Today's Scripture Reading

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [August 8, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]

The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him. [Proverbs 20:7]

There are two definitions to this word "integrity". Some dictionaries defined it as honesty, uprightness, moral soundness, decency and righteous. Another way of defining this word is someone who refuses to engage in lying, blaming or participating in dubious business transactions.

We have seen in newspaper of court cases of people suing one another just to protect their reputation or integrity. In many cases these ended up in High Court which required a lot of money for such legal proceedings. We often too have heard of our friends or relatives who fallen pray into dishonest people and the last thing we want is for ourselves to be a victim of the scam used by dishonest people. In fact, it’s so frequently reported in the newspaper of cheating that it will be unusual or even a ‘miracle’ if none is reported in just a 3 days! The question is not the frequency of the cheating cases but rather the magnitude – how much money was involved and how many victims got cheated. In the news today, it was told that in China hundred of millions of dollars of the state fund we siphoned off by senior officials to their own bank accounts. These were the people whom the country has supposedly put the highest level of trust in them.

We have been warned two thousand years ago by St. Paul to be careful and to ensure we are protected from the evilness of this world which include falling pray into dishonest people, we are to put on the whole armor of God to stand against all evil forces [Ephesians 6:11].

To put on the "full armor of God" and to enjoy a daily and eternal love-relationship with Jesus Christ, thank Him for what He has shown you in His Word. Know the Scriptures behind your prayer so that your words and faith are grounded in the authority of the Bible. While we cannot stop others to be dishonest, certainly by God’s grace we can live with the highest level of integrity that God intended for us. God gives great promises to us – not only we will be blessed by walking with His integrity, our children will also be blessed. Pray always and unselfishly for God’s strength to help us to live with integrity.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [August 9, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]

Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord [Acts 3:19]

We are facing many circumstances every day and in each of these circumstances we to need to react. There are basically two ways to react to these circumstances – to go and fight against them or to go with the circumstances and surrender ourselves. Often then not, we fight against the circumstances. This is simply because people have always tended to go the way of human nature—the way of vanity, selfishness, lust, hate and war. On the other hand, to surrender ourselves required us to make difficult changes that contradict our human nature like we need to humble ourselves, to acknowledge our faults or to ask for forgiveness.

God tells us to repent and to convert which is a chemical term for change. We all need change because our carnal mind will always tell us to fight against circumstances, to be winner and not loser, to receive and not to give. Indeed our very life depends upon our willingness to change because our eternity depends on what we do with God’s revealed truth, which leads to eternal life. But knowing the truth is not enough. God wants us to act and respond according to His will. Will we act and respond according to His will? One good test of God’s will for us is to see whether our responses will result in turning our eyes away from God or will they draw us closer to Him. If those responses and actions will draw us closer to God, then we must make the necessary changes and allow God to take control of us so that we can act in the most appropriate way that will bring glory to Him.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [August 10, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]

…. that men ought always to pray, and not to faint [Luke 18:1]

In Luke 18:1, Jesus teaches the disciples the need of persistent prayer so that they will not faint (or lose heart).

Pray is so important that the Bible tells us that Jesus, as Son of God, prayed frequently and at His last hours before He went to the cross, He prayed so very fervently that His sweat became drops of blood! [Luke 22:44]. Modern science has confirmed that this blood in the sweat is a real physiological phenomenon, although it rarely occurs to people. A clinical term “hematohidrosis” is in fact given to such condition. It is worth to note that Luke is also the only gospel writer to mention the bloody sweat possibly because of his interest as a physician.

Prayer is talking, listening and communing with God as we enter into the very presence of the Almighty! Just like our earthly parents who find pleasure in talking to us, our Creator too finds equally great pleasure when we talk to Him. As one great men of God has correctly said “I ought to spend the best hours in communion with God. It is my noblest and most fruitful employment”. This is a great source of encouragement for us. Most great men of God were not just great preachers, they were great prayers. Many had admitted that it was not their preaching that brought results to God in bringing the gospel to people but it was through their persistent and fervent prayers that many lives were changed. They spent several hours each day just praying unselfishly for God’s kingdom.

Do not belittle this high calling of praying to God and we must be serious in our prayer - it is so serious that Jesus' sweated blood when He prayed to His Father. In fact, it is a sin for Christians if we are not praying [1 Samuel 12:23]. Let’s cultivate this important habit of praying, and make this the highest priority in our daily living – it’s the noblest and most fruitful employment.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [August 11, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. [James 1:17]

When we speak about ‘gifts’ we usually associated them as tangible objects or something that will bring tangible enjoyment to us. There is nothing wrong with this. However, many of the so-called gifts are not holy in nature and are acquired because of the sinful nature of man – for example someone may have the gift of playing card games like poker or blackjack and always win. These so-called gifts not what Bible speaks about.

God has given some very precise examples of what His good gifts are – for example a wife, a baby, preaching, teaching, serving. The greatest of all gifts, of course, is His only Son, Jesus. A gift is good and perfect when it is complete, helpful, useful, beneficial and life-giving and all good and perfect gifts come from God. That is clearly demonstrated in the fact that He sovereignly chose to give us salvation; and not us only, but also to a great multitude who would follow in coming generations. In fact, the entire creation (excluding unbelievers) will be redeemed by His grace.

Let us thank God every moment of our lives because there are so many good and perfect gifts that He has given us.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [August 12, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. [Isaiah 40:31]

What can be more frustrating than waiting in a long queue for our turn to be served like queuing at a supermarket checkout counter to pay for our groceries or encounter a long traffic jam at a highway and we are rushing to meet an important customer. We are always in a rush and we all hate to wait. Most of us feel very tired after a day’s work or after we have done so much rushing and waiting to get our daily chores accomplished. In fact, it is guaranteed through the course of our life we will continually find ourselves struggling with much more tiredness and weariness than just waiting for our turn to be served or encountering a long traffic jam. For example, the thought of just growing older, get sick, or the uncertainty of what tomorrow will bring will wear us down. Our only antidote against the effects of our daily fatigue can be found in the steadying hands of our Lord; only through the strength of our Lord can we acquire the strength needed to face the stamina eroding effects of fatigue.

In Isaiah 40:31, we are told to wait upon the Lord. This does not imply passive waiting like sitting down and doing nothing and hope that the Lord to suddenly appear in the clouds to receive us. Waiting upon the Lord is actively serving the Lord with patience and longsuffering all the days of our lives without grumbling nor complaining. We must serve the Lord with thankful heart and through the Holy Spirit we will be given new strength each day. God is everlasting. He does not faint, nor is weary. His strength does not run off or empty. His supplies do not have an end; His resources are inexhaustible. There is no deficiency or decay in Him. His power is never weakened. So, switch your energy sources: wait upon God, persevere in the race of faith, run with purpose, and you will see the difference.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [August 13, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. [Psalm 46:10]

The noises that we hear in our every day life is quite deafening to our ears and soul. We hear noises telling us to do this or to do that, to worry about this or that all the time. They are not just physical noises that deafening our ears but they are also inner noises that cause us to stay away from God and to trust Him. These noises can separate us from God’s truth if we are not careful.

It is hard to be in silence and let God rules our heart, mind and soul. But we must learn how to do it. The Psalmist advises us to be still so that we can truly know who God is and what God wants from us. It is a spiritual discipline, just as much as worship, giving, prayer and doing Bible devotion.

We are a death-sentenced generation living in a sin-cursed world. We all hurt every day. No one is immune from the sufferings of humanity. We live with pain and sadness every day. In order for God to fill us, we must first be empty – be empty of the noises around us. There is no escape that reality. But when we are hurt, we must hurt with God. A full cup filled with the earthly liquor has no room for the wine of God. The point of the stillness is to let enough drop away that there is room for God to fill us from the Table of God’s love that is set before us.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [August 14, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. [James 4:8]

How can we be drawn to God? How can we purify our hearts? How can we not be doubled mind and have our focus only on Jesus? These are simple but yet very difficult questions and more so when we want to put into the practice of drawing us closer to God, have a righteous heart and to focus all our attentions on Jesus regardless of situation.

God is crying out to us to draw near to Him. We can, we should and we must draw near to Him. He is the only source of power and we need to just pray, pray and pray all the time to draw near to Him. When we pray fervently, our pride is abandoned, our hope is lifted and our supplication is made. When we pray, we are admitting our need, our weaknesses, our sinfulness and we are also adopting humility that we need God to sustain us. Because humility goes against the very nature of carnal man, we need the power of the holy spirit to help us and this can be done through fervent prayer.

Prayer is the privilege of touching the heart of the Father through the Son of God, Jesus our Lord. God wants us to go after His heart just like King David. Although King David had sinned – an adulterer and a murderer - but God was pleased with him because he sought after God’s heart, sought forgiveness, repented, and prayed fervently for God’s counseling and understanding.

One of the greatest benefits of praying is that our hearts are quieted and pride is stripped and we enjoy the presence of God. We can test our prayer life and dependence upon God by the peace (or lack of peace) in our hearts. Are you at peace now and is God in your presence? Let’s pray:

Dear Lord, thank you for allowing me into your presence. Thank you for all the peace and love that You give. They surpass all understanding. Thank you for inviting me into Your presence. Thank you for drawing me near to You. Thank you for knowing me and having a plan for my life. Help me to live each with humility and grace before others as I seek to glorify You in all that I do. Through Jesus I pray. Amen.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [August 15, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. [Matthew 24:14]

In ancient times, many religions were spread through trade routes. Traders from one country would bring the religious knowledge to their family members and friends of his own country. That was how a new religion started to spread from one country to the other.

With the invention of internet, Christians are given tremendous opportunities to spread the good news, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Very unfortunately, most of the information that we found in the internet are contradictory to what Christians supposed to read. You may have encountered quite frequently when you turn on your computer that pop up screens of pornographic materials openly exposed semi-nude or nude bodies of both male and female, advertisements displaying sexy models to entice people to buy certain products, invitations to invest money to make quick profit or even to gamble on online casinos. You need, however, to take extra efforts to search for Bible sermons or anything relating to the spread of the Gospel. They don’t just pop up to you each time you turn on to your computer. Internet has been grossly underutilized in the spread of Gospel but have grossly misused and abused to the detrimental of many people, especially young children. People, young and old, are spending many hours on the internet surfing for pornography or playing computer games that promote killing, revenge or violence. Parents are now at the wit’s end as to how to control access of internet by their children who can also easily accessed them in public internet-café and not just at their homes. To make the matter worse, many parents are victims to computer game addiction themselves!

Jesus has told us to preach the gospel of the Kingdom to all the world [Matthew 24:14]. There is nothing better to do this now then using the internet to reach out to people and to tell them about the love of Jesus. Let us join our hearts and use this important mass communication media for the glory of God. As technology is getting more advanced and internet is more accessible including those living in the remote parts of the world, we must tap on this important communication media to fulfill our duties to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

Remember, though, internet is only a communication media or a method to reach out to other people. In sharing the gospel we should not, however, introduce controversy. The last thing we want is to invite more and more debate “about” God because God is not a “subject” for debate. He is real. We need to purely share of His love and the Word of God because His Word is sharper than any two-edged sword [Hebrews 4:12]. We must ourselves be sanctified by His holy spirit and our thoughts and intention must be right in His sight. Let’s do our part to share His love to the world. No matter how small part we play, God is always pleased when we share with the right intention. Our great God of the universe will take pleasure in us no matter how minute our offering may be – God wants faithfulness from us.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [August 16, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. [Psalm 23:1]

God is revealed in the Bible as the Good Shepherd. This revelation can be found in both the Old and the New Testaments. One of the most well-known verses concerning this can be found in Psalm 23.

Shepherds can tell you that how stupid sheep can be and because of this the flock that each shepherd looked after need to be carefully attended to. The shepherd will protect and guide them to safety from wild animals like snakes and wild dogs. Like the shepherds looking after sheep, Jesus is our Shepherd and in parallel we can also infer that many a times, human beings are quite stupid – stupid not in the sense of lack of talents or skills or not being useful in making a lot of money but more of seeking temporal pleasure of the flesh and gratifications without any due considerations to the consequences. The results of such actions can bring serious grief not just to ourselves but also other people like our family members. From God's perspective, those who don't believe there is God are considered as fool and because of this disbelief it has led many of them to live a life of godliness. [Psalm 14:1]

Jesus as our Good Shepherd gives life to us and protect us from the evil one. This was foretold in the Old Testament and was fulfilled in the New Testament when Jesus willingly went to the cross to be crucified. By so doing, He is able to offer life to His sheep. By offering security to those who believe in Him, we are protected from the evil one and no one can snatch us away from God. Jesus paid a very dear price for this. He shed every drop of His Blood from head to toe so that we can live.

As His flock we have certain duties that He wants from us. We must heed His voice [John 10:2-3] and follow Him by undertaking the ministry of sharing His love of sinners to others. There is only one flock and that is the body of believers, His Church. We must therefore strive for unity. Whether we are just 'ordinary' church members or in leadership position like serving as elders, pastors, we are to cooperate with one another. There must be no division in the body of Christ. We are to pray for one another and maintaining the spirit of the bond of peace. Are we dong our part to preserve the oneness of His flock? Remember – Jesus paid a dear price for His Church, His body. And as His body, we will dwell in His house forever [Psalm 23:6].

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [August 17, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]

It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. [Psalm 118:1]

Do we have the right to expect something from our friends or relatives? When we are in need, when we are suffering, when we are crying for help, can we expect that they must come to help us? The answer is no. Expect nothing. We can only expect from God in times of needs. It will be wonderful if we can expect from good professing friends and they indeed come and help us. Good friends are very rare and they too can disappoint us. If we allow an expectation, we leave ourselves open to trouble and we can get others into trouble. We too can disappoint ourselves because sometimes we even betray our own trust. Peter, one of Jesus’ most trusted disciples, denied Him although he trusted himself so much that he said he would not forsake Jesus. He denied Jesus, not just once but thrice, at the very last hour when Jesus was to be crucified.

Our experience of disappointments should be lessons for us to learn that we cannot put our trust on friends, relatives or even ourselves. We have no right to expect anything from anyone but we can do all things through Christ. To have the right expectation, remember Psalm 62:5 “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him.” We can expect anything with God because with Him all things are possible. We can draw strength from God and we can walk humbly before Him. Trust Him and He will give us an expected end [Jeremiah 29:11]. So each time we get into disappointments, remember that they are lessons for learning and we must go to God in prayer for His strength and His expectation. We must let each disappointment draws us closer to God and put a greater trust on Him. Jesus is our only True Friend.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [August 18, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]

And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. [Galatians 5:24]

Jesus was nailed to the cross. Besides His physical body, Jesus took along all our sins and they were crucified onto the cross together with Jesus. Inspite of this wonderful act of sacrifice by our dear God, Jesus, our very selfish flesh still lust after the world’s desires which can bring to us grave consequences. We still see broken homes because of drunkenness, gambling, unfaithfulness of spouses among other worldly indulgence. As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit to help us and to free us from all the evil desires provided we are walking in the Spirit. He is our Comforter; He is our Helper; He is all we need. By walking in the Spirit, we can enjoy the full blessings from God. There are five key reasons to “walk in the Spirit”:

(1) The Spirit and the flesh are contrary to one another. So, if we are really walking in the Spirit, we must crucify our flesh. [Galatians 5:17]
(2) The Spirit will deliver us from the law. [Galatians 5:18]
(3) If we continue to fulfill the lusts of the flesh, we will not inherit the Kingdom of God. [Galatians 5:19-21]
(4) We reap what we sow. As the Spirit gives live so shall our walk with the Spirit. If we walk without the Spirit, it will lead to death. The Bible told us to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect [Matthew 5:48].
(5) Our unholy walk will grieve the Holy Spirit. [Ephesians 4:30] Remember, Jesus wept when His beloved people suffered or failed to follow His commandments.

How amazing for us as Christians to have a living and personal God who can grieve for us when we suffer or doing the wrong things! Let’s be faithful to Him. The greatest gift that we can give to Jesus is to faithfully walking in the Spirit. He finds great delight when we do so.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [August 19, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]

For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. [Matthew 26:28]

One day I visited my apartment which I had renovated. It was near completion but I saw several stains on a dressing table and I took some alcohol to clean up the stains. The alcohol was left by the contractor. To my disappointment, not only the stains could not be removed, they became worse and the stain marks got bigger and uglier. I asked my contractor and he laughed. He told me I have used the wrong chemical. I should use turpentine and not alcohol to remove those stains. He told me that different stains such as paints, lacquer, glue, etc react differently to different types of chemicals. He warned me that if the chemical is used incorrectly onto the furniture, you may end up damaging the furniture.

Just like the stains and the dirt that we need to remove each day from our house as part of our housekeeping, we need to remove sins from our life. If our sins are not removed we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God because nothing impure will enter into God’s holy presence. However, there is one and one only “chemical” that can remove man’s sin, and that is the blood of Jesus. If we use the wrong blood, not only our sins will not be removed, it can become worse. Human beings have sacrificed animals as part of the ritual to atone their sins. They hope that the blood of the sacrificed animals can be acceptable to their ‘gods’ and hence could overlook their sins. They have used the wrong blood type! Not only they could not remove the sins, the sins of the world are now out of control. This has in fact been prophesied in the Bible that one of the end-time signs is men will practice all kinds of sinful things [2 Timothy 3:2-6].

Jesus died because He shed every drop of His precious blood in order to wash away our sins. But death could not conquer Him, He rose three days later. Can you imagine a world without the cross and empty tomb? We must thank God for Jesus. He is our living hope.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [August 20, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]

….. Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. [Acts 8:20]

Everyone of us wants gift, that’s why we see in many advertisements that promise to give you ‘free’ gifts if you paid the purchases by using credit card from certain banks or if you have made a purchase of other items with more than a specified amount of money. It’s an irony that these ‘free’ gifts are given with conditions – they are supposed to be free and in every true sense of the meaning “free”, it means “to given unconditionally and costing nothing”. Businessmen are not fools, these so-called gifts are indeed not free at all. They are already cost into the purchase price. As for children, they always look forward to receiving gifts from their parents during New Year, Christmas or during their birthdays or when they have done particularly well in their examinations. Many were disappointed when their parents failed to give them or when the gifts are not according to their expectations. We as adults too often we go through life looking at what others have and wondering when our ship will come in with all the things we want, and hopefully they are free. If we are not careful of this feeling of unfulfilled want of gifts, we can be separated of our love for God and our relationship with our Savour.

Indeed, they are free gifts right before own very eyes and they are from God! Are we ready to accept all these gifts – gift of unconditional love, gift of salvation, gift of a heavenly mansion in Eternity that will outdo anything we could ever buy on this earth, gift of the Holy Spirit to comfort us in times of needs and troubles? The good news is we don’t even need to pay these gifts and for that matter, we can’t buy them with money. Just stretch out our hands and go humbly to Jesus to accept them. The price has already been paid by Him on the cross. What a mighty Heavenly Father we have! All we need is to ask “Father I want to accept Your gifts. Come to me please Lord Jesus. I know You have already paid for these gifts with Your precious blood. Thank you Jesus that You too can accept me even though I am a sinner and because of my sins that You have to die for me. In Jesus’ name I ask and accept all your gifts with all my heart. I know regardless of my feeling whether I am in need or in trouble and that can affect my love for You, but Lord Jesus, Your love of me is never ending. Thank you Jesus for giving me this privilege to receiving Your gifts. Amen.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [August 21, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. [Proverbs 23:7]

God has warned us to be careful of what we eat and what we think. In the Books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy in Old Testament, God has given some strict rules concerning food consumptions. In fact, most of these rules are relating to medical and health, for example, it has warned against eating of blood and this is confirmed by modern science that eating blood especially not completely cooked is very dangerous. Even if the blood is 'cooked' there are still certain germs and viruses that could survive hot cooking temperature. I read a book sometimes back and if I remember correctly, the title of the book was "God's Key To Good Health." There was a true story of a pig got into a fight with a snake. The snake had attacked the pig and as the result the pig's blood got into the snake's blood stream. Interestingly the pig survived the attack but it was found later that the snake died because of pig's blood poisoning. It seems that pig's blood is very toxic and I believe all other blood too are just as toxic.

Likewise, the God has warned us to be careful of what we think because our thoughts control our actions. As we are all living in this cursed and fallen world, we are going to have a mixture of both good and bad things. Jesus Himself said that we would all have various trials and tribulations that we would have to go through from time to time. Research has shown that people who always seem to be happier, more upbeat and more fulfilled with their lives are the people who have a good sound mind and who are always thinking about and dwelling on the more positive things in this life.

Our job is to work very closely with the Holy Spirit to allow Him to take control of our mind so that He can start the sanctification process within us. We will see Him start to target specific areas in our thinking where we are really off – they may be jealousy, hatred, vengeance, greed or lust. Once this revelation has been given to us, we can call upon the Holy Spirit to give us the strength to remove these negative thoughts and replace with positive thoughts of His love, His care and His eternal hope that Jesus has promised to us. We just need to be more like Jesus and to take delight in Him and He will give us the desire of our hearts [Psalm 37:4]. Let us live a more Christ-centered life each day.

 

[Psalm23]

Does the Bible talk about ghosts?
A lot of Christians believed in them, and not necessary Chinese.

"Ghosts" or evil spirits as mentioned in Bible are fallen angels. They have chosen the wrong path and refused to obey God. We as human beings have everything to thank God. This is because when the angels disobeyed, God will cast them into hell which is actually prepared for the fallen angels (or evil spirits). No second chance for them. However, when human race disobeyed, God loves the human race (which is us) so much that He has in fact given human race another chance. He became man to redeem us. Angels may shout God has died but only we can shout God has died for me! But the condition is that we must be willing to accept this second chance by accepting Jesus as God and accept His blood that will cleanse our sins. We must truly repent of all our sins. We will then be redeemed and our relationship with God will be restored.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [August 22, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]

For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. [James 2:10]

From the time we started our schooling up to the very last day when we retired from work, we have had to undergo a lot of tests. In schools, we have to take tests to determine our level of competency and at work our supervisors will appraise our work performance level. Some grades in the tests and appraisals are absolute like a Math test but many subjects are graded in relative form such as essay-writing or arts. In an essay-writing test, the essays written by students are compared against each other and grades are given accordingly. Usually the teachers who marked the test scripts will make references to the essays written by all students from that cohort and marks are assigned accordingly. In work, however, relative appraisals are normally used and a common method is to put the grades of the workers on a ‘bell-curve’ which human resource professionals termed it as “20-80-20 bell-curve” (or in some other ratios in the curve). In a 20-80-20 ratio curve it means that of the 100 workers who are being appraised, 20 of them will be graded as “very good workers”, 80 of them will be graded as “satisfactory workers” and another 20 will be graded as “poor workers”. Human resource professionals have been using such method (also known as forced-distritbution) to evaluate workers for as long as I can remember. Go to any books on human resource appraisals and I can guarantee you that you can still find such method being widely used by companies.

But God doesn’t grade us on a curve. On the Judgment Day, either we have passed or we have failed God’s test. There is no in-between. Someone had once said that when it comes to sin, God is colour-blind - God sees only either black or white. God will give us either 100% or 0% because to God, 99.999% is still not good enough. To Him 99.999% is as bad as 0% because He demands a passing mark of 100% perfection, nothing less.

Quite sadly, so many people have the idea that God is going to grade on the curve. We may say to ourselves, "We're bad, but we're not as bad as so-and-so." Beware, God grades on an absolute standard of holiness. He will not compare performances among us. He will look at our performance against the Ten Commandments. If we had broken only one, we have broken all. Thanks to God, He is merciful and He is prepared to give us 100% regardless how many commandments we have already broken if we come to accept Him as our Saviour and repent of all our sins. Let us not struggle to achieve and pass our life's final test with 100% ourselves because we can never do it by ourselves. Only by accepting Jesus as our Saviour and His Holy Spirit will help us to complete this life journey of testing. Let God be God and not reduce Him to a human resource professional. His system of marking is absolute against His whole law. There will be no bell-curve.

 

[Psalm23]

No ler, I am talking about people who just died.

Human beings do not become ghosts or evil (or good) spirit when they died. When you died, your physical body is destroyed but your soul will either go to heaven or hell. For myself as Christian, I prefer to say that when we departed from this world, we will have eternal life and that means we will enter into the presence of God forever. We will be given a new body by God. For non-believers, they will not have eternal life and they will be separated from God forever. I respect you even you don't agree with me. You may have other religious belief. But that's what the Bible, the Word of God, has taught us. God has been trying to restore our relationship with Him. He wants us to go to Him and be with Him. And He got to pay a big price for doing this by dying on the cross for us. Frankly when you are with God, it doesn't matter where you are. You will be fully protected just like when a child is with his father, the father will do everything to protect his child and it doesn't matter where they are at shopping center or at Disneyland.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [August 23, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]

Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. [Ecclesiastes 8:11]

Have you been wrongfully accused? Or have you encountered a situation in which you could rightly demand swift justice such as you were robbed and physically injured by robbers? What happen if the police still could not catch the robber? You waited and waited and waited for many weeks and still no news of where the robbers are. How would you feel? Injustice, of course!

When someone hurts us, oppresses us, sins against us, we want justice. We are angry when it doesn’t come quickly or in the manner we think is suitable for the offense. We question God and His timing when it appears as if they get away with what they’ve done. We feel cheated and we say to ourselves “if only I have the resources and the ability, I will go after these people myself and make sure they really pay for what they have done to me."

But if it is you and I that hurt another, if it is you and I that oppress another, if it is you and I that sin against another, we want grace? We hope to receive grace from the person we hurt but we now want justice for others who hurt us. It’s twisted isn’t it?

Just like we want grace and forgiveness from others, we too must do the same to others. We all know this is not easy especially when the hurt is a ‘serious’ one and has a long-term or even permanent bearing on our life. We need therefore to pray for the Holy Spirit to help us and grant us the strength to forgive others no matter how much they have wronged us. When Jesus was nailed to the cross for a crime which He did not commit, He did not cry out to the Father to come to rescue Him nor ask justice from His Father. Instead, The Son of God asked His Father to forgive those who crucified Him (Luke 23:34). Let’s not take matter into our own hands. Revenge is God’s business and let Him execute for us the justice on our behalf. God has His timing. You may not see the judgment now but it is imminent that Jesus will come one day to deliver all judgments.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [August 24, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak [Ecclesiastes 3:7]

We are living in a world full of noises. In the age of information, we are bombarded with endless flow of information. To clamour for attention, we usually join in the conversation with our colleagues or friends even though we may only know very little of the subject being discussed. We just feel the need to “contribute” and at times we can look quite silly because of what we have said such as saying something they already knew about, or using wrong vocabulary, or saying something not accurate, or untrue. It is odd how people often talk not because they want to communicate but because they just want to show how knowledgeable or wise they are. Quite to the contrary, the Bible tells us that even a fool is considered wise if he keeps silent and hold his tongue [Proverbs 17:28].

Whatever we do or say, there is a time and we should only speak when it is our turn or when the situation demands it. At times silent is the best ministry to people who are in need. Job was in great distress because of unimaginable personal tragedies that he had encountered. He lost all his possessions including all his children and children-in-law. When his friends came and kept silent and just to be with him, he needs of sympathy was met. But all these changes when his friends decided to speak. They had said all the wrong things and Job felt more miserable.

Lest we drown in our own words and chatter, we need to rediscover the need for silence. Regular period of silences are essential for healthy and holy Christian living and we can get the greatest benefits if we keep silent before God by prayer and mediating on His Word. In Psalm 46:10 we are told to be still and know that He is God.

 

[Psalm23]

Today’s Scripture Reading [August 25, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! [Isaiah 5:20]

What has become of us today? It looks the world is fighting a loosing battle. There is a saying, “If you can't win, just change the rules.” Are we changing the rules (or to be exact God’s rules) just because we are loosing? The following prayer by Pastor Joe Wright at the opening session of a state Senate in the U.S. several years’ ago can best explain our current state of ungodliness of unimaginable magnitude:

“Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, “Woe to those who call evil good”, but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it Pluralism.
We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.
We have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!”​

What has become of the world and our nations? Is this the end of the age as prophesied in the Bible? How can we go further to reverse the situation? Pastor Wright concluding prayer gives much hope: Ask God to cleanse us from every sin and set us free!