to encourage them to chase after the numbers game of having tens of thousand members and growing instead of true discipleship. Let them compete to win these fast food “converts” instead.

Speak to their hearts, whenever they need to choose leaders, that they should choose talent over faithfulness. Whenever they turn to read 1 Cor 1:26-29 in that propaganda book of our Enemy, speak to their hearts that it is irrelevant for the present times and Meritocracy, rather than Faithfulness, is the measure.

Continue also our well-tested strategy of encouraging that their testimony is best served by wealth and health and not by suffering. For we had suffered huge losses in the early 3 centuries AD to these hard core believers who had turned Asia Minor and Europe upside down when we thought suffering and persecution would kill their faith. But as you know, we lost heavily.

Last, but not least, let’s continue to encourage them to be pre-occupied with building their “towers of Babel”. That was one of our best strategies to fuel their pride in the past but as you know our Enemy defeated our plan in confusing them with different tongues then. Continue to fuel their feel-good feeling of their achievement in building all these expensive and luxurious church buildings. Let them think they are honouring our Enemy but in fact, they are glorifying themselves which has been the Manifesto of our Hell-ly Father Down Under.

Yours faithfully,
Your Senior Commander
Department of Strategy
Hell

(*) Deut 17:16-18 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.

(^) Law of Multiplication. Disciples making disciples is the law of multiplication.

http://www.questministries.com/disciple_making_resources.htm

Testimony (6)

God is good. God had healed me several times miraculously in the past. He had also bailed me out of business failures twice. (See my post on blog sub-category Ramblings http://www.jcmanifesto.org/dealing-with-trials-in-life/ ). He had granted several of my desperate petitions for which I pleaded with importunity. I shared these testimonies in my book, The Coming Economic Flood.

Since I gave up the lure of the world to serve Him full-time some 12 years ago, He had provided for all my needs all these years. My second and third child who came immediately after, a girl and a boy, are now aged 12 and 11 respectively. My eldest boy is now 21. Many wondered how I could raise a family of 3 children without much income. I do not take any income from the ministry. All love gifts and honorarium are saved and given to meet the needs of the least of the brothers, needy ministry workers and the basic needs in the mission field.

God is good.

In early December 2013, my wife was worried over our household expenses and I was at a crossroads in the ministry which exacerbated her concern. I was about to step down from pastoral ministry in January 2014.  I believe everything work together for good that even trials experienced are meant to train us to be patient in waiting upon Him. I believed God would show me soon on the direction I should take.

Then came the publishing of the book  – The Coming Economic Flood – 6 months later in June 2014, the formalization of my ministry JC’s Manifesto, the call to serve in 2 churches, and the call to lead evangelistic missions into specific countries with specific evangelistic plans.

God is good.

Within a week of my wife’s grouse, I received a call from an insurance agent whom I did not contact for the past 15 years. He told me that he was looking high and low for me as and I was un-contactable after moving out of my last address.  My policy had matured and I would need to update my particulars.

I had taken a look at my CPF statement 12 years ago. I only had enough money in the ordinary account to pay the premium of three insurance policies for another 4 years. I dare not contact any insurance company for fear of either being asked to top up the policies or to make the hard choice of terminating them.

To my surprise, I have met the minimum sum in my CPF account and I could withdraw all the money from the ordinary account.  To my further surprise, 2 other policies matured too.

How did the insurance policies get paid when I did not have much income over the 12 years ? My wife reminded me that I got a consulting job from 2005 to 2006 but I only received a management fee without CPF contribution. I got paid from 2008 to 2009 as an executive director in a startup company but the contribution only lasted a year.

How grateful to know that God would take care of our anxieties at the very moment we were anxious. God is good !

Writing The Message, The Coming Economic Flood

How did I end up writing the book, The Coming Economic Flood ?

The publishing of the book was the beginning of a journey to formalize this ministry God had called me – JC’s Manifesto.

During the wee hours of one morning in May 2014,  I was so immersed in my quiet time with God that I felt God prompting me to write a book on the visions He had given me over the years.  I was not sure whether it was a voice speaking to my mind or whether it was words that flashed in my mind – only God knew.

I began to come up with excuses.  I argued that the given visions, which happened quite some years ago, would sound so incredible and I was not a product of the mainstream factory producing Christian ministers, so the book would not be well received.  Besides,  I doubted any local publisher would give me an offer.    But God spoke to me that blood would be on my hands if I would not share and the results should be the least of my concerns.

I prayed for removal of writer’s block, if any, and coherency in the story line if it was really His will.

Before I knew it,  over the next 6 to 7 nights,  I was able to write roughly a chapter each night from 12 midnight to 2 am.  Thanks be to God’s Spirit in guiding me along seamlessly.

At the same time, my wife helped to read up on the internet on how to get it published in USA.  Her feedback was anything but encouraging.  She said that the process was tedious.  Firstly, I must get in touch with a publisher’s agent to look into my manuscript to see if it is viable to be published.   After clearing the hurdle at the agent, the other hurdle is the submission of the work to selected publishers by the agent on my behalf.   Some publishers will not allow direct submission.   The whole process will take some 6 months to one year.  And when the work is accepted for publishing, it will take more time in editing, proofreading, typesetting and the whole process of production will take 3 to 6 months.

Again, I prayed to God that if it was really His will for me to write this book,  I must get a book offer fast and also to get the book on the shelf all in 6 months by December 2014 because the message had a deadline by September 2015.

Praise the Lord !  Hallelujah !   I really got the book offer from Charisma Media on June 3rd 2014 within a week upon submission and the book was published with the e-book and print version ready by November and December 2014 respectively.  It is now available at Wal-mart, Amazon, Google, Barnes and Noble, Christianbook.com, Armageddon Books, Charisma House, Rakuten and Alibris.

Last week, I was so surprised to see the book being available here in the local Christian bookstore in Junction 8 shopping mall.

IMG_2732IMG_2731IMG_2730

Testimony (5)

After several years of working for corporations without apparent job security, I decided it was time to start my own enterprise. By the grace of God, the enterprise prospered from the first year of operation. With success came excesses as well and I started to drift away from God. It was nights of fine dining, partying, revelry and living the high life in the 90s. It was such extreme dissipation weighing down on my life.

The wake-up call came one day when I had a terrible fall at home. I could not remember the accident at all as I had a concussion. I was told that blood was oozing out fast from my head wound and I was unconscious. Halfway to the hospital in the ambulance, I woke up. After observation for a whole night and suffering no loss of memory, I was discharged.

While recuperating at home, I was reflecting how close I was to passing away. And would I be in Heaven with that kind of life without genuine repentance ? I was sure I was nowhere near being a disciple of Jesus with the grip-hold of the world on me then. Thank you, Lord for giving me a second chance.

In order to get my mind off work and the usual routine, I went to spend a few days in the cool Genting Highlands. As I went for a stroll with my wife one evening, I slipped and fell head on some 20 to 30 metres down a hilly slope. Not again ! ?  As I was falling down, I could even tell myself this time I am finished.  And my wife told me later that she also thought the same.

I landed on my bottoms at the foot with no broken limbs. My head did not bump against anything as well. I only had a slight scratch on my left leg with my pair of jeans slightly scratched too. It was incredible ! How did I do the somersault ? It happened so fast that I only remembered talking to myself.  Thank you, Lord, once again !

I believe God had kept my life for a purpose. I went back to church fellowship but the sudden turning back from the usual routine was tough. It was another turning point that made me turn back to God for good. It was that first vision which God gave me on 8th September 2001 in New York City. I stayed in the hotel next to the World Trade Centre buildings then.

Testimony (4)

Does honesty pay ? Being a Christian, I naturally believe it does.

I started my career as an electronics engineer in 1985 before switching to the sales engineer vocation in the same electronics multi-national corporation selling semiconductor components. In the third year with the company, I happened to question the management innocently about the allocation of a critical memory component to a distributor who had never bought this component before. It did not cross my mind then that this distributor would gain a profit of USD 500,000 every month selling this component when the market was terribly short of it.

I was immediately transferred out of the Singapore market coverage to a miserably small market which the company could easily terminate my employment for poor performance after a year. I had no choice but to leave the company.

I prayed earnestly for God’s help as I just got married and I was living from paycheck to paycheck then. All praise to the Lord that I got another job very quickly in the same line.

But this company was also terribly unscrupulous. After working for one year, I managed to do very well in sales and hit the highest commission which was equivalent to half a year’s wages. I learned from the human resource administrator that my employment would be terminated before the end of the year so as to disqualify me from collecting the commission.

I had always been a conscientious worker. I began to have doubt whether honesty does pay. On the contrary, it seemed apparent that the wicked prospered.

I was desperate and I prayed earnestly for God’s deliverance and help again. Praise the Lord for His mercy ! Not only I got my commission but I also landed a new job immediately.

A Spanish company with the regional headquarters in Hongkong called me to go over to Hongkong for the interview. I was recommended by someone I just got acquainted through sales call.  It was so timely and swift.  But of course, I knew it was God who answered my plea for a fresh start.  Since I was only going there for a day or two, it did not occur to me that it was winter there and I went wearing just a business shirt and pants ! God is good.

I was out of the woods again by the grace of God. Today, as I read the paper of how the average American is living from paycheck to paycheck, I can empathize with their predicament of struggling to pay monthly bills. I was not in such predicament because I was a spendthrift but because I had to support my parents and their apartment mortgage besides my own then.

As I progressed through my career, I could finally say that honesty does pay in hindsight. God is good. With Christian virtues of honesty and integrity, I could win over the trust of both the suppliers and the customers when I started my own enterprise.   All praise and thanks be to God.

Testimony (3)

I have shared earlier of the near-disastrous incident that I came close to failing the final Mathematics examination paper in the final year of the electrical engineering course in the Singapore Polytechnic.  Never did I expect to face another similar incident in the university in 1985.

Fast forward to the day before I would take the last paper in the final year of the electrical and engineering course in the National University of Singapore.  The last paper was Design. During the year, the whole cohort of some 200 graduands were divided into 2 groups for this particular subject. One group did 4 experimental projects while the other group did 5 completely different from the first group. I happened to be in the first group.

In this Design exam paper, a total of 4 questions would be set – two from each group – and we only need to answer one question. We were allowed to bring all the textbooks we would need to the exam hall.

In the first group, there was a very difficult project on electrical machines and hardly anyone in the whole group really understood what had been taught. So most in the first group, of which I belonged, would skip bringing the textbooks on this particular project and only brought all the necessary textbooks on the other 3 projects for the open exam. We were thinking even if the question on that difficult Electrical Machines project was set, we could still have the choice to answer the other question since 2 questions would be set for each group.

In the evening before the exam the next morning, I was suddenly warded in the hospital for suspected food poisoning. Being so sick and waiting for lab test results, the hospital refused to discharge me for the exam. I prayed and I was eventually allowed to return to the university to take the exam in the morning.

I prayed for strength to go through the exam as I was without sleep for the whole night and I was so pale with abdominal pain.   Thanks be to God for answering my prayer.

When I received the exam paper, I got a rude shock. The exam paper was set with only one question for my group and 3 questions for the other group. It was clearly a big mistake made by the examiners. I believe you can guess that the single exam question for my group was on the Electrical Machines project.

Most in my group just stood up. Many were feeling lost. Some complained loudly. A few were crying. Later when the invigilators realized the mistake. they allowed us to return to our dormitories to pick up the textbooks for that difficult Machines project. Time was extended.

When I was tackling the sole design question of the Electrical Machines project, I could only answer 2 out of the 10 sub questions. It was depressing to think that I would falter at the last hurdle.

It was an agonizing wait of 2 or 3 months before we knew our results. God’s peace, which surpasses all understanding, was with me throughout this agonizing time when I made known my anxieties to Him. I knew in my heart God would answer my prayer that I would pass somehow.

I did pass and I obtained 2nd class honors (Upper Division). All praise and thanks be to God !

Later when I started working as an electronics engineer for a couple of months, I received one of the most prestigious post-graduate scholarship – to study for Masters of any discipline either in Cambridge or Oxford University with full board and lodging, fees, and even a monthly salary which was 25% higher than my current salary.

Hallelujah ! Praise the Lord for watching over me !

On Scripture and Sacraments

John 5:39-40
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

In some churches, certain worshippers in the congregation would look surprised that I did not bring along a worn-out bible when I shared the word of God. I would use my smart phone with the bible app. Sometimes after the service, one or two would remark in jest that my bible was too worn out and was left at home. Many have this bias that it is unspiritual not to bring along the bible in print. And many will believe having a worn-out bible imply frequent diligent study and is definitely spiritual.

Jesus did not fault the Jews for not having studied the Scripture diligently but He faulted them for the above 2 assumptions. Firstly, there is no magic in having a printed bible. There is no eternal life in the Scripture per se. Eternal life is found only in Jesus. Secondly, diligent study of the Scripture is of no use unless one is pointed to Jesus to find life in Him. (The Orthodox Jews were so pious as to carry the phylacteries fastened to their forehead and their left arm but they failed to see that Jesus was the Son of God and come to Him.)

Like what John Stott said in his book, But I Say To You..Christ the Controversialist, that studying a prescription given by the doctor diligently, and even memorizing it, is of no use in getting healed for our sickness. Similarly, studying the Scripture diligently is of no use unless one goes to Jesus to get his sin-sick condition healed. The Scripture and the Sacraments merely point the way in word and in picture respectively to Jesus healing us of our sin and making peace with God. They are mere signposts pointing to the Way, the Truth and the Life in Jesus.

On the other extreme, the hyper grace believers tend to treat diligent study of the Scripture and the observance of the Sacraments lightly because they believe going straight to find life in Jesus suffices. But without realizing that these signposts are so important to understand the right union with Christ. (If they have studied the Scripture diligently, they will see clearly the fatal errors of their false gospel as well as the trivializing or twisting of certain teachings of Jesus.) The death of Christ on the cross is a death to sin. So we shall constantly count ourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ and live as led and trained by His Spirit. Titus 2:11-12. Ignoring these signposts altogether will cause one to take the wrong broad way, which is another gospel and another Jesus, leading to destruction at the end.

Testimony (2)

Just before I was enlisted for national service after I had finished the final year examination in the Singapore Polytechnic in 1980,  I went back to the campus to see the results of the examination.

The results printed on computer paper were pinned on the main notice board of the Polytechnic administration office.   Those who had passed the exams would have their names shown.  And if you had any distinction for any particular subject, the subject code would be printed next to your name.

Many would anxiously look for their name.   I saw my name very quickly with a single distinction in Mathematics.  I was jubilant to have passed.

Then, we would see who were the top students among the 170 students of the electrical engineering course cohort.  We only sat for 6 subjects in the final year.  Two of my classmates had 4 distinctions each.  Probably 7 to 8 of them had 3 or 2 distinctions each.  And then another few had 1 distinction each like me.

A few weeks after I had enlisted for national service, I received a notice to collect my results slip personally and another letter telling me that I had won a prize from the company Olivetti.   I had no idea of the reason for being awarded the prize.

When I went to collect the results slip from the Polytechnic campus,  many course-mates were there too.

To my surprise,  I came in second in the whole course !   How could that happen ! ?   After all, I had only 1 distinction out of 6 subjects while several of my course-mates had 4, 3 and 2 distinctions.

God is good.  Not only I had managed to do well in Mathematics when I was so close to failing the subject and the whole exam,  I had done so well surprisingly at the end.

My results were 1 distinction, 4 As and 1 B.   The classmate who came in first had 4 distinctions and 2 As.   Another classmate had 4 distinctions, 1 A and 1 D.   Some had 3 distinctions, 2 As and 1 D.

Then I realized several top students had a D for one particular subject, Circuit Analysis & Measurements, which pulled down their marks so much.

This subject was an easy subject as only formulae were involved in the analysis and measurements of electrical circuits.  It is almost impossible for the top students to do so badly.

I believe God had granted my prayer petition beyond what I had asked, though I was audacious then to say that His honor was at stake in my anxiety and desperation during the Mathematics exam.  Praise and utmost thanks be to His name !

Because of this good result,  I was permitted to join the local National University of Singapore to study for the Bachelor of Engineering course in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the second year.

It was so incredible.  I was denied a place in Pre-University to study in the top 2-Maths and 2-Sciences classes in Raffles Institution.  Most of these students in these 2 classes went on to study electrical and electronics engineering in the local university.  And I could join them again in the university in the same course year !

All glory to God !

Testimony (1)

3rd July 2015

I was half way through the first year of pre-university course in 1977 when I decided to terminate and apply to study in Singapore Polytechnic. I applied to study 2 mathematics and 2 science subjects in Pre-U but was denied a place as these places were much sought after then. And I was placed in the economics and biology class which was not of my interest and I could not cope.

So off I went to Singapore Polytechnic to study the 3 year electrical engineering course. I did fairly well in the first two years in a cohort of 170 students.

In the final year, I had to sit for the exams of 6 subjects. In the few days prior to taking the final exam paper of Engineering Mathematics which was my favorite subject and I had done well in the first 2 years, I was feeling relieved that the exams would eventually be over and I would join the workforce to support my family. We were downright poor then.

Came that day to sit for the Mathematics paper which would last for 3 hours from 9 am to 12 noon. The paper would consist of 5 compulsory questions in Section A worth 11 marks each and 3 selection questions out of 5 in Section B worth 15 marks each.

My mind went nearly blank for the first 2 hours and I could only answer 2 questions in Section A. That would give me 22 marks and I could not even pass even with a provisionary pass. In those days, if you failed one subject, you had to be retained again for the whole year.

I must not fail !

I had been active serving in the Christian ministries in the polytechnic then. I played the guitar and led the worship in the lunch time meetings. The registered groups of the other faiths were also very active then in proselytization too and there was rivalry.

Thoughts went through my mind that these groups would mock me and my faith for failing the exams.

I asked for permission to go to the toilet to wash up. When I locked up the toilet cubicle, I prayed. I prayed to God that His honor was at stake for I had been conscientious in my studies as well as in service. I knew I could answer the questions except that my mind went blank, so I asked for clarity of mind and that the cloudiness in my mind could disappear.

When I went back to the exam hall, I was able to answer one more question in Section A and another in Section B. Mentally I worked out that I could have 48 marks and that would be enough to qualify for a provisionary pass. Relief and gratitude to God came to my mind.  I went on to finish all questions except one.  Thank you so much, Lord !

When the results came out, I was surprised that I had a distinction for Mathematics !  Only 2 in the cohort had distinction for Mathematics. Hallelujah ! Praise the Lord !

The story did not end here. I will continue with the testimony in another post.