Today's Scripture Reading

[tanwahtiu]

Thank you. Thank you for helping to create more audience because the Word of God will prevail. I tracked my blog and it's just a miracle. Ever since you tried to destroy the Word of God, the viewership has increased. You can see right now there are 11,659 and that's an increase of over 150 from yesterday. Before your attempt to destroy God's Word, normally there are only 40-50 viewership per day. Whether the increase of 150 is viewed by 150 or 30 or even 3 people is not my point. My point is the viewership number has increased by 3 times since my blog is under attack (by you of course)! But frankly, I am not concern about number. I am concern about the quality of people who have confessed themselves to be Christians (and that include myself).

Don't be caaried away by the increase of viewers, perhaps some of them are reading to be entertained.

I don't know about your age. But let me tell you that I am an old man. In another year or so, I will be 60 years old and if you are in your 20s or 30s most probably I am old enough to be your father.

I am your around age and also to listen to sermons i churches, talked to Pastors about the way sermons should be carefully delivered.

From your writing, I can see you are pretty young but if I am wrong I just say sorry. If you are in your youth in your 20s or 30s, let me tell you, young man, wake up please. Come to Jesus, please. If you are still a teenager, let me tell you, child, God loves you, go and seek counsel from your dad and mum (but if dad and mum in fact endorsed what you are not doing to this blog, there is nothing much I can say and perhaps you just want to continue, that's your choice), if you are my age in the late 50s, let me tell you, friend, time is not our our side, don't walk, but run now, run to Jesus before it's too late. And if you are in your 60s or 70s, or if you are 80 years old, let me call you, uncle - I am sorry if I have been rude to you and sound disrespectful forgive me but uncle there is nothing much I can tell you because you should know better than I do but please uncle, the best you could is not to destroy God's work. In any case, whether you are in your teen, in your youth, or an old man, our life belongs to Jesus. We really don't know what is going to happen to us in the next hour but Jesus does. So, come to Him now before it's too late!

When you can guessed my age from my writing, I assumed you also guess -guess about the writing in the Bible. Most of your messages are guess-guess one si boh!

So, my friend, if you are honest, can you tell the readers here your age so that, in case, I decide to exchange some more messages with you (and also others want to join in the discussions), we can better identify you. To be exact, I have just passed my 58 birthday and I want to thank God that He still giving me the energy to serve Him with fear and trembling and that is the demand from God - when we serve Him, we must serve Him wiith fear and when we rejoice in Him, we must rejoice with trembling Psalm 2:11. This is exactly what is happening to me now. God is so real and Bible is so true!

Since you lived your age, and most of our messages consisted of 'fear' of this and 'fear of God' you must have lived a miserable life time. Friend, life is not about fear, be more optimistic. Your messages will only attract pesimistic people.

Don't fight against the True God. Please repent, repent, repent, young man (and I assume you are a young, unless you tell us otherwise).

You see this is how God works. For those who are Christians reading the threads here, they are still going to be Christians. For non-Christians who you have attracted them to read in spite of your work of destruction to His Kingdom, some may come to their sense and acknowledge that Jesus is God. Even there is one new convert, all the angels in heaven will celebrate for his or her salvation. In either case, His Kingdom is going to grow. Our job as born-again Christians is just to preach and share God's Word truthfully in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2) and just leave to Jesus to grow His Church; that is His job and no man can do the job of growing the body of Christ except God Himself (Acts 2:47). All glory to God.

So, young man, come to sense, now. Whether the 11,000 (and coming to 12,000) viewership is watching is not important. The most important thing is God is watching.

This is intimidating message and abusing God's name. So if there is a Tsunami that hit Washingston 'Whitehouse' and the US President was drowned, is this the wrath of God? I guess-guess you will jump into it and claim God's wrath to punish Americans!

If you are not a believer, again that's your choice. And if you want to believe in ancestor worshipping, that's your choice. Just keep praying to your ancestors and you will be just fine - not I say but you have said it. But for me - that's not fine. the only Person we can worship is God, the God of the Bible, Jesus, and anything outside this is against His commandment, in fact against the very first commandment of the Ten Commandments - there is no other gods beside Me; you shall not worship other gods.

Your God's heaven must have many kind and type of Gods (Gods among Gods) and your God tell you not to worship other Gods.

I normally post my writing once a week but now because of your efforts to destroy God's work which is the work of the devil (not I say but according to the Bible: whoever want to destroy God's work is from the devil), I have posted more messages than usual just over the last few days to proclaim Jesus to the world (and of course specifically to people here in Singapore) Of course, for those who find this blog irrelevant, just ignore it and just continue to do and to pray what they normally do.

We are destroying your devil work and perhaps it is God intervention and to warn you not to inject unncessary 'fear factors' in your messages.

When Jesus was preparing to do the will of the Heavenly Father, to prepare Himself to be tortured by the Roman soldiers, to suffer on the cross, to face death, apostle Peter tried to stop Him and Jesus has to tell Him: Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things. (Matthew 16:23). Please take heed of the warning. Anyone that is trying to stop people from the doing the work of our Heavenly Father is from the devil (not I say but the Bible) Repent, repent, repent, believe in Jesus, get baptized and be saved.

Bible was written over 1500 years, it was altered and modified (cuts and pastes) over such a long period and as such how can it be God's word when men are the one who altered it for over 1500 years. Do you know when was the Bible considered 'Word of God'? and Why?

If Bible was God's word, it would have to be a discovery (like the Morons who found the 2nd book) and not through 1500 years of alterations.

All I can say is please get your messages endorsed by pastors (a qualified bible studies graduate) and not put 'fear' in your messages. There is nothing to fear God. If you have lived a 'fearful childhood or adulthood' I will not like to see you inject it to other people and some viewers may be young and not gone through life you have.

 

[tanwahtiu]

........If some of the messages seem to 'discourage' rather than encourage my dear Christian brothers and sisters, I truly apologize ..............

As I have said, please get your messages endorsed by a qualifed pastor than to realise later that your message was discouraging.

 

[wrcboi]

seriously you are into recruitment.....just recruit as many as possible......

you are just trying to strike fear into everyone so that they will believe in your word..

theres no difference between u and gangsters trying to recruit new members

 

[tanwahtiu]

seriously you are into recruitment.....just recruit as many as possible......

you are just trying to strike fear into everyone so that they will believe in your word..

theres no difference between u and gangsters trying to recruit new members

You think my assessment is correct! Instigating fear in his messages for Christians who read is pesimsitic view of life.

 

[Psalm23]

[Please use the message here as the Lord leads, but nothing on the message must be used for profit!]​

Today’s Scripture Reading [May 30, 2010]

Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. [Psalm 2:11. KJV]

“The most serious spiritual problem in the country today is reckless and untrammeled greed. Greed caused the disgraceful corporate scandals that fill our newspapers. Greed is responsible for crooked cops and crooked politicians.”

The above excerpt was taken from an article “America’s Disease is Greed” published in the Chicago Sun Times in August 20, 2004. Crimes of greed is so wide spread in America (and in other countries as well) that CNBC now has a new series titled "American Greed” which explores the worlds of scams, cons and other malicious schemes of greed. Last week, I watched one of these series and it was simply beyond one’s imagination that such a scheme could be devised just for making money and profit. It was about a case of a pharmacist, Robert Courtney. Prior to his conviction, Robert Courtney was considered by many people who knew him as a respectable man in his community, served in church, sang in the choir and had even pledged US$ 1 million to a church building project. What he did was simply unbelievable; he mixed genuine drugs with distilled water and sold these diluted drugs to patients. As a result of his evil drug-diluting scheme, he amassed million of dollars. Investigation later revealed that his drug dilutions was so significant that in many cases the drugs that he sold contained less than 10% of the genuine medicine! It was a medical disaster. Many patients died and some who managed to survive were later required to be retreated with even more complicated and expensive drugs and procedures. There were two reasons for this: first, cancer cells became resistant to the diluted drugs and hence a stronger drug was needed for the re-treatment and second, cancer cells had already spread to other organs because the diluted drugs were not effective and hence the patients were required to use stronger drugs for the treatment.

The scheme was first suspected when patients who received the treatments did not seem to have the usual side-effect of the treatments associated with chemotherapy such as loss of hairs, extreme discomfort like nausea, diarrhea, muscle and joint ache, nerve problems, anemia, low red blood count. Cancer patients who had received the genuine chemotherapy treatment can testify how horrible the side effect can be. Imagine the agony that the victims of this evil pharmacist had to undergo for the re-treatment. For some very unfortunate victims, they died without even knowing that they had received diluted treatments throughout their illness! You can see the anguish and the frustration of the family members and those patients who survived this ordeal.

No words could really express their anguish and they simply cried out: “It’s just pure evil! It’s all because of money!” To the great unpleasant surprise of the community, especially the medical profession, it was found later that the pharmacist had indeed tempered 98,000 prescriptions affecting 4,200 patients! Besides cancer drugs, more than 70 other drugs were tempered affecting treatments from HIV to diabetic to heart disease! The pharmacist finally confessed during his interrogation that the only reason he did this was all because of money and easy profit. In just a few years, he amassed and accumulated assets worth US$ 19 million, all ill-gotten from this evil scheme of drug dilution. He was convicted and is now serving 30 years in a prison in Kansas, USA.

Is this man, Robert Courtney, a man of God? Of course we have no right to judge but it would be ridiculous for someone still believe he is. But how could a man of God do such a thing after all he was a qualified pharmacist, a very respectable and well-known person in his town; he sang in the church choir and had pledged US$ 1 million for his church building! He may truly love God and that’s very good, but without the fear of God, like many of us too, we could be driven to commit sins beyond our wildest imagination!

A sermon that I have heard also involved a very respectable church leader and a great evangelist, Jim Bakker who was convicted of crimes of greed. He was indicted for embezzling over US$ 150 million from his church. When he was asked whether he truly loves God, his answer was an unequivocal “yes” but why “did you do such a thing?” was the next question to him. “It was all because there was no fear of God in me that drove me to the crime!” This was his honest and unequivocal confession.

There are valuable spiritual lessons we can learn from these two cases to help us in our walk with Jesus.

First, we can be the most attractive, most qualified in whatever field, attended bible seminary, acquiring degrees from bachelor to doctorate in our field of profession or Christian ministry, carrying coveted professional or big title like pharmacist, accountant, heart surgeon, brain surgeon, lawyer, evangelist, pastor, deacon, elder, or singing for church choir, pledging million of dollars to help others, conducting bible lessons, writing and preaching sermons relentlessly, but, without the fear of God in us, nothing counts. As children of God, we must learn to fear Him as long as we live (Deuteronomy 4:10).

Ironically, people by and large is full of fear but they feared the wrong kind of fear – worldly fear, the fear of man rather than the fear of God. The difference is that worldly fear drives us to the object but keeps us away from God. The fear of God, on the other hand, has an opposite effect: it drives us away from the object but brings us closer to God. For example, when people heard the news of financial meltdown coming, many quickly seek refuge by putting their money in the so-called safe investment or in “most-secured” bank but conveniently ignored God’s promise of deliverance in troubled times. Driving towards worldly object, seeking worldly security will be manifested to those who are constantly in a state of worldly fear and they have forgotten God’s holy counsel “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made know to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Philippines 4:6-7). Are we not more valuable than the sparrows; are we not more valuable than the lilies of the field? If God can take care of the sparrows of the air, the lilies of the field, He too can take care of us (Matthews 10:31, Matthew 6:28-30). Quite unfortunately, people don’t see that way. They run to the objects and try to seek security from the world and tragically, sometimes they do this at the expense of others.

The fear of God gives us much needed wisdom. It reveals our weaknesses, our sinfulness, our dependency on Him, and more importantly it expel us away from worldly objects. Have we ever heard of stories from friends or even read from books and newspaper of how people have lamented: How could he do this to me? I trusted him so much yet he cheated all my money. I thought he loves me? Yes. Your friends may love and you trust your friends, but trust and love without the fear of God will not endure and will not withstand the test of time! So, let us return to Him in godly fear, in the comfort of the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:31) and come to Lord Jesus now when He can be found and call on Him while He is near, and let us forsake our wicked way (Isaiah 55:6-7)

We can also learn another very valuable lesson from the case of the pharmacist who diluted prescribed drugs - a diluted drug is no drug, and so is the gospel of Jesus Christ: A diluted gospel is no gospel. God’s Word is pure and is from everlasting to everlasting. We must believe all that is said in the gospel and let no one deceive you into believing any teaching that is contrary to His Word. Just like a prolonged use of diluted drug will cause diseased cells to be resistance, a diluted gospel of Jesus will cause us to build walls of resistance to His true word. Just like a prolonged use of diluted drug will make subsequent treatment more difficult and more painful, a diluted gospel when heard long enough will numb our spiritual life and will drive us to a lifestyle of compromise. Just like a diluted drug is created by evil people to destroy other people’s lives while profiting themselves, a diluted gospel of Jesus is the work of the Devil seeks to drive us away from God towards eternal destruction while benefiting the Devil’s own evil desire and wicked delight.

The third lesson we can draw from this is that when a genuine and undiluted cancer drug is properly and correctly administered, patients will always experience some uncomfortable side-effects but will produce hope of recovery. Likewise an undiluted gospel will let us experience godly fear and godly sorrow which produce repentance leading to our salvation, not to be regretted, (but the sorrow of the world produces death) (2 Corinthians 7:9-10).

Sadly, many of us attend church services just like attending a concert. We conveniently forgot the message as soon as the service ended. It’s not uncommon that many of us don’t even carry our Bible to the church, and it is an exception rather than a rule that we see people taking sermon notes while sermon was preached. Many go to hear the message but very few listen.

We must seek and listen to only undiluted gospel of Jesus Christ and His gospel is simple yet profound. It is the gospel of acknowledging Jesus Christ as the Son of God; that He was born of a virgin; died on the cross for our sins; buried and rose after the third day; and after 40 days He ascended to heaven and is now sitting at the right of God interceding for us. We must now accept the redeeming blood of Jesus, and trust fully His Word and repent of our sin (because without repentance we will all perish (Luke 13:3).

 

[Psalm23]

BIBLE RESOURCE​

Dear Brothers and Sisters-in-Christ,

I have just come across this wonderful sermon on the Fear of God and I would like to share with you. Attached is the hypertext that will bring you to this sermon. If this doesn’t work, go to the Youtube and search for: “Fear of God, Martin” and you should be able to find this wonderful sermon. This one-hour sermon is based on about 20 references from books of Old and New Testaments. This is particularly useful if you are conducting or attending the bible study on this seldom-taught subject – The Fear of God.

Please click this to the sermon: Fear of God by Albert Martin http://youtube.com/watch?v=uFPgndloU58.

Many people are blessed with this sermon. The following are some of the comments from the viewers:
• That's right. He created you. And thus He deserves worship. Not just for creating you but because of what He did for you through Jesus. You'll find yourself crying out to God for mercy one day. Either before you die or immediately after. I pray you cry out to Him now before you die. Jesus is the narrow way to eternal life.
• A "reverence fear of God" is one of the very few usages of the word "fear" in the Bible. As Martin is saying in the message, you don't understand who God is or what it is to worship God if you only "revere" God. What "daily sins" do you mean? You had better be striving to enter in at the strait gate or you will not get in. These are the words of the Lord. Luke 13:24.
• I have revisited this sermon after finding myself wanting a closer and more compliant relationship with the Lord. I find that the Fear of our Lord is just that, a fear. As you said a "reverence fear" is a small part of this understanding of the Lord God and His will. I am glad to have been awakened to this knowledge. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." Proverbs 1:7a
• Albert Martin has been preaching for many years. He is one of the most powerful preachers of our day. God has gifted him to preach. He is also a very nice and warm hearted man. To know him is to love him. Pastor Martin preaches wit such power and passion because of a deep abiding love for Christ and a deep love for his fellowman.

 

[tanwahtiu]

Today’s Scripture Reading [May 30, 2010]
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. [Psalm 2:11. KJV]

“The most serious spiritual problem in the country today is reckless and untrammeled greed. Greed caused the disgraceful corporate scandals that fill our newspapers. Greed is responsible for crooked cops and crooked politicians.”

Greed also drive men to create an image of God and make men believe that there is God, and more you give to God more you receive (as if).

Please publish spirtual messages, not carnal stories and make believe that it was God's wrath.

The fear of God makes you pessimistic person. Embraced God wealth give you the world to enjoy in your life time.


Sadly, many of us attend church services just like attending a concert.

Speak for yourself. In your case what church did you attend? You still did not tell us your denomination?

We conveniently forgot the message as soon as the service ended. It’s not uncommon that many of us don’t even carry our Bible to the church, and it is an exception rather than a rule that we see people taking sermon notes while sermon was preached. Many go to hear the message but very few listen.

We must seek and listen to only undiluted gospel of Jesus Christ and His gospel is simple yet profound. It is the gospel of acknowledging Jesus Christ as the Son of God; that He was born of a virgin;

Everyone is born a virgin. See that is why we want you to get your message approved.

died on the cross for our sins; buried and rose after the third day; and after 40 days He ascended to heaven and is now sitting at the right of God interceding for us.

So the first Commandment is incorrect, there are 2 Gods, not only 1 God, or Jesus is not a God (to make the commandment right.

We must now accept the redeeming blood of Jesus, and trust fully His Word and repent of our sin (because without repentance we will all perish (Luke 13:3)

We have been waiting for past 2,000 years to perish, what happening now?

 

[IR123]

Hi Psalm23,

Just to encourage you: you are doing well

 

[Psalm23]

Hi Psalm23,

Just to encourage you: you are doing well

Dear IR123-in-Christ,

Thank you for your encouraging note. God Bless.

 

[Talking Donkey]

Dear Brothers and Sisters-in-Christ,

The final countdown has begun! Please don't live as if there is plenty of time left. All the signs of Jesus' Second Coming are already here. For Christians, like myself, I am extremely excited because the Lord with all His mercy will soon bring us to His heavenly throne.

Attached is a 20-part series on the signs of the final countdown of Jesus coming back. Please watch them and I pray that the Holy Spirit will lead you to share this video series with your beloved friends and relatives. Time is running out. We must get ready to meet Him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNhv0pA9E9Y

Note: If you have problem trying to view when click to this hypertext, kindly go and search for Final Countdown - Billy Crone
Please note that I am not a member of Pastor Billy's congregation. I find his sermons are completely biblical and I am extremely amazed by his passion and calling to reach out to people to come to Jesus Christ and hence I just want to do a little service for Jesus by letting you all know of Pastor Billy's sermons

God Bless you all for watching this video.

hi bro Psalm23,
Thanks for sharing pastor Billy Crone on youtube,it was indeed quite eye opening..guess 2 Peter 3 sum it all up.
in that video the rise of falsehood i saw a picture of benny hinn,i dont know much about him but my elder brother who is now away in mission field serving the Lord in a third world country once told me this man is very annointed by God but change his mind later and told me to be careful of his teaching which is contradicting to the word of God and when i saw the youtube of him slainning many in the spirit i am quite amaze,any comment on that.in the meantime i leave 2 Timothy 2:1 to you.

 

[whoami]

So, is Lord of Israel Law and Commandment everlasting? If Yes why? If No why?

Psalm

Fm my experience, its best not to argue with an atheist. Having said that, I am still awaiting ur answer to the above.

Tks.

 

[Psalm23]

Psalm

Fm my experience, its best not to argue with an atheist. Having said that, I am still awaiting ur answer to the above.

Tks.

Dear Whoami-in-Christ,

Thanks for the good counsel. You are right - God has taught us not to give what is holy to dogs and not to throw our pearls before swine or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you (Matthew 7:6).

Coming back to your question, the Law of the Lord of Israel and His Commandment is everlasting. In Revelation, we are told that let no one takes away the Word of God and let no one add anything to His Word. If anyone add any words to His Holy Scripture, God will send plagues to him and if anyone remove part of His Word, he will be danger of losing his life. This is a clear indication that the Word of God, including His Law is everlasting. We too are told that heaven and earth shall pass away, but His Word (including His Commandments) is from everlasting to everlasting.

Also, Jesus has used many times in His teaching on the obeying the Laws from Old Testatment. In Matthew 5:27-28, Jesus taught against commiting adultery and He used the Ten Commandments as His teaching. So, this is another indication that the Law of Israel (or Moses) was applicable during Moses' day as it was during Jesus' day, and they are as applicable today, not just to the Jewish and Israel, in fact, to the whole world.

Another reason that His Law is everlasting is that no one can change the physical laws that God has formulated from the laws of gravity to the laws of electro-magneticism. So, this too applies to the moral laws that God has given. It is from everlasting to everlasting.

In the Old Testament, God is referred to as God of Abraham, God of Jacob, God of Issac and God of Israel. But we all know from the Bible that there is only one God - the God of the Bible who created the universe. Our true God comes in various names to reflect His holy character and attributes. For example, Jesus is also known as Counselor, the Prince of Peace, the Everlasting Lord, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, etc.

God Bless.

 

[Psalm23]

hi bro Psalm23,
Thanks for sharing pastor Billy Crone on youtube,it was indeed quite eye opening..guess 2 Peter 3 sum it all up.
in that video the rise of falsehood i saw a picture of benny hinn,i dont know much about him but my elder brother who is now away in mission field serving the Lord in a third world country once told me this man is very annointed by God but change his mind later and told me to be careful of his teaching which is contradicting to the word of God and when i saw the youtube of him slainning many in the spirit i am quite amaze,any comment on that.in the meantime i leave 2 Timothy 2:1 to you.

One very good test is that: How do you feel, spiritually speaking, after listening to Pastor Billy Crone and after watching Benny Hinn's video? I too have watched Benny Hinn's video. It just benefits me nothing spiritually except I see alot of people 'slained' and some falling down onto the floor like 'dead birds'. One lady friend of mine whose husband is a pastor told me that she was informed that some of these 'prosperity preachers' in fact got entourage of 'actors and actresses.' They just travel with these preachers and go up on stage and feigned sick to seek 'healing' which actually didn't really happen (because they were not sick in the first place; it was pure acting). I don't know which ministry she referred to but in the end we must be careful - just like what your brother has told you.

You can also go to google and search for Jim Bakker. He was one of these prosperty preachers and he got a big team of dancers whenever he went for his 'missionary performance.' He was indicted for emblezzlement of US$ 150 million from his church. He has written a book title: I Am Wrong to tell people the danger of prosperty preaching. Whether Benny Hinn is a prosperity preacher or not, we have to leave it to Jesus to handle this question. But I personally do not find his sermon, the stage performance and the slaining of people during his service of any spiritual help to me and neither those could bring me closer to Jesus. Another know fact of Benny Hinn is that he refused to be interviewed by U.S. media because they are interested to know how he could afford all his lavish lifestyle. You can also google for Benny Hinn and there are alot of this. But frankly, let's not waste time on this. We just need good anointing messages and Billy Crone, John Piper, Paul Washers and some other names which I have posted in my earlier posts are very very good and they really help me in my understand of God's command and more importantly in my walk with Jesus. If you don't mind my advice - Leave our the teaching by prosperity preachers because God's we can have all His promises just by obeying His command to understand more of Him and to share His finished work "in and out of season." We will not lose anything by leaving out those sermons from the prosperity preaching.

(I am always very happy to hear that someone has offered their life to Jesus by going to the mission field. I will pray for your brother. Better still, if you can share even his initial so that I can pray for him more meaningfully and is it possible to let me know which country he went...I too like to pray from him because it's not easy to be in mission field especially in other country. Even I try to write to encourage Christians to walk closers with Jesus, you can see that this is sharing of Jesus is not welcome! The world just hates Jesus! And Jesus knew this all along and that's why we need to come to Him in prayer, in spirit and in truth!)

Thank you for the verse 2 Timothy 2:1. We truly need to be strong especially when we are trying to encourage and sharing Jesus with one another.

God Bless

 

[tanwahtiu]

.......... God has taught us not to give what is holy to dogs and not to throw our pearls before swine or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you (Matthew 7:6) ..............

God this God that, all Christians do is playing God and whinging all the time. Life as a Christians is depressing, someone play God (put words in God's mouth) and the rest of the sheeps just 'meh meh ... alng."

Stop whinging and stop Playing God.

 

[wrcboi]

Psalm

Fm my experience, its best not to argue with an atheist. Having said that, I am still awaiting ur answer to the above.

Tks.

tanwahtiu : son from my experience, its best not to argue with the xtians...they are into recruitment....the more they recruit the better it gets....if theres no god they will not be making any money..they be out of job....

its always the same recruitment verse

"if you dont listen to me or my boss..i m going to wack u"
"u must always fear my boss coz i m second in command"
"Without my boss, u are nothing"
"to prove your loyalty to the boss, u must baptised"

 

[IR123]

...
If some of the messages seem to 'discourage' rather than encourage my dear Christian brothers and sisters, I truly apologize.

Oh, perhaps there is a misunderstanding. Your postings did not discourage me. Rather for some of them, i hold a different theological point of view. Given our present darkness, we see but dimly. And I will be the last to say that i am knowledgeable about the things of God.

City Harvest is in the news about some alleged wrongdoings. Perhaps we can join in prayer for City Harvest.

Sometimes, people say the things they said because their lives are grieving. Perhaps they are old and steeped in the beliefs of ancestor worship, are angry that their children who became christians will not worship them after they pass on. Given their beliefs, they will worry about their well-being in the afterlife. Sometimes. Perhaps. Maybe. Or they are just loathesome creatures.

Only God knows.

But there is a certain blindness in them, that mentioning about Christ and His message of forgiveness and reconciliation to God is seen as prosleytizing. Apply that logic to any other event that involves persuasion and they should be able to see that they too engage in prosleytizing regarding ancestor worship.

Let them be. They were given the opportunity but they chose to ridicule like the unrepentent thief on the cross. They were not humble enough to say that they do not know the answer. Instead they make fun of God, Christ, His Church. I prefer Christ's words in Matthew 10:14 "If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town". To me, i interpret it as your responsibility ends at that point. As for that person, if Christ wants to reach out to him again, he will sent someone else. If Christ close the door on that person too, then so be it. That person had already been given the opportunity.

Keep on doing the work you do.

 

[IR123]

Hi Psalm23,

I went to get a book on Ancestor Worship, written by a singaporean pastor. However could not find the book. Because this is an asian concept, it is best address by asians within the chinese context.

First, let me say that the honoring of parents is a requirement to all christians. There is no exception to this. Christ reiterated the importance by saying that it is the commandment that carries a promise.

The Chinese concept of honoring parents extend beyond the grave. The main question is did it move into the area of 'worship' as defined by God. That question has never been adequately answered.

Some following the examples of American and European church leaders looked in askance at Chinese practices. But in my opinion, the thoughts of local chinese pastors should carry more weight because although the western culture may seem superior to some, it cannot understand the chinese way simply because they are not chinese.

You may then ask if culture has a way of reinterpreting scriptures? In my view, yes. If you consider even the Lord Christ's words regarding dogs and swines, it is a cultural product of the Jewish tribe. This is because dogs and swines were declared to be good at the time of Creation. Through cultural practices, it carry some aspects of revulsion. Yet if you consider it from the viewpoint of God, dogs and swines are part of his perfect Creation.

Therefore in my view, the cultural aspect plays a part in our approach to ancestor worship.

There is yet another aspect - that of our humanity. Because of the importance of the family, ancestor worship binds the generations together. To suffer a break in that area causes grief on the part of non-Christians. We must be sensitve and aware of that, in order to avoid causing unneccessary pain.

As I write this, I realize I can go on and on, developing point after point. But I will stop at this juncture.

For those who are interested in this matter, may I suggest that you drop by the nearest christian bookstore and ask for books on chinese customs written by chinese singaporean pastors. There are some which are culturally sensitve and seeks to segregate between that which is absolutely forbidden and those where the line is heavily grayed.

In the final analysis, i want to say that these elders are your own parents. You must go back to that Commandment which says "Honor thy father and mother" and engage in practices that respect your parents without going into forbidden terrority.

For a start, the easiest is to support your parents financially, visit them regularly, tell them that you will follow the qing ming date as a day of special remembrance and specify exactly how you will remember them. In this way, the chinese christian may well earn the respect of their parents for their filial piety.

Finally a caveat, these are only my opinions - so take it as you will. I may be wrong.

 

[Psalm23]

Dear IR123-in-Christ,

I fully agree with you. We must honour our parents whether they are living or they have departed. For my departed parents, as Christian, I honour them in different way - not the best, nor the most correct way, but just different way. I did not follow the qing ming date although I visited my parents' niches 3 times a year. The reason I did not follow qing ming date is because I do not want to stumble my relatives especially my uncles and aunts who are still not Christians. I don't want them to be falsely put into believe that we are worshipping the dead.

Let me share with you how I honour my departed parents who, by the grace of God, converted when they were at quite old age. Every year, I visted their niches 3 times: one, on Chinese New Year, second time, on the dead anniversary of my father in Feb and third time on the death anniversary of my mother in May. I have been doing this since 2002 when my mother died. My father died in 2004. Both have their niches in All Saints Home. Previously, I would buy real flowers and put in the niche. However, because of maintanence reason as real flowers can got rot, All Saints' Home office has advised not to use real flowers as they have to clean up the place which can be quite made quite messy by rotting flowers. I fully understand them and respect their request not to put real flower at the niche. What I did was to just wipe away the dust and use a cloth to clean the niches, a very insignificant effort and that is the best and unfortunately the most I can do for them now to show my respect.

I fully agree with you. We need to honour our parents whether they are living or not, but my opinion is that we have to be careful not to stumble our friends or relativesl; just like we too are cautioned not to stumble others like eating of food offered to other gods.

I would like to mention that I too not a theologian by any training but we don't need formal training of any sort to understand God's Word. His Holy Spirit will inspire us what to read, what to say and what to write, especially when it comes to the Word of God. As Christians, we need to humble ourselves and learn from one another. That's the best way to grow our spiritual life and our walk with Jesus and this is the very reason I started this thread. There were quite a few of my messages that were excerpts from other writers who are men of God. I have never hesitated to acknowledge the source. Many of these men spent their life-time sharing God's Word and in most of my messages, I just want say that there is no claim of originality on my part. But I do add in quite a lot of my own in the hope that my messages can relate more to what's happening around us.

Again thanks for your encouraging message.

God Bless

 

[whoami]

we are told that let no one takes away the Word of God and let no one add anything to His Word. If anyone add any words to His Holy Scripture, God will send plagues to him and if anyone remove part of His Word, he will be danger of losing his life. This is a clear indication that the Word of God, including His Law is everlasting. We too are told that heaven and earth shall pass away, but His Word (including His Commandments) is from everlasting to everlasting.

Besides the 10 commandment, how abt the rest. Law on food, animals etc etc?

 

[Psalm23]

Besides the 10 commandment, how abt the rest. Law on food, animals etc etc?

Questions on food, sabbath, etc that are taught in the OT were applicable to the Jews in OT time. In fact, there were many quarrels between Gentiles and the Jews who were converted to Christians in the NT days as they congregated and worshipped in the same synagogue. This was understandable because Jews and the Gentiles (many were Greeks and some I believe were even Romans) have different cultural and social backgrounds. Apostle Paul then came and told them (which also meant to tell us), we do or we not do all these like eating of pork, observing and praying on only Sunday because it is the Sabbath Day (and even some preachers and theologians today claimed that Saturday is Sabbath Day and not Sunday), etc will depend on our own conscience. So, long we do these without offending one another, you are pleased to eat what you want and to worship wherever and whenever you want. In fact, our body is the temple of God and for me (and I believe for many as well) everyday is Sabbath Day. We must dedicate our life to God every day from the hour we woke up from our bed to time we retire to bed not just on Sunday (or Saturday). It is interesting to note that the teaching in Deuteronomy and Leviticus on eating of food is primarily for health reason. Medical science has now shown beyond all doubts that eating of plant-based food is preferred than eating meat especially like pork and red meat. Bible has told us to avoid eating of blood (like pig blood) and raw/uncooked food. Medical science has proven this is true - avoid blood, raw/uncooked food because they can transmit many diseases and some really deadly one.

But the unchanging laws of God is the Ten Commandments. Other laws or teaching like eating food, etc though is not strictly followed or observed by many, but we will still benefits alot (at least from the health aspects) when we observe them. So, in that way, God's law is as relevant in OT/NT days as they are today. God's teaching is never outdated.

By way of information, you can actually google for some very good information on this. Many men of God have spent their lives researching specific topics and put in the internet to share with like-minded Christians, and I believe you are one of them.

God Bless.