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Why Did Jesus Share The Gospel Starting With The Law ?

In the encounters with the rich ruler and the lawyer in Luke 18:18-20 and Luke 10:25-28 respectively, why did Jesus share the gospel with them starting with the demands of the law ?

Surely not because we can have eternal life through works of the Law but that the Law will show us how terribly sinful and helpless we are and invoke in us the penitent heart of godly sorrow for our sins like the Tax Collector in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

Only by knowing and feeling the weight of the Law, can we ask for mercy with a penitent faith that God can forgive us somehow.

The Pharisee could not see the weight of the Law and believed that as long as he stayed ahead of other sinners in works of righteousness, he considered himself justified.

The Tax Collector felt the full weight of the Law and felt so remorseful and helpless about his sins and asked for mercy in penitence. And God justified him by imputing the righteousness of Christ which is the only way of justification.

On the other end, the hyper grace believer also never feel the weight of the Law by trivializing it altogether. Though he understands one can only be saved by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, he fails to see the good purpose of the Law and God’s abhorrence of sin. And thereby failing to come to God to ask for mercy with a contrite heart as well, just like the Pharisee, he too considers himself justified.

Faith Without Works (In Line With Repentance) Is Dead

Luke 19:1-11

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Zacchaeus was an excellent example of a repentant rich man. This story was not proving that he earned salvation through his faith-works, but rather his faith-work demonstrated that he fully comprehended the Kingdom of God and her values and repented. His repentant faith with fruit or faith-work in line with repentance was really swift and salvation had come to him. Jesus acknowledged him to be a son of Abraham in having true faith.

The rich young ruler’s response in Luke 18:15-30 was just the opposite of Zacchaeus’s. He understood what the Kingdom of God entailed, but he was not willing to repent and walked away sadly. It would be futile for him just to have a change of mind and not of the heart as evidenced in the fact that he could not make that faith-work of renouncing all his possessions.

I believe the Scripture intended to show the contrasting responses to the Kingdom of God one after another consecutively in Luke 18 and 19 so that we may know we can only enter the Kingdom of God with the right response of true saving faith in our hearts with faith-work or fruit in line with repentance.

With the right response of repentant faith, Zacchaeus’ name is written in the Book of life but not the un-named rich young ruler.

Faith without works (in line with repentance) is dead. (Luke 3:8).

Role Of A Pastor Or Overseer (Acronym 2)

1 Tim 3:1-13 gives the qualification of an overseer or pastor. The Bible clearly defines the role of a pastor to shepherd, feed, guide and lead the flock to spiritual growth and service to our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Pet 5: 2-3

Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; ³nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

In my recent ministry to Bacolod, Philippines, I noticed these prominent characteristics of pastors in the less developed countries as compared to the more developed countries.

These Filipino pastors prayed earnestly for the spiritual awakening in the church and nation, and they manifest servant-hood service, respect for all giving more honor to the lowly, exceptional hospitality and persistence in their constant earnest exhortation to the church to trust and obey God. And I noticed that the acronym of PASTOR describes these characteristics.

Ministry In Bacolod, Philippines

It was a trip of great joy of fellowship with fellow pastors and brothers and sisters in Bacolod, Philippines. Thanks be to God for the humbling experience of witnessing their tremendous desire to glorify God in every aspect of their lives.

I went to the worship service of several churches and I witnessed the unity in earnest corporate prayer of a spiritual awakening and divine help in humbling themselves, seeking God’s face and turning from sinful ways in line with the recent political change as ordained by God. As the nation is not really in the Babylonian system of money and merry making in the first place unlike the decadent First World countries and cities, there is no need to come out of it. God will surely bless the land !

The same rallying cry of these churches is to trust and obey God ! What a humbling experience for me who live in arrogance, excess of food, prosperous ease and the indifference to helping the poor. Ezek 16:49-50. I noticed that this was not planned but spontaneous convicting cry before God.

Over the next 2 days, I conducted the workshop of spiritual and physical preparation in anticipation of the coming economic flood in the province. May God bless the preparation these churches will be implementing. All praise and glory to Jesus our Lord !

Do Not Trifle With The Gospel Truth

Rom 10:9-10

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as LORD, and believe in your HEART that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in SALVATION.

One day, will Jesus our Lord say such to us :

“1. (Lordship). Since when do you make Me Lord when I am not Lord of your family, self and possessions ? (Luke 14:26,27,33; Rom 10:9)
2. (Repentance). Since when do you believe in your heart everything about Me when you only want to repent in your mind and not in your heart ? (Rom 10:9-10).
3. (Obeying God’s commandments). Since when do you love Me when you do not want to obey My commandments ? (John 14:16; Ezek 36:25-27; Matt 28:20)
4. (Doing good works). Since when do you do good works to the least of the brothers as doing to Me when you do not believe in doing good works at all (Matt 25:41-46; Eph 2:10) ?”

It is not coincidental but deliberate diabolical work of the hyper grace false teachers to trivialize the 2 important tenets and 2 realities of the gospel truth – Lordship, repentance, obeying God’s commandments and doing good works ! Though we are saved by faith alone in Christ Jesus, genuine faith will produce the fruit of obeying God’s commandments and doing good works. Eph 2:8-10.

Praying for the hyper grace believers to wake up !

Discipleship Is Not An Option

Discipleship is never an option for a Christian. Jesus has to be our personal Savior and Lord as well. He had laid down the terms of following Him in Luke 14:26, 27 and 33.

²⁶“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. ²⁷Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.³³So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

On the surface, these 3 terms – surrendering all relationship, self ambition and possessions – seem terribly harsh. The rich young ruler walked away sadly from our Lord because he could not give up all his possessions. Luke 18:18-25. If he could not surrender his possessions to Jesus, Mammon was still his god and entering heaven was hard for such rich people.

But if we see this life as the training period we have to go through under the tutelage of the Spirit of our Lord and surrender all relationship, self ambitions and possessions, we can eventually understand all this discipline, though painful at times, will yield in us the fruit of righteousness. On the contrary, when we seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first, all these things will be added to us. Matt 6:33.

It is a paradox. When you give up, you have it. But when you refuse to give up, you lose it.

He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it. Matt 10:39.

Scripture exhorts us to endure trials or suffering as discipline from God to train us in righteousness. Heb 12: 7-11. NIV.

Scripture further adds that we ought to rejoice in suffering for it produces hope in the end.

Rom 5:3-5

³Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

By surrendering to the terms set by our Lord to be His disciples, He is actually protecting us.

If any mishap happens to our family and loved ones and we have truly surrendered them to the sovereignty of God, there will be no devastating hurt as we know eventually all are appointed to die once and after that comes judgment.

If we lose our job or business and we have truly surrendered to the sovereignty of God, there will be no crushing damage to our self esteem as we believe contentment with godliness is great gain and we are content with just food and lodging.

If we lose all our possessions which anyway have belonged to our Lord when we have surrendered, what other material loss can devastate us ?

Rom 8: 18

¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

The coming glory will fulfill every good human aspiration. That is the Christian hope.

The Reasons For The Economic Woes Today

Leaving aside the sure fulfillment of biblical prophecy concerning the judgment on Babylon, the political and financial system we know today as mentioned in Rev 18, let’s be sober to look at the hard economic facts today. There is simply an exponential explosion of sovereign debt without the accompanying industrial expansion.

These reasons given in the Zerohedge article have always been my argument (http://www.zerohedge.com/…/2016-07…/brexit-crisis-capitalism):

1. Replacing stagnant real growth and income (and thus taxes) with debt.
2. Replacing investment in real-world productivity with speculation (i.e. financialization)
3. Replacing “everyone must have skin in the game” free-market capitalism with protected, privileged Elites crony capitalism in which the few benefit at the expense of the many.
4. Replacing local, decentralized democracy and ownership with central planning.
5. Using “extend and pretend” financial trickery to mask insolvency, impaired assets/ collateral and non-performing loans rather than address the debt overhang directly via write-downs and liquidations of impaired assets.

Fasten your seat belt. The ride has not ended with Brexit. More of the same are coming – Grexit, Departugal. Italeave. Fruxxx. Czechout. Oustria. Finish. Slovlong. Latervia. Byegium.

As this irresponsible fiscal madness has crossed over the threshold of keeping the budget deficits of all major blocs under control, the system will implode at some point in time.

Prayer Of Jabez

1 Chron 4: 9 -11

Jabez was more honourable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.

Common sense tells us that it will be too far-fetched to believe we can unlock the secrets of success through just a prayer chant making God into a genie and not a Sovereign God as a result.

An honourable man has these qualities and God will surely entrust true riches to such a person who fear Him also. Luke 16:10-11.

1. Honour. It is defined as honesty, fairness or integrity in one’s beliefs and actions. We must develop a pure sense of honesty, integrity and fairness in every aspect of our lives. Titus 2: 11-12

2. Humanity. It is defined as the quality of being humane; the kind feelings, dispositions, and sympathies of man; especially a disposition to relieve people in distress, and to treat them with kindness and tenderness. Prov 19:17; Ps 41:1-3

3. Perseverance. It is defined as steady persistence in a course of action, especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles or discouragement. James 1:2-4;12; 5:11

First Indonesia Youth Conference, Batam 22-25 June 2016

The theme is Preparation For The End Times.

Praise the Lord for the good turnout with many youths participating from other regions including Jakarta.

Praise and thanks be to God for the spiritual and physical blessings bestowed on Alfa Omega Ministry convicting the leaders to share and bless other churches as well.

By the grace of God, timing cannot be more timely for me and my senior pastor to share about both the spiritual and physical preparation for the end times preparing them on the right priority for their lives ahead as we see the market turmoil and lawlessness today.

Practical skills will be taught by my senior pastor on a day trip to another island as part of the physical preparation as we must come out of the god-less Babylonian system.

Testimony (11)

Since my first vision of 9/11, I had been waiting upon the Lord in prayer and diligent study of the Scripture. I believed all along that God would reveal to me the message, and with this second vision (in late 2004), I was certain that He had called me to share a message about the coming collapse of the global financial system. As I did not graduate from any seminary, or have any leadership position in the local church, there was hardly any network to call upon to share the message. I believed God would then open the doors for me.

Before I could go on the road to share the message, I was struck with excruciating pain at the coccyx, commonly known as the tail-bone, in 2006. I could not sit down at all. If I just sat down for a moment, I would feel excruciating pain. The whole year was spent seeking specialist treatment and therapy. Yet the pain did not diminish, and I was literally standing all the time while being awake. The specialists told me that the wear and tear of my tail-bone came much too early, and there was no surgery to rectify it at that time. I have learned to pray for all circumstances, and prayer in this instance was not only my first option but also the only option. I learned to bear with the pain as time went by. I believed God would heal me, as I still had a message to share. He answered my prayer one year later. I was completely healed of the pain. Hallelujah ! All thanks and praise to God and Christ my Lord.

Extracted from my book, The Coming Economic Flood

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