Holiday Cum Ministry Initiative

In what was a new initiative to kill two birds with one stone for JC’s Manifesto, I encouraged friends to take a holiday with a difference to do good at the same time.  Generous donations from these friends paid for staples to be distributed in 2 cemetery slums and the construction of some 4 toilets through the ministry assistance of Bethel Grace Ministry, Cambodia.  Presently,  the human waste is disposed by collecting it in plastic bags to be dumped in open ground.  (JC’s Manifesto has earlier committed monthly financial assistance for the teaching of English to the children there.)

Spent some time ministering to the believers living there as well.  One lady has just lost her teenage son and husband just 3 to 4 months ago.  I was touched  and choked with emotion when I saw her resilient faith and love for the Lord.  Another sister sobbed with her mother as I prayed for God’s blessings upon them.  Their contrition moved me to tears.

Thanks be to God for all His blessings and journey mercy in a time when the coronavirus pestilence is still raging, and the courage of friends to go and help the poor and needy in such times.

Godly Sorrow Leads To Genuine Repentance

2 Cor 7:9-11 NLT

Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way. For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish wrong. You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right.

2 Cor 7:10-11 NASB

For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong!

The hyper grace false teacher taught that repentance is just a change of mind which is the meaning in Greek.  But from the whole counsel of the Word of God, that is only half the truth.  After we have acknowledged and confessed that we have sinned against God,  we experienced a change of heart in which we mourned over having sinned and grieved God whom we love.  When King David sinned against God,  he experienced a broken or contrite spirit and he exclaimed in Psalms 51,” The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

A truly repentant believer will not go straight in front of the mirror and convince himself that he is righteous first and totally unmoved by his sin at all.  He will move into contrition for having grieved God by his sinful action.  It is that contrite heart that make one change course and seek God’s forgiveness and return to faithfulness again.  That is godly sorrow which God wants.

There is another kind of sorrow over sin that does not lead to repentance and it results in death.  Godly sorrow will make one own up his or her sin before God and not try to find excuse for the sin or simply agonizes over one’s mistake. (The hyper grace believer even ignore his or her sin altogether as taught by the false teachers.)  Though Judas Iscariot felt sorrow for betraying Jesus,  his sorrow concerned more of himself in the fact that he felt shame or humiliation for betraying Jesus but he did not come to Jesus for forgiveness.  He chose suicide rather than forgiveness.

So there is godly sorrow that leads to repentance and worldly sorrow that leads to death.   Genuine repentance will bear fruit mentioned in 2 Cor 7:10-11 :

  1. Earnestness.  One will be earnest to change course concerning his or her sin.  It will not be apathy towards sin and will seek to make amends or to restore relationship.
  2. Eager Vindication.  One will yearn for righteousness again and seek to vindicate himself or herself that he or she has left that sin behind.
  3.  Indignation and Fear.  One will feel upset with himself or herself and fear for offending God for that particular sin.  (The false hyper grace teacher taught not to be sin conscious which is precisely saying the opposite of such a fruit.)
  4. Longing. One will long for restoration with God and damaged relationship due to sin.
  5. Zeal and Punishment. One will zealously accept justice as sin is disciplined biblically.

Enjoying God

Acts 14:17 NLT.

But He (God) never left them without evidence of Himself and His goodness.  For instance, He sends you rain and good crops and gives you food and joyful hearts.

I have shared selectively in this blog the journey mercies of God for my ministry trips and testimonies of His goodness with incredibly slim odds of occurrence only to show that our good Lord never leave us without evidence of Himself and His goodness.

We can and should enjoy Him daily in our communion with Him, whether in His daily kindness, or in times of deliverance, journey mercies, chaotic times, pain and suffering. We should enjoy God in every circumstance.

I enjoy His daily kindness.  He caused the nearby stall-holders to be generous towards me.  He caused the fish and meat suppliers to go out of the way to deliver my weekly consumption without any transport charge.  He caused the car workshop owner to be honest to repair only the small defective parts without changing and charging me for the whole module or system.  And he often waived the labor charge. He caused the car park attendant to allow me the alternate use of season parking for two vehicles while paying only for one. He gave me regularly free cruises for my rest and recreation and bonding with my elderly folks. He sent brothers and sisters to bless my ministry projects financially so that I wouldn’t be burdened much. And He gave me great food and a joyful heart always.

I enjoyed Him even in times when everything went wrong.  When I communed with Him,  it was really wonderful that He gave me His peace to weather the disappointment or anxiety regardless whether there was a happy ending. Once I was rushing everywhere before heading for the airport, and I misplaced my office keys.  Then I remembered leaving the keys in the toilet outside my office.  I prayed that nobody would take the keys after four hours which was quite unlikely.  There were people living illegally in the building.  By the grace of God, I recovered the keys.  When I reached the airport, I was told my visa was invalid, yet I made the flight.  And when I checked into the hotel room, my luggage left outside the room for a split second disappeared.  I recovered the contents of the bag intact in the escape staircase except that the bag was cut open at the side. I was able to claim insurance for the damaged bag.

(Luke 7:12-13…behold a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow…And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her,”Do not weep.”)

We can also take comfort and enjoy our Lord’s presence in every pain for He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  In every account I read in the gospels, He was full of compassion.  He wept and empathized with the suffering.  And He is the same compassionate Lord today.  How often I had pain and suffering and I thanked the Lord for His comforting presence and healing.  How kind is the Lord to me even in pain for His grace is sufficient for me.  Not only His presence gives me comfort, but He makes me know for sure the Hope in Him is real and coming.

God is indeed sovereign over our lives.  Both blessings and trials work together for good for those who love God.  Bless His holy name !

Three Attitudes Towards The Law

Dr John Stott, in his exposition on the book of Romans, gave 3 attitudes to the Law.

1. Legalists. They are under the Law and are bound by it. Their relationship to God depends on their obedience to the Law seeking both justification and sanctification by it. Crushed by the inability of the Law to save them, they fear the Law.

2. Antinomians. Blame the law for all their problems so they reject it altogether and claim to be rid of all obligations to the demands of the Law. So they hate the Law and repudiate it.

3. Law-Fulfilling Free Believers. Have this balanced attitude in rejoicing both in their freedom from the law for justification and sanctification, and freedom to fulfill the Law. They delight in the Law as the revelation of God’s will (Rom 7:22), but recognize that the power to fulfill it is not in the Law itself but in the Spirit. So they love the Law and fulfill it.

So what Paul meant when he said believers are no longer under the law, he was saying true believers are free from the law for justification and sanctification. And is now under grace with the power to fulfill it through the Spirit. Rom 6:14; Gal 5:18.

That is,
For Justification, we are not under law but under grace.
For Sanctification, we are not under law but led by the Spirit.

Journey Mercies (V)

My wife and I worshiped in a denominational church from 2001 to 2007.  We once planned a free-and-easy 4 day holiday in Ho Chi Minh City.   When some members of this denominational church came to know of our travel plan,  they wanted to join us as well.  In the end, I had to book a land package tour for 22 persons.  As the tour would start on a Sunday, the church lay leader was upset enough to curse us that God would judge us for skipping Sunday service.  We did attend the Sunday morning worship service before going to the airport.  I had booked a bus to ferry all of us from the church to the airport after the service.  I cast all my anxieties to God that morning  – the unease of bringing so many elderly folk and the unexpected curse – and also prayed for journey mercies.

On that very Sunday morning,  an elderly lady joining us for the tour received news of her brother-n-law’s death and she decided not to fly with us.  2 days later,  she had a heart attack.   If she had joined us and had the heart attack in Ho Chi Minh City,  it would prove the curse of the lay leader to be true and the entire blame would be upon me.   Given the incredibly slim odds of this incident, I knew God had delivered me yet again.

When we reached the airport, my eldest son was denied travel as his passport had validity of less than 6 months.  Again I prayed for God’s journey mercy.   After much negotiation and promising the airline staff that if my son was to be denied entry into Ho Chi Minh City,  I would return with him.  The customs officer over at Ho Chi Minh City smiled at my young son and allowed us to clear and enter.  Hallelujah !

All thanks and glory be to God our Father and Jesus our Lord for His journey mercy.

Journey Mercies (IV)

Having lived all my life in a cosmopolitan city,  I must confess that I cannot handle the rigors of life of the very poor living in harsh condition when I visit and minister to them. I often prayed and confessed my weakness, and asked for God’s protection against possible illness due to poor sanitation, food hygiene and virus or bacterial infection.  As not to embarrass the hosting village, I would try to take some of the food being served but with much fear in my heart.

Once I went to a slum in Bogor, Indonesia, with a missionary partner to give the children stationery and exercise books for the new school semester. Later the locals would serve us lunch.  I watched how they washed the rice at a canal in which they would do their laundry, bathing and even excretion.

When the trail from Yunnan province to Kachin state, Myanmar, opened a few years ago, I visited the Lisu tribe living in the border villages.  I worried much about the sanitation, food hygiene and the “exotic” meat they would serve.  I was delighted to be served a fish for both lunch and dinner.  Later I learned that a villager had caught this fish in the morning and offered to the church.  They had this custom to offer to any visiting missionary whatever they caught.  But I realized that I was the second missionary to visit since 1989. Reflecting on the incredible odds of catching a relatively large fish in a river with hardly any fish, being the second missionary to come in 27 years and the timely catch, I gave thanks to God knowing that He had answered my prayer and provided.  All glory to God in the highest !

The Probable Reason For Social Unrest Around The World

The following article probably explained why the masses are not enjoying more jobs and higher wages despite the bull run of stock markets.  We are now seeing the social unrest in several countries around the world –  France, Lebanon, Chile, Hong Kong and Spain.

“The one constant across the media-political spectrum is an unblinking focus on the stock market as a barometer of the national economy: every major media outlet from the New York Times to Fox News prominently displays stock market action, and TV news anchors’ expressions reflect the media’s emotional promotion of the market as the end all to be all: if stocks rose, the anchors are smiling and chirpy, and if the market fell then their expressions are downcast and dour.

This cheerleading of the stock market is based on an implicit assumption that the rising stock market raises all boats: a rising market is assumed to reflect an expansion of sales and profits that trickle down to the masses in higher wages, more jobs and rising 401K retirement accounts.

The reality is starkly different: the vast majority of the gains generated by a rising stock market flow to the top 10% households who own 93% of all financial assets, and the gains within the top 10% are highly concentrated in the top .01% of financiers, super-wealthy families and corporate managers who have reaped the vast majority of the past decade of stock market gains. The 1% grabbed 82% of all wealth created in 2017 and 2018 and 2019.  America’s richest 1% now own as much wealth as the middle and lower classes combined…As my friend Adam T recently observed : when we cheer the rising stock market, we’re celebrating the super-rich getting even richer. Why are we celebrating an unprecedented widening of wealth inequality that erodes democracy (because the super-wealthy buy political influence) and the social contract (as the vast majority of wealth and power flow to the top .01%)?

Soaring wealth inequality is extremely destabilizing politically, socially and economically : much of the social unrest breaking out around the world can be traced to the political, social and financial disenfranchisement of the masses by super-wealthy elites.

Economically, soaring inequality concentrates and capital and power in the hands of the few, creating fertile ground for cartels and monopolies which raise costs without generating better services or more jobs. This dynamic is easily visible in the US.

The US only pretends to have free markets :  From plane tickets to cellphone bills, monopoly power costs American consumers billions of dollars a year. Politically, the 90% who are losing ground seek political redress, generating tension in a political system dominated by the super-wealthy. Since the political machinery is controlled by the elite, the bottom 90%’s efforts to gain political redress will fail: Medicare for All (to take one example of many) is just an expansion of rapacious sickcare cartels that further concentrate wealth and power in the hands of the few at the expense of the many.”

– Charles Hugh Smith.

http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2019/11/stock-market-cheerleading-why-do-we.html

In James 5:1-5,  it is mentioned that God will make right this injustice of exploiting the poor workers by the wealthy in the last days.  Will this development be a sign of the coming economic collapse ?  Hong Kong, being one of the world’s major seaports cum financial centers, will be among those who make their living by the sea and will weep when the Babylonian system is destroyed and all wealth is destroyed.  Rev 18:17.

The Hyper Grace Church

Rev 3:14-22

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.  15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 21 The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

Rev 3:20 is often taken out of context to be the evangelistic test to invite Jesus into one’s heart.

The context was actually Jesus talking about the church at Laodicea.  It was a wealthy and “successful” church (in her own eyes), but only Jesus was not attending it.   Rather Jesus saw her as poor, wretched and pitiable.  Today,  she represents the cheap or hyper grace church all over the world.  She fits exactly the description of the Laodicean church.  Jesus called the Laodicean church then to be zealous and repent, and is doing likewise to the hyper grace church today.

Our Lord is calling such a church to repent so it is not surprising that the hyper grace false teachers preached against repentance and told their followers not to confess their sins.  So if anyone in that church is willing to hear the voice of our Lord Jesus pleading for him or her to repent and open the door to welcome Him, He will come and dine with him or her just like He did with Zacchaeus.  Rev 3:20.

Wonderful Are Your Works

Psalms 139:13-14

Am                             G

(Lord), You formed my inward parts,

F                                                     E

You knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

Am                               G           F      E

(Lord) I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Am                          G

(Lord, Your works are wonderful)

F                               E

My soul knows it very well.

Am                       G

(Lord, Your works are wonderful)

F   G                      Am

My soul knows it very well.

The False Hyper Grace Teaching On The Lord’s Supper

It is terribly sad to note that the false hyper grace teachers are teaching this heresy of the Lord’s Supper being a delivery system of good health. And worse of all,  they added this heresy that confession of sins will be tantamount to taking the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner and in danger of being judged.  (This teaching is diametrically opposite to the exhortation of our Lord Jesus in His Prayer in Matt 6:9-13 that we ought to pray for the forgiveness of our debts.)

Numbers 21:4-9

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

In Numbers 21, we read that the Israelites grumbled against God and Moses for bringing them out to die in the wilderness. They did not realize that it was their sin which brought them to wander in the wilderness. God sent poisonous snakes to judge them. Later they confessed their sin and asked Moses to pray for deliverance. God then instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole so that those who were bitten could be healed by gazing on it.

It was a lesson from God on faith. It took faith to believe that healing from the snake bite came by gazing, and the serpent was a reminder of their sin. In John 3:14-15, our Lord told us that the serpent was the foreshadow of Himself. He would be made a curse for our sins and be hanged on a tree, just like the serpent which was a symbol of sin. Gal 3:13.

God did not take away the poisonous snakes but provide an antidote for the Israelites instead. The Lord’s Supper was instituted to make us remember the Lord’s death till He comes again.  God wants us to remember His abhorrence of sin and its consequence whenever we are bitten by sin, and His provision of the cure for our sin sick condition, just like how the Israelites were taught on this lesson. Whenever we sin, we should confess our sins like what the Israelites did, and know we can have His forgiveness by the curse that our Lord bore on our behalf. 1 John 1:9.