Category: Ramblings

Deut 8: 2-7.

2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands…5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you…7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; 8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; 9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing..

Acts 16:6-10

Next Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time. Then coming to the borders of Mysia, they headed north for the province of Bithynia,but again the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there. So instead, they went on through Mysia to the seaport of Troas. That night Paul had a vision: A man from Macedonia in northern Greece was standing there, pleading with him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” So we decided to leave for Macedonia at once, having concluded that God was calling us to preach the Good News there.

We see how Paul was guided by the Holy Spirit not to preach the Good News to Asia but to move on to Macedonia instead. It would be logical for Paul to travel and preach around Asia, but logic is not the basis for calling. Though the Holy Spirit forbade Paul and Silas to preach in the province of Asia, Paul still attempted to go to the province of Bithynia in Asia. Yet again, the Holy Spirit stopped them.  We are not told how the Holy Spirit prevented them.  The Holy Spirit did not leave Paul clueless as to the next destination since He had forbidden him to preach in Asia. He was given a vision to go to Macedonia.

In the above passage and other passages of Acts, we saw the active guidance of the Holy Spirit in the ministry of Paul and other Christians in the following ways :

1. Through the direct prompting of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 16:6. How the Spirit exactly prevented Paul from preaching the word, the Scripture did not reveal.)
2. Through vision. (Acts 16:9).
3. Through prophets. (Agabus predicted a famine. Acts 11:28)
4. Through angels. (Philip was guided to the Ethopian eunuch. Acts 8:26-39)

Before I go on, I must stress that Scripture is the primary way of God’s guidance.  All other ways have to be tested against it.  But sadly,  many dismiss all other ways of guidance and miss the joy of the close walk with the Spirit of God as we surrender to His guidance.

The Holy Spirit may prompt us through an inner voice (John 16:13) or our conscience (Rom 9:1).   How do we discern that it is really His prompting and not our own thoughts or from other sources ?  We have to test it against the Word of God because the Holy Spirit will not prod us to do something against the Word of God, and our conscience is suspect at times.  On the other hand, do not over-ride the prompting of the Spirit by our own logic or our own preference at times.  (Do not get me wrong that we do not exercise prudence for prudence is also a cardinal virtue of a Christian. We are exhorted to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.  I am only exhorting not to trust ONLY logic ALL the time and dismiss His prompting unknowingly.)  God must have the best interests of Paul in disallowing him to go to Asia but to send him to Macedonia.  Many Christians suffer for making the wrong decisions in life by quenching the Spirit through insensitivity and disobedience to His prompting.  I have seen missionaries, who claimed that God had sent them to a certain place but it was really their own preference, came back with fruit-less ministry for several years while being there.

Many believers do not believe in visions and so why will God give them one ?  As long as the visions are not extra biblical revelation and do not contradict the whole counsel of the Word of God, why should we dismiss them as not one of the ways in which God may prod us to do something ?

Do not despise prophecy but to test each and every one.   If the Antioch church did not believe Agabus on his prophecy of a coming global famine and take definitive preparatory action,  the Judea church might suffer terribly without the relief aid from them through the hands of Paul and Barnabas.

Heb 13:2 exhorts us to show hospitality to all strangers in case angels are sent to minister or to guide us.

Dear Brother,

Grace and peace to you from Jesus our Lord.

It is our greatest blessing that we have received Jesus as our Saviour and Lord. It is only a matter of time before we leave our fallen physical bodies and receive indestructible bodies when Jesus comes again. During this time in our physical bodies which will be subjected to pain and wasting away due to its fallen nature, God wants to prepare us to be more like Christ loving Him and loving fellow brothers and sisters, especially the least of them. That is the Revealed Will of God.

Allow me to journey with you in trusting God for His mercy and goodness. We are all expected to have a life expectancy of around 80 years, so it is imperative that our immune system will naturally weaken with age anyway.  In God’s Word, we find detailed instruction on the food we can or cannot take so as not to compromise the immune system.  Now even if we do everything right concerning diet, eating well and taking extreme good care of our bodies,  it is still a very short sojourn on earth as compared to eternity.

The Bible says in Prov 17:22 that a joyful heart is good medicine. So let’s start by casting all our cares and worries onto our Lord Jesus. 1 Pet 5:7.

Secondly, let’s pray and petition God for your pathway of healing.

Thirdly, be sensitive to the Spirit of God allowing Him to help you select the right option of healing.

Meanwhile, let’s look at some simple ways of strengthening your immune system.
It is to my knowledge that traditional Chinese medicine is effective because they do contain some chemicals that improve the immune system and it is helpful to use at times. But at this stage of your medical condition, it is a war against the cancer and not prevention. During prevention stage when our immune system is strong, small dosage of chemicals helps to strengthen it. But during the war stage, when the immune system is compromised, very much higher dosage of the chemicals and vitamins are necessary to fight the cancer. Here is a list of vitamins and chemicals that the medical doctor will recommend.

1. Vitamin E <= 1000 mg twice daily.
2. Multiple vitamins including zinc and B Complex 100.
3. Vitamin C 1000 mg twice daily.
4. Chromium picolinate 200 mg daily.
5. Yogurt 1 or 2 cups daily.
6. Coenzyme Q-10 (Co Q-10) 30 to 90 mg daily.
7. Garlic. One clove equivalent. Take tablets daily.
8. Selenium. It is toxic so use not more than 100 mg daily.
9. Echinacea. Can stimulate immune system but tolerance can develop. Use 2 to 3 teaspoons tincture daily. Use for 4 to 8 weeks and stop for 2 weeks.
10. Glutathione. 100 mg daily.

Fourthly, stand firm and believe God will give you the best option. Spend your time in thinking of helping others around you. Help your family to cope with their anxieties over you. It is better to bring joy to others than to worry.

Lastly, think of what you will do if God extends your life another 5 to 10 years, and do it right away.

We are all appointed to die once no matter what and to die is gain because we will be ushered into the presence of our Lord. Sometimes He takes us away because He may not want us to see the coming judgment.

Isaiah 57: 1-2. NLT.
Good people pass away;
the godly often die before their time.
But no one seems to care or wonder why.
No one seems to understand
that God is protecting them from the evil to come.
2 For those who follow godly paths
will rest in peace when they die.

In His love,
Your Brother in Christ

Postscript :
There is an URGENT need for all of us to grasp the biblical revelation of the living God who works primarily in nature not in supernature, in history not in miracle. …Once we begin to see the living God ceaselessly at work through the processes of history and nature, we shall begin (for example) to recognize that ALL healing is divine healing, whether without the use of means or through the use of physical, psychological or surgical means. The former should properly be termed ‘miraculous healing’ while the latter is non-miraculous, but both are equally ‘divine healing’. – Dr John Stott, Baptism and Fullness.

On this fallen earth till Christ comes again to renew it, the enemy will seek every opportunity to distort Truth as the primary thrust of spiritual war. We need discernment from the Spirit of God always.

When two parties argue on certain issues holding opposite views, it is not uncommon to see the debate ending in offence to either party. A meaningful debate with the sole objective to learn from one another should see both parties presenting their case with their best evidence or persuasion. But if any one party starts name calling or uses expletives, I can only imply that such a party is not capable of handling truth. We need to have the basic understanding of a few important points to have a meaningful debate.

1. Whether the motion is about matter of truth or about matter of conscience.

Let us take an example in the debate on whether Jesus is the only way to God. As much as we would like to be seen tolerant on alternative view, we will end up arguing with passion and offending many holding the view that several roads lead to Rome. That is debate on truth. But to debate on whether one should eat food offered to idols; one should dress decently; mum should work or stay at home; one should drink or abstain from wine; we are then debating on matter of conscience. For matter of conscience, we only have to be wary of stumbling a weaker brother even if we have strong evidence. To persist in stumbling a weaker brother riding on uncharitable liberty is sin.

2. Whether the debate is on a particular message or a particular person.

When one party hold a critical view of a particular issue, the other party should afford the benefit of doubt at times that the opponent may also be a pious brother or sister in Christ who sincerely believe in his or her own critical view. To judge the character of the opponent through insinuation and not the message itself will cloud the argument put forward by him or her. For example, I tend to argue harshly against certain deviant truths but I should not be accused of bearing a grudge against the brother or sister adhering to such deviant belief. By heaping such accusation in a polite discussion, the best argument I put forward for discussion will be clouded or lost.

3. Whether the debate is backed by strong statistical evidence or by limited testimony.

I have once entered a debate with my engineering classmates on the harmful effects of Aspartame. My view is that it should not be harmful because the food and drug authorities of more than a hundred countries (with thousand of scientists testing and evaluating) have approved the use while the opponent merely produced a testimony by a Dr X or Dr Y as evidence. Though numbers may not be conclusive at times, common sense is still necessary for meaningful debate.

4. Whether the view put forward by the debater is against the intent or against the act per se.

When our Lord said, ” Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practised the latter, without neglecting the former.”, we can see that our Lord is not against tithing per se but about priority in practising the more important duty without neglecting the first.

For example, if I make the critical comment that the rich church should help the poor church and not spend disproportionately on lavish building and salary, I am not against spending per se but against neglecting the more important duty. I am not against the church spending on lavish building and salaries, but against the disproportionate spending towards other poorer churches.  In other words, the duty has to come before self in my opinion.

(A senior devil writing to a junior devil)

My dear Junior,

First of all, I would like to commend you on the success of your various strategies in deluding many into thinking they belong to our Enemy but in no way have they really paid attention to the propaganda of our Enemy. Your “Mcdonaldization” strategy is extremely brilliant that the so-called salvation given by our Enemy can be had like fast food burgers and they can churn out at will. You have misled well that their salvation is simply a prayer without the so-called demand of discipleship. You have twisted the message of “once saved always saved” so well to our advantage. You have done well also to continue to delude them with chasing after wealth. In the past, our senior commanders have deluded Solomon, one of our greatest prize because he claimed to be the wisest with wisdom given by the Enemy. The Enemy had repeatedly warned Israel that their king must not accumulate silver and gold (*) and they have done well to delude the wisest man on earth of which our Enemy had boasted. Now continue your good work to delude these professing “believers” of our Enemy that they are wise and can continue to accumulate silver and gold with our Enemy’s blessings.

Your other strategy, of deluding the believers of our Enemy that their God’s method of discipling a small number is outdated and a waste of time and effort, is also brilliant. Never let them know the power of the law of multiplication or the so-called discipleship method (^) pioneered by the Son of our Enemy.  Our seniors had failed to stop Him in training 12 unruly and dim-witted hardcore disciples 2000 years ago. These uncouth 12 or 13 had turned the world upside down then to our detriment when they in turn discipled another few each and so on. Never let them understand this law of multiplication otherwise we will be in deep trouble. Now continue to encourage them to chase after the numbers game of having tens of thousand members and growing instead of true discipleship. Let them compete to win these fast food “converts” instead.

Speak to their hearts, whenever they need to choose leaders, that they should choose talent over faithfulness. Whenever they turn to read 1 Cor 1:26-29 in that propaganda book of our Enemy, speak to their hearts that it is irrelevant for the present times and Meritocracy, rather than Faithfulness, is the measure.

Continue also our well-tested strategy of encouraging that their testimony is best served by wealth and health and not by suffering. For we had suffered huge losses in the early 3 centuries AD to these hard core believers who had turned Asia Minor and Europe upside down when we thought suffering and persecution would kill their faith. But as you know, we lost heavily.

Last, but not least, let’s continue to encourage them to be pre-occupied with building their “towers of Babel”. That was one of our best strategies to fuel their pride in the past but as you know our Enemy defeated our plan in confusing them with different tongues then. Continue to fuel their feel-good feeling of their achievement in building all these expensive and luxurious church buildings. Let them think they are honouring our Enemy but in fact, they are glorifying themselves which has been the Manifesto of our Hell-ly Father Down Under.

Yours faithfully,
Your Senior Commander
Department of Strategy
Hell

(*) Deut 17:16-18 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.

(^) Law of Multiplication. Disciples making disciples is the law of multiplication.

http://www.questministries.com/disciple_making_resources.htm

John 5:39-40
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

In some churches, certain worshippers in the congregation would look surprised that I did not bring along a worn-out bible when I shared the word of God. I would use my smart phone with the bible app. Sometimes after the service, one or two would remark in jest that my bible was too worn out and was left at home. Many have this bias that it is unspiritual not to bring along the bible in print. And many will believe having a worn-out bible imply frequent diligent study and is definitely spiritual.

Jesus did not fault the Jews for not having studied the Scripture diligently but He faulted them for the above 2 assumptions. Firstly, there is no magic in having a printed bible. There is no eternal life in the Scripture per se. Eternal life is found only in Jesus. Secondly, diligent study of the Scripture is of no use unless one is pointed to Jesus to find life in Him. (The Orthodox Jews were so pious as to carry the phylacteries fastened to their forehead and their left arm but they failed to see that Jesus was the Son of God and come to Him.)

Like what John Stott said in his book, But I Say To You..Christ the Controversialist, that studying a prescription given by the doctor diligently, and even memorizing it, is of no use in getting healed for our sickness. Similarly, studying the Scripture diligently is of no use unless one goes to Jesus to get his sin-sick condition healed. The Scripture and the Sacraments merely point the way in word and in picture respectively to Jesus healing us of our sin and making peace with God. They are mere signposts pointing to the Way, the Truth and the Life in Jesus.

On the other extreme, the hyper grace believers tend to treat diligent study of the Scripture and the observance of the Sacraments lightly because they believe going straight to find life in Jesus suffices. But without realizing that these signposts are so important to understand the right union with Christ. (If they have studied the Scripture diligently, they will see clearly the fatal errors of their false gospel as well as the trivializing or twisting of certain teachings of Jesus.) The death of Christ on the cross is a death to sin. So we shall constantly count ourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ and live as led and trained by His Spirit. Titus 2:11-12. Ignoring these signposts altogether will cause one to take the wrong broad way, which is another gospel and another Jesus, leading to destruction at the end.

Luke 18:9-14.

9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Our Lord told this parable to explain about how God justifies and not what man wants to believe in his own interpretation of justification. Here the acceptable attitude of approaching the throne of God for mercy or salvation is given. Though the characters mentioned in the parable were a Pharisee and a Tax Collector, it could very well be just about two persons. (To mention Pharisee may distract one from the truth in this parable to side track to argue on legalism and grace.) So I will refer to the Tax Collector as Person A and the Pharisee as Person B.

Here we read that Person A approached the throne of God with poverty of spirit and godly sorrow for his sinful condition by beating his breast and would not even lift up his eyes to heaven. He acknowledged his sins and was repentant in seeking God’s forgiveness for his sins. Luke 18:13.

The hyper grace believer behaves exactly like the Person B here – he did not believe in the confession of sins and repentance. He felt no godly sorrow for his sins. He approached the throne with richness in spirit rather than poverty in spirit. He could not see his spiritual bankruptcy. He was so confident that his understanding of justification was right but sadly, he was mistaken.

Our Lord said that Person A was justified and not Person B. Luke 18:14.

Matt 20:20-28.
20 Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. She knelt respectfully to ask a favor. 21 “What is your request?” he asked. She replied, “In your Kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.” 22 But Jesus answered by saying to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?” “Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!” 23 Jesus told them, “You will indeed drink from my bitter cup. But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. My Father has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen.” 24 When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant. 25 But Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. 26 But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. 28 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Every one wants to be great in one way or another. Some have delusional disorders as a result of not being able to come to terms with their lowly lot; of which grandiose and persecutory delusional disorders are most often. Some imagine that they have special gifts from God especially in the area of healing or prophecy. Some are charlatans. Some believe they are suffering unjustly because of persecution from either the devil, the state or fellow brothers or sisters. Others believe famous luminaries are exceptionally interested in them. In a very rapid growing economy like China, you find a very high percentage of such sufferers. Peace and joy are fleeting for the lower classes because most believe greatness comes from power and authority and great wealth can buy all these today – respect, power and authority.

The mother of James and John came kneeling in front of Jesus to ask such an outrageous favor from Him. How many really come to worship Jesus today for who He is ? Or behind such piety is self scented desire of getting wealth, power and authority ? The disciples were always arguing who was the greatest among them. So why would the rest be angry with James and John this time ? They were mad because of the extent the brothers would go to secure such position of power and authority by calling on the help of their mother.

Such power struggle is common place today in the church. You will not believe the erroneous extent some leaders will go to secure the seat of authority.

The Lord had to correct their worldly view of greatness. Were they willing to drink the cup for others ? (James did fulfill this prophecy of drinking the cup when he was executed.) Were they willing to wash the feet of one another like a slave ?

Sadly today, many leaders are no different from the mother of the Zebedee brothers in such self-scented pursuit of power and authority. They still fall for this wrong definition of greatness. They want bigger and bigger building, bigger salary, bigger exposure on TV media worldwide, greatest programme, most popular music and greatest membership. Had Jesus wanted His Bride to be no different from the world, He would have realized the glorious political Kingdom on His first advent and fulfilled such an expectation of the Jews and His disciples. John 18:35-37; Luke 17:20-21. The Kingdom of God is of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and not of power and authority. Rom 14:17
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When we truly understand this wonderful truth from our Lord of giving over getting and serving over being served , we become truly great in the eyes of God.

We read in 1 Samuel 15 that God instructed King Saul to destroy the whole tribe of Amalekites and everything including children, infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys. Yet King Saul disobeyed and tried to explain that he spared the best of the sheep and cattle to make sacrifice to God. Though it was not mentioned in this passage, we learned later in 1 Samuel 30 that King David was harassed by the Amalekites which would imply children and infants were spared too.

Samuel said this to King Saul, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord ? To obey is better than sacrifice and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.” 1 Sam 15:22-23.

King Saul was trying to argue on the MERIT of his action which is to worship God with the best of the spoils but to God, His instruction is to be obeyed even if it is perceived unflatteringly. We have to remember that His ways and thoughts are definitely higher than ours. Is 55:9. How can our sense of morality and righteousness be higher than His ? Ps 145:17.

We uphold that homosexuality is sin because God said so. Period. One man and one woman shall be the definition of marriage as instructed by Him. We cannot argue on the MERIT that the homosexual union can remain faithful and loving towards one another even if there is statistics to prove it may be true. The point is not on the permissibility because of MERIT, but because God forbid. Period. God wants that kind of hierarchical order in His creation at this moment.

Likewise, if the Bible is so straight forward on not allowing woman to teach of which the reason is given in 1 Tim 2:13-14 on the created hierarchical order that God wants, why should we disobey and argue on the MERIT of the opposite of God’s instruction ? We will be practicing double standards if we stand on God’s created hierarchical order on one hand and disobey on another.

Because His ways are higher than ours, we have to believe, trust and obey every of His instruction. Our obedience to His commandments reveal our faith in Him and our love for Him. John 14:23-24.

In Christian walk, we often need to tread on a biblical balance between extremes.

Thrift is good but going to the extreme of miserliness is bad, and generosity is good but going to the extreme of financial irresponsibility is bad.

Having too much money may make one to deny God and having too little may make one steal and dishonor God. Prov 30:8,9.

Likewise, we cannot believe God to be an out-and-out doting Father without any discipline,  or He is the harshest Judge without mercy.  Heb 12:4-13.  The truth is that not only God is merciful but He is also just.  Jer 9:24-25.

Commitment without reflection is fanaticism in action but reflection without commitment is the paralysis of all action – so said Dr John Mackay,  President of Princeton Seminary – also highlight the danger of taking either extreme.

As we are called to be salt and light so that others who see our good works can give glory to God, we have to share the gospel both in word and in deed. To insist on just sharing the gospel in word or just in deed are running towards extremes.