Category: Ramblings

There are times, though we know clearly the teaching of the Word of God, we are still unable to discern whether we are right or wrong about our response towards a particular issue.

As we seek God for wisdom in the first instance, we will not be disappointed. He had promised in James 1:5 that He will give generously without reproach.

Once, my wife was particularly disturbed about the long corporate prayer in church and had this feeling that the person who prayed was not really sincere in her prayer and deliberately prayed long prayers to impress the congregation. I did not want to make any similar judgment immediately. Firstly, I might err in having a critical spirit on such an important worship as corporate prayer. Secondly, I might hurt my wife by disagreeing straightaway if it turned out it was really so. In Matt 6:5, our Lord did mention that there could be hypocrisy in prayer by loving to stand and pray in synagogues to be seen by others.

I prayed on a Saturday as we would be hearing this long corporate prayer during worship service the next day. I wanted to know if my wife could really discern the hypocrisy or we were overly critical. After finishing my prayer, I turned on the TV. I saw Mr Ron Atkinson (aka Mr Bean) in front of the computer typing this question : “What is the difference between praying in the church and praying in a casino ?” The reply came back from the computer : “In the casino you really mean it.”

I believed it was surely God’s reply to my prayer. I could very well turn on the TV a few seconds late and this scene would be over. The timing could not be more perfect to give me the answer.

Here is another episode of how God answered my prayer with such unique circumstances.

I was disturbed by the malice of the lay leader and his wife, who was a choir leader, against some brothers in church a decade ago. I had no choice but to bring up to higher leadership in the denominational church. As I was about to meet the leadership over this matter, I prayed the day before whether I should simply ignore the whole matter or should I stand on justice.

I could not sleep whole night thinking about how the discussion would go. Would the leadership try to cover up as it would be embarrassing for the church ? Would I be portrayed as a troublemaker ? Did I err in suspecting them of malice ?

At 3 am which I should be sleeping, I turned on the TV and switched to the Crime and Investigation channel. An episode of the Top 10 Crimes – the BTK Killings – was about to start.

What a surprise ! I hardly watch crime stuff. This crime was about a serial killer who was the president of the church council of a Lutheran church and his wife was the choir leader. What a coincidence. The crime came to be known as BTK as the serial killer, Dennis Rader, described how he bound (B), tortured (T) and killed (K) his victims deliberately challenging the police. He went into hiatus when his children were born and he was really a good father. He was only caught later in his 70s when he felt he would not have the strength to commit another crime later. The court granted his wife immediate divorce upon conviction to protect her from possible mental health problem. He was a good husband, good father and a good church leader all this while. Unbelievable !

But I got my answer to my prayer – human hearts are deceptively wicked – and I was right about the malice of the lay leader and his wife. In my discussion with the higher leadership, I told them to read up the BTK killing crime. Later the lay leader and his wife left the denominational church when their malicious acts were exposed.

If I did not turn on the TV at the right time, I would not have watched this similar crime episode.

Surely these are not coincidences. These are God’s specific answers to my prayers. Praise the Lord for His divine guidance always.

Luke 10:17-20

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

When the 72 disciples returned, they were elated that they had authority over the power of the enemy. I believe our Lord warned them instead that pride was the reason Satan fell from heaven. In Matt 7:22-23, we were reminded that even with such power and authority, our Lord may not know us.

It is, therefore, safer to rejoice in the salvation by the grace of God which was exhorted by our Lord.

In my faith journey so far, I have experienced miracles, visions, acts of providence and divine guidance by the grace of God. And I know how easy I can get conceited just like St Paul who was given a thorn in the flesh to humble him. Now in my second decade in evangelistic missions, thanks be to God for His grace is truly sufficient for me and I am actually more glad to share of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ can rest fully in me.

By the grace of God, I have learned how to live in joy in the salvation so graciously given us and to walk as our Lord has walked by the gracious guidance of His Spirit.

I can’t say it better than 2 Pet 1:3-11 (NLT).

3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But those who fail to develop in this way are short-sighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.
10 So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. 11 Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

John 10:11
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Psalms 23
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

How we see God will determine how we respond to His love. If we see Him as a harsh judge, we are likely to see all trials in life as punishment and alienate Him. But if we see Him as a Good Shepherd, we will see all trials as His discipline for our own good and we will seek Him first and dwell in His loving care always.

When we walk through the many valleys of danger and hardship including the shadow of death in life, He does not promise to remove us from it. Instead, He will be with us in going through. His rod – the Word of God – will correct, reprove and train us to stay in line in the path of righteousness. And His staff – His Holy Spirit – will convict and guide us back always into His care and protection.

Like a Good Shepherd, He will look for a good Table-land (plateau) with good grass, close up all the danger snake holes and ward off predators (enemies) before shepherding His sheep to the Table-land (plateau).

Like a Good Shepherd, He will anoint our heads with oil – His Spirit – to soothe our souls from all kinds of anxieties (flies that constantly annoy us the sheep).

As long as we are obedient to be led by His Spirit, surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives.

And we will see Him soon and dwell with Him forever !

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord forever and ever !

Several years ago, a man in a cell group meeting said it was ridiculous to say grace for the food on the table. He reasoned that he had to work and pay for the food and it was not given free by God. I retorted that he forgot the whole food production cycle is only possible by the grace of God.

Similarly, we tend to forget that all healing of our bodies is divine healing. God heals in several ways :

1. Through the immune system of the body.
2. Through the timely advancement in medical science.
3. Through deliverance.
4. Through miracles.

The function of the immune system God has put in our bodies is to protect against disease and also to cause self healing. At times, people develop cancer when the cancer in their bodies wins the battle against the immune system. But if we pray to God for wisdom in knowing the pathway of healing on what to eat to strengthen the immune system to fight again, it is possible to reverse the effects of the cancer, God willing.

Sometimes, when we pray for healing of the infirmity or sickness in our bodies which seems impossible at the time we pray, God may heal us when the time for science to finally discover the cure comes. The cure for tuberculosis was discovered in the early 20th century. Before that, it was incurable and terminal. So if one living in that period the cure was discovered while suffering from tuberculosis, he would find his prayer for healing answered.

Some suffered from trauma in the early part of their lives and when they were delivered by the grace of God, their health improved tremendously.

God is sovereign and He may heal through miracles too. We have enough testimonies today to prove He does heal miraculously. We must bear in mind that the healing miracle is God’s mercy and not a right of a Christian. Phil 2:25-27.

The example of the thorn in the flesh suffered by St Paul, which he had pleaded with God 3 times for healing to no avail, clearly tell us it may not be God’s will to heal all the time.

By the grace of God, we can know much about what to eat to prevent cancer and to strengthen the immune system through the amazing advancement of medical science today.

While praying for God’s healing miracle, we must also accept God’s common grace in praying for the knowledge of the medical pathway of healing from God, especially in knowing what to take to strengthen our immune system.

May God give us the discipline and knowledge to take good care of our bodies. All thanks and glory to our Lord God who always loves us.

Some saw the spiritual insight on how to slay the “giants” in one’s life from the battle of David and Goliath.  But I saw this important lesson from the biblical text itself – contending for the honor of God’s name even against “giants” of power and authority.

1 Sam 17:24,26

24 All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid… 26 And David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and TAKES AWAY THE REPROACH from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should DEFY the armies of the living God?”

Jesus Christ is the only Way.  He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Do not come to Jesus JUST for the food that spoils, the healing of the body which will eventually die, the consent to live ungodly lives, the consent to live in indulgent dissipation and the consent to gain the whole world. You may gain the whole world but you will surely lose your soul.

You can continue to think you believe and have eternal life but Jesus does not trust your belief if you come to Him for the wrong reasons. John 2:23-25.

Come to Him and trust and obey Him. True belief will lead to true allegiance and obedience.

Jeroboam II reigned as King of Israel from 789 BC to 748 BC. Despite being an evil king, who continued the politically motivated idolatry of his forefather Jeroboam, son of Nebat, God was gracious to Israel and gave her great political and economic prosperity during his reign as a last chance. (Eventually the deportation of Israel by the Assyrians came in 722 BC.) 2 Kings 14.

Archaeology revealed a time of great political power and economic prosperity. Jeroboam II recovered a lot of land from the Syrians. The houses were built much bigger than previous times and the rich could afford both winter and summer houses.

Blessed Are The Meek For They Shall Inherit The Earth. Matt 5:5.

“…It was the meek and lowly Jesus who with an upraised whip of cords expelled the mercenary traders from His Father’s house. Nor is meekness mere good-naturedness which will take anything from anybody. Essentially it is that attitude of mind which does not insist on its own rights and is always ready to waive its privileges in the interests of others…” – J Oswald Sanders.

The world thinks of the meek as one who does not count for much but Jesus our Lord said he will inherit the earth. This is a steely character who is willing to yield to others when the principle of God’s laws is not at stake. Such a person may claim nothing in his own right but he truly inherit the new earth that is coming. He is wise to claim nothing that is perishable to inherit that which is imperishable. The meek Moses chose rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt for he was looking forward to the reward – the new heaven and earth.

Blessed Are They That Mourn, For They Shall Be Comforted.  Matt 5:4.

“It is not the sorrow itself that is a blessed thing, but rather the comfort which God ministers to the sorrowing. There can be no comfort where there is no grief…The happiness of the Gospel message is that it alone professedly deals with the common lot of sorrow, and gives the oil of joy for mourning. This is its initial undertaking : its final guarantee is “no sorrow; nor crying.” – J Oswald Sanders

Because we are living in the overlapping times of the Kingdom of God is already here and the coming Kingdom of God in glory, we still live in tension in the present fallen earth while waiting for the new heaven and earth.

Psalms 8

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

God alone is worthy of worship for His works are so majestic without peer.

Consider the infinite micro universe with atoms and molecules expanding all the way to the infinite macro universe of galaxies of stars with His laws setting in motion everything we can see. Consider the beauty and wonder in His creation of organisms, plants, insects and animals with His laws guiding all to depend on each other in harmony. Consider the delicate eco-system working in perfect order for all life to survive. How majestic are His works !

God alone is worthy of worship for He is holy without peer.

Consider how we look at pests in our environment which we are ever so ready to annihilate and we can perhaps understand a little of His absolute abhorrence of our sin. Consider how abhorrent we are – not even a speck of dust as compared to the whole universe – and yet we believe we can be like god. We are nothing but pests destroying the sanctity of His holy and beautiful created world.

God alone is worthy of worship for His love without peer.

Consider how incorrigible it is for a wayward self scented creature to believe he can replace the Creator in control of his own destiny. Yet this Sovereign Creator God is willing to incarnate and propitiate Himself to reveal Himself as the Truth, the Way and the Life for His creation.

God alone is worthy of worship for His grace without peer.

Consider what do we, creatures, deserve such honor and love from our Creator ? Nothing. Absolutely nothing ! And yet He is willing to make us sons and joint heirs of His Kingdom with His only Begotten Son.

Let’s exalt His Wonderful and Holy Name for all eternity !

Eph 2:8-10
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The Law which Paul talked about is the Halakha, the Jewish Law, of 613 prohibitions so devised so that the Mosaic Law could be legalistically complied. The Jews believed that their own effort in religiously complying with this Halakha, which Paul called Works of the law, would earn them salvation.

Paul said that he was blameless in compliance as a Pharisee. Phil 3:6. Yet he was merciless in persecuting the church and even approved of the stoning of Stephen.

The Pharisees could be blameless in complying with the 613 prohibitions outwardly but you know from Scripture that they were mean, covetous, prideful and hypocritical in their hearts.

So we see that there can be no evidence of a new heart and new spirit even when one can comply with the Halakha.  That is, we cannot earn salvation by these law-works.

By nature, we are spiritually blind and in order to see this fallacy, God must open our eyes and melt our hearts of stone into flesh – that is Grace.  By grace,  when we are born again in Christ Jesus, a new heart and new spirit will be given us and the Spirit of Jesus will also be given to move us to fulfill the law.  Ezek 36:26-27,  John 3:5-7,13-15.

Psalms 19 tells us the law of the Lord revives the soul, rejoices the heart and make wise the simple. Without understanding that the law is Good which is the blueprint of our image of God, do we really know God ?

Jesus our Lord often talked about the heart or character conforming to this blueprint rather than the silly outward compliance of rules so devised to conform to the law. As silly as those who legalistically follow rules without true circumcision of the heart so is the silly ignorant believer who rubbishes the law.

(The Law of Christ, which is to love God wholeheartedly and to love one another, will fulfill the Mosaic Law.  Rom 13:10.   So when we bear each other’s burden by loving one another,  we have fulfilled the law of Christ.  Gal 6:2.)

The righteousness of Christ is imputed unto us when we believe in Jesus and accept Him as our Savior and Lord. Phil 3:9.  Though the righteousness is imputed, the training to be Christ-like in character only just begins.

Titus 2:11-13. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.