Today's Scripture Reading

[Psalm23]

Re: Urgent prayer for the nation of haiti

Today’s Scripture Reading [February 7, 2010]

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. [Matthew 2:1-2. KJV]

Many skeptics still believe that Jesus is a legendary figure. This is because they are ignorant of a very important historical development that can undoubtedly testify to the historicity of Jesus and they don’t need to look further than the calendar. The mere fact that the calendar is divided into two periods of B.C. (Before Christ), and A.D. (Anno Domini or ‘In the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ’) for tracking time has testified categorically to the historicity of Jesus as a Real Person. If Jesus is not a real person, why would the world use His birth year to track and record historical events? Isn’t this paradoxical that real historical events are tracked by the birth year of a non-existing legendary figure! We are all aware, at best legendary figures (together with their folklore stories) are commonly used as moral compass to educate or to teach people to be good. Even though, they often influenced and impacted only people just within a specific community and soon they are just forgotten.

Jesus is a Real Person and regardless of our religious faith, we are all living in His calendar, in His time, and we will live or die by His laws. There is no escape to this plain truth. The historical life story of Jesus is told over and over for more than 2000 years. There are more books written about Jesus any other books. In fact, Bible is still the best seller in many major stalls and it is the most translated book in the world with at least one book of the Bible has been translated into 2,400 languages. There is no close second and this translation of the Bible is still continuing even as you are reading this posting!

In the Gospel of Matthew 2:1-12 concerning the historical birth of Jesus, we can see how three distinct groups of people responded to His birth:

(a) First was King Herod described by many historians as a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis. When he heard about the news of a new King of the Jews, Jesus Christ, he felt his throne was threatened. This murderous king’s response to the birth of Jesus was anything but tragic. He ordered that all newly born babies who were two years and below were to be slaughtered. Imagine the anxieties and the sufferings of those parents who had young children below two years old!

(b) The second group of people was the chief priests and the scribes. They were the people who were very knowledgeable in the Torah. They knew very well the prophecy of the birth of a Saviour to save the world; they even knew exactly where He was to be born - in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:5). However, they did nothing and made no efforts to seek or worship the Messiah. They were too concern with their daily temple affair that they overlooked the real God. Perhpas, they are just like some of our modern-day church leaders. Instead of putting their hearts to worship the Messiah, they simply ignored Him and make themselves too busy with the church external affairs that bring little or no spiritual benefits to the people.

(c) The third group of people was the wise men, the Magi, from the east. They were the rich and the powerful. However, they came just for one purpose: to seek the new King of the Jews and to worship Him. They brought with them gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. These wise men were guided to look for the King of the Jews by a miraculous stellar event, the "Star of Bethlehem," and when they saw baby Jesus, they fell down and worshipped Him (Matthew 2:10-11). They were like our some of some great preachers and great men of God such as John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, Hudson Taylor, Martin Luther setting His Church on fire inside out.

Which group do we belong to? While we can honestly say that we are categorically not King Herod, can we honestly say that we are not the chief priests or the scribes? Are we so busy with our work that we often fail to worship Him? Many of us are too busy in our career, job, building ‘churches’ but only out of bricks and mortar. Worst still, there are Christian leaders planning to build ‘church-mall’ as integral part of shopping mall-cum-entertainment complex. I wonder how God will react when His sanctuary is going to be built right in the shopping mall complex surrounded by all kinds of worldly performances and carnal entertainments from pubs with semi-naked table top pole dancers to cinema screening 3D vampires. In Matthew 21:12, we are told that Jesus went into the temple of God and overthrew, among other things, the tables of money changers because those early ‘Christians’ had converted His temple (church) into a place of commerce. We can’t really imagine what kind of commercial activities took place there but they must be extremely horrific and offensive to Him because Jesus blatantly said to them that “they have made His temple a den of thieves instead of the house of prayer”. One would just wonder what Jesus would call these modern church leaders when He sees those ‘church-malls’. Will Jesus be pleased or will Jesus also label them as ‘den of thieves” or even something worst? Comparing to the commercial activities of those days, modern man has excelled in inventing all kinds of entertainment which, I believe, even great prophets of those days would never have thought of! But not God. He knew all these even before the creation of the universe. In Matthew 7: 21-23, Jesus warns that in the Day of Judgment there will be many who have performed great works for God yet will be turned away from heaven. His parting words to them are, “Go away. I never knew you; you evil-doers!”

Dear brothers and sisters-in-Christ, do you know where your relationship with God is? Is your relationship with Jesus is made of only bricks and mortar? Frankly, I don’t know myself either as all of us will know our relationship with our God only on the Day of Judgment. I will, however, put every of my efforts to sincerely obey His commandments. Let us, therefore, encourage one another to keep His commandments and our faith in God. We must continue to be excited for God, praising and thanking unceasingly Him for all that He has done for us. We must be discerning and be fully aware of what is around us and not be deceived, and the best ways to avoid deception is to test ourselves with these questions:

• Are you waiting more anxiously for the completion of your ‘church-mall’ or are you waiting more anxiously for Jesus' Return?

• Are you sharing more of God’s love with your friends, your family members or are you more excited in sharing with them your ‘church-mall’, how many theatres, pubs, shops will be in the mall?

• Are you kept reminded by your church leaders of the short-fall of the money needed to fulfill the construction obligation of the ‘church-mall’ project, or are you reminded by your church leaders to give your money to the poor as commanded by Jesus (Matthew 19:21)?

• Are you kept reminded by your church leaders to check what you read or hear (including their sermons) against the spoken Word of God, the Bible, and are you idol-worshipping your church leaders, pastors, elders, deacons? Do you feel that you can’t live without them instead of Jesus?

• Are you walking away from the church service feeling that you are still a wretched sinner and need to ask God for forgiveness and to sincerely repent of your sins, or are you walking away from the service feeling that you care nothing of those so long the ‘church-mall’ project is completed and God will be pleased?

Like churches in many western and developed countries, the state of today’s church here has lack the focus on mission; has become fast-food church looking for a quick nutritional food; looking for flavour and idols; looking for short-term carnal benefits; more concern in getting people into their church membership register rather than to make people disciples of Christ; seeking happiness to fulfill desires of the flesh but failing to understand the purpose is to know our Triune God; becoming entertainment and social club rather than a body of Christ built for His glory.

Remember, doctrine of errors will lead us to error of practices! One of the deadly errors is for church leaders to ‘modernise’ the Church, the Body of Christ just to ‘keep up with time.’ The True Church of Jesus Christ is never out-of-date and does not require modernization nor need any renovation. Only buildings built of bricks and mortar do! So, check everything that you hear or read because all Christian sermons, internet postings, books, magazines, movies, etc are written by man. As a matter of facts, many of them contain errors and some are really dangerous one. So, you must check and re-check (including my postings here) and the ONLY place to check them out is to go to your BIBLE which is the infallible Word of God. Pray for His Holy Spirit and He will guide you through (Luke 12:12; 1 John 2:27) and by His Spirit, the truth will be revealed to you. Don’t be deceived because deceptions and lies are tools Satan will rigorously use in the last days (1 Timothy 4:1-2) which many believe are already here! There are modern-day ‘King Herods’ here to take away not your physical lives but your soul and your spirit and surrender them to Satan. They are more cunning, more deceptive and more dangerous than the historical King Herod. Be not deceived! The secularly infused lifestyle has no place in the Body of Christ. We must go to the basic Biblical Truth – the Gospels, the Good News, the Word of God, the Cross, the Blood of Jesus, the Triune God, His Love, His Mercy and His Grace, and they can ONLY be found in the pages of the BIBLE.

 

[Psalm23]

Re: Urgent prayer for the nation of haiti

Today’s Scripture Reading [February 14, 2010]

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. [1 Timothy 6:10. KJV]

The first Singapore casino opens today in Sentosa and with the Lunar New Year season, gambling fever is getting dangerously hot. Based on the experience of some advanced countries like the U.S., the sad news is that usually the people who gambled the most are those who can least afford it. From the number of harassments by loan-sharks reported in the newspaper recently, I believe we are not too different. Many gamblers borrowed from loan-sharks are living in 3 or 4-bedroom apartments in the heartland public residential areas where mostly lower and middle income wage earners live.

In 2005, Singapore legalized casino. In anticipation of serious negative consequences that are likely to occur when the two casinos are in full operations, the government has established new institutions in the hope they can help to bring these negative consequences within ‘acceptable’ limit. But this gives no comfort to the nation at large because, knowingly or unknowingly, the establishment of these institutions is synonymous with a very grim and somber warning to the people: “The Bet Is On – Be Prepared For The Worst!”

I have since been trying to recall our success story as a nation. Outside Japan, Singapore has the highest standard of living in Asia and our per capita income is one of the highest in the world. I was very proud of our early founding fathers. Against all odds, they had achieved unmatchable success when they turned Singapore from a poor third-world country into an admired industrialized country in less than one generation. After World War II from mid-1940 to the late 1960s Singapore faced insurmountable problems – zero foreign reserve, widespread unemployment, frequent student and labour unrest, British withdrawals threatening the already-widespread unemployment, racial and communal riots, economic confrontation and trade embargo by Indonesian government, merger and separation from Malaysia threatened greater racial tension. But our founding fathers didn’t give up. On the contrary, they took a tough stand to build Singapore without compromising the social ill and well-being of the people. Many of the policies that our founding fathers implemented could be related to the teaching of the Ten Commandments. For example, they refused to legalize casinos and the famous words “Over my dead body" was how a senior founding father, once put it, rejecting gambling as an affront to the Singaporean ethic of hard work and clean living. Besides casino, the government also rejected unhealthy sports like motor racing because, according to this senior founding father, “he could not understand the allure of such events, driving around and then going into the pits; after that, changing the tyres and revving out again ... makes no sense to him." Motor racing was then banned from Singapore in 1973. The sudden return of motor racing, the F1 Grand Prix, really puzzled me because the chances for racers now “to go into the pits, changing the tyres and revving out again” couldn’t be any different from the races of 1970s. In fact, it is even more dangerous now!

I can only guess that the prologue to all these changes of legalizing casinos and bringing back motor racing is purely for economic reasons. “In Singapore, if you are out of business, you are out of food” so goes another quote taken from one of the magazine interviews of a senior cabinet ministers.

In my younger days, I was extremely proud of the achievements made by our founding fathers who believed strongly in hard-work and clean living. The swampy land in Jurong that has been miraculously converted into world class industrial estate has undoubtedly testified their honest belief of ethnic of hard work and clean living. Just like any good and responsible citizen, I too was eager to make contribution for Singapore. However, my very humble education could not bring me too far to make any significant contribution. Nevertheless, I took every opportunity to share with my overseas friends and colleagues how blessed our was and all because of our founding fathers’ belief system. I was acting like a self-proclaimed but unpaid goodwill-ambassador ‘selling’ Singapore which I was more than willing to partake. I spent more than 30 years working mostly for American companies though holding insignificant and unimportant positions but was given opportunities to travel many times to U.S. and U.K. My most pleasurable social interaction was to ‘trick’ my overseas friends into asking me questions like “How come Singapore is so blessed and so successful and yet without major vices like casino? Can you tell us more about your government, your people?” These were the questions I couldn’t wait for them to ask because I couldn’t equally wait to tell them my favourite punch-line: “We believe in hard-work, we believe in clean living and we believe in building a healthy nation with the least possible vices.” My second favourite and proudest punch-line was: “So long the old man is alive, Singapore will never have a casino!”

Sadly, I now have to eat my humble pie. In the next few weeks, we are going to have, not one, but two casinos! Instead of proudly sitting with my overseas friends to ‘trick’ them to ask me questions pertaining to our success, I now have to avoid them because I would rather eat the humble pie on my own accord than be forced to eat it!

But is gambling really that bad? Why can’t we gamble? Bible does not specifically forbid it, so what’s the problem? What’s the big deal?”

Yes. It is! And not just a problem but a very big problem for families and for the nation! Let me share with you that there are at least five biblical reasons why gambling is wrong and as children of God, we must avoid it at all cost.

(1) Love your neigbours as yourself (Matthew 22:39).

No gambler desires the best for his friends. Instead, he wants his gambling friends to lose as much so that he could win. This is selfishness. The Bible has instructed us to pray for others (James 5:16), not prey on them.

(2) Let him labour, working with his hands and what is good that he may share with those in need (Ephesians 4:28).

Gambling violates the simple law of exchange because it produces nothing to benefit others. The only thing that happened in the gambling tables is money just changed hands from one person to another. The business of gaming does not increase gross national products. On the contrary, tax-payers have to finance the law enforcement agencies to police this kind of business because, inevitably, it will also attract other vices like money laundering, extortions, loan-sharking, prostitutions, mafia.

(3) Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow (Proverbs 13:11).

God's rule for prosperity is simple: Make all you can, save all you can, and give all you can, and this must be gradually done with patience and perseverance. In gambling, people are looking for the big-pie-in-the-sky. They want to hit it big right away.

(4) Do not covet (Deuteronomy 5:21).

In The Tenth Commandment, it says, "You shall not covet...You shall not set your desire on your neighbor's house or land...or anything that belongs to your neighbor." Hence, a gambler breaks the Tenth Commandment the moment he sat down at the gamble table. Gambling is based totally on coveting what belongs to others. When you sat down at the gambling table, you will think of nothing but just desiring the money that are placed in front of the fellow gamblers and wish that they could be yours.

(5) We can be enslaved and addicted by the destructive habit (2 Peter 2:19).

Gambling is very addictive and this addiction will ruin families and wreck other people's financial security because participating in gambling will germinate bad spiritual fruit – anger, hatred, greed and even murder. Losers who are in debt will think of ways and means to borrow, steal or rob so that he or she can continue to gamble in the hope of recouping the loses. To a gambling addict, the well-being of others including their family members is the last thing on his or her mind. You may have read or even known of good people turn into thieves all because of the uncontrollable urge to gamble. The latest case was a woman law clerk who misappropriated over $1.5 million from her company to feed her gambling habit is another sad reminder of the destructive consequences of gambling (the Straits Times Feb 12, 2010). Furthermore, many people, even though they are not Christians, know that gambling is very un-Christlike. If we, as children of God, gamble, we may never be able to lead them to Christ which is one of our highest callings by God.

With the above scriptural verses and with my humble short exhortations, I pray that you are now convinced that gambling is forbid by God. The bet is already on and there is nothing we can do to change it. The grim and somber warning that we must “Be Prepared For The Worst” is not going to take us by surprise because we all know that nothing good can come out from gambling. But as an individual, as a child of God, we can and we must flee from all sins, not just gambling. For example, avoid, if possible, those people who are causing you anger without any good reasons; avoid movies that are causing you to imagine those things that God forbids. Don’t play around with sin. While we can’t do anything to change things and because temptations are everywhere, we can, as children of God - when tempted, just flee! (1 Timothy 6:11). Together, we can have frequent close fellowship among Christian friends and sharing of God’s Word because the Word of God and the Blood of Jesus have tremendous cleansing power to for us to flee all temptations.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [February 21, 2010]

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. [2 Corinthians 5:17. KJV]

We are living in an ever-changing world. This change is particularly more prevalent, more life-impacting in the last 25 years when new digital technology and inventions really took a big leap forward. Just like fire is a good servant but a bad master, we too have to be aware that either we control the technology or the technology will control us. I think you know the answer better than I do that we are now controlled by technology. In some situations, we are fully controlled by the technology that it has become our master. We are all now very dependent on it as in some businesses like banking, air-transportation, global telecommunication network system because they just cannot function without technology. Every sphere of the banking transaction, for example, is so technological-driven that a simple breakdown of the system could halt the business community entirely, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Though by and large was a false alarm, the threat of Y2K that trade and commerce might be seriously crippled when the year moved from 1999 to 2000 is a haunting reminder that technology can really become our very bad master if we handled it incorrectly, or if certain critical areas of the technology were fallen into wrong hands. For example, cyber attack through the malicious spread of computer software viruses is a global problem. It is threatening not just businesses but also national defense and security and this is just one aspect of the harmful effect and the price that we have to pay for technology.

Even under normal operating environment, almost every one of us, especially city-dwellers, is facing stress from changes in technology. Just look at our laptops, mobile phones and computer software, how many times have we changed over the last three or four years. These changes seemingly give us some enjoyment or pleasure initially but soon would just fizzle out. Within months, perhaps, we began to look for new one. It may seem controversial a statement, the truth is that technology will destroy us all and we are now witnessing many of these destructions because of new technology and new human inventions. Addictions to cyber casino, cyber porn, cyber video games, cyber internet chat with strangers are some problems that are causing havoc to young children, breaking down families and choking up corporate resources. In fact, not just in technology. Everything man creates will eventually go out of date.

It’s not an overstatement to say that change is imminent, everything that is, but the Gospel, the Word of God. Although the Gospel is over 2,000 years old and they have been updated Bible translations the Gospel is still relevant today as it was when it was written. (Note: Although there are many different versions of the Bible, my personal view is that for serious Bible study, the King James Version should be preferred).

However, there is a change that we must make and that is to let the Holy Spirit to fully work in our lives and to change us to be more Christ-like. Technology advancement and new inventions may give us some short-term comfort, but our Christ-like nature transformed by the Holy Spirit and firmly guided by His Word, the Bible will give us lasting peace that the world (including new technology) cannot offer (John 14:27).

We have the Gospel, the Word of God that will never grow out of date. And the Gospel is this: Jesus Christ, the Son of God came to earth, lived a perfect life, gave up His heavenly life by being sacrificed on a cross as a sinless man, was buried in a borrowed tomb, was raised from the dead three days later (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) and we are redeemed through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins (Ephesians 1:7) so that we can enjoy eternal life with Him.

Let this greatest story ever told make us brand-new – forever. Let us help to spread this Gospel of Good News to our relatives, colleagues and friends and even strangers. As the world is so closely wired together through internet and in spite of its abuses and misuses it has nevertheless brought our acquaintances closer to us then ever before. Even though this new technology of internet has brought more harm than good to us, we must nevertheless take advantage of it for His glory. We can use the internet and the email to share our testimony and to proclaim the Gospel to the uttermost of the earth (Acts 1:8). I thus pray that if you have been encouraged by the reading of the postings on Today’s Scripture Reading in your walk with our Lord Jesus, please let your acquaintances know of these blogs as well. All it takes is just few ‘clicks’ and you can be His witness, witnessing to them the Cross of Jesus and His Redeeming Blood and sharing His Message of Love, Peace, Mercy and Grace.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [February 28, 2010]

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. [Ephesians 6:12]

Over the last few weeks, we have witnessed some controversial events. First was the opening of Singapore first casino. Among other concerns, we are worried that it will affect families because bread-winners may end up as gambling addicts and crime rates like illegal money-lending, organized crimes by local and foreign mafia, prostitution, extortion, cheating will increase drastically. These concerns are not without merits because in less than two weeks into the casino's opening, we have already seen cases of cheatings and other crimes associated with the casino and they were committed by both the locals and foreigners.

Then came another controversial event when a senior pastor who, perhaps over excited and zealous about his Christian faith, had given an ‘unwelcomed’ sermon to his church members. It was one of the most discussed topics in the local internet and thankfully the pastor later had apologized to the religious leaders of other religious faith who felt they were offended by his sermon. Next, before the dust of this episode was fully settled, he raised another controversy by preaching against homosexual and same-sex marriage, and like the earlier sermon, created an uproar. A police report was later lodged by someone who felt that the pastor has 'caused communal disharmony' because of what he had preached. This reminds me of a similar incidence in the U.S. when Miss California 2009 received multiple death threats after she commented that marriage should be between a man and a women. She was responding to a question on same-sex marriage during the beauty contest.

We may feel a little comfort because the offending party here simply lodged a police report whereas in the U.S. they reacted violently with death threats. But from the biblical perspectives, our seemingly better civility of non-violence indeed has caused grievous concern especially to the Bible-believing Christians. In both the Old and New Testaments, we are told that homosexual is against God’s laws and yet people are offended by what was being preached on the sinfulness of homosexual and same-sex marriage. Even current secular has made it a crime to engage in homosexual act!

The plain truth is that each time we invoke the Gospel, the Word of God and to tell people exactly God has commanded, we will be fought back mercilessly by the power of darkness. We must be very mindful that we are not struggling against the enemies of the flesh and blood, but against rulers of darkness of this world, against authorities, against spiritual wickedness (Ephesians 6:12). We are therefore instructed to take up the full armour of God so that we are able to withstand firmly on the evil day (Ephesians 6:13). And one of the best ways to take up the armour of God is to pray because Jesus has promised that if pray and ask in accordance of the will of the Father, He will honour us, and the will of the Father is to see that everyone shall come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved (1 Timothy 2:4).

In Matthew 21:12-13 we are told that Jesus went to the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He accused them of turning His house of prayer into a den of thieves and robbers. In one of His sermons, Jesus warned that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees (perhaps equivalent to today’s church leaders like pastors, elders), we will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:20) and we are further warned not to pray like hypocrite to impress people (Matthew 6: 5-6). Just like Jesus’ teachings, in the books of the Gospels and slso in Apostle Paul’s epistles, we are told to examine ourselves (2 Corinthians 13:5) and not to judge others (Matthew 7:1). Apostle Paul has impliedly that there were self-professed Christ’s followers but they continued to live their lives that caused grieved concern to the Body of Christ. This was evidently recorded in Ephesians 5:3 when Apostle Paul warned the saints (or believers) not to engage in fornication, uncleanness, or covetousness.

These verses taught us great spiritual lessons. One of the great lessons is that Jesus and Apostle Paul were chastening Christ followers especially the religious leaders and not the non-believers. Instead of surrendering to God, their hearts were void of God and Jesus knew this. He never hesitated to use words like they were ‘dens of thieves’ (Matthew 21:13) or ‘vipers’ (Matthew 23:33) to air His displeasure. Apostle Paul, too, has never hesitated to chasten Christ followers. In fact he made himself as a ‘poor’ example because there were times he did things that were absolutely wrong in the eyes of God but he nonetheless did it because he admitted honestly that he had no control on some of those unholy actions as he was living in the flesh (Roman 7:15-20). The Spirit of God will be totally absent from us when we are living in the flesh!

Another great lesson is that we must clean up our own house first before we can go to clean up others; when we minister to others, we must minister with great love and kindness. We must imitate Jesus – love sinners but hate sins. We must not blatantly bring down others because by so doing, the unbelieving hearts will become more hardened, just like Pharaohs whose hearts got hardened each time they were chastened by Yahweh, the God of the Bible. We don’t need to act out in drama when it comes to preaching the Word of God or sharing our testimonies. My own conversion to be the follower of Christ can fully testify to this.

Some 30 years’ ago, I was working as a junior bank officer. Up to that moment, I had not been fully told about the Gospel of Jesus Christ although I knew something about Jesus. All I knew was that Jesus was born to take away our sins and that was it. I didn’t know the biblical context. Just like most people’s view, God to many of us was just a ‘vague concept’ and we always comfort ourselves that all ‘gods’ are the same and so long we do good, so long you don’t cheat, etc, we should be able to please our ‘god.’ Like most traditional families, participating in ancestor-worshipping and worshipping of other ‘gods’ particularly the ‘god of prosperity’ was the regular religious ritual in my family.

One Saturday noon before I left the office, a Christian colleague came together with him a copy of the Bible and wanted to share with me who Jesus is. I must admit, I just wanted to get home because I was quite tired. However, I could see his sincerity and so just not to disappoint him, I reluctantly agreed to listen to him. He started telling me about Jesus and had tried very hard to avoid offending me of my own religious belief of ancestor-worship. He was least interested in my religious background. I listened and listened but nothing got into my head. His patience, his sincerity and the love of God that radiated out from his sharing of the Gospel seemed to tell me the Jesus is real and I just found it difficult to give excuses to say “that’s enough.” Over the next few Saturdays he patiently shared with me the Gospel of Jesus. I couldn’t remember even one single time that he was ‘condemning’ what I did was wrong or telling me to keep away from this or from that. All he did was sharing with me the love of God – the God who made Himself Man to reconcile with Him. After several weeks of his sharing of the Gospel, my heart was completely softened and I confessed on one of the Saturday afternoons to Jesus that I am a sinner and accepted His death as my substitute. That was my very first but the most significant step of my Christian faith.

As you can see, there was no drama in my conversion to be Christ follower but just simple sharing by a faithful, truthful and sincere man of God. To me, this is what evangelism is all about – bringing people to God by showing the love of God through our own conduct of love, faithfulness, patience and sincerity. Nothing can replace this. There was no music because music cannot make you a Christian; there was no video-presentation because video-presentation cannot make you a Christian; there was no great testimony apart from my friend’s own admission that he is a sinner like everyone; and it was at the most unlikely place, at a humble office cubicle.

Since then I have never regretted. In fact, the only regret I have was (and is still is), I should have known Jesus earlier. Many Christians, me included, are over zealous about the Gospel and want to tell people about God’s Kingdom; we want them to be part of this Kingdom; we want them to be reconciled to our Creator and to share His inheritance; and most importantly, we want to do what God has commanded us to do – to preach His Gospel of Love, of Peace, of Salvation to the world (Mark 16:15). Unfortunately, our over zealous approach may have unintentionally and unknowingly offended others because most of the time truth hurts. The world is getting more intolerant by the day, not just about religious matters but almost everything and this misplaced intolerance is going to be a huge obstacle for Christ followers to share His Gospel. We must also be mindful that we are fighting against the power of darkness, against spiritual wickedness. We must avoid those actions (either in words or in deeds) that could trap us into disappointment and could ensnare us into losing our hearts to do His will. We must continue to share the message of God’s love, of His Birth, of His Cross, of His Redeeming Blood, of His Death, of His Resurrection, of His Truth, and the best way is to do it prayerfully and lovingly.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [March 7, 2010]

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. [John 1:1; 14 KJV]

Does God exist? Was life evolved by chance or was life created by God? Who am I? What am I worth? Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going when I die?

These age-old questions continue to entice mankind today as they did six thousands’ ago since the beginning of creation. How we answer these questions will have significant impact on each of us personally as well as on the world collectively. It may be unfair to always use U.S. as example, but nonetheless, it was noted that since 1960s when U.S. started to change most of the public policies like education and law to slowly abandon the Word of God, there was an exponential increase of crimes, divorces, abortions, teen pregnancies and education standard was fast declining. Instead of accepting that God creates everything, people are now taught in schools that all things, living and non-living, were evolved over million or, possibly, billion of years through unguided process of chance and by trial and error. This conditioning of our mind into believing that there is no God starts from day one when we attend school!

We cannot deny that the ultimate outcome of a godless and Christless society is lawlessness and we can witness this from our daily news - sinful deeds of all kinds are permeating throughout the whole spectrum of the society from an average man on the street to top government leaders. These are now the order of the day because of man’s foolish rejection of God’s existence and the result is that “man will proceed to do all kinds of evil and corrupt things and there is no one who does good (Psalm 14:1).”

But why are people so ignorant about the existence of God? Just look at the sky above, the sea below, the trees, the flowers, the mountains, the lakes and all the animals around us, they just couldn’t be evolved out of pure chance. Is this ignorance due to mankind being deceived, or it is due to our lack of acknowledge? In the former, we are cautioned by the Word of God that during the last days there will be many false Christs and false prophets to deceive people (Matthew 24:24-25). In the latter, it is the pride and foolishness of people who refuse to open their hearts to learn the knowledge of God. Prophet Hosea has warned that because people have rejected His knowledge, they will be destroyed (Hosea 4:6).

In 2008, the world celebrated 150th birthday of the discovery of the theory of evolution. This theory which was published into a book titled, The Origin of Specie, was written by Charles Darwin in 1859. A geologist, Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution claimed that all living things have a common ancestor which was evolved from non-living material. Unfortunately, his so-called ‘scientific’ theory of evolution was well accepted by the scientific community and much of the general public in his lifetime. Because of the wide acceptance of this theory, it has influenced much of the education system around the world. Science textbooks since then have incorporated his theory teaching students nothing more than we were evolved from dust into simple living cells into more complex animals like fish, birds and finally into apes from which human evolved! If you believe in this teaching, you will have to accept that your great-great-great-great grandparents were, once upon a time, apes and if you go far back enough, your very first ancestor was, once upon a time, just a piece of rock! This is just plain insult to your ancestors!

But why would such ludicrous theory be so widely accepted just like gospel truth? Was it because people lack acknowledge? Was it because of man’s foolishness? Was it because of deception by the power of darkness? Answers to these questions are quite obvious: Yes! It was due to man’s lack of knowledge; man’s foolishness; and most dangerously, the devil’s deception which is completely guided, directed and controlled by the power of darkness to a point that many people are blinded from the true light of our Holy God, Jesus! (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). Although there were many scientific discoveries in the last one hundred years that could easily disapprove the theory of evolution still many people, including well-respected scientists, continue to acknowledge that we are evolved out of pure chance and holding on strongly to the theory of evolution.

Let’s examine just few of these discoveries after 1859 when the theory of evolution was officially published, and I pray that you can come to the wise knowledge and understanding that we are all indeed created by God in His image (Genesis 1:27). [If you are serious about this topic, you can go to do a search in the internet and you will be surprised to see countless scientific discoveries that have confirmed undoubtedly the existence of our Holy God. All you need is to type the word “Creationism” or “Creationists”.]

First was the discovery of Deoxyribo-nucleic Acid (DNA). DNA, the blue-print of all life and it carries the genetic information in the body’s cells, was first isolated in 1869 by a Swiss physician. Since then the scientific understanding of DNA has grown by leaps and bound, especially the last 15 years. There are 3 billion DNA codes in each human cell and if all the DNA of a human body is connected into one single line, it is long enough to go up to the sun and back 70 times! Science has also shown that all living cells must have DNA and different kind of cells from different creatures have their own unique DNA structure. Although DNA is a 4-letter code (ACTG), it is a complex set of living “software” or “program” that instructs how each cell should function. It is a set of instructions (or words) divinely coded only into in all living cells to become flesh: “And the Word becomes flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14)”.

Further discovery of DNA and scientific tests have confirmed that cross mutation (or transmutation) between different kinds of living things such as between a fish and a dog is totally impossible as each kind of living cell has it own unique DNA code with its own peculiar properties that are ‘non-transferable’ or ‘non-cross mutable’. This is fully consistent in Genesis 2:21-25 which says “God created all living things after its kind”. However, this transmutation of living cells was proposed in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and was blindly accepted. For those people who accepted this before the discovery of DNA, we may well understand but with all the convincing scientific knowledge of DNA that confirmed that it is ‘non-cross mutable', it’s simply mind boggling why people can still accept transmutation of living cells between different kinds. Ask yourself this question: Do you really expect one day, perhaps, one million years from today, a horse can become a man, or a gold fish can become an elephant (or vice versa)? For that matter, do you expect one day a tomato can turn into a potato?

The second one was the discovery of physical structure of atoms in the early 1900. In the theory of evolution, it claimed that complex living things were evolved from non-living things into a very simple one-cell organism at the very beginning. Science has now shown that there is no such thing as ‘simple’ cell. Every living cell is highly complex and modern scientists are still learning the functions of cell however simple it may seem to be. Around 1900, scientists began to understand the physical structure of atoms and together with the invention of electron microscope, it can now show that a ‘simple’ one-cell organism has as many as 100,000 atoms. Furthermore, to their amazement, this ‘simple’ one-cell organism has many biological and physiological functions just like those complex living creatures – it breathes air, it digests food, it turns digested food into energy, it excretes unwanted food as wastes, it reproduces, it repairs itself, it moves, it can defense itself, etc. It is estimated that the biological and physiological process that is taking place inside a cell is comparable to that of a manufacturing process in a motor car factory!

It is very obvious that once people make that foolish choice to reject the existence of God, rejecting the Bible, rejecting Jesus Christ, rejecting the Living Word, their involvement in every type of sin imaginable will inevitably follow. Acknowledging Jesus as God and accepting Him as our Savior will have huge positive influence on each of us in a very personal way. When we see Jesus, we see God because He and the Father are one (John 10:30). In Psalm 19:1, we are told that the heavens declare His handiwork and His glory and in the Gospels we are told that Jesus Christ who made Himself Man is the true representation of our Holy God and our Creator: gentle, loving, aware of our self-centeredness and shortcomings, and deeply and mercifully wanting a personal relationship with us. This can be witnessed through His 3 years of public ministry, His willingness to be our Sin-bearer and His absolute obedience to accept the cruel punishments of the cross. Our hope began on the very day of His resurrection when He has conquered death once and for all, and for those of us who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and repent of our sins, our rightful place of abode is the Heavenly Home that He has promised for us (John 14:2-4).

As children of God, we must hold fast to the Word of God. He will never leave anything to chance or do anything by trial and error. Our God is a Perfect Supreme Being and He will do all the things right the first time! He and only He can be fully trusted (Psalm 118:8).

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [March 14, 2010]

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. [Matthew 23:13. KJV]

In Matthew 23, Jesus was speaking to His disciples and to the crowds. It is very interesting to realize that Jesus was very harsh in His words which He has directed particularly towards scribes and Pharisees. These scribes and Pharisees were the religious leaders in the Jewish synagogue and they were among the most religiously conservative during the biblical era. They were like present day church leaders such as pastors, deacons or elders. In just one sermon, He called them hypocrites seven time! (Matthew 23:13-29) and they were no difference from vipers (Matthew 23:33)!. Hypocrisy must be one of the most abominable behaviours that God really hates!

So, what is hypocrite? The word “hypocrite” comes from the Greek “hupokrites (hoop-ok-ree-tace) and it means an actor under an assumed character. A true hypocrite is actually someone who pretends to be something he or she is not, and really has no intention of becoming one. Honestly, we are all hypocrites at some point in our life whether in office or at home, whether we are conscious or not.

Chapter 23 of the Gospel of Matthew has very valuable lessons for all of us to learn. These lessons are:

(a) Do not blindly follow what other people do, especially those who are in leadership positions. As we all know, many people will do something with ulterior motives, perhaps pretending to be helpful or showing compassion but only to later benefit themselves only. Quite unknowingly or quite unsuspectedly, some leaders can become our role-model but remember, Jesus is our only Role-Model and as Psalm 118:8 has warned us to put our trust only in God and not man.

(b) When we do things, especially when helping others, we must do it out of the love for God and our sole motive for doing them is to glorify God. God, though is an unseen, can see through our motives. We cannot hide from Him (Ezekiel 28:3; Hebrews 4:13).

(c) We must refrain from coveting grand titles and honour in order to boast our ego or to increase our standing in society. Jesus has spoken against His disciples from calling themselves ‘Rabbi’ nor be addressed ‘master’ by others, and He even tell us that the most appropriate title of us as children of God is the title of ‘servant’ because they are the greatest people in the eyes of God (Matthew 23:11). The real test of a person’s humility is through his sincere and honest servitude wholly dedicated for His glory.

(d) We must not use the name of God to induce fear into people or take advantage of people, especially helpless women, widows, children and orphans (Matthew 23:14). We have read in newspaper how some religious leaders induced fear by using the name of their ‘gods’ and force the victims into submission for their evil gains. Apostle Paul has also given similar warning to us in 2 Timothy 3:6 which tells us that such people can creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts.

(e) We must not be greedy and we must avoid self-indulgence. We have too often heard of sermons by religious leaders telling us to make godly sacrifices and live simply but we are now witnessing 'high-class' church building with millions of dollars spent just only for the digital screens and all the electronic gadgets that can even outdo many commercial entertainment theatres and concert halls. No music, whether with mono-speakers or with surround-speakers, can turn people to Christ. We all turn to God only by the Word of God; by the sacrificial death of Jesus and by the Holy Spirit. We must avoid to being guilty of having the wrong focus, stressing big buildings, coveting large crowds, just accepting people into the church without challenging them to true repentence and without emphasizing a conversion of inner self (Romans 12:2).

(f) The blue-print of our success must not confine to achieving big ‘numbers’. Report after report, we read about this or that church has now achieved so many thousand membership. In Matthew 23:15, Jesus was fully aware that some scribes and Pharisees though have put the efforts to convert sinners to become believers of the True God but in the end they were the very people stumbled these converts whom they had converted them in the first place and made them twice as deserving for hell. I am not against mass evangelism but we must all be careful not to let the blue-print of our success solely be rested on number and nothing else. A well-known evangelist commented once that of the so many thousands who came and responded to his altar-call to seemingly surrender their lives to Jesus, he wondered how many would keep to their faith after few years.

We must examine ourselves frequently where we are in our relationship with our Holy God. We must seek His Word and to learn of Him especially His way of life. This is the very basic necessity more essential than food and water. We must remember of those commitments that Jesus demand of us, to pick up the cross and follow Him all the way to Calvary. We must watch out for false prophets and false-Christ that come up brimming over with a wide smile on their face, soft voice and the sweetest of words which sound so convincing but with full of spiritual poison. These false-prophets and false-Christs are in abundance and they are going to misuse the name of Jesus in these final days of lawlessness. They will come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. We need to walk with our eyes wide open and we need to get help from the Holy Spirit and through Him, we can recognize these false-prophets and false-Christs by their fruit (Matthew 7:15; 20). We must be thankful, always, to our Lord Jesus because He has provided us the inspired Word of God, the Bible. If we are His true disciple, we must faithfully read His Word daily, hold on to His teaching and He will reveal the truth to us and the truth will set us free (John 8:31-32).

 

[Psalm23]

Dear Brothers and Sisters-in-Christ,

I am very encouraged to see the daily readership of this blog is about 35. This has given me great motivation to continue to share His Good News and all for the glory of Jesus, our Redeemer and our Saviour!

I prayerfully hope that this blog has, in some small way, helped you all walk closer with our dear Lord Jesus.

If you are led by the Spirit and want to help spread His Good News, kindly let your friends know of this blog.

Let's us all thank Him for His precious blood, His suffering, His resurrection and more importantly, His love, mercy and grace that He has so abundantly given to us.

I too want to thank the Lord that this blog has been civilly preserved and the readers have been very discerning. Thank you all for being so understanding and so discerning. I must say that I am a human just like everyone and I too can make mistakes. If you have noted anything that I have written is not too right, accurate or correct, you are most welcome to comment on them. My humble request is that this must be made without any use of abusive or insulting language to hurt others, especially the faith of other religions.

Have a great and blessed week.

God Bless
Psalm 23

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [March 21, 2010]

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. [Isaiah 53:3. KJV]

Soccer and in particular, the World Cup, is the most-watched sports event on earth. As the month of June approaches, soccer fever is getting heated up by the day. It was estimated that 2006 World Cup attracted the cumulative global audience of over 30 billion! The coming 2010 World Cup which is to be held in South America is not going to be any difference and it will not be a surprised to anyone if the size of the audience is anything but bigger. Besides the World Cup, there are tournaments for the European Cup, the FA Cup and many others in various countries. One can easily estimate that the cumulative audience for all these tournaments taken together could easily exceed 50 billion. This is more than 7 times the current world’s population estimated to be around 7 billion. In addition to soccer, there are other popular sports like golf, motor-racing and tennis. Just 2010 World Cup alone, it was budgeted that a total of US$ 4 billion would be spent directly to host the event, and so can we imagine the huge resources that are needed to just host sporting events while millions are starving to death every year!

In addition to sports, there are countless people patronizing movie cinemas, theatres and concert halls to see the performance of their favourite celebrites. Sports and entertainment are big commercial business. If you were to turn to our local newspaper, you will notice that everyday there are pages upon pages of news dedicated to sports and entertainment. On other hand, it is rare to just see even brief news column written about God. The very sad truth is that even when such news or articles are published, often then not they created controversy. In some cases, people will call for government to take action to stop the publication of these news because ‘they can cause racial, ethnical and religious disharmony.’ Many people thought that it’s better to live their lives without God, and the best motto seems to live by is ‘Live and let live’ and ‘don’t tell me that I need God.’ The end result is that very few people want to talk about God and very few people want to believe in God because they all want to ‘live and let live’ as if there is no God.

Many entertainment and sports celebrities have become idols to many people, young and old. Over the years, quite a few of these celebrities were elevated to demi-god status. Their fans don’t just admire them; they worship them because they have become their gods. In 1966, John Lennon, a member of a very famous British rock band, the Beatles, was to have said, “We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first – rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity.” He later claimed that he was misquoted although he admitted that that was truly the situation of Britain – people are not interested in God and the Beatles were indeed more popular than Jesus.

Honestly but sadly, John Lennon was right even until this day. He was commenting on the sorry state of Christianity as he saw it because everywhere the band went, they were mobbed by screaming young girls and boys. Every concert the Beatles played was packed by a mob of ardent fans and admirers.

The situation today is no difference from the 1960s. If anything could go by, it’s even more absurd now than what it was 50 years’ ago. I remembered that one day I went to a shopping complex and I was puzzled to see an extremely long queue of young girls and some young boys. I asked one of them what were they queuing for. To my amazement, I was told that they were queuing to catch a glimpse of the members of a pop-band from Taiwan. It was reported later that many of them were queuing very early in the morning just to ensure that could get close enough to see these band boys!

Popular celebrities have become idols to many people to a point that many people would blindly imitate them. Their admirers just simply follow what they wear, their hairstyle, their habits even though they are bad habits such tattoos and piercing of bodies which is strictly forbidden by God (Leviticus 19:28). If we were to be depended on these sports or entertainment celebrities to give us hope, security and confidence, or to give us identity and acceptance in the society, we are bound to be disappointed. The latest cases of ‘fallen angels’ of a well-known international golfer and a local film-maker-actor speak clearly to us that we must go back to the very basic tenet of God’s advice: “It is better to trust God than to depend on man. (Psalm 118:8).” Men, however good or however bad they are, will come and go. Just think of the fate and the destiny of all the famous, the infamous and the great people that we knew of them in the last 150 years from Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution (which tells us that we were created out of nothing and our closest ancestors were apes or ape-like animals) to Hitler who had slaughtered six million helpless Jews, they had all gone. John Lennon who was more popular than Jesus, was assassinated in 1980 while our Lord Jesus continues to live on into eternality.

It doesn't matter if the Beatles were more popular than Jesus in their heyday, Jesus remains forever and He will always have the last say for both time and eternity. Furthermore, when here on earth Jesus promised that He would come again and take all His true believers to be with Him in Heaven forever. Remember our Lord’s word, ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am (John 14:1-3).’ One of the most wonderful attributes of God is that He cannot lie and so we can be rest assured that His coming to take up to the heavenly home is as real as the sunrises.

In the Book of Isaiah which was written many hundred years before the birth of our Lord Jesus, Prophet Isaiah has already prophesied that Jesus would be oppressed and afflicted; He would be like a lamb that was led to slaughter, and like a quiet and silent sheep before the shearers, He did not open his mouth. (Isaiah 53:3-9). The history of God became man was told in advanced several hundred years’ before it actually took place. Jesus came not to be a celebrity. He became man just for one and only one purpose – to reconcile us to be with our Heavenly Father. Until we realize that we are made by Him and for Him, and life is preparation for eternity, we will fail to recognize that our True Admirer and Idol is Jesus, and that He and He alone is worthy to be worshipped because He is Lord and apart from Him, there is no other God (Isaiah 45:5).

We must also be reminded that we are not made to last forever and God desperately wants us to be with Him in Heaven. While we are here on earth waiting eagerly for His Return to take us back to His Heavenly Throne, Jesus is now more interested to make us holy than to make us happy. He is more interested in what we are rather then what we do. We must make sure every sphere of our activities are wholly God-centered and these should include refraining ourselves from worldly indulgences, encouraging fellow believers to walk closers with Him, and most importantly, going and making disciples and bringing them to Jesus (Matthew 28:19).

 

[neilgoose]

Must applaud your ability to continue to post his thread in a monologue while ignoring all the questions asked abt Christianity in other threads.

Please kindly comment on this SCRIPTURE READING discussion at http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?t=54443

 

[Psalm23]

Must applaud your ability to continue to post his thread in a monologue while ignoring all the questions asked abt Christianity in other threads.

Please kindly comment on this SCRIPTURE READING discussion at http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?t=54443

Dear friend,

I want to admit. I am no theologian. I have not been to any bible seminary nor receive any formal Bible training. I am just an ordinary Christian with burning desire to share God's message to others.

I must admit, even well-known theologians since the Gospels were written were and are still debating on many of the questions on Christianity and specifically the Bible. Needless to say, Bible is the most controversial book ever written.

Frankly, I like to spend more time to pray, to study the Bible, to walk closer with God and most importantly to give some words of encouragement to all my fellow Christian brothers and sisters.

However, if you all have any comments or questions on my postings, I think I owe you all the explanation. Please feed back to me and I will try to answer them. As indicated before, we must not use any abusive language nor insulting words to bring down others, especially their religious belief and their faith.

God Bless.

 

[wrcboi]

Must applaud your ability to continue to post his thread in a monologue while ignoring all the questions asked abt Christianity in other threads.

Please kindly comment on this SCRIPTURE READING discussion at http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?t=54443

haha i concur son...this is hilarious...this bloke just continue his posting without understanding facts and questioning...just like the blind following the blind...

these xtians, only read or follow a selected few of gospels....how about gospel of the barnabas?

damn the whole religions is so dodgy...

 

[monoceros]

Thou didst not even read that post, thou foul Nazarene.

Just as well, no one reads thy posts.


(to pslam23, wrcboi posted just before I did)

 

[kiwibird7]

If a faith healer tried to do that today; he would most probably be arrested.

Today's Alternative Old Testament Reading for Monday (5th Week Lent) on "Elisha Raises a DEAD BOY"

2 Kings 4:32-37
32 When Elisha came into the house, behold the lad was dead and laid on his bed. 33 So he entered and shut the door behind them both and prayed to the LORD. 34 And he went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth and his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands, and he stretched himself on him; and the flesh of the child became warm. 35 Then he returned and walked in the house once back and forth, and went up and stretched himself on him; and the lad sneezed seven times and the lad opened his eyes. 36 He called Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite.” So he called her. And when she came in to him, he said, “Take up your son.” 37 Then she went in and fell at his feet and bowed herself to the ground, and she took up her son and went out.

 

[whoami]

haha i concur son...this is hilarious...this bloke just continue his posting without understanding facts and questioning...just like the blind following the blind...

these xtians, only read or follow a selected few of gospels....how about gospel of the barnabas?

damn the whole religions is so dodgy...

Even if they had read u think they would post the truth here?

If a faith healer tried to do that today; he would most probably be arrested.

Today's Alternative Old Testament Reading for Monday (5th Week Lent) on "Elisha Raises a DEAD BOY"

Hmmm..more powerful than Jesus...

 

[Psalm23]

All my dear friends,

I pray (or hope, if some of you don't like the word pray or believe in it), that the last thing we want is to start exchange messages and later get us 'heated' up on who is right, who is wrong; or our religion is better than yours and so on.

Let me humbly say it again that my postings here are meant for Christians and the sole purpose is to encourage one another to walk closer with our God, the God of the Bible, Jesus. Because this is a public domain and everyone should have the right to read (and to write or respond) to the messages, I would humbly like to request that if you all could treat this accordingly - that is: the messages are to encourage Christians. Because of this, many things which I write really don't make sense to non-believers and for this, I admit my stupidity. If you are a nuclear scientist and trying to explain to me quantum theory of sub-atomic particles, I too will yawn because all those complicated formulae are not for me, or if you are a musician and try to explain to me the music scores of classical music, I too would not be able to appreciate because I am not a musician. Hence, I would not bother to read anything on quantum theory or anything on music theory. So, if you find my messages don't make sense to you and they are 'loads of rubbish', just ignore them or stop reading them. There are alot of materials on other religions and frankly because I don't understand them, I too do not bother to read them. At times, I do accidently come across some of these and out of curosity I read them but I would not be bother to reply to the writers because the writers believe what they write we should respect their articles (so long these writings do not bring down other people's religious faith).

Having said that, for non-Christians, you are welcome to read my postings but please refrain from any abusive remarks or insults especially on religious matters. I believe there are other blogs that engage bloggers to exchange views on religion but the thread in Today's Scripture Reading is not meant for this. Your understanding is highly appreciated.

Psalm23

 

[monoceros]

By posting in a public forum (especially one with a rather low proportion of Nazarenes) and not a dedicated Nazarene blog/site, and on a section of the forum where every other thread is critical of Xtianity, what did you expect?

No one even bothered posting any replies until today; you have, as one previous replier said, been carrying on a monologue. The 35 readers you remarked on haven't stepped forth to defend this thread, suggesting they just clicked it, browsed through the thread and couldn't be bothered reading it.

 

[Psalm23]

By posting in a public forum (especially one with a rather low proportion of Nazarenes) and not a dedicated Nazarene blog/site, and on a section of the forum where every other thread is critical of Xtianity, what did you expect?

No one even bothered posting any replies until today; you have, as one previous replier said, been carrying on a monologue. The 35 readers you remarked on haven't stepped forth to defend this thread, suggesting they just clicked it, browsed through the thread and couldn't be bothered reading it.

Dear Monoceros,

Actually that really don't bother me. Even there is only serious reader who has benefitted from the posting and has walked closer relationship with Jesus because of the messages, I have achieved my objective. Really number is not important to me. In fact, very unimportant to me. I pray to God, just give me one...only one serious reader...I will be very satisfied. Also, I don't need others to 'defend' what I write. The Holy Spirit is my witness. I will try my very best to write truefully and honestly. But if I have misquoted from any sources or my messages are not accurate, please let me know. I will check the source again and make the necessary correction, and if necessary apologise to the readers. Needless to say, I have to do quite a lot of 'research' work to even do one posting. Wherever applicable, I always acknowledge my source because really some writers are very good and I think they need to be acknowledged for their God-given wisdom. I am writing all these for Jesus and whether people just browse through, I really don't care. But my sincere prayer is that the messages will bring comfort to those who read it. There is one fact which I hope you agree - we are really living in a very fallen world. (If you think that you are now living in a perfect world, then I just want to congratulate you! You are indeed an optimist which not many of us are today.) As Christians, we just need encouragement from one another because everyone is struggling to live in this fallen world. In Christian living, this is a very important teaching for us to encourage one another. I read quite alot myself written by other writers and I find great encourgement and they really strengthen my faith with our Lord Jesus. That is the reason why I started writing these messages because I want to give something back and not mere passive receiver of good news. Did I do anything wrong? Please advise.

Psalm23

 

[Psalm23]

Hello Mr psalm23 , i applaud your effort in reaching out to your fellow Christians . However , have you ever yearned to find the truth? or have you found it? for eg: who was the actual founder of Christianity? was it Jesus who told his followers that from this day onward you shall be called Christians and worship me? for im your God? or was it kind of interpreted from another language (Aramaic) by someone(Saul) who have never met Jesus? Wasnt he the anti_Christ whose mission was to create problems for the early Cristians?
have you heard of Robert Eisenman go to www.roberteisenman.com
read the dead sea scrolls if you are truly keen at finding out the truth.
Have a good day my brother in humanity!

Thank you.
I will go and look at Robert Eisenman web page/youtube.

In the meantime, I would like to share with you a very good bible teacher. He is David Pawson. Just type this on the google and you can find alot of his sermons. They are really very good too.

God Bless
Psalm23

 

[Lee5604]

Psalm23

Keep up the good work. You will blessed for your kind efforts in wanting to encourage Christians know the word of God better.

Don't worry about the others. Just do the right thing.

God bless and have a nice Easter (in two weeks time).

 

[Psalm23]

Psalm23

Keep up the good work. You will blessed for your kind efforts in wanting to encourage Christians know the word of God better.

Don't worry about the others. Just do the right thing.

God bless and have a nice Easter (in two weeks time).

Dear Lee5604,

Thank you for your kind note. I hope those messages in this thread have in some small way strengthen your faith.

God Bless
Psalm23