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Today's Scripture Reading
- Thread starter Psalm23
- Start date
Today’s Scripture Reading [November 29, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]
The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day. [Luke 9: 22]
Continued from Luke 9:22, Jesus said that if anyone who would come after Him, he must deny himself and take up the cross daily and follow Him (Luke 9:23). We noted several key active words in these two verses: reject, slain, raise, deny, take up and follow.
We are living in a war-torn world, not just in the literal sense of military or physical conflicts but we are also in conflict in every aspect of our living conditions. The gross perversions of humankind such as adultery, gambling addiction, pornography, cheating are tearing down the very fabric of families, marriages and society; we are torn between the love for our neighbours and the greed for more wealth acquired at the expense of others; we are torn by the deceit of the evil forces to live a compromising life; we are confronted with so many life choices that they are tearing down our ability to make the right choices for His glory. Every day, our lives are torn apart in one way or another, often even against our will. Spiritually speaking and interestingly to note that whether we are taking up the cross of Jesus or not, we are all bleeding daily and we always hope that somehow, someday, someone can help to stop this bleeding.
Our loving God, Lord Jesus was rejected, slain but rose again after three days. He carried the cross all the way to crucifixion. On His journey to the cross, He was bleeding profusely because the Roman soldiers had whipped and tortured Him. The whips that used by the Roman soldiers were designed to inflict the bloodiest wound possible to the prisoners. The inflicted wounds would cause prisoners to die of slow death! Roman soldiers were very well trained torturers and executors and they would leave no chance for any condemned prisoner to survive. The death of Jesus was sealed when He came face to face with these cruel Roman soldiers.
We are living in a post-crucified age of Jesus and where Christianity is continuously exploited by non-believers and sadly sometimes by believers themselves. Our faith has been exploited to the point that we rate the preachers of how eloquent they speak, or how good the musicians are rather than listen to what God has to say to us. We have created a new breed of Christian consumers. In office, at home and when we are with friends, we hardly talk or share about Jesus. Our conversations centered around which is the most popular shopping mall, which grand sports event is coming, which celebrity got has pregnant and by who, when and how to invest our money to get the highest return - just about everything but bring absolutely no value to our spiritual walk. The true Christian message is one of denial, not worldly compliance. A cross-less Christ will lead us to Christ-less living which has no power and therefore can be easily be exploited. It seems today and especially in the West that every religion and every message except Christianity is tolerated.
We are told to do the same as Jesus: deny ourselves, take up the cross and follow Him all the way to crucifixion. Jesus suffering is a reminder to us that carrying the cross and following Him is no easy task. ‘Death’ is inevitable. We will not to expect earthly rewards. Instead, the opposite can be quite true. Through this godly compliance, we will face godly sorrows and godly sufferings. But we have a divine promise, the promise that at the end of the road and after we have been crucified with Him, God has promised us that though we died with Him we will be made alive by His Spirit and to enjoy His full glory (Luke 9:24). We cannot have both ways: either we accept God's directives, carry the cross and following Him daily or go our own way. You have been deceived and exploited when you are told that all roads will lead to heaven but the truth is that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and no one can come to the Father except through Him (John 14:6-7).
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]
The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day. [Luke 9: 22]
Continued from Luke 9:22, Jesus said that if anyone who would come after Him, he must deny himself and take up the cross daily and follow Him (Luke 9:23). We noted several key active words in these two verses: reject, slain, raise, deny, take up and follow.
We are living in a war-torn world, not just in the literal sense of military or physical conflicts but we are also in conflict in every aspect of our living conditions. The gross perversions of humankind such as adultery, gambling addiction, pornography, cheating are tearing down the very fabric of families, marriages and society; we are torn between the love for our neighbours and the greed for more wealth acquired at the expense of others; we are torn by the deceit of the evil forces to live a compromising life; we are confronted with so many life choices that they are tearing down our ability to make the right choices for His glory. Every day, our lives are torn apart in one way or another, often even against our will. Spiritually speaking and interestingly to note that whether we are taking up the cross of Jesus or not, we are all bleeding daily and we always hope that somehow, someday, someone can help to stop this bleeding.
Our loving God, Lord Jesus was rejected, slain but rose again after three days. He carried the cross all the way to crucifixion. On His journey to the cross, He was bleeding profusely because the Roman soldiers had whipped and tortured Him. The whips that used by the Roman soldiers were designed to inflict the bloodiest wound possible to the prisoners. The inflicted wounds would cause prisoners to die of slow death! Roman soldiers were very well trained torturers and executors and they would leave no chance for any condemned prisoner to survive. The death of Jesus was sealed when He came face to face with these cruel Roman soldiers.
We are living in a post-crucified age of Jesus and where Christianity is continuously exploited by non-believers and sadly sometimes by believers themselves. Our faith has been exploited to the point that we rate the preachers of how eloquent they speak, or how good the musicians are rather than listen to what God has to say to us. We have created a new breed of Christian consumers. In office, at home and when we are with friends, we hardly talk or share about Jesus. Our conversations centered around which is the most popular shopping mall, which grand sports event is coming, which celebrity got has pregnant and by who, when and how to invest our money to get the highest return - just about everything but bring absolutely no value to our spiritual walk. The true Christian message is one of denial, not worldly compliance. A cross-less Christ will lead us to Christ-less living which has no power and therefore can be easily be exploited. It seems today and especially in the West that every religion and every message except Christianity is tolerated.
We are told to do the same as Jesus: deny ourselves, take up the cross and follow Him all the way to crucifixion. Jesus suffering is a reminder to us that carrying the cross and following Him is no easy task. ‘Death’ is inevitable. We will not to expect earthly rewards. Instead, the opposite can be quite true. Through this godly compliance, we will face godly sorrows and godly sufferings. But we have a divine promise, the promise that at the end of the road and after we have been crucified with Him, God has promised us that though we died with Him we will be made alive by His Spirit and to enjoy His full glory (Luke 9:24). We cannot have both ways: either we accept God's directives, carry the cross and following Him daily or go our own way. You have been deceived and exploited when you are told that all roads will lead to heaven but the truth is that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and no one can come to the Father except through Him (John 14:6-7).
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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Thank you for reading my postings. I hope they can encourage you in your walk with our dear Lord Jesus. He and only He alone is worthy be our God. There is none else but Him.
In all my postings, I will try very hard to be as accurate as I can when I make references, especially scripture references. If you, however, have noticed any misquotation, kindly let me know. And also if I have misquoted or if you felt that you have been misinformed please let me know as well. God is only pleased when we speak nothing but the truth. Check all that you read especially from the internet, and that include all my postings. Never trust what you read - except of course the Bible.
One admission, though: I am not a theologian. I am just a faithful believer of Jesus Christ. What I see, what I hear and what I have witnessed people point to me that God is real. In fact, is very real!
God bless you all and have a great blessed week.
Thank you for reading my postings. I hope they can encourage you in your walk with our dear Lord Jesus. He and only He alone is worthy be our God. There is none else but Him.
In all my postings, I will try very hard to be as accurate as I can when I make references, especially scripture references. If you, however, have noticed any misquotation, kindly let me know. And also if I have misquoted or if you felt that you have been misinformed please let me know as well. God is only pleased when we speak nothing but the truth. Check all that you read especially from the internet, and that include all my postings. Never trust what you read - except of course the Bible.
One admission, though: I am not a theologian. I am just a faithful believer of Jesus Christ. What I see, what I hear and what I have witnessed people point to me that God is real. In fact, is very real!
God bless you all and have a great blessed week.
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Today’s Scripture Reading [December 6, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]
Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way. [Psalm 119:37]
Over the last couple of weeks my letter box was bombarded with many junk mails and I believe you too must have received just as many of these junk mails. They were junk mails of shopping catalogues enticing people to buy all kinds of things from electronic goods to children’s toys and to lure women to go for beauty services from facial and spa treatments to plastic surgery To date, I have received more than a dozens of these catalogues and I can say that all the items being sold at these catalogues are really worthless and for vain pursuits, many of which are to boast our ego. I can’t find even one item that is so essential that we must have it. They just don’t add any value to our life, especially our walk with Lord Jesus. And this is what holiday season is all about – shopping, vacationing, eating, partying and running after material things of all kinds! Besides the promotional catalogues that we find them in our letter boxes, we are bombarded with commercial clips from TVs, the Internet and mobile phones.
The year-end shopping ritual is repeated year after year, and it is driven by the greed for more profits by the businessmen on one hand and the ‘lust of the eyes’ of the consumers on the other hand. No one can escape these temptations – the greed for more material possessions. Even Jesus was tempted when He was on earth. Although the Bible recorded that Jesus was tempted several times but many Bible scholars believed that He was tempted many more times than what were recorded in the Bible. Many of us can, knowingly or unknowingly, forsake the Kingdom of God when we allow temptations of the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life to trap us (1 John 2: 15-17). Our loving God fully understands our weaknesses so much so that He has taught us to pray to Him to “lead us not into temptation” (Matthew 6:13). It certainly implies that if we are to purposefully walk into the peril of temptation, we will be in trouble. The best way to avoid temptation is to flee from it (1 Timothy 6:11) because temptation has tremendous sin-germinating potential and when sin is fully grown, it will lead us to death (James 1:15)
Bible scriptures are more relevant and more important to us now than ever before. How we guide our eyes in this visual information age makes all the difference to the wellbeing of our walk with our Saviour, Jesus. Worthless things surround us. They are becoming more affordable because of improved production and manufacturing technology. Like the western countries, we are now also in a ‘throw-away’ society. When our television or printer is not working, we changed to a new one because it’s now cheaper to buy a new one than to send it for repair. Sadly, sometimes we even throw away things that are still in good working conditions and good (or bad) examples are mobile phones and personal computers. We just want to have a more fanciful model and admittedly, this may partly be lured by the attractive promotional offers by greedy business entrepreneurs, it is largely due to our flesh’s desire that we find it hard to resist upgrading our lifestyle by upgrading our physical possessions.
The sensuality of our culture is so obvious that it doesn’t need much explanation. But there are as many worthless and vain things that are not so obvious as they are obvious one. How many hours have we wasted on watching TV soap operas, dramas, playing games and surfing worthless information on the Internet, gossiping meaningless topics with friends (or even with strangers) on the Internet? The irony is that our leisure time which is meant for us to relax has become a key factor to negatively affect our mental health! We find that we need more leisure time to cope with our ever-growing leisure activities and many of us ended up having ‘Monday-Blue’ when we got back to our work place after the 2 or 3 days of weekend hang over. We need time to recover from our leisure activities!
The world with all its flowery yet thorny paths, is a dreary wilderness. To avoid this drudgery, we must make Christ and heaven the only objects of desire, "He who shuts his eyes from seeing evil, he shall dwell on high; his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks; bread shall be given him, his water shall be sure. Your eyes shall see the King in His beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.” (Isaiah 33:15-17) These are precious promises to those that flee from temptation and desire to walk in the ways of God. It is a blessing even if we just ask our Lord Jesus for an inclination to lean and to bend our soul in the opposite direction of inordinate worldly gain and pleasure. This was exactly what King David did. He cried to God for direction (Psalm 18:6) and God has acknowledged with gladness and he was proclaimed by God to be the man after His heart (1 Samuel 13:14).
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2). Let us also pay tribute to Helen M. Lemmel who had penned the inspiring hymn, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. She has inspired us to look into the wonderful face of our Lord Jesus and once we look into His wonderful face, the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His Glory and Grace. (You are encouraged to listen to this hymn – please go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO4uIyz_d90 )
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]
Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way. [Psalm 119:37]
Over the last couple of weeks my letter box was bombarded with many junk mails and I believe you too must have received just as many of these junk mails. They were junk mails of shopping catalogues enticing people to buy all kinds of things from electronic goods to children’s toys and to lure women to go for beauty services from facial and spa treatments to plastic surgery To date, I have received more than a dozens of these catalogues and I can say that all the items being sold at these catalogues are really worthless and for vain pursuits, many of which are to boast our ego. I can’t find even one item that is so essential that we must have it. They just don’t add any value to our life, especially our walk with Lord Jesus. And this is what holiday season is all about – shopping, vacationing, eating, partying and running after material things of all kinds! Besides the promotional catalogues that we find them in our letter boxes, we are bombarded with commercial clips from TVs, the Internet and mobile phones.
The year-end shopping ritual is repeated year after year, and it is driven by the greed for more profits by the businessmen on one hand and the ‘lust of the eyes’ of the consumers on the other hand. No one can escape these temptations – the greed for more material possessions. Even Jesus was tempted when He was on earth. Although the Bible recorded that Jesus was tempted several times but many Bible scholars believed that He was tempted many more times than what were recorded in the Bible. Many of us can, knowingly or unknowingly, forsake the Kingdom of God when we allow temptations of the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life to trap us (1 John 2: 15-17). Our loving God fully understands our weaknesses so much so that He has taught us to pray to Him to “lead us not into temptation” (Matthew 6:13). It certainly implies that if we are to purposefully walk into the peril of temptation, we will be in trouble. The best way to avoid temptation is to flee from it (1 Timothy 6:11) because temptation has tremendous sin-germinating potential and when sin is fully grown, it will lead us to death (James 1:15)
Bible scriptures are more relevant and more important to us now than ever before. How we guide our eyes in this visual information age makes all the difference to the wellbeing of our walk with our Saviour, Jesus. Worthless things surround us. They are becoming more affordable because of improved production and manufacturing technology. Like the western countries, we are now also in a ‘throw-away’ society. When our television or printer is not working, we changed to a new one because it’s now cheaper to buy a new one than to send it for repair. Sadly, sometimes we even throw away things that are still in good working conditions and good (or bad) examples are mobile phones and personal computers. We just want to have a more fanciful model and admittedly, this may partly be lured by the attractive promotional offers by greedy business entrepreneurs, it is largely due to our flesh’s desire that we find it hard to resist upgrading our lifestyle by upgrading our physical possessions.
The sensuality of our culture is so obvious that it doesn’t need much explanation. But there are as many worthless and vain things that are not so obvious as they are obvious one. How many hours have we wasted on watching TV soap operas, dramas, playing games and surfing worthless information on the Internet, gossiping meaningless topics with friends (or even with strangers) on the Internet? The irony is that our leisure time which is meant for us to relax has become a key factor to negatively affect our mental health! We find that we need more leisure time to cope with our ever-growing leisure activities and many of us ended up having ‘Monday-Blue’ when we got back to our work place after the 2 or 3 days of weekend hang over. We need time to recover from our leisure activities!
The world with all its flowery yet thorny paths, is a dreary wilderness. To avoid this drudgery, we must make Christ and heaven the only objects of desire, "He who shuts his eyes from seeing evil, he shall dwell on high; his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks; bread shall be given him, his water shall be sure. Your eyes shall see the King in His beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.” (Isaiah 33:15-17) These are precious promises to those that flee from temptation and desire to walk in the ways of God. It is a blessing even if we just ask our Lord Jesus for an inclination to lean and to bend our soul in the opposite direction of inordinate worldly gain and pleasure. This was exactly what King David did. He cried to God for direction (Psalm 18:6) and God has acknowledged with gladness and he was proclaimed by God to be the man after His heart (1 Samuel 13:14).
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2). Let us also pay tribute to Helen M. Lemmel who had penned the inspiring hymn, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. She has inspired us to look into the wonderful face of our Lord Jesus and once we look into His wonderful face, the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His Glory and Grace. (You are encouraged to listen to this hymn – please go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO4uIyz_d90 )
Today’s Scripture Reading [December 13, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]
For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. [1 Timothy 4:8]
Quite often when I passed by a ‘five-star’ fitness center that was located at the ground floor of a well-known shopping mall and as the walls of the center were fitted with clear transparent glass, I could see several people just standing watching the activities taking place inside the center. Whether the owners do it on purpose or not, I can’t tell but I think the transparent glass walls do definitely serve as effective public relations and advertising tool. To some passers-by, the center may prove to be too tempting, and I believe they wish they could be members of these centres because you could see many young men and women running on the treadmills showing off their ‘beautiful’ physique. As we all know, physical possessions including our appearance may give us a sense of security and recognition, however false it might be. I believe you know too that you need to pay several thousands of dollars just to be members of these five-star fitness centers. As usual, credit card companies can play heroes to these young men and women because they can use the so-called ‘interest-free’ installments payment scheme to pay for the membership. The recent fiasco of one of the spa centers is yet another case of how easy people can fall prey into unscrupulous businessmen taking advantage of unsuspecting consumers. Many of them were tempted to join perhaps with a promise that they would look ‘better and different’ after few sessions of the treatments. We must not underestimate the power of temptation. It can lead us to false sense of security and at the expense of our hard earned money. Certainly, after the treatment we can look a little ‘better and different’ (from the outside of course) but it will not last. Once the treatment stops, we will look no better and no different as before.
Physical fitness, keeping good hygiene, maintaining healthy facial outlook are important. No one can deny it. But will these make us a happier and more secure person? If we are insecure, no matter how we look, we are still an insecure person, regardless of our physical shape. Inspite of this, many of us are still prepared to spend thousands of dollars to keep in shape from the outside but not as many of us are willing to invest in shaping our inner self. By giving ourselves to God’s Word, Jesus has promised that He will shape us (2 Timothy 3:16). By renewing our mind to conform to His purpose, He will give us long life, purity, a clean conscience, spiritual and material blessings, among others. We must remind ourselves that our body is the temple of God (1 Corinthians 6:19) and maintaining healthy physical health is scriptural and hence, we must not abuse our bodies such as consuming wine, illicit drugs, illicit sex, smoking. Most importantly, we need to keep our spiritual life fit and to press forward to acquire godliness through His Spirit.
In Romans 12:1-2, the apostle Paul told us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God and to renew our mind and not to conform to the world. We need to run our spiritual threadmill by reading the Bible and unceasingly pursuing God’s holiness. This is the only source of exercise that will give us nourishment to our spiritual life so that we can be transformed inside out. And the best news – we don’t need to pay any subscription to be on His Bible threadmill programme. All we need is a copy of the Bible and our burning desires to want to know Him more. Before we contemplate to sign up for the physical fitness or spa membership (which is likely to burn a deep hole in our pocket), let us give priority to our spiritual threadmill by reading the Bible every day, pray unceasingly and surrender ourselves to God for He and He alone is our Architect and our Builder (Hebrews 11:10). Our good physique can help us to look good and feel good for a little while but the real lasting profit for a man is the one who keeps looking to God, who keeps believing in God and who keeps trusting in God. We can have all our heart’s desires if we just delight and be happy with our Lord Jesus (Psalm 37:4). We can never replace this by going to a fitness or a spa center.
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]
For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. [1 Timothy 4:8]
Quite often when I passed by a ‘five-star’ fitness center that was located at the ground floor of a well-known shopping mall and as the walls of the center were fitted with clear transparent glass, I could see several people just standing watching the activities taking place inside the center. Whether the owners do it on purpose or not, I can’t tell but I think the transparent glass walls do definitely serve as effective public relations and advertising tool. To some passers-by, the center may prove to be too tempting, and I believe they wish they could be members of these centres because you could see many young men and women running on the treadmills showing off their ‘beautiful’ physique. As we all know, physical possessions including our appearance may give us a sense of security and recognition, however false it might be. I believe you know too that you need to pay several thousands of dollars just to be members of these five-star fitness centers. As usual, credit card companies can play heroes to these young men and women because they can use the so-called ‘interest-free’ installments payment scheme to pay for the membership. The recent fiasco of one of the spa centers is yet another case of how easy people can fall prey into unscrupulous businessmen taking advantage of unsuspecting consumers. Many of them were tempted to join perhaps with a promise that they would look ‘better and different’ after few sessions of the treatments. We must not underestimate the power of temptation. It can lead us to false sense of security and at the expense of our hard earned money. Certainly, after the treatment we can look a little ‘better and different’ (from the outside of course) but it will not last. Once the treatment stops, we will look no better and no different as before.
Physical fitness, keeping good hygiene, maintaining healthy facial outlook are important. No one can deny it. But will these make us a happier and more secure person? If we are insecure, no matter how we look, we are still an insecure person, regardless of our physical shape. Inspite of this, many of us are still prepared to spend thousands of dollars to keep in shape from the outside but not as many of us are willing to invest in shaping our inner self. By giving ourselves to God’s Word, Jesus has promised that He will shape us (2 Timothy 3:16). By renewing our mind to conform to His purpose, He will give us long life, purity, a clean conscience, spiritual and material blessings, among others. We must remind ourselves that our body is the temple of God (1 Corinthians 6:19) and maintaining healthy physical health is scriptural and hence, we must not abuse our bodies such as consuming wine, illicit drugs, illicit sex, smoking. Most importantly, we need to keep our spiritual life fit and to press forward to acquire godliness through His Spirit.
In Romans 12:1-2, the apostle Paul told us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God and to renew our mind and not to conform to the world. We need to run our spiritual threadmill by reading the Bible and unceasingly pursuing God’s holiness. This is the only source of exercise that will give us nourishment to our spiritual life so that we can be transformed inside out. And the best news – we don’t need to pay any subscription to be on His Bible threadmill programme. All we need is a copy of the Bible and our burning desires to want to know Him more. Before we contemplate to sign up for the physical fitness or spa membership (which is likely to burn a deep hole in our pocket), let us give priority to our spiritual threadmill by reading the Bible every day, pray unceasingly and surrender ourselves to God for He and He alone is our Architect and our Builder (Hebrews 11:10). Our good physique can help us to look good and feel good for a little while but the real lasting profit for a man is the one who keeps looking to God, who keeps believing in God and who keeps trusting in God. We can have all our heart’s desires if we just delight and be happy with our Lord Jesus (Psalm 37:4). We can never replace this by going to a fitness or a spa center.
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Whilst i respect your opinion, i do feel that this absolutist type of comparison is wrong.
Simply because we do not go to a spa to be happy with Christ.
And we do not read the Bible for physical fitness.
Apologies if you have misunderstood my message. I don't think anything wrong to go for physical fitness or spa for treatment but we need to pay due consideration to financial affordability. Secondly, what I am stressing is that we should pay more attention to our spiritual needs rather than outward appearance. We have to balance our needs for the love of God and our desire to please people (or even ourselves) with better look. You may disagree (and I respectfully accept your disagreement), for Christians, anything that done outside the love of God is idolatry and that includes spending too much time on our hobbies, our career, etc at the expense of our time with our Lord Jesus. Sadly, many have mistaken Christianity as a very easy religion. All we have to do is to just confess our sin, accept Jesus as our Saviour and that's it. This is important but only the very beginning and it must not an one-off declaration of faith. Quite to the contrary, Christain faith requires us to fight daily against worldly attraction. That's very tough and I find it very tough too! I must admit, I fail miserably everyday trying to live up to God's calling for godliness and holiness but the joy is that the spirit of God gives us comfort even when we fail, and we need to keep trying to achieve this.
Again and I truly appreciate your feedback and your comments. So long we can agree to disagree (without any use of abusive language and that you have really exceled), we can just live and let our God to lead us because He is faithful and just.
To all Sammyboy readers of this post, I too apologize to you if you find that this message is not in line with your belief. My posting is not meant to be callous to those who are seeking good physical health by going to the fitness centers or seeking good look by going to the spa centers. Maintaining good physical health, personal hygiene and eat and drink responsibly should always be our responsibilities and no one can do these for us except oursleves. Rather, I am sharing what the Bible is teaching us: It is more profitable if we focus more on our inner relationship with God (1 Timothy 4:8).
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- Joined
- Jan 20, 2009
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All we have to do is to just confess our sin, accept Jesus as our Saviour and that's it. This is important but only the very beginning and it must not an one-off declaration of faith. Quite to the contrary, Christain faith requires us to fight daily against worldly attraction. That's very tough and I find it very tough too!
what do you mean? confess your sin and accepting jesus is not good enough for what? it is not a one-off declaration of faith? so accepting jesus as personal saviour and living our lives not according to the bible do not guarantee salvation, mansions in heaven?
it is not once saved, always saved? faith must accompanied by works?
haha,,,, just pulling your legs,,,,,,,,,,
for some, it will always be:
once saved, always saved like your parents buy you a freehold condo, all paid up.....
once saved, followed by works that proves your salvation, like your parents put down the down payment 20% then you pay monthly instalments,,,,,,,,,,
what do you mean? confess your sin and accepting jesus is not good enough for what? it is not a one-off declaration of faith? so accepting jesus as personal saviour and living our lives not according to the bible do not guarantee salvation, mansions in heaven?
it is not once saved, always saved? faith must accompanied by works?
haha,,,, just pulling your legs,,,,,,,,,,
for some, it will always be:
once saved, always saved like your parents buy you a freehold condo, all paid up.....
once saved, followed by works that proves your salvation, like your parents put down the down payment 20% then you pay monthly instalments,,,,,,,,,,
Commoner,
Thanks for your candid comment. Your illustration of condo payment is very good. To ensure we are truly believers of Christ, we must continue to repent. In fact, Jesus has commanded, Repent and Be saved. Many churches do not preach repentence and this is quite sad. Acknowledging Jesus as our Saviour is not a licence for us to continue to do wicked things. We must obey His commandments to prove we are His children. God bless.
For the first 3 points, there is much that i can share and counter-share but this is not the appropriate forum.
As for the last point, that was indeed the belief of quite a number here.
Finally have a blessed Christmas.
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Today’s Scripture Reading [December 20, 2009]
[Part 1]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]
Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD. [Jeremiah 9:23-24]
Regardless of our religion affiliation or belief, we all search for God one time or another. If you are not convinced, just try to talk to those people who have managed to survive after a serious disaster such as earthquake, typhoon, hurricane or tsunami. Whenever we were right in the middle of a disaster, we just cried out and hope that some supernatural help could come to deliver us. Soon after the event when everything turns normal, we soon forgot all about it and live like there is no God or if there is, we don’t need to depend on Him anymore! This is not just how modern men often search for God that only when we are in need, we cried out to Him. Ancient people did the same as was told in Exodus chapter 16 that after Moses delivered the Israelites from the slavery in Egypt, they soon forgot who God is and instead made complaints when their needs were not met. Like the ancient Israelites, we will all end in disappointment and in vain because we are spiritual ingrates – we go to Him when we need Him and we put Him aside when we find His is no longer ‘useful’ to us and just like the ancients Israelites, we treat God like ATM! One of the reasons why we live as spiritual ingrates is because of our lack of understanding of “Who God Is”. There are at least ten things we all need to know about God and I prayfully hope that by sharing with you this knowledge of “Who God Is”, we all can appreciate the greatness of our Creator and be His obedient children at all times. Although it’s Christmas, let’s not treat God like Santa Clause or ATM. Christmas celebration has become so paganized and commercialized that we lose the true meaning of Christ’s sacrificial birth, of His death and of His precious blood that washes away all our sins. The birth of Christ Jesus, His death and Who is He must be remembered by us each morning when we woke up from our bed.
(1) God is our Supreme Creator of everything
In Genesis 1:1 we are told us that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” and “God created all things through Jesus Christ.” God’s fingerprints and signatures are everywhere in His creation. Just look at the order of a simple cell grow, you will marvel at it because science has shown that even a simplest cell is not that simple. It is a highly complex organic substance and has as many as 100,000 atoms. In order to grow and reproduce, this minute cell has functions that are as complex as a modern car-manufacturing factory! Take a look at the gestation period of animals and you too can see the fingerprints of God. Most gestation period of animals from conception to birth is almost divisible by 7 days. For example, the gestation period of human baby is 280 days; dogs, 63 days; chickens, 21 days. The number 7 is the divine number of perfection. Is this just a coincidence? Absolute not! It’s by God’s design.
(2) God is Supreme Lawgiver
One of the greatest gifts that God has given mankind is His spiritual law – the Ten Commandments. Like all physical, chemical and biological laws that govern the behaviour of all creations from the rotation of the earth to the reproduction of a simple cell, the spiritual law that God gives us governs every aspect of mankind and how we should relate to one another. It is the ultimate law of love which Jesus summed up in two broad principles: First, love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and second, love your neighbour as yourself (Luke 10:27). Together with the Ten Commandments, they constitute the law of love, and we are told that obeying His law and commandments is not burdensome (1 John 5:3).
(3) God is love
Love is probably the most misused, misapplied term in most languages. Lustful desire to possess another person is most certainly not real or godly love. Love is so often confused with lustful desire portrayed in TV and movie world. But the apostle Paul tells us how love should function in a spiritually transformed person: Love suffers long and is kind; loves does not envy; love does not parade itself; it does not behave unrudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice iniquity and sin, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hope all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). The perfection of love has been ultimately and fully expressed by the Father who sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us and whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
(4) God is full of justice and mercy
God opposes all forms of evils because they constitute rebellion against God. He therefore must punish all evil doers and sinners. Since we have sinned and must be punished and the punishment is death (Romans 3:23), God through His mercy has sent His Son to pay this death penalty on our behalf. This is only made possible by the steepest price imaginable – the shed blood of His Son. Earthly speaking, no person can pay the penalty for another person. So if a person has committed a murder, he will be sent to gallows and even though his father is willing to die for his son, the law does not allow it. But divinely, this is possible for God and God is prepared and has accepted a substitute – His very own Son! There is no other way to better express His justice, mercy and grace other than through the death of Jesus as our substitute in order to fully satisfy God’s demand to punish all sins (Romans 3: 25-26).
(End of Part 1)
[Part 1]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]
Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD. [Jeremiah 9:23-24]
Regardless of our religion affiliation or belief, we all search for God one time or another. If you are not convinced, just try to talk to those people who have managed to survive after a serious disaster such as earthquake, typhoon, hurricane or tsunami. Whenever we were right in the middle of a disaster, we just cried out and hope that some supernatural help could come to deliver us. Soon after the event when everything turns normal, we soon forgot all about it and live like there is no God or if there is, we don’t need to depend on Him anymore! This is not just how modern men often search for God that only when we are in need, we cried out to Him. Ancient people did the same as was told in Exodus chapter 16 that after Moses delivered the Israelites from the slavery in Egypt, they soon forgot who God is and instead made complaints when their needs were not met. Like the ancient Israelites, we will all end in disappointment and in vain because we are spiritual ingrates – we go to Him when we need Him and we put Him aside when we find His is no longer ‘useful’ to us and just like the ancients Israelites, we treat God like ATM! One of the reasons why we live as spiritual ingrates is because of our lack of understanding of “Who God Is”. There are at least ten things we all need to know about God and I prayfully hope that by sharing with you this knowledge of “Who God Is”, we all can appreciate the greatness of our Creator and be His obedient children at all times. Although it’s Christmas, let’s not treat God like Santa Clause or ATM. Christmas celebration has become so paganized and commercialized that we lose the true meaning of Christ’s sacrificial birth, of His death and of His precious blood that washes away all our sins. The birth of Christ Jesus, His death and Who is He must be remembered by us each morning when we woke up from our bed.
(1) God is our Supreme Creator of everything
In Genesis 1:1 we are told us that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” and “God created all things through Jesus Christ.” God’s fingerprints and signatures are everywhere in His creation. Just look at the order of a simple cell grow, you will marvel at it because science has shown that even a simplest cell is not that simple. It is a highly complex organic substance and has as many as 100,000 atoms. In order to grow and reproduce, this minute cell has functions that are as complex as a modern car-manufacturing factory! Take a look at the gestation period of animals and you too can see the fingerprints of God. Most gestation period of animals from conception to birth is almost divisible by 7 days. For example, the gestation period of human baby is 280 days; dogs, 63 days; chickens, 21 days. The number 7 is the divine number of perfection. Is this just a coincidence? Absolute not! It’s by God’s design.
(2) God is Supreme Lawgiver
One of the greatest gifts that God has given mankind is His spiritual law – the Ten Commandments. Like all physical, chemical and biological laws that govern the behaviour of all creations from the rotation of the earth to the reproduction of a simple cell, the spiritual law that God gives us governs every aspect of mankind and how we should relate to one another. It is the ultimate law of love which Jesus summed up in two broad principles: First, love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and second, love your neighbour as yourself (Luke 10:27). Together with the Ten Commandments, they constitute the law of love, and we are told that obeying His law and commandments is not burdensome (1 John 5:3).
(3) God is love
Love is probably the most misused, misapplied term in most languages. Lustful desire to possess another person is most certainly not real or godly love. Love is so often confused with lustful desire portrayed in TV and movie world. But the apostle Paul tells us how love should function in a spiritually transformed person: Love suffers long and is kind; loves does not envy; love does not parade itself; it does not behave unrudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice iniquity and sin, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hope all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). The perfection of love has been ultimately and fully expressed by the Father who sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us and whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
(4) God is full of justice and mercy
God opposes all forms of evils because they constitute rebellion against God. He therefore must punish all evil doers and sinners. Since we have sinned and must be punished and the punishment is death (Romans 3:23), God through His mercy has sent His Son to pay this death penalty on our behalf. This is only made possible by the steepest price imaginable – the shed blood of His Son. Earthly speaking, no person can pay the penalty for another person. So if a person has committed a murder, he will be sent to gallows and even though his father is willing to die for his son, the law does not allow it. But divinely, this is possible for God and God is prepared and has accepted a substitute – His very own Son! There is no other way to better express His justice, mercy and grace other than through the death of Jesus as our substitute in order to fully satisfy God’s demand to punish all sins (Romans 3: 25-26).
(End of Part 1)
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Today’s Scripture Reading [December 20, 2009]
[Part 2]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]
Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD. [Jeremiah 9:23-24]
(5) God is eternal
Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End (Revelation 1:8) and He existed before everything. In Psalm 23, we are told that all the redeemed will dwell with Him for ever (Psalm 23:6). Verses upon verses in both the Old and the New Testaments have confirmed to us that God is eternal. Here are some of them:
Genesis 21:33
And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.
Exodus 15:18
The LORD shall reign for ever and ever.
Psalm 119:89
For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.
Isaiah 26:14
Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.
Daniel 4:3
How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.
Matthew 19:29
And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
Romans 1:20
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.
Romans 5:21
That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 16:26
But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.
2 Corinthians 5:1
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
1 Timothy 1:17
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever.
Hebrews 9:15
And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
1 Peter 5:10-11
But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.
(6) God is a family
From the beginning, God has a plan to bring us to His glory (Hebrews 2:10). All truly converted Christians who have received the Holy Spirit are already reckoned to be part of His family (Ephesians 3:14-15). Upon His second coming, our lowly body will be transformed so as to conform to His glorious body. He will be a Father to us, and we shall be His children (2 Corinthians 6:18).
(7) God is the healer
During Jesus ministry, He healed many people who had suffered incurable diseases or disabilities like the blind, the lame, the deaf, the leper, and even the dead were raised. He is the God that healed (Exodus 15:26). God, as the sovereign Creator, can intrude into the very core of our lives but we must be willing to let Him intrude into our lives because He will never force us to do something that is against our will. When we are sick, as James has told us, we should call our church elders to pray for us and the anointing power from God will heal our sickness (James 5:14-15).
(8) God is the ultimate planner
In Exodus, we were told that God has given very specific instructions to Moses in order for Moses to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt. God has planned everything for Moses who just needed to listen and follow His instructions. Because Moses obeyed and did everything according to God’s plan, the children of Israel were miraculously delivered. Like Moses, our job is to obey Him and follow His plan if we want to succeed to be His disciples, to bring Gospel to the world, to be part of His work to build His church and to be finally delivered to His everlasting kingdom.
(9) God reveals the future
Bible, the Word of God, is not only a historical book telling us of the past events, it also tells us the future events of this world. And believe me, these events as foretold by the Bible are not going to be pretty. In fact, they are going to be extremely, extremely ugly and many of these ugly events are already happening right before our very eye! Crimes and violence, sickness and diseases, famine and starvation, poverty and unhappiness, greed and exploitation are already foretold in the Bible thousands of years’ ago!
(10) God cares for you
God really cares for you and me! Humanity is notorious in creating problems and is never able known to fully solve them. Everything that created by man looks promisingly good for mankind but only for a short while. They will later use (or abuse) as instruments or tools to exploit others and their use would create even more problems that ironically mankind were trying to solve. A good example is antibiotics. When penicillin was first invented, mankind thought that it would end all infectious disease. Quite to the contrary, because of the abuse, antibiotics has created new viruses and new bacteria that are penicillin-resistant. When personal computer and internet were first invented, many thought that they could improve the knowledge of people. True, they have improved our knowledge exponentially but instead of making us educated intellectual, many of us have become intellectual barbarians! Computer crimes are rampant and law enforcement agencies are not quite helpless to track down these intellectual barbarians. (The harmful effect of personal computers and internet is well reported. You can read about the harmful effect of video games in my posting of November 22, 2009). Jesus is loving, merciful and just; He will therefore intervene to save humanity for they are now destroying themselves (Matthew 24:21-22). This sinning world in which we live inevitably creates much anxious worry in many people so much so that apostle Peter tells us to exhibit true humility and trust in God in casting all our cares upon Him (1 Peter 5:6-7). He cares for us and Jesus, the God of the Bible, is our ultimate caregiver!
[Part 2]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]
Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD. [Jeremiah 9:23-24]
(5) God is eternal
Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End (Revelation 1:8) and He existed before everything. In Psalm 23, we are told that all the redeemed will dwell with Him for ever (Psalm 23:6). Verses upon verses in both the Old and the New Testaments have confirmed to us that God is eternal. Here are some of them:
Genesis 21:33
And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.
Exodus 15:18
The LORD shall reign for ever and ever.
Psalm 119:89
For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.
Isaiah 26:14
Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.
Daniel 4:3
How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.
Matthew 19:29
And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
Romans 1:20
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.
Romans 5:21
That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 16:26
But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.
2 Corinthians 5:1
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
1 Timothy 1:17
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever.
Hebrews 9:15
And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
1 Peter 5:10-11
But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.
(6) God is a family
From the beginning, God has a plan to bring us to His glory (Hebrews 2:10). All truly converted Christians who have received the Holy Spirit are already reckoned to be part of His family (Ephesians 3:14-15). Upon His second coming, our lowly body will be transformed so as to conform to His glorious body. He will be a Father to us, and we shall be His children (2 Corinthians 6:18).
(7) God is the healer
During Jesus ministry, He healed many people who had suffered incurable diseases or disabilities like the blind, the lame, the deaf, the leper, and even the dead were raised. He is the God that healed (Exodus 15:26). God, as the sovereign Creator, can intrude into the very core of our lives but we must be willing to let Him intrude into our lives because He will never force us to do something that is against our will. When we are sick, as James has told us, we should call our church elders to pray for us and the anointing power from God will heal our sickness (James 5:14-15).
(8) God is the ultimate planner
In Exodus, we were told that God has given very specific instructions to Moses in order for Moses to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt. God has planned everything for Moses who just needed to listen and follow His instructions. Because Moses obeyed and did everything according to God’s plan, the children of Israel were miraculously delivered. Like Moses, our job is to obey Him and follow His plan if we want to succeed to be His disciples, to bring Gospel to the world, to be part of His work to build His church and to be finally delivered to His everlasting kingdom.
(9) God reveals the future
Bible, the Word of God, is not only a historical book telling us of the past events, it also tells us the future events of this world. And believe me, these events as foretold by the Bible are not going to be pretty. In fact, they are going to be extremely, extremely ugly and many of these ugly events are already happening right before our very eye! Crimes and violence, sickness and diseases, famine and starvation, poverty and unhappiness, greed and exploitation are already foretold in the Bible thousands of years’ ago!
(10) God cares for you
God really cares for you and me! Humanity is notorious in creating problems and is never able known to fully solve them. Everything that created by man looks promisingly good for mankind but only for a short while. They will later use (or abuse) as instruments or tools to exploit others and their use would create even more problems that ironically mankind were trying to solve. A good example is antibiotics. When penicillin was first invented, mankind thought that it would end all infectious disease. Quite to the contrary, because of the abuse, antibiotics has created new viruses and new bacteria that are penicillin-resistant. When personal computer and internet were first invented, many thought that they could improve the knowledge of people. True, they have improved our knowledge exponentially but instead of making us educated intellectual, many of us have become intellectual barbarians! Computer crimes are rampant and law enforcement agencies are not quite helpless to track down these intellectual barbarians. (The harmful effect of personal computers and internet is well reported. You can read about the harmful effect of video games in my posting of November 22, 2009). Jesus is loving, merciful and just; He will therefore intervene to save humanity for they are now destroying themselves (Matthew 24:21-22). This sinning world in which we live inevitably creates much anxious worry in many people so much so that apostle Peter tells us to exhibit true humility and trust in God in casting all our cares upon Him (1 Peter 5:6-7). He cares for us and Jesus, the God of the Bible, is our ultimate caregiver!
Today’s Scripture Reading [December 27, 2009]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]
Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. [Ephesians 4:18 -19]
Suffering – How it began? How it will end? Why our world is wracked with evil and misery? Why is it so rampant and so pervasive? And most importantly, does God plan to do something about it?
These questions are as old as creation and in general, many people don’t seem to have full knowledge nor have any answers to them. However, this should not be the case for truly born-again Christians because we can seek out the knowledge and the answers from the pages of the Bible.
Man, from the very beginning, is given a choice. It is a God-given right and He will never to anything to remove this right from us. Sadly, what seems to be a simple choice for us can enslave us, sometime for the rest of our life and in the extreme case, we can lose our very life just because of a wrong life-choice that we made. Because people don’t really want to take personal responsibility of their own doing, the suffering as a result of wrong life choices is even used to blame others or to deny God’s existence. This is the most tragic results. As always quoted: suffering can either make us bitter or better, and sadly many of us become more bitter against other people, against God rather than better!
There is only one answer to those questions relating to our suffering. It is the SIN of humankind. And God, through the coming of Jesus will end all these sufferings. Though a simple word with only three letters, SIN, many has defined it the way they like. But the truth of the matter is that sin will bring us to eternal damnation and eternal separation from God because God has warned us that the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).
To help us better understand what sin encompasses, I would like to share with the following article on the Three “Faces” of Sin from Today’s Daily Encounter’s website. [Those in italics are my comments.]
If we don't know where we stand and what we stand for, as the saying goes, we can fall for anything. Thus, to be followers of Jesus, it is important that we have a reasonable grasp of the major fundamental doctrines (teachings) of the Bible - one of which is the understanding of the nature of sin.
In the New Testament section of the Bible there are three different words to describe these aspects of sin.
First, is the word that means "rebellion." It means rebelling against God and His will and going our own sinful way regardless of the consequences - with or without knowing what the consequences might or could be. [Man has always tried to do their own ways. We call good evil and evil good (Isaiah 5:20). Just see all those things around you! Just look at the TV commercials, TV soap operas, dramas, what can we learn from these and, worse still, what come to you mind each time we watch them?]
Second, is "breaking the law of God." God's commandments are not to take away our freedom or enjoyment, but for the wellbeing and protection of ourselves and our entire society. We ignore them to our peril. To forbid them to be displayed publicly, as is happening in certain places in North America, is akin to opposing the display of the laws of the land. [If we don’t respect God’s law, how could we respect man’s laws that are legislated from legislature! This is no wonder there are so many criminals because people just don’t respect authority and their laws!]
The commandments and laws of God are not abstract or irrelevant religious rules. They are for the protection, safety, and benefit of all. They, like the law of gravity, are universal laws. We cannot break the law of gravity. If we try to, we break ourselves. Neither can we break the moral laws of God. When we try to, we break ourselves. For safety sake we need to live within the bounds of and in harmony with all of God's laws.
Third, is not quite as easy to see but equally as sinful if not adhered to. It is "to miss the mark." That is, the mark or standard of God's holiness. And we are all guilty of this sin. As the Scripture says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)." This applies not only to sins of commission, but also to sins of omission. As God's Word also says: "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins". (James 4:17)
Falling short of God's mark includes "sins of the spirit" such as envy, jealousy, hatred, pride, greed and so on - all of which express themselves in negative and harmful ways to one's self as well as to others. [God standard is different from man’s standard – we can even be found guilty of sin just by harboring evil thoughts (Matthew 5:28). God looks into man’s heart and not his outward appearance.]
Remember, God is opposed to all sin because it is damaging to those whom he loves - us. His rules and laws are for our personal good as well as for the good of all. When we sin, we need to confess it to God and ask for his forgiveness. And where we have sinned against another and hurt him/her, we need to ask for their forgiveness too wherever possible. And then, with God's help, we need to keep growing in maturity so that we will more and more overcome sinful actions and a sinful spirit.
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]
Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. [Ephesians 4:18 -19]
Suffering – How it began? How it will end? Why our world is wracked with evil and misery? Why is it so rampant and so pervasive? And most importantly, does God plan to do something about it?
These questions are as old as creation and in general, many people don’t seem to have full knowledge nor have any answers to them. However, this should not be the case for truly born-again Christians because we can seek out the knowledge and the answers from the pages of the Bible.
Man, from the very beginning, is given a choice. It is a God-given right and He will never to anything to remove this right from us. Sadly, what seems to be a simple choice for us can enslave us, sometime for the rest of our life and in the extreme case, we can lose our very life just because of a wrong life-choice that we made. Because people don’t really want to take personal responsibility of their own doing, the suffering as a result of wrong life choices is even used to blame others or to deny God’s existence. This is the most tragic results. As always quoted: suffering can either make us bitter or better, and sadly many of us become more bitter against other people, against God rather than better!
There is only one answer to those questions relating to our suffering. It is the SIN of humankind. And God, through the coming of Jesus will end all these sufferings. Though a simple word with only three letters, SIN, many has defined it the way they like. But the truth of the matter is that sin will bring us to eternal damnation and eternal separation from God because God has warned us that the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).
To help us better understand what sin encompasses, I would like to share with the following article on the Three “Faces” of Sin from Today’s Daily Encounter’s website. [Those in italics are my comments.]
Three "Faces" of Sin
If we don't know where we stand and what we stand for, as the saying goes, we can fall for anything. Thus, to be followers of Jesus, it is important that we have a reasonable grasp of the major fundamental doctrines (teachings) of the Bible - one of which is the understanding of the nature of sin.
In the New Testament section of the Bible there are three different words to describe these aspects of sin.
First, is the word that means "rebellion." It means rebelling against God and His will and going our own sinful way regardless of the consequences - with or without knowing what the consequences might or could be. [Man has always tried to do their own ways. We call good evil and evil good (Isaiah 5:20). Just see all those things around you! Just look at the TV commercials, TV soap operas, dramas, what can we learn from these and, worse still, what come to you mind each time we watch them?]
Second, is "breaking the law of God." God's commandments are not to take away our freedom or enjoyment, but for the wellbeing and protection of ourselves and our entire society. We ignore them to our peril. To forbid them to be displayed publicly, as is happening in certain places in North America, is akin to opposing the display of the laws of the land. [If we don’t respect God’s law, how could we respect man’s laws that are legislated from legislature! This is no wonder there are so many criminals because people just don’t respect authority and their laws!]
The commandments and laws of God are not abstract or irrelevant religious rules. They are for the protection, safety, and benefit of all. They, like the law of gravity, are universal laws. We cannot break the law of gravity. If we try to, we break ourselves. Neither can we break the moral laws of God. When we try to, we break ourselves. For safety sake we need to live within the bounds of and in harmony with all of God's laws.
Third, is not quite as easy to see but equally as sinful if not adhered to. It is "to miss the mark." That is, the mark or standard of God's holiness. And we are all guilty of this sin. As the Scripture says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)." This applies not only to sins of commission, but also to sins of omission. As God's Word also says: "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins". (James 4:17)
Falling short of God's mark includes "sins of the spirit" such as envy, jealousy, hatred, pride, greed and so on - all of which express themselves in negative and harmful ways to one's self as well as to others. [God standard is different from man’s standard – we can even be found guilty of sin just by harboring evil thoughts (Matthew 5:28). God looks into man’s heart and not his outward appearance.]
Remember, God is opposed to all sin because it is damaging to those whom he loves - us. His rules and laws are for our personal good as well as for the good of all. When we sin, we need to confess it to God and ask for his forgiveness. And where we have sinned against another and hurt him/her, we need to ask for their forgiveness too wherever possible. And then, with God's help, we need to keep growing in maturity so that we will more and more overcome sinful actions and a sinful spirit.
End of Article
Holy greetings to all my fellow Christian brothers and sisters:
I hope that my postings “Today’s Scripture Reading” have in some ways encouraged you to stay faithful to our Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus. A very BIG THANK YOU for reading them. In particular, I truly want to thank God although some of you might not fully agree to what I have posted, but I am encouraged because the comments in response to my postings were written without the use of abusive language, except for only a couple of readers. I welcome all your comments especially if I have misquoted the Bible verses or not very accurate in sharing with you the information but this must be done responsibly without the use of offensive language.
As we come to a close of 2009, we must always remember our God for His goodness, faithfulness, mercy and grace. Let us all thanks Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength with this prayer:
I hope that my postings “Today’s Scripture Reading” have in some ways encouraged you to stay faithful to our Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus. A very BIG THANK YOU for reading them. In particular, I truly want to thank God although some of you might not fully agree to what I have posted, but I am encouraged because the comments in response to my postings were written without the use of abusive language, except for only a couple of readers. I welcome all your comments especially if I have misquoted the Bible verses or not very accurate in sharing with you the information but this must be done responsibly without the use of offensive language.
As we come to a close of 2009, we must always remember our God for His goodness, faithfulness, mercy and grace. Let us all thanks Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength with this prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus
Thank you for the discontent in my life:
the disappointments,
the pain.
the sad times,
the trying times,
the tough times,
the failures,
the many setbacks,
as well as all the good times,
and all the many successes.
For without feeling sorrow and pain,
I never would have searched for
answers to life's problems,
healing for the sick,
hope for the discouraged,
comfort for the sorrowing,
or relief for the lonely.
And without experiencing failure
and discouragement,
I never would have searched for
better ways for doing things.
and thus improving everything I do.
Pain was thus a holy motivator,
God's messenger in disguise,
that made me stretch and grow.
Thank you, God, for hearing and answering my prayer.
Thank you for the discontent in my life:
the disappointments,
the pain.
the sad times,
the trying times,
the tough times,
the failures,
the many setbacks,
as well as all the good times,
and all the many successes.
For without feeling sorrow and pain,
I never would have searched for
answers to life's problems,
healing for the sick,
hope for the discouraged,
comfort for the sorrowing,
or relief for the lonely.
And without experiencing failure
and discouragement,
I never would have searched for
better ways for doing things.
and thus improving everything I do.
Pain was thus a holy motivator,
God's messenger in disguise,
that made me stretch and grow.
Thank you, God, for hearing and answering my prayer.
(Adapted from Dick Innes)
Today’s Scripture Reading [January 3, 2010]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]
And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. [Revelation 19:16]
Wishing all readers of Today’s Scripture Reading a Blessed New Year.
Today is the first Sunday of 2010 and as each year passes, I am sure we are more aware that life will continue to be very different from the past. As we read, listen or watch the news over the mass media, many of us may be wondering “What’s going on in this world?” Admittedly there will be some good news now and then but they are going to be grossly outnumbered by the bad news as what were witnessed in previous years. Even the so-called ‘good news’, they seem to have benefited only a small number of people whereas the destructive power of the bad events, often then not, affects the entire community or even the whole world. Last month, Straits Times featured a series of articles on those adverse events for the period from 2000 to 2009 ranging from man-made disasters like terrorism, military conflicts, global financial collapse, the poisoning of milk power to natural calamities of biblical proportion like tsunami, earthquake, hurricane, typhoon, drought, flood and diseases. Many of these events did occur too in ancient times but what is so mind-boggling is that in the last ten years, these events occurred one after another like those terrifying but endless sea waves. It was also noted that some of the events even occurred just few weeks or few days apart. Is this the beginning of the end of the Church Age as foretold by Jesus in Matthew 24:6-8?
Obviously, the past is behind us and there is nothing we can do about it. Thankfully, by God’s grace, we can all start the New Year with renewed hope in Christ Jesus.
As Christians, we are told to watch and pray and to resist temptations and evil deeds (Matthew 26:41). No matter how bad the situation can be (and many have predicted that the worst is yet to come), the Word of God has promised us that these events and the suffering, insecurity and anxiety associated with it will come to an imminent end. In fact, these are signs that God is telling His children to prepare for the coming of the most Glorious Day in human history because very soon we will all be caught up with our Lord in the air and be with Him forever (and this is known to Christians as Rapture of His Church). Let us not let those unsettling world events troubled us. Rather, let these tangible signs as signs of His divine promise to bring us back to Him and let’s comfort one another that these shall soon pass and the Glorious Day of Our Lord will come (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18). Although we are not to be date-setter and to speculate when the Rapture will occur, many believers believe that it will take place very soon because of the appearance the signs! Are we all prepared and are we all ready for this event – to be caught up and be with our Lord Jesus! Take heed, only His children who have obeyed His commandments are worthy to be caught with Him.
So, let us all stand firm in our faith because we have a great God, Jesus Christ. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Let us prepare ourselves to be received by Him by our holy worship and godly sacrifice. The following message, That’s My King, depicts the awesome true about Him.
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]
And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. [Revelation 19:16]
Wishing all readers of Today’s Scripture Reading a Blessed New Year.
Today is the first Sunday of 2010 and as each year passes, I am sure we are more aware that life will continue to be very different from the past. As we read, listen or watch the news over the mass media, many of us may be wondering “What’s going on in this world?” Admittedly there will be some good news now and then but they are going to be grossly outnumbered by the bad news as what were witnessed in previous years. Even the so-called ‘good news’, they seem to have benefited only a small number of people whereas the destructive power of the bad events, often then not, affects the entire community or even the whole world. Last month, Straits Times featured a series of articles on those adverse events for the period from 2000 to 2009 ranging from man-made disasters like terrorism, military conflicts, global financial collapse, the poisoning of milk power to natural calamities of biblical proportion like tsunami, earthquake, hurricane, typhoon, drought, flood and diseases. Many of these events did occur too in ancient times but what is so mind-boggling is that in the last ten years, these events occurred one after another like those terrifying but endless sea waves. It was also noted that some of the events even occurred just few weeks or few days apart. Is this the beginning of the end of the Church Age as foretold by Jesus in Matthew 24:6-8?
Obviously, the past is behind us and there is nothing we can do about it. Thankfully, by God’s grace, we can all start the New Year with renewed hope in Christ Jesus.
As Christians, we are told to watch and pray and to resist temptations and evil deeds (Matthew 26:41). No matter how bad the situation can be (and many have predicted that the worst is yet to come), the Word of God has promised us that these events and the suffering, insecurity and anxiety associated with it will come to an imminent end. In fact, these are signs that God is telling His children to prepare for the coming of the most Glorious Day in human history because very soon we will all be caught up with our Lord in the air and be with Him forever (and this is known to Christians as Rapture of His Church). Let us not let those unsettling world events troubled us. Rather, let these tangible signs as signs of His divine promise to bring us back to Him and let’s comfort one another that these shall soon pass and the Glorious Day of Our Lord will come (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18). Although we are not to be date-setter and to speculate when the Rapture will occur, many believers believe that it will take place very soon because of the appearance the signs! Are we all prepared and are we all ready for this event – to be caught up and be with our Lord Jesus! Take heed, only His children who have obeyed His commandments are worthy to be caught with Him.
So, let us all stand firm in our faith because we have a great God, Jesus Christ. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Let us prepare ourselves to be received by Him by our holy worship and godly sacrifice. The following message, That’s My King, depicts the awesome true about Him.
THAT’S MY KING!
(Adapted from a sermon by Dr. S. M. Lockridge)
The Bible says my King is a seven-way king
He's the King of the Jews; that's a racial king
He's the King of Israel; that's a national King
He's the King of Righteousness
He's the King of the Ages
He's the King of Heaven
He's the King of Glory
He's the King of kings, and He's the Lord of lords. That's my King.
David said, "The Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork."
My King is a sovereign King.
No means of measure can define His limitless love.
No far seeing telescope can bring into visibility the coastline of His shoreless supply.
No barrier can hinder Him from pouring out His blessings.
He's enduringly strong.
He's entirely sincere.
He's eternally steadfast.
He's immortally graceful.
He's imperially powerful.
He's impartially merciful.
He's the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world.
He's God's Son.
He's the sinner's Savior.
He's the centerpiece of civilization.
He stands in the solitude of Himself.
He's august and He's unique.
He's unparalleled.
He's unprecedented.
He is the loftiest idea in literature.
He's the highest personality in philosophy.
He is the supreme problem in higher criticism.
He's the fundamental doctrine of true theology.
He is the cardinal necessity for spiritual religion.
He's the miracle of the age.
He is the superlative of everything good that you choose to call Him.
He's the only one qualified to be an all sufficient Savior.
He supplies strength for the weak.
He's available for the tempted and the tried.
He sympathizes and He saves.
He strengthens and sustains.
He guards and He guides.
He heals the sick.
He cleansed the lepers.
He forgives sinners.
He discharges debtors.
He delivers the captives.
He defends the feeble.
He blesses the young.
He serves the unfortunate.
He regards the aged.
He rewards the diligent.
He beautifies the meek.
Do you know Him?
Well, my King! He is the King!
He's the key to knowledge.
He's the wellspring of wisdom.
He's the doorway of deliverance.
He's the pathway of peace.
He's the roadway of righteousness.
He's the highway of holiness.
He's the gateway of glory.
His office is manifold.
His promise is sure.
His light is matchless.
His goodness is limitless.
His mercy is everlasting.
His love never changes.
His word is enough.
His grace is sufficient.
His reign is righteous.
And His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.
I wish I could describe Him to you, but He's indescribable.
Yes! He is God!
He's incomprehensible.
He's invincible.
He's irresistible.
Well, you can't get Him out of your mind.
You can't get Him off of your hand.
You can't out live Him, and you can't live without Him.
The Pharisees couldn't stand Him, but they found out they couldn't stop Him.
Pilate couldn't find any fault in Him.
The witnesses couldn't get their testimonies to agree.
Herod couldn't kill Him.
Death couldn't handle Him, and the grave couldn't hold Him.
Yea!!! That's my King, that's my King.
Yes, and Thine is the Kingdom....and the Power....and the Glory....Forever....and ever, and ever, and ever - How long is that? And ever, and ever.
And when you get through with all of the forevers, then. AMEN!
Good God Almighty! AMEN! AMEN!
(Adapted from a sermon by Dr. S. M. Lockridge)
The Bible says my King is a seven-way king
He's the King of the Jews; that's a racial king
He's the King of Israel; that's a national King
He's the King of Righteousness
He's the King of the Ages
He's the King of Heaven
He's the King of Glory
He's the King of kings, and He's the Lord of lords. That's my King.
David said, "The Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork."
My King is a sovereign King.
No means of measure can define His limitless love.
No far seeing telescope can bring into visibility the coastline of His shoreless supply.
No barrier can hinder Him from pouring out His blessings.
He's enduringly strong.
He's entirely sincere.
He's eternally steadfast.
He's immortally graceful.
He's imperially powerful.
He's impartially merciful.
He's the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world.
He's God's Son.
He's the sinner's Savior.
He's the centerpiece of civilization.
He stands in the solitude of Himself.
He's august and He's unique.
He's unparalleled.
He's unprecedented.
He is the loftiest idea in literature.
He's the highest personality in philosophy.
He is the supreme problem in higher criticism.
He's the fundamental doctrine of true theology.
He is the cardinal necessity for spiritual religion.
He's the miracle of the age.
He is the superlative of everything good that you choose to call Him.
He's the only one qualified to be an all sufficient Savior.
He supplies strength for the weak.
He's available for the tempted and the tried.
He sympathizes and He saves.
He strengthens and sustains.
He guards and He guides.
He heals the sick.
He cleansed the lepers.
He forgives sinners.
He discharges debtors.
He delivers the captives.
He defends the feeble.
He blesses the young.
He serves the unfortunate.
He regards the aged.
He rewards the diligent.
He beautifies the meek.
Do you know Him?
Well, my King! He is the King!
He's the key to knowledge.
He's the wellspring of wisdom.
He's the doorway of deliverance.
He's the pathway of peace.
He's the roadway of righteousness.
He's the highway of holiness.
He's the gateway of glory.
His office is manifold.
His promise is sure.
His light is matchless.
His goodness is limitless.
His mercy is everlasting.
His love never changes.
His word is enough.
His grace is sufficient.
His reign is righteous.
And His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.
I wish I could describe Him to you, but He's indescribable.
Yes! He is God!
He's incomprehensible.
He's invincible.
He's irresistible.
Well, you can't get Him out of your mind.
You can't get Him off of your hand.
You can't out live Him, and you can't live without Him.
The Pharisees couldn't stand Him, but they found out they couldn't stop Him.
Pilate couldn't find any fault in Him.
The witnesses couldn't get their testimonies to agree.
Herod couldn't kill Him.
Death couldn't handle Him, and the grave couldn't hold Him.
Yea!!! That's my King, that's my King.
Yes, and Thine is the Kingdom....and the Power....and the Glory....Forever....and ever, and ever, and ever - How long is that? And ever, and ever.
And when you get through with all of the forevers, then. AMEN!
Good God Almighty! AMEN! AMEN!
Today’s Scripture Reading [January 10, 2010]
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]
And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. [Genesis 6:3]
I remember around 1970s or 1980s in a television interview, one of our senior politicians mentioned that while he was doing his university education in England in the 1940s he marveled at the fact that the British people were so civilized. He gave an example. He observed that newspapers could be sold unattended. Every morning, the newspaper vendors would just leave the newspapers along busy streets and anyone who wanted to purchase a copy would simply take one and put the exact change into a money box that was placed next to the newspaper. Nobody would steal the money neither would anyone take the newspaper without paying for it. Situation then, he added, had begun to change in Britain. Newspaper could not be sold unattended and specially designed dispensers were used to dispense the newspaper and money needed to be locked in a box; kids were taking drugs like sweets and teachers were helpless trying to enforce school discipline. As we read of these, we can come to our own simple but sad conclusion that Britain has become from a law-abiding society to a lawless society, from a God-fearing nation to a godless nation in just a short-period of time of 20 to 30 years.
Back in the 1970s, Singapore was relatively in much better position, morally speaking. Our school kids were teacher-fearing and parents were strict with their children. Although I can’t comment whether we were god-fearing people however I can remember that Christian students in my school did organize weekly meeting to reach out to non-Christian students sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ even though the school was not a Christian or a mission school. Bad students, then, were known to ‘just’ play trance, skip classes without due excuses, occasionally caught smoking cigarettes, or involved in minor fights. By comparison, our kids were ‘cheeky’ rather than ‘naughty’ as compared to those British (or American) kids.
Perhaps we might have been too quick in pointing our fingers and condemning others. As we look into our own country today, in just a short-period beginning from 1970, Singapore is facing the same situation as the British (or the American) school kids, and in some instances, even worst than them. It may comfort us a little that we still have not encountered any incidence of school children carrying guns and gone into shooting spree in schools (and I pray that this would never happen here in Singapore). However, there are now many kids taking designer drugs like ecstasy and amphetamine, glue-sniffing, openly displaying or parading nude bodies in the internet, extortion and bullying of fellow schoolmates, rampant of cigarettes-smoking (although prohibited by laws). In recent months, we have read in the news quite frequently that school-going kids are recruited by loan-sharks to harass their debtors. These kids are destroying homes and families ranging from vandalism, arson, criminal mischief (padlocking gates), threatening to family members. They don’t just do these to the debtors. They do it even to innocent neighours of the debtors. I have so far not heard of such things done by the British (for that matter American) kids, or even in Hong Kong which is quite notorious for organized crime activities. It seems that this is so peculiar to Singapore and our law enforcement agencies seem fighting a losing battle.
Like the British and the American, we are regressing and degrading at a very fast pace, morally speaking. Yet, we are quick to point figures. This time, however, not pointing to other countries (because we are not in better position than them, morally speaking) but to find some ‘legitimate’ excuses why they are taking place. We blame the internet (yes, they do play a very big role in adversely affecting our kids), we blame the influx of foreigners (and yes they do have some negative effective on our society), and so on, but we are ignoring the plain truth. Like the Britain, the American and other advanced nations, the plain truth is that we have abandoned God; we have all become godless society which will lead us to godless life which in turn will be overtaken by lawlessness. As we can see, most schools throughout the world are not allowed to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ although sharing of other gods or religions is tolerated. In American, for example, where the Bible and the Ten Commandments originally formed the basis for its national Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, new laws have been legislated to prohibit the display of the Ten Commandments in schools and in public buildings and the teaching of Bible and creation is not allowed. School children are taught, instead, that we evolved from pre-historic primates like apes, monkeys or chimpanzees rather than created by God in His own image (Genesis 1:27). The plain and the painful truth is that we all have kicked God out of our lives!
We may take comfort that God has promised not to leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). We must also take note that our God is God of holiness and He will not continue to strive with us if we keep disobeying Him and remain unrepented (Genesis 6:3). If we keep insisting on doing our own evil ways, He is going to tell us: “Go and do what you like. I don’t want to be involved in your evil deeds!” And it will most tragic once God has made up His mind to let us do what we like because judgment will definitely follow as we can read in Genesis 6 – 9 of the destruction of wicked people by a great flood that God sent. We are further warned that although God will not forsake us, but if we forsake Him and kick Him out of our lives, He too will forsake us (1 Chronicles 28:9b). So, my dear brothers and sisters-in-Christ, if you are taught of the doctrine ‘once saved always saved’, you are being deceived!
The whole world is now in the same boat that is continuously weighed down by sins and capzing is inevitable! From the east to the west, every country is experiencing and practising lawlessness. Regardless of our position and stature, whether we are educated or uneducated, parents or children, teachers or students, bosses or workers, lawlessness is rampant. Life will continue to be very different. In another six months’ time when the two integrated resorts and casinos are in full operations, and those who bet that life will remain the same, I can confidently say that they are betting on the wrong horse. It is very disheartening to note that senior political leaders have opening admitted that these integrated resorts and casinos would bring mafias, money laundering and all kinds of crime (which we can assume to include the already-rampant state of prostitution, loan-sharking and extortions) into the country. Unknown to you, your very next door neigbour could be a mafia from Chicago! So, how can our lives be the same!
I have used the word ‘lawlessness’ several times in my posting here. What then is lawlessness? This can best be defined by referring to the spoken words of Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:1-7, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth (NKJV)”; and in 1 John 3:4 it summarises these verses: Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
As we can see from those verses, sins or lawlessness will increase as the day of His Coming draws near. This is undeniable because we can read, hear or watch them in our mass media almost everyday and what’s more disturbing is that, these sins are not just spreading like wild fires ravage into every corner of the society and household but the severity and the grotesque nature of the sins are simply unbelievable! To add insult to the God’s creation, some even openly paraded their sins in the streets, over the television and the internet. But this should not surprise us as children of God because in Isaiah 3:9, we are already told of this practice by ancient people. In fact, aided (and no thanks) by new technology and inventions, ‘modern’ man has outdone what those ancient people did by leaps and bounds.
We are indeed living in the last days! Let’s us pray earnestly for God’s guidance that we can be fully sanctified and that we do not ourselves to be partakers of all these demonic activities. Let’s call upon the name of Jesus Who is above all names (Act 4:12) to deliver us from this perverted earth which is due (or perhaps has overdue) for destruction very soon. As told in Genesis 6:3, let us have nothing to do with all these evil deeds so that God will continue to strive with us and bring us closer to Him each day of our lives.
[All Scripture references are from King James Version]
And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. [Genesis 6:3]
I remember around 1970s or 1980s in a television interview, one of our senior politicians mentioned that while he was doing his university education in England in the 1940s he marveled at the fact that the British people were so civilized. He gave an example. He observed that newspapers could be sold unattended. Every morning, the newspaper vendors would just leave the newspapers along busy streets and anyone who wanted to purchase a copy would simply take one and put the exact change into a money box that was placed next to the newspaper. Nobody would steal the money neither would anyone take the newspaper without paying for it. Situation then, he added, had begun to change in Britain. Newspaper could not be sold unattended and specially designed dispensers were used to dispense the newspaper and money needed to be locked in a box; kids were taking drugs like sweets and teachers were helpless trying to enforce school discipline. As we read of these, we can come to our own simple but sad conclusion that Britain has become from a law-abiding society to a lawless society, from a God-fearing nation to a godless nation in just a short-period of time of 20 to 30 years.
Back in the 1970s, Singapore was relatively in much better position, morally speaking. Our school kids were teacher-fearing and parents were strict with their children. Although I can’t comment whether we were god-fearing people however I can remember that Christian students in my school did organize weekly meeting to reach out to non-Christian students sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ even though the school was not a Christian or a mission school. Bad students, then, were known to ‘just’ play trance, skip classes without due excuses, occasionally caught smoking cigarettes, or involved in minor fights. By comparison, our kids were ‘cheeky’ rather than ‘naughty’ as compared to those British (or American) kids.
Perhaps we might have been too quick in pointing our fingers and condemning others. As we look into our own country today, in just a short-period beginning from 1970, Singapore is facing the same situation as the British (or the American) school kids, and in some instances, even worst than them. It may comfort us a little that we still have not encountered any incidence of school children carrying guns and gone into shooting spree in schools (and I pray that this would never happen here in Singapore). However, there are now many kids taking designer drugs like ecstasy and amphetamine, glue-sniffing, openly displaying or parading nude bodies in the internet, extortion and bullying of fellow schoolmates, rampant of cigarettes-smoking (although prohibited by laws). In recent months, we have read in the news quite frequently that school-going kids are recruited by loan-sharks to harass their debtors. These kids are destroying homes and families ranging from vandalism, arson, criminal mischief (padlocking gates), threatening to family members. They don’t just do these to the debtors. They do it even to innocent neighours of the debtors. I have so far not heard of such things done by the British (for that matter American) kids, or even in Hong Kong which is quite notorious for organized crime activities. It seems that this is so peculiar to Singapore and our law enforcement agencies seem fighting a losing battle.
Like the British and the American, we are regressing and degrading at a very fast pace, morally speaking. Yet, we are quick to point figures. This time, however, not pointing to other countries (because we are not in better position than them, morally speaking) but to find some ‘legitimate’ excuses why they are taking place. We blame the internet (yes, they do play a very big role in adversely affecting our kids), we blame the influx of foreigners (and yes they do have some negative effective on our society), and so on, but we are ignoring the plain truth. Like the Britain, the American and other advanced nations, the plain truth is that we have abandoned God; we have all become godless society which will lead us to godless life which in turn will be overtaken by lawlessness. As we can see, most schools throughout the world are not allowed to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ although sharing of other gods or religions is tolerated. In American, for example, where the Bible and the Ten Commandments originally formed the basis for its national Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, new laws have been legislated to prohibit the display of the Ten Commandments in schools and in public buildings and the teaching of Bible and creation is not allowed. School children are taught, instead, that we evolved from pre-historic primates like apes, monkeys or chimpanzees rather than created by God in His own image (Genesis 1:27). The plain and the painful truth is that we all have kicked God out of our lives!
We may take comfort that God has promised not to leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). We must also take note that our God is God of holiness and He will not continue to strive with us if we keep disobeying Him and remain unrepented (Genesis 6:3). If we keep insisting on doing our own evil ways, He is going to tell us: “Go and do what you like. I don’t want to be involved in your evil deeds!” And it will most tragic once God has made up His mind to let us do what we like because judgment will definitely follow as we can read in Genesis 6 – 9 of the destruction of wicked people by a great flood that God sent. We are further warned that although God will not forsake us, but if we forsake Him and kick Him out of our lives, He too will forsake us (1 Chronicles 28:9b). So, my dear brothers and sisters-in-Christ, if you are taught of the doctrine ‘once saved always saved’, you are being deceived!
The whole world is now in the same boat that is continuously weighed down by sins and capzing is inevitable! From the east to the west, every country is experiencing and practising lawlessness. Regardless of our position and stature, whether we are educated or uneducated, parents or children, teachers or students, bosses or workers, lawlessness is rampant. Life will continue to be very different. In another six months’ time when the two integrated resorts and casinos are in full operations, and those who bet that life will remain the same, I can confidently say that they are betting on the wrong horse. It is very disheartening to note that senior political leaders have opening admitted that these integrated resorts and casinos would bring mafias, money laundering and all kinds of crime (which we can assume to include the already-rampant state of prostitution, loan-sharking and extortions) into the country. Unknown to you, your very next door neigbour could be a mafia from Chicago! So, how can our lives be the same!
I have used the word ‘lawlessness’ several times in my posting here. What then is lawlessness? This can best be defined by referring to the spoken words of Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:1-7, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth (NKJV)”; and in 1 John 3:4 it summarises these verses: Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
As we can see from those verses, sins or lawlessness will increase as the day of His Coming draws near. This is undeniable because we can read, hear or watch them in our mass media almost everyday and what’s more disturbing is that, these sins are not just spreading like wild fires ravage into every corner of the society and household but the severity and the grotesque nature of the sins are simply unbelievable! To add insult to the God’s creation, some even openly paraded their sins in the streets, over the television and the internet. But this should not surprise us as children of God because in Isaiah 3:9, we are already told of this practice by ancient people. In fact, aided (and no thanks) by new technology and inventions, ‘modern’ man has outdone what those ancient people did by leaps and bounds.
We are indeed living in the last days! Let’s us pray earnestly for God’s guidance that we can be fully sanctified and that we do not ourselves to be partakers of all these demonic activities. Let’s call upon the name of Jesus Who is above all names (Act 4:12) to deliver us from this perverted earth which is due (or perhaps has overdue) for destruction very soon. As told in Genesis 6:3, let us have nothing to do with all these evil deeds so that God will continue to strive with us and bring us closer to Him each day of our lives.
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Urgent prayer for the nation of haiti
Dear Brothers and Sisters-in-Christ,
As you all have probably heard of the news of earthquake in Haiti. As for me, I first read of the news in the morning of Wednesday and it was then quite brief because the event had just happened and mass media was trying to find out more. But when I tuned onto the TV to get more news the next day I heard a huge cry by one of the surviving victims. It was a cry that was all too familiar me (and perhaps to you): THE END OF THE WORLD HAS COME! The news clips that were shown in the TV sent a cold chill down my spine because it reminds me that calamity like this can happen to anyone, anywhere and anytime. In fact, I was still in the process of completing one my postings to the Today’s Scripture Reading and the message that I planned to post was “Wave after Wave of Disaster.” Sadly, even before I completed this writing, this tragic event has happened right before our eyes and we are just only two weeks into 2010.
While the world is still trying to recover from the economic crisis and also we may be ourselves in the midst of trials and tribulations, let us not lose sight of the fact that right now the people in Haiti are having their tribulations of biblical proportion. No country is suffering more than the already poverty-stricken island nation of Haiti at this moment. As the people of Haiti search for their loved ones, for food, for water, for medicine, for shelter and for waiting anxiously for humanitarian aids, let us stop thinking of our own trials or tribulations but instead join our hearts together in prayer to ask God for His Divine interceding to bring good tithing to Haiti and to halt further destruction.
Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.
[Psalm 4:1. KJV]
[Psalm 4:1. KJV]
Dear Brothers and Sisters-in-Christ,
As you all have probably heard of the news of earthquake in Haiti. As for me, I first read of the news in the morning of Wednesday and it was then quite brief because the event had just happened and mass media was trying to find out more. But when I tuned onto the TV to get more news the next day I heard a huge cry by one of the surviving victims. It was a cry that was all too familiar me (and perhaps to you): THE END OF THE WORLD HAS COME! The news clips that were shown in the TV sent a cold chill down my spine because it reminds me that calamity like this can happen to anyone, anywhere and anytime. In fact, I was still in the process of completing one my postings to the Today’s Scripture Reading and the message that I planned to post was “Wave after Wave of Disaster.” Sadly, even before I completed this writing, this tragic event has happened right before our eyes and we are just only two weeks into 2010.
While the world is still trying to recover from the economic crisis and also we may be ourselves in the midst of trials and tribulations, let us not lose sight of the fact that right now the people in Haiti are having their tribulations of biblical proportion. No country is suffering more than the already poverty-stricken island nation of Haiti at this moment. As the people of Haiti search for their loved ones, for food, for water, for medicine, for shelter and for waiting anxiously for humanitarian aids, let us stop thinking of our own trials or tribulations but instead join our hearts together in prayer to ask God for His Divine interceding to bring good tithing to Haiti and to halt further destruction.
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Re: Urgent prayer for the nation of haiti
Today’s Scripture Reading [January 17, 2010]
To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty. [Job 6:14. KJV]
Last Tuesday the world saw a powerful 7 magnitude earthquake rocked the island nation of Haiti, and many of us have seen the images of suffering and its aftermath on the TV and internet. The horrible irony is that this nation is considered to be the poorest country in the western hemisphere living with less than US$2 per day and tragedy like this struck is unthinkable. They now have no direction to go. What caught my ears each time I tuned to TV was hearing the cries from survivors for food, for medicine and for shelter! They are deprived of the very basic essentials since Tuesday and the clock is ticking that if help does not arrive fast enough, suffering will increase and more people are going die.
A question may now be in many of our mind: Will Singapore be struck by one of these tragedies? Or when and where will the next tragedy of this magnitude going to strike? How can we cope if it happened to us?
For those people here who were born before the 1950s (like myself), they might have witnessed one of the biggest tragedies (excluding the atrocities of the 1942-1945 Japanese occupation) in Singapore. On 25 May 1961, a huge fire swept through one of the most densely populated areas of our nation and is now known by those who knew of the event as the infamous “Bukit Ho Swee fire”. This fire devastated a huge area destroying over 2,200 wooden-attap houses and rendered about 16,000 persons homeless. Although, there were very few fatalities, it is a stern reminder that destruction of a great magnitude could happen to us and no place is safe or can be totally free from disaster. The fire of May 1961 could be compared to the Great Fire of London although it was smaller. My family was then living in the Bukit Ho Swee area and though our house was not destroyed because it was built of concrete, there was extensive damage as a result of the fire. The memory of joining thousands of people running for our lives as the wild fire was engulfing mercilessly the neighbourhood can still jolt me whenever I read about the news of disasters. As a result of the fire, many thousands of people (including my family) had to stay with friends or relatives, or in schools with makeshift homes from army tents. These makeshift homes turned schools into refugee camps and the homeless had to stay there for several weeks devoid of basic amenities like water and electricity. Kind people from all over Singapore came to help by providing clothing, footwear, blankets and of course, food to the victims. Living under such refugee-condition for a day was like a year and everyone was hoping that the it could immediately come to pass.
Although the Bukit Ho Swee has set a historical precedent for Singapore, compared to the destruction and what the Haitians are now facing, the Bukit Ho Swee fire was absolutely nothing to shout at. It was estimated that at least 200,000 people are now dead in Haiti and the figures are crawling up by the day. It was also estimated that 2-3 million people are now homeless (as compared to 16,000 homeless of the Bukit Ho Swee fire). The destruction has affected virtually the whole city and government administration has almost come to a near halt as was reported in the newspaper today.
When tragedy strikes, questions, however easy they seem to be, are so hard to answer. But we ask questions nonetheless. If we were to study the Bible, we can find that the Book of Job has a more disproportionate number of questions than any other. In the Book of Job, it has over 330 questions in its 42 chapters. Comparing to other books, the first Book of the Old Testament, Genesis has about 160, the first book of the New Testament, Matthew has around 180 and even the book of Psalms with its 150 chapters has only 160. Many of these questions in the Book of Job were asked by Job himself whose suffering was unimaginable. Stereotyped-questions are being asked over and over again each time a tragedy occurred such as: Why must be me or my family; Why do such things happen; How can there be such evil; Where is God; What can I do.
For the people of Haiti, this is their darkest hour and they too are asking questions. I believe they are mourning every minute and wish that it will come to pass as quickly as it had happened because a day is like a year when you are living in such condition. The promises by other countries to speed up the rescue and relief operations are no comfort to them but only until these operations are really taking place and their immediate basic essential needs are met. As an individual, we really can’t do much because disaster of this biblical proportion requires the help from international communities, agencies, institutions and other governments. However, individually we can be their friends and share their burden with the resources that we can afford like perhaps some donations to credible organizations. Individually, we can all join our hearts and pray that God, in all His wisdom, will bring to pass this tragedy. We can all join our hearts and pray that relief efforts can be carried out unhindered, those who are still trapped in the rubbles are rescued unharmed, civil unrest will not break out and that the people can hold and pull together as a nation to bring the disaster to a pass. Let us also pray to our Lord Jesus to claim His promise for the peace He has left with us, the peace the world cannot offer (John 14:27), and let us pray that the people of Haiti though their hearts are troubled but they can still trust God for His speedy deliverance of this untold misery. Let us trust God what He had blessedly done to Job, He can also blessedly do to the people of Haiti by restoring to them more than what they have lost as a result of this earthquake.
Today’s Scripture Reading [January 17, 2010]
To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty. [Job 6:14. KJV]
Last Tuesday the world saw a powerful 7 magnitude earthquake rocked the island nation of Haiti, and many of us have seen the images of suffering and its aftermath on the TV and internet. The horrible irony is that this nation is considered to be the poorest country in the western hemisphere living with less than US$2 per day and tragedy like this struck is unthinkable. They now have no direction to go. What caught my ears each time I tuned to TV was hearing the cries from survivors for food, for medicine and for shelter! They are deprived of the very basic essentials since Tuesday and the clock is ticking that if help does not arrive fast enough, suffering will increase and more people are going die.
A question may now be in many of our mind: Will Singapore be struck by one of these tragedies? Or when and where will the next tragedy of this magnitude going to strike? How can we cope if it happened to us?
For those people here who were born before the 1950s (like myself), they might have witnessed one of the biggest tragedies (excluding the atrocities of the 1942-1945 Japanese occupation) in Singapore. On 25 May 1961, a huge fire swept through one of the most densely populated areas of our nation and is now known by those who knew of the event as the infamous “Bukit Ho Swee fire”. This fire devastated a huge area destroying over 2,200 wooden-attap houses and rendered about 16,000 persons homeless. Although, there were very few fatalities, it is a stern reminder that destruction of a great magnitude could happen to us and no place is safe or can be totally free from disaster. The fire of May 1961 could be compared to the Great Fire of London although it was smaller. My family was then living in the Bukit Ho Swee area and though our house was not destroyed because it was built of concrete, there was extensive damage as a result of the fire. The memory of joining thousands of people running for our lives as the wild fire was engulfing mercilessly the neighbourhood can still jolt me whenever I read about the news of disasters. As a result of the fire, many thousands of people (including my family) had to stay with friends or relatives, or in schools with makeshift homes from army tents. These makeshift homes turned schools into refugee camps and the homeless had to stay there for several weeks devoid of basic amenities like water and electricity. Kind people from all over Singapore came to help by providing clothing, footwear, blankets and of course, food to the victims. Living under such refugee-condition for a day was like a year and everyone was hoping that the it could immediately come to pass.
Although the Bukit Ho Swee has set a historical precedent for Singapore, compared to the destruction and what the Haitians are now facing, the Bukit Ho Swee fire was absolutely nothing to shout at. It was estimated that at least 200,000 people are now dead in Haiti and the figures are crawling up by the day. It was also estimated that 2-3 million people are now homeless (as compared to 16,000 homeless of the Bukit Ho Swee fire). The destruction has affected virtually the whole city and government administration has almost come to a near halt as was reported in the newspaper today.
When tragedy strikes, questions, however easy they seem to be, are so hard to answer. But we ask questions nonetheless. If we were to study the Bible, we can find that the Book of Job has a more disproportionate number of questions than any other. In the Book of Job, it has over 330 questions in its 42 chapters. Comparing to other books, the first Book of the Old Testament, Genesis has about 160, the first book of the New Testament, Matthew has around 180 and even the book of Psalms with its 150 chapters has only 160. Many of these questions in the Book of Job were asked by Job himself whose suffering was unimaginable. Stereotyped-questions are being asked over and over again each time a tragedy occurred such as: Why must be me or my family; Why do such things happen; How can there be such evil; Where is God; What can I do.
For the people of Haiti, this is their darkest hour and they too are asking questions. I believe they are mourning every minute and wish that it will come to pass as quickly as it had happened because a day is like a year when you are living in such condition. The promises by other countries to speed up the rescue and relief operations are no comfort to them but only until these operations are really taking place and their immediate basic essential needs are met. As an individual, we really can’t do much because disaster of this biblical proportion requires the help from international communities, agencies, institutions and other governments. However, individually we can be their friends and share their burden with the resources that we can afford like perhaps some donations to credible organizations. Individually, we can all join our hearts and pray that God, in all His wisdom, will bring to pass this tragedy. We can all join our hearts and pray that relief efforts can be carried out unhindered, those who are still trapped in the rubbles are rescued unharmed, civil unrest will not break out and that the people can hold and pull together as a nation to bring the disaster to a pass. Let us also pray to our Lord Jesus to claim His promise for the peace He has left with us, the peace the world cannot offer (John 14:27), and let us pray that the people of Haiti though their hearts are troubled but they can still trust God for His speedy deliverance of this untold misery. Let us trust God what He had blessedly done to Job, He can also blessedly do to the people of Haiti by restoring to them more than what they have lost as a result of this earthquake.
Re: Urgent prayer for the nation of haiti
Today’s Scripture Reading [January 24, 2010]
And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. [Acts 1:10-11. KJV]
Although the prophecies of the birth of Jesus to a virgin, His death and His resurrection were prophesied many hundred of years before the events, they were finally fulfilled exactly the ways they had been prophesied!
As to Jesus’ Second Coming, Bible scholars have noted that it has 20 times as many prophetic discourses in the Old Testament as to His First Coming and in the New Testament, just only from Apostle Paul, more than 50 times were spoken by Apostle Paul of the Lord’s Return. Scripturally, we can infer that the doctrinal center of the prophecy of the New Testament is all about His Second Coming. Like His First Coming, Jesus’ Second Coming is imminent. It only leaves us the question of ‘When’ is He coming back and not 'How' it will take place. In fact, the Bible has vividly described the manner in which He will be back the second time.
Jesus will come back from where He has ascended to the heaven at the Mount of Olives. His Return will be with clouds and with power and glory (Matthew 24:30); He will be accompanied by two witnesses who will most probably be Moses and Elijah (Acts 1:10); there will be a huge voice of the archangel proclaiming of His Glorious Appearance (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; Titus 2:13); everyone on earth will be able to see Him (Revelation 1:7) and it will be marked by the most remarkable event of human history - all truly born-again Christians who are living will be transformed from their corruptible bodies into incorruptible bodies and the mortal being will become immortal (1 Corinthians 15: 51-54).
In the Bible, it has described specific events which must occur before His Return can take place. These can be found in Matthew 24:4-29; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 and Revelation chapters 6-18. Many of these events are already unfolding right before our very eyes! We can read, hear or see many of these events reported in the mass media almost daily. In the December 2009 newspaper (The Straits Times December 27, 28 and 29), it featured articles on some of these end-time events and in the History Channel which is a secular TV channel, it telecasted similar news under the title ‘Seven Signs of the Apocalypse’ making references to several prophetic verses to the Book of Revelation of the New Testament and also to the Books of the Old Testament. Let me take this opportunity to share with you some of these:
(a) And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. [Matthew 24:6 NKJV]
Besides the on-going wars that are taking place around the world, in particular in the Middle East, the frequent occurrences of terrorists’ attacks since September 11, 2001 have made the world very unsafe. The following is a list of the major terrorists’ attacks over the last 10 years. In addition, they were many hundreds gone unreported.
(i) September 11, 2001: The World Trade Center, U.S.A; nearly 3,000 people died altogether.
(ii) October 12, 2002: Bali, Indonesia; 202 people were killed, most of them tourists.
(iii) March 11, 2004: Madrid, Spain; killed almost 200 people.
(iv) July 7, 2005: London, U.K.; 52 people were killed and 700 injured.
(v) July 11, 2006: Mumbai, India; 187 people were killed.
(vi) November 26, 2008: Mumbai, India; 166 people were killed.
(b) And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. [Matthew 24:7b NKJV]
Famines, pestilences, diseases and earthquakes and drought have occurred throughout human history. However, what’s so mind-boggling is that in the last 10 years these events occur one after another and some of them even occurred few weeks or days apart. Additionally, compared to past years, the severities and intensities have increased significantly. There were more earthquakes measuring over 8 Richter scale, more serious typhoons, hurricanes, droughts, and volcanoes. Pollutions of land, sea and air that are not due to overpopulation but to man’s selfish acts have reached biblical proportion that many government officials and scientists have admitted that the earth is being destroyed to a point of no return. The real bad news is, things are going to get worst. Food and drinking water supply will be adversely affected. To further complicate the problems, there are new diseases which currently no medicine is fully effective to contain them. The following is a list of major natural destruction that took place in the last 10 years:
(i) 2002 – 2003: SAR, a new disease threatening the lives of many people; killed more than 750 people mostly in Asia.
(ii) December 26, 2003: Earthquake of 6.7 magnitude, Bam, Iran; killed 35,000 people.
(iii) 2003 – 2004: Avian flu re-emerges; killed more than 250 people.
(iv) August 29. 2005: Hurricane Katrina, U.S.A.; more than 1,300 people died in one of worst natural disasters in the U.S.
(v) October 8, 2005: Earthquake of 7.6 magnitude, Pakistan and India; killed more than 80,000 people and leaving 3 million homeless.
(vi) December 26, 2008: Asian tsunami due to a 9.15-magnitude quake off the cost of Indonesia’s Aceh province; about 225,000 people in 10 countries died, creating one of the greatest humanitarian tragedies in history.
(vii) May 2-3, 2008: Cyclone Nargis, Myanmar; more than 140,000 people died, leaving more than 3 million people displaced, destroying thousands of homes, schools and vast areas of farmland.
(viii) May 12, 2008: Earthquake of 7.9 magnitude, Sichuan, China; killed more than 88,000 people and leaving 5 million homeless.
(ix) 2009: H1N1 (Swine flu); killed at least 11,000 people.
(x) February 7, 2009: Australia bushfires; killed 173 people, injured 500 others and leaving 7,500 homeless.
Just few weeks ago, news of extreme cold weather that was invading almost all countries of the northern hemisphere were pouring out daily. It has been identified that the cause for this extreme cold weather was due to global warming because of the abuse and misuse of earth’s resources. As the world has just hardly started into the New Year, it has seen its first tragic news of 2010, an earthquake in Haiti killing an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 people and making over 1 million homeless. Will 2010 prove to be the record year of disaster?
(c) Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. [Daniel 12:4b NKJV]
With the invention of jet engines, people are now able to travel from one country to another country at very fast speed. Just 50 years ago, people were traveling by camels, donkeys, horses, cars, trains and vessels. It took many weeks if not months to travel from one country to another but now you can travel from one end of the globe to the other end in just a matter of hours.
Information is now much more assessable and there is now a huge explosion of knowledge. At the click of a computer keyboard, you now get all kinds of information.
(d) And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. [Revelation 13:16-17 KJV]
We all know that in order to transact business through cashless system of payment like electronic banking, ATM, we need to have personal number or code assigned to us. Just look at your credit cards and you will see a lot of codes and each code has significant meaning to it. Without these codes (or marks), your cards are useless. This system of transaction will be even more advanced in times to come and the Bible has predicted that all business transactions will take place electronically. It is amazing how Apostle John who wrote this 2000 years ago knew about such thing when trading using money during his time had only begun not too long!
(e) But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. [2 Timothy 3:1-5 NKJV]
News of cheating, killing, murder and human perversions of all kinds are reported almost daily in the mass media. Just turn to the pages of the newspaper every morning and you will see at least one or two of such news reported. It has become daily routine and anyone can turn out to be one of these perpetrators because when we examine the profiles of these perpetrators, they range from company chairmen, CEOs to professional doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants to housewives, school kids (who are also now used by loan sharks to harass victims), school teachers (who molested or had sexual affairs with their students). We are truly living in a godless society where technology, money, material possession, job, career and selfish-indulgences are our ‘gods’ and mankind will do everything possible just to acquire them at all costs.
Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, time is running out! I hope you can help to share this message and pray unceasingly that our dear friends, colleagues and relatives can come to Jesus, accept Him as the Saviour and to live a life of repentance so that when the Day of Judgment comes, together we all can stand before our Lord Jesus and be justified and be forgiven by His redeeming precious blood (Colossians 1:14).
Today’s Scripture Reading [January 24, 2010]
And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. [Acts 1:10-11. KJV]
Although the prophecies of the birth of Jesus to a virgin, His death and His resurrection were prophesied many hundred of years before the events, they were finally fulfilled exactly the ways they had been prophesied!
As to Jesus’ Second Coming, Bible scholars have noted that it has 20 times as many prophetic discourses in the Old Testament as to His First Coming and in the New Testament, just only from Apostle Paul, more than 50 times were spoken by Apostle Paul of the Lord’s Return. Scripturally, we can infer that the doctrinal center of the prophecy of the New Testament is all about His Second Coming. Like His First Coming, Jesus’ Second Coming is imminent. It only leaves us the question of ‘When’ is He coming back and not 'How' it will take place. In fact, the Bible has vividly described the manner in which He will be back the second time.
Jesus will come back from where He has ascended to the heaven at the Mount of Olives. His Return will be with clouds and with power and glory (Matthew 24:30); He will be accompanied by two witnesses who will most probably be Moses and Elijah (Acts 1:10); there will be a huge voice of the archangel proclaiming of His Glorious Appearance (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; Titus 2:13); everyone on earth will be able to see Him (Revelation 1:7) and it will be marked by the most remarkable event of human history - all truly born-again Christians who are living will be transformed from their corruptible bodies into incorruptible bodies and the mortal being will become immortal (1 Corinthians 15: 51-54).
In the Bible, it has described specific events which must occur before His Return can take place. These can be found in Matthew 24:4-29; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 and Revelation chapters 6-18. Many of these events are already unfolding right before our very eyes! We can read, hear or see many of these events reported in the mass media almost daily. In the December 2009 newspaper (The Straits Times December 27, 28 and 29), it featured articles on some of these end-time events and in the History Channel which is a secular TV channel, it telecasted similar news under the title ‘Seven Signs of the Apocalypse’ making references to several prophetic verses to the Book of Revelation of the New Testament and also to the Books of the Old Testament. Let me take this opportunity to share with you some of these:
(a) And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. [Matthew 24:6 NKJV]
Besides the on-going wars that are taking place around the world, in particular in the Middle East, the frequent occurrences of terrorists’ attacks since September 11, 2001 have made the world very unsafe. The following is a list of the major terrorists’ attacks over the last 10 years. In addition, they were many hundreds gone unreported.
(i) September 11, 2001: The World Trade Center, U.S.A; nearly 3,000 people died altogether.
(ii) October 12, 2002: Bali, Indonesia; 202 people were killed, most of them tourists.
(iii) March 11, 2004: Madrid, Spain; killed almost 200 people.
(iv) July 7, 2005: London, U.K.; 52 people were killed and 700 injured.
(v) July 11, 2006: Mumbai, India; 187 people were killed.
(vi) November 26, 2008: Mumbai, India; 166 people were killed.
(b) And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. [Matthew 24:7b NKJV]
Famines, pestilences, diseases and earthquakes and drought have occurred throughout human history. However, what’s so mind-boggling is that in the last 10 years these events occur one after another and some of them even occurred few weeks or days apart. Additionally, compared to past years, the severities and intensities have increased significantly. There were more earthquakes measuring over 8 Richter scale, more serious typhoons, hurricanes, droughts, and volcanoes. Pollutions of land, sea and air that are not due to overpopulation but to man’s selfish acts have reached biblical proportion that many government officials and scientists have admitted that the earth is being destroyed to a point of no return. The real bad news is, things are going to get worst. Food and drinking water supply will be adversely affected. To further complicate the problems, there are new diseases which currently no medicine is fully effective to contain them. The following is a list of major natural destruction that took place in the last 10 years:
(i) 2002 – 2003: SAR, a new disease threatening the lives of many people; killed more than 750 people mostly in Asia.
(ii) December 26, 2003: Earthquake of 6.7 magnitude, Bam, Iran; killed 35,000 people.
(iii) 2003 – 2004: Avian flu re-emerges; killed more than 250 people.
(iv) August 29. 2005: Hurricane Katrina, U.S.A.; more than 1,300 people died in one of worst natural disasters in the U.S.
(v) October 8, 2005: Earthquake of 7.6 magnitude, Pakistan and India; killed more than 80,000 people and leaving 3 million homeless.
(vi) December 26, 2008: Asian tsunami due to a 9.15-magnitude quake off the cost of Indonesia’s Aceh province; about 225,000 people in 10 countries died, creating one of the greatest humanitarian tragedies in history.
(vii) May 2-3, 2008: Cyclone Nargis, Myanmar; more than 140,000 people died, leaving more than 3 million people displaced, destroying thousands of homes, schools and vast areas of farmland.
(viii) May 12, 2008: Earthquake of 7.9 magnitude, Sichuan, China; killed more than 88,000 people and leaving 5 million homeless.
(ix) 2009: H1N1 (Swine flu); killed at least 11,000 people.
(x) February 7, 2009: Australia bushfires; killed 173 people, injured 500 others and leaving 7,500 homeless.
Just few weeks ago, news of extreme cold weather that was invading almost all countries of the northern hemisphere were pouring out daily. It has been identified that the cause for this extreme cold weather was due to global warming because of the abuse and misuse of earth’s resources. As the world has just hardly started into the New Year, it has seen its first tragic news of 2010, an earthquake in Haiti killing an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 people and making over 1 million homeless. Will 2010 prove to be the record year of disaster?
(c) Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. [Daniel 12:4b NKJV]
With the invention of jet engines, people are now able to travel from one country to another country at very fast speed. Just 50 years ago, people were traveling by camels, donkeys, horses, cars, trains and vessels. It took many weeks if not months to travel from one country to another but now you can travel from one end of the globe to the other end in just a matter of hours.
Information is now much more assessable and there is now a huge explosion of knowledge. At the click of a computer keyboard, you now get all kinds of information.
(d) And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. [Revelation 13:16-17 KJV]
We all know that in order to transact business through cashless system of payment like electronic banking, ATM, we need to have personal number or code assigned to us. Just look at your credit cards and you will see a lot of codes and each code has significant meaning to it. Without these codes (or marks), your cards are useless. This system of transaction will be even more advanced in times to come and the Bible has predicted that all business transactions will take place electronically. It is amazing how Apostle John who wrote this 2000 years ago knew about such thing when trading using money during his time had only begun not too long!
(e) But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. [2 Timothy 3:1-5 NKJV]
News of cheating, killing, murder and human perversions of all kinds are reported almost daily in the mass media. Just turn to the pages of the newspaper every morning and you will see at least one or two of such news reported. It has become daily routine and anyone can turn out to be one of these perpetrators because when we examine the profiles of these perpetrators, they range from company chairmen, CEOs to professional doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants to housewives, school kids (who are also now used by loan sharks to harass victims), school teachers (who molested or had sexual affairs with their students). We are truly living in a godless society where technology, money, material possession, job, career and selfish-indulgences are our ‘gods’ and mankind will do everything possible just to acquire them at all costs.
Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, time is running out! I hope you can help to share this message and pray unceasingly that our dear friends, colleagues and relatives can come to Jesus, accept Him as the Saviour and to live a life of repentance so that when the Day of Judgment comes, together we all can stand before our Lord Jesus and be justified and be forgiven by His redeeming precious blood (Colossians 1:14).
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Re: Urgent prayer for the nation of haiti
Today’s Scripture Reading [January 31, 2010]
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. [Deuteronomy 30:19-20. KJV]
One of my favourite TV programs is the documentary on animal kingdom. In these programs, we can see that every kind of animals, regardless of size and shape, regardless of whether they live on land or in the ocean, they have their unique survival instincts. Take spiders and bees as examples. The intricate webs weaved by the spiders can easily outperformed the best Chinese silk weaver who may perhaps spent all her entire life learning to weave, and the near-geometrically perfect hexagonal honeycombs built by the bees proved to be a very stable structure and because it has the least perimeter, it can be expanded quite indefinitely. Professional architects have studied them and have incorporated this honeycomb-structure into some modern buildings. In the larger animal kingdom, we have the sharks that have excellent sense of smell which allows them to detect their prey as far as one-quarter mile away; and then we have the eagles with their ultra-sharp vision are capable of detecting very small prey from the sky many hundred feet below ground. Modern-day scientists and engineers are still learning from birds, insects, fish as well as other animals to further improve the functioning of aircrafts, warship, buildings and other modern inventions. They are still puzzled over why these instincts are so well designed and programmed into animals. However, these instincts allow them to only hunt for prey, for mates and perhaps for territorial control. Unlike human, they have very limited ‘life choices’ as these instincts are primarily designed for the animals to respond to physical and environmental circumstances ensuring at least they have basic yet highly effective tools to survive in the wilderness. These built-in instincts are nonetheless perfectly designed by our Creator to meet their needs as and when they arise – nothing more, nothing less. They can’t be improved upon neither can they be taken away.
However, this is not exactly what I am referring to when the right to choose or making choices by mankind is concerned. Our rights and our abilities to choose go much beyond our daily choices like what we need to wear when we go to the office for work, or what we are going to eat for our lunch. Rather, I am referring to what God holds up choices to people - life or death, righteousness or sin, justice or deceit. Just like the unique animal’s survival instincts that are peculiar to animals, our God-given free will gift to choose life or death, righteousness or sin, justice or deceit are unique and peculiar only to human race. Because of the sin we have inherited from our first parents, we have the tendency to continuously misplace and misguide our God-given freedom of choice to our detrimental. In Proverbs 4:23-27 the Psalmist has given us stern warnings to guide our heart, our speech, our sight, our feet and not to turn to the left or right and to keep our feet from evil because our gracious God wants us to make the right choice, all for our own good. In deed, every day of our lives, we are faced with the choice to obey or not to obey God, to repent and to live our lives to please Him or to please ourselves, to please others like our bosses or even our friends. Making choices like these are very difficult and can be painful. It often requires sacrifice and courage; it’s all about our heart’s desire, our willingness to make changes and our attitude towards God. Unless we are empowered by the Holy Spirit, we have the tendency to do things that displease our Lord Jesus. Even Apostle Paul admitted that he found it difficult to continually living to please God. Just like Apostle Paul, we often do things in direct contradiction to God’s command although we know fully well what those contradictions are but we seem to be powerless to do what God wants us to do (Romans 7:19).
Our first parents had chosen the wrong choice – the choice to disobey God and instead to obey the Serpent, and as their descendants we are paying for the price, the price of spiritual death and eternal separation from God. By His grace, we are now given a chance, our only chance to surrender this wrong choice that our first parents had made back to God and to allow His Spirit to control us so that by His Spirit, we will live (Romans 8:1). This process of recovery from sin is called redemption in the Bible, and it is only possible because of the precious blood of Jesus. It is the process planned by God even before creation and it simply means the release from sin and death through the payment of a price – the precious blood of His Son, Christ Jesus. Through this divine process, man could finally correct his wrong choice and surrender it back to God and regain the right to live with Him in His heavenly throne, forever. Our first parents, by their willful disobedience, have tragically operationalized the formula of “man plus freedom = evil and eternal death” but God came 2000 years ago and has altered this humanly unalterable formula and replaced it with His divine formula of “man plus blood of Jesus = holiness and eternal life” (Ephesians 1:7). By His Blood, death is final conquered and our victory is assured! It's all about the Redeeming Blood of Jesus!
Today’s Scripture Reading [January 31, 2010]
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. [Deuteronomy 30:19-20. KJV]
One of my favourite TV programs is the documentary on animal kingdom. In these programs, we can see that every kind of animals, regardless of size and shape, regardless of whether they live on land or in the ocean, they have their unique survival instincts. Take spiders and bees as examples. The intricate webs weaved by the spiders can easily outperformed the best Chinese silk weaver who may perhaps spent all her entire life learning to weave, and the near-geometrically perfect hexagonal honeycombs built by the bees proved to be a very stable structure and because it has the least perimeter, it can be expanded quite indefinitely. Professional architects have studied them and have incorporated this honeycomb-structure into some modern buildings. In the larger animal kingdom, we have the sharks that have excellent sense of smell which allows them to detect their prey as far as one-quarter mile away; and then we have the eagles with their ultra-sharp vision are capable of detecting very small prey from the sky many hundred feet below ground. Modern-day scientists and engineers are still learning from birds, insects, fish as well as other animals to further improve the functioning of aircrafts, warship, buildings and other modern inventions. They are still puzzled over why these instincts are so well designed and programmed into animals. However, these instincts allow them to only hunt for prey, for mates and perhaps for territorial control. Unlike human, they have very limited ‘life choices’ as these instincts are primarily designed for the animals to respond to physical and environmental circumstances ensuring at least they have basic yet highly effective tools to survive in the wilderness. These built-in instincts are nonetheless perfectly designed by our Creator to meet their needs as and when they arise – nothing more, nothing less. They can’t be improved upon neither can they be taken away.
However, this is not exactly what I am referring to when the right to choose or making choices by mankind is concerned. Our rights and our abilities to choose go much beyond our daily choices like what we need to wear when we go to the office for work, or what we are going to eat for our lunch. Rather, I am referring to what God holds up choices to people - life or death, righteousness or sin, justice or deceit. Just like the unique animal’s survival instincts that are peculiar to animals, our God-given free will gift to choose life or death, righteousness or sin, justice or deceit are unique and peculiar only to human race. Because of the sin we have inherited from our first parents, we have the tendency to continuously misplace and misguide our God-given freedom of choice to our detrimental. In Proverbs 4:23-27 the Psalmist has given us stern warnings to guide our heart, our speech, our sight, our feet and not to turn to the left or right and to keep our feet from evil because our gracious God wants us to make the right choice, all for our own good. In deed, every day of our lives, we are faced with the choice to obey or not to obey God, to repent and to live our lives to please Him or to please ourselves, to please others like our bosses or even our friends. Making choices like these are very difficult and can be painful. It often requires sacrifice and courage; it’s all about our heart’s desire, our willingness to make changes and our attitude towards God. Unless we are empowered by the Holy Spirit, we have the tendency to do things that displease our Lord Jesus. Even Apostle Paul admitted that he found it difficult to continually living to please God. Just like Apostle Paul, we often do things in direct contradiction to God’s command although we know fully well what those contradictions are but we seem to be powerless to do what God wants us to do (Romans 7:19).
Our first parents had chosen the wrong choice – the choice to disobey God and instead to obey the Serpent, and as their descendants we are paying for the price, the price of spiritual death and eternal separation from God. By His grace, we are now given a chance, our only chance to surrender this wrong choice that our first parents had made back to God and to allow His Spirit to control us so that by His Spirit, we will live (Romans 8:1). This process of recovery from sin is called redemption in the Bible, and it is only possible because of the precious blood of Jesus. It is the process planned by God even before creation and it simply means the release from sin and death through the payment of a price – the precious blood of His Son, Christ Jesus. Through this divine process, man could finally correct his wrong choice and surrender it back to God and regain the right to live with Him in His heavenly throne, forever. Our first parents, by their willful disobedience, have tragically operationalized the formula of “man plus freedom = evil and eternal death” but God came 2000 years ago and has altered this humanly unalterable formula and replaced it with His divine formula of “man plus blood of Jesus = holiness and eternal life” (Ephesians 1:7). By His Blood, death is final conquered and our victory is assured! It's all about the Redeeming Blood of Jesus!
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