C G C
For God so loved the world
F G C
That He gave His only Son
F C
Whoever believes in Him
Dm7 G7
Shall have everlasting life
Chorus :
F G
And one day every knee shall bow
Em Am Dm7
Every tongue confess that Jesus
G7 C
Is Lord of Lords and King of Kings
(Is Lord of everything)
After watching closely the inflation situation and the incredible build-up of the super bubbles of housing, stocks, commodities and bonds coming together to form the perfect storm, JC’s Manifesto made an appeal, on the prompting of the Lord’s Spirit, in Dec 2021 for financial assistance to help certain churches to stock up basic necessities for 2022. All thanks to the Lord for convicting several friends to come forward to help. Also contributed to certain church and para church ministry for their year end Christmas effort to share the Good News.
Latest update (4 March 2022) :
We have helped a Kenya church to stock up basic necessities as well as enable them to do farming. The food inflation hardship became a reality in Kenya now.
Can we pray imprecatory prayers like in the imprecatory psalms ?
Psalms 58 NLT
1 Justice—do you rulers know the meaning of the word?
Do you judge the people fairly?
2 No! You plot injustice in your hearts.
You spread violence throughout the land.
3 These wicked people are born sinners;
even from birth they have lied and gone their own way.
4 They spit venom like deadly snakes;
they are like cobras that refuse to listen,
5 ignoring the tunes of the snake charmers,
no matter how skillfully they play.
6 Break off their fangs, O God!
Smash the jaws of these lions, O Lord!
7 May they disappear like water into thirsty ground.
Make their weapons useless in their hands.[c]
8 May they be like snails that dissolve into slime,
like a stillborn child who will never see the sun.
9 God will sweep them away, both young and old,
faster than a pot heats over burning thorns.
10 The godly will rejoice when they see injustice avenged.
They will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 Then at last everyone will say,
“There truly is a reward for those who live for God;
surely there is a God who judges justly here on earth.”
King David prayed the most such psalms and there was apparently no rebuke from the Lord. I believe the Lord will prefer us to be honest with our feelings before Him than to feel bitter and harbour wrong thoughts. King David prayed against God’s enemies and it is surely right to hate sin and oppression. In Revelation, we do notice that the martyred saints plead for God’s quick vengeance. Each time, we pray for our Lord to return quickly, we are actually praying for Him to come quickly to judge and establish retributive justice.
On the other hand, our Lord Jesus exhorted us to love and pray for our enemies. Scripture has exhorted us not to gloat over the misfortune of anyone and that will include enemies. We are exhorted to pray and submit to the governing authorities too. And we must not take revenge into our own hands against anyone for vengeance belongs to the Lord. Will we then be violating the law of Christ by praying imprecation against God’s enemies ?
Since Scripture is inerrant and infallible, we must believe all exhortation to be true. If so, there is an instance for loving and praying for our enemies and also another to pray for God’s intervention by praying imprecation, just like we are exhorted not to judge as in fault finding (Matt 7:1) but we are also exhorted to judge serious sins in the church. (1 Cor 5:9-13). The Lord hates oppression of the people, especially His people. Even the manifesto of our Lord Jesus in Luke 4:18 includes relieving the oppressed. I believe we can pray for the repentance of the oppressive rulers first and if there is no repentance, we can pray for the Lord’s intervention to remove the oppression. But we need to examine our motives first. Are we praying due to personal grudge or are we distressed by the gross injustice and oppression of the people ?
King David prayed for the counsel of a certain person for his son Absalom, who had rebelled against him, to be turned into foolishness. (2 Sam 15:31) For a start, we can surely pray for the wicked plans, platform, credibility of evil and oppressive governing authorities to fail, or even to lose the approval and trust of the people, and eventually their removal from power rather than their demise through the Lord’s intervention.
In first century Judaism era, the RICH were the Jewish high-priestly families who oppressed the lower clergy, landowners who abused the tenants and hired laborers, the merchants who controlled the economy, and those who aligned with the political authorities with much economic privileges. The POOR were small landowners whose livelihood depended on the small harvest, tenant farmers, hired laborers, fishermen, carpenters, slaves and beggars. The poor were further oppressed by various tithes and exorbitant taxes. We could classify the poor then as those who were economic poor and had low and insignificant social status.
Our Lord’s manifesto was to share the gospel to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Luke 4:18-19.
We can easily see why the gospel was Good News to the poor then. Judaism preached salvation through works of the law in which the poor were so oppressed by the numerous religious laws, while the gospel preached salvation by faith alone in Christ Jesus. All, rich and poor, would be brothers in the Kingdom of God and should take care of one another. There was no longer lowly or insignificant social status but the most prestigious and precious status of the sons and daughters of God the Almighty.
But to the rich then, it was not exactly Good News. They would have to deny themselves and give up the hold of possessions. Luke 14:26,27,33. Though it was difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God, it was not impossible. Mark 10:25, 27. The deceitfulness of wealth and the love of money only made it so much more difficult for the rich. Matt 13:22. The Scripture gave us two contrasting examples of two rich persons deliberating over their decision to follow Jesus. Luke 18:16-22; 19:1-10. Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, responded with faith in Christ Jesus and make light of his possessions instantly, while the rich young ruler was reluctant to give up his possessions to follow Jesus.
Sadly in most of Christendom today, the decision to follow Jesus for the wealthy does not include deliberating over the cost of discipleship and making the resolve to accept the terms. Luke 14:26,27,33. The poor has little resistance to accept the discipleship terms because they do not have the social status and possessions in the first place to give up in order to follow Jesus.
Lamentations 3:22-23
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
His mercies never come to an end;
They are new every morning; great is (thy) faithfulness.
Chorus :
Great is Thy faithfulness. (4x)
(Singing a new melody with the wonderful lyrics of the above-mentioned song by Kelly Willard.)
E A B E
Make me a servant humble and meek
A B E
Lord, let me lift up those who are weak
A B G#m C#m
May the prayer of my heart always be
A B E E7
Make me a servant today (2X)
In August 2019 while attending a NGO staff conference in which I shared the gospel with the staff, I went to check out a ministry in Siem Reap. The local pastor is now serving with a Korean missionary and has planted a local church some 30km from Siem Reap.
In these latter days, we are told by our Lord to care for God’s people, especially the least of them. Matt 25:33-46. By the grace and provision from our Lord, JC’s Manifesto is thankful to be able to bring a little cheer to the brothers and sisters in this church through distributing some basic necessities to them. All thanks and glory to our Lord Jesus.
1 Cor 1:14-17
My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel…
Like St Paul, I had focused on evangelistic missions given by the Lord over the years. Though I had planted or built up certain local churches overseas, the task of baptism was performed by the elders. I did baptize two local dying elderly persons a decade ago. In the last three years where I served in a local congregation, I only baptized another 2 elderly persons. Like St Paul, the Lord forbid that I should ever entertain the thought of ownership of the flock. It is human weakness for church members to identify and follow leaders like Paul or Apollos thereby causing a sectarian spirit in the church as seen in the example of the Corinthian church, or vice versa for the church elder or pastor to assume ownership of the church or to lord over the members as his subordinate followers whom he baptizes.
The book of Habakkuk gave us the answer. Habakkuk complained twice and the Lord answered him twice. He complained initially on why God had allowed sin to be so rampant in Judah and did not act. Later when God answered him that he would judge very soon and he complained again on why God would send the Chaldeans, a god-less people who was the epitome of all who opposed Him, to deliver the judgment of Judah. God answered again that He would also judge the Chaldeans.
Despite all these judgments, God assured Habakkuk that the just would be justified and preserved by faith; and that He will be in complete control.
When Habakkuk caught a glimpse of God’s holiness, his subsequent godly responses gave us a paradigm on how believers should respond when bad things happen to them.
An article by Irv Busenitz summarized the response well.
Habakkuk’s prayer in Hab 3 is the most appropriate response towards calamitous judgment such as the current pandemic. One striking part of the prayer is that Habakkuk would still rejoice even if severe famine hit.
“I have heard all about you, Lord. I am filled with awe by your amazing works. In this time of our deep need, help us again as you did in years gone by. And in your anger, remember your mercy… PESTILENCE marches before him; PLAGUE follows close behind. When he stops, the earth shakes. When he looks, the nations tremble. He shatters the everlasting mountains and levels the eternal hills. He is the Eternal One!.. You marched across the land in anger and trampled the nations in your fury. You went out to rescue your chosen people, to save your anointed ones. You crushed the heads of the wicked and stripped their bones from head to toe. Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights.”
How will our Lord judge Babylon by destroying all wealth in one hour as revealed in Rev 18:17 ?
I am convinced that Babylon is America and is represented by New York City. It is the haunt of every unclean bird, animal and spirit. Many nations grow rich because of her. She leads the global alliance of governments (kings of the earth), global companies and all small and medium enterprises in the global supply chain (merchants) and the global shipping lines and ports cum financial centers (those who make their living by the sea) engaged in globalized trade. Rev 18. When God judges Babylon, these three groups allied with her will weep as described in Rev 18.
Since the 2008 Great Recession, the major economies have intervened so much in the financial system and caused so much imbalance which I believe the damage is irreversible.
The current lockdown in many nations as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic has disrupted the supply chain badly and the energy crisis is compounding the problem further. Prior to the pandemic, the US was already staring at the collapse of the financial system and had to do QE to the tune of trillions of dollars. The pandemic induced economic slowdown was the good excuse to do so because the other major economies would also face similar economic slowdown and would have done the same, and the dollar would be relatively unscathed.
In 2020, the income of 50% of all American workers was USD 34,612 or less. While the elites and their corporations are amassing so much wealth through manipulation of the financial system with all kinds of tools such as QE, repo, reverse repo, bond purchases and backstopping of all bonds. The poor and rich divide could not have been greater at all times. The current supply chain disruption and the energy crisis will cause the relative poor further pain through high inflation. The financial collapse will happen sooner or later and chaos will erupt. The elites have the most to lose if it happens. So it is better for the elites to be prepared now through using political, financial and military tools to prevent the collapse and to control the relative dissenting poor. We are actually seeing such preparation as the US and her allies continue to make use of digitization technologies to control the supply chain and pass discriminatory laws to exert total control over the population in the name of protecting public health. (In contrast, China invests in the physical production of every link in the supply chain of products and energy.)
Charles Hugh Smith in his blog explained that the current exponential bull market run is caused by the Fed incentivizing the biggest gamblers that they will be bailed out, should they somehow lose, by offering them unlimited lines of credit and eliminate transparency in market pricing to mask their losses. This implicit guarantee that any bet on markets lofting higher will be a winning gamble rewards those making the riskiest bets. All the risks piling up as trillions of dollars are leveraged into ever larger can’t-lose bets have not evaporated, they’ve been transferred to the financial system. So when risk exceeds the carrying capacity of the system, it will be the system which implodes, not just punters’ riskiest, most highly leveraged bets.
Since the Lord has already foretold that He will judge Babylon by destroying all wealth in Rev 18:17, it will happen. Governments will not be able to control trigger events like an earthquake hitting a major financial city, or solar flare disrupting all transformers, or global coordinated cyber attack, etc. How will our Lord destroy all wealth ? Will it be a system implosion ? Wil it be a calamitious natural disaster ? How can we weather this event and even rejoice over His judgment ? Rev 18:19.
