LIVING SMYRNA CHURCH OF CHRIST

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26 November 2023

Scripture Reading: Proverbs 9:10 (KJV)

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

MESSAGE

As human, we are naturally fearful of many things and there are even scientific terms given to almost all types of “Fear.” For example, the fear of height is known as acrophobia; the fear of insects – entomophobia; the fear of animals – zoophobia; the fear of crowded spaces – claustrophobia, and so on. And many of us have some forms of fear like the fear of height, insects, animals or crowded places, etc. I do. I suffer from katsaridaphobia – the fear of roaches (and I am embarrassed to say even the dead ones!) I will try every way and mean to keep the roaches out from my house. I have kept several insecticide sprays just to make sure I can retrieve it with ease each time I needed to get rid of the roaches because failing which I might run the risk of my food contaminated by these roaches. Consuming roach-contaminated food could be deadly! We need to get rid of these roaches as soon as we see them seeking food to devour. It’s better to be safe than to be sorry!

And is there any scientific term for “the Lack of the Fear of God”? Yes! There is. The term is “Conscience Deficiency” and the best scriptural illustrations for “Conscience Deficiency” can be found in 2 Timothy 3:2-5 (…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!

As we can read in 2 Timothy 3:2-5, Apostle Paul has warned us that we should have nothing to do with such people. We must stay away from such people – people suffering from “Conscience Deficiency.” If we are not careful, such people who are suffering from conscience-deficiency can be like roaches and as we all know, roaches are disease-carrying insects that can contaminate our food source and these conscience-deficient people too carry disease, the spiritual disease that has the potential to contaminate our relationship with our Holy God. Hence, we need to stay away from them and have nothing to do with them. Is better to be safe than sorry!

When we come to the subject of the fear of God, the Bible speaks of “fear” of the Lord in over 230 references in the Old Testament and in over 40 references in the New Testament. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible proclaims that the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life and those who drink deeply of it shall have the blessings of God in this life and in the life to come. However, those who reject the fear of the Lord will end up in the ways of death, both spiritually and physically. The fear of God is the predominant and fundamental attitude toward God, His Word, His Law and His name, that God desires. This is why it is mentioned more times than many other aspects of vital piety.

The typical Christian today has heard many sermons on the love of God, on how we must go and preach to the world, on doing good work because we are told that faith without good works is dead and so on. Yes. These are important commandments which we must obey but they have said very little about the fear of God. Given the scriptural importance of the fear of the Lord, most of us must confess that although we have been going to church for many years, we have seldom heard sermons on the fear of God. It is my prayer that my message this week can shed some lights on this subject: the Fear of the Lord, and prayerfully, we can spiritually and mentally internalise the fear of the Lord as part of our daily pursuits to fear Him.

What then does the “Fear of the Lord” mean to us and why must we put all our effort to fear Him?

Firstly, the fear of the Lord gives us the wisdom of humility. God is the source of all things from wisdom to creation of salvation. As God-fearing disciples, we are submitting to our Lord’s authority and acknowledging our humility for we are created in His image and without our Lord Jesus, we are nothing. What better way to submit to His authority? Answer: We need to continuously fear Him for His is above all creation. Our Lord is the Lord of lords and King of kings (Revelation 17:14; 19:16). He is the Ruler of the Universe (1 Chronicles 29:15).

Secondly, we need to fear God because His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). He knew exactly what we need now and all our foreseeable future. We are reminded in Isaiah 55:8-9 that God is different from us. Hence, we need to ask Him every day to reorient our thoughts according to His thoughts; to transform our ways according to His ways and to do our will according to His will. We must be careful not to get caught up in every day chores or activities without due consideration to His thoughts, to His ways and to His will. We must avoid doing what everybody else in the world is doing.

Thirdly, the fear of the Lord is a supernatural grace given by God and is essential to our salvation. We must have this or we will not be saved. The fear of the Lord does not come naturally but only to those who are truly His children who sincerely care to pursuit relentlessly to fear Him. For the children of God, to fear God is not an option and we have to consciously practise to be God-fearing children if we want to live righteously for His namesake. That’s the reason why we see many unbelievers and unrepentant sinners are living like there is no God as they do not naturally possess this fear of the Lord. As we can read in Psalm 14:1 – The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good.” How then could they fear God if in the heart of the fool refused to acknowledge that God does not exist in the first place?

Fourthly, as the fear of the Lord can only be convicted by the Holy Spirit (John 16:8), He inherited predominantly the holy attributes: pure, clean, righteous and hate evil (Psalm 19:9). The fear of God will bring to us one of the greatest positive spiritual well-beings and that is our desire for more and more of His righteousness. As one Bible scholar put it succinctly: “The fear of the Lord is the single most important essential and it is where it all begins.”

May our Lord bless us each day and give us the strength and the desire to diligently seek to Fear Him, always!

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19 November 2023

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 61:1-3 (KJV)

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

MESSAGE

The mere mentioning of the word ‘ashes’ something will automatically come to our mind – smoke, fire, debris and pollutants. The Oxford Dictionary defined “ashes” as “the powdery residue left after the burning of a substance.” And as we know, this substance can be of anything and everything from a cigarette ash to a cardboard ash. When a house was caught fire and burnt to the ground, the sad owner would cry out and tell people that his or her house has burnt to ashes. Nothing has left.

As we turn to the Youtube channels, in the last 24 months, we can see thousands upon thousands of homes were completely destroyed rendering them completely uninhabitable and beyond repair. Across the globe, homes were destroyed by natural calamities such as tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, floods. They were turned to ashes in every true sense of the word. Tragically, just over the last few weeks, we see hundreds of buildings – homes, factories, hospitals, bridges – were turned to ashes due not to natural calamities but, alas, to man-made disaster – WAR. While the war between Russia and Ukraine which started about 20 months’ ago and still has no shown sign of peace nor any signs of slowing down, just about six weeks’ ago the world has witnessed a more serious war, geopolitically-speaking – the war between Israel and Hamas! Started on October 7 when Hamas infiltrated into Israel killing more than 1,200 people and took more than 250 people (both the Israelis and foreigners) as hostages, the Israelis are now taking the matter into their own hands, so to speak, launching ferocious attack on Hamas with full force of their military might. Although the U.N. has called for peace and cease-fire but the call has fallen into the deaf ears, on both sides.

Many internet and international TV video clips that we saw of the destructions of these two wars proved too much to some people (and they are several wars and armed conflicts that seemed relatively to be “too small or insignificant” for the mass media even to report them such as the civil wars in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan) The destruction of this man-made disaster of wars between Russia and Ukraine, and Israel and Hamas is just beyond our comprehension. But take heed! These two wars are just “a tip of an iceberg” of what is to come. Many people from all walks of life are predicting that the current Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars are plain rehearsals to a much bigger and devastated military conflict – indeed, a global war is in the making. In fact, some have even gone to the extend and commented that World War III has begun!

No one can really benefit from war, except only a few elites who, in the first place, started the war and who are still living in grand luxury and ignoring the untold sufferings of ordinary people. The real losers are the innocent civilians and the soldiers who must obey the order to fight. For those people who lived in these war zones in countries like Ukraine, Russia, Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Sudan we just could not fathom out their sufferings. Everything that the people built over their lifetimes had turned to ashes. Their situations are literarily hopeless! How could they rebuild the homes and the hope that they could go back to their lives as normal when at anytime, at any moment a bomb may just drop next to them. As of now, they don’t even know where to find a proper place to rest or to sleep, where to get another glass of drinking water, where to get medical help, where to get their next meal. Even one reasonable meal a day is a luxury. Regardless of who they are (and who we are), we must remember, we all created in the image of God, male and female He created us, whether you are Asians, Arabs, Jews, Americans or Europeans (Genesis 1:27). It is very heart-broken to see people, the pride creation of our Holy God, especially children suffering and living in such dire conditions. Our physical and material possessions may turn to ashes for whatever reasons – natural calamities or man-made calamities – and to many people rebuilding their physical and material possession to its original state or ‘former glory” is but a dream. This is indeed the current statement of affair in many countries.

As children of God, we must remind ourselves there is no scriptural verse that God promises that we would not go through with life challenges. We are however reminded that our Lord Jesus has gone through the tribulations Himself and He has overcome them (John 16:33). But, let’s be honest and admit that dealing with challenges of life is not easy, especially for the people in the war zone countries or for those whose homes are destroyed by flood, earthquakes, and so on. Also, in James 4:14, we are told that life challenges can happen at any time – “We do not know what will happen tomorrow.” While you are reading this message, perhaps just 15 minutes’ ago you were praying to God to remove a seemingly huge mountain of your life that may just pop from nowhere and could later prove too much for you to carry. You wish it shall pass right away. I want to honestly admit, I do this often myself praying to God to remove my life mountains! I realise, however, a better and more effective way to face this life challenge is to look up to our Lord Jesus because He came to give us “beauty for ashes” and we can, without a doubt, to faithfully acknowledge that (a) Our Lord Jesus Christ will never leave us (Hebrews 13:5); (b) He is merciful and forgiving (Daniel 9:9); (c) He always bestows His tenderly cares for all our well-being and meets all our needs (Psalm 23:1,2); (d) He came to destroy the power of sin (1 John 3:5,8); (e) more importantly, Lord Jesus will remove our suffering and replace it with the oil of joy everlasting (Isaiah 61:1-3).

Below is an article that was published in “Our Daily Bread” on 26 October 2023 which I hope can encourage you to put our hope in our Lord Jesus even though, at times, we may feel that we have lost everything – physically, materially or spiritually.

OUR DAILY BREAD
Beauty for Ashes

In the aftermath of the Marshall Fire, the most destructive fire in Colorado history, one ministry offered to help families search through the ashes for valuable items. Family members mentioned precious objects they hoped were still preserved. Very little was. One man spoke tenderly of his wedding ring. He’d placed it on his dresser in the upstairs bedroom. The house now gone, its contents had charred or melted into a single layer of debris at the basement level. Searchers looked for the ring in that same corner where the bedroom had been – without success.

The prophet Isaiah wrote mournfully of the impending destruction of Jerusalem, which would be levelled. Likewise, there are times we feel the life we’ve built has been reduced to ashes. We feel we have nothing left, emotionally, and spiritually. But Isaiah offers hope “He (God) hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted …. to comfort all that mourn, to give unto them beauty for ashes (Isaiah 61:1-3). He promises to “rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated” (Isaiah 61:4).

At that Marshall Fire site, one woman searched the ashes on the opposite side. There, still its case, she unearthed the husband’s wedding ring. In your despair, God reaches into your ashes and pulls out the one truly precious thing. YOU.”

As I conclude my message this week, and the best we now could do is to pray that God in all His bountiful love and mercy for can turn Beauty for Ashes.

Dear God

Sometimes the way has seemed too dark. Sometimes we feel like our lives have been marked by such grief and pain, we don’t see how our circumstance can ever change. But in the midst of our weakness, we ask that You would be strong on our behalf. Lord, rise up within us, let your Spirit shine out of every broken place we’ve walked through. Allow Your power to be manifest through our own weakness, so that others will recognize it is You who is at work on our behalf. We ask that You would trade the ashes of our lives for the beauty of your Presence. Trade our mourning and grief for the oil of joy and gladness from your Spirit. Trade our despair for hope and praise. We choose to give You thanks today and believe that this season of darkness will fade away. Thank You that You are with us in whatever we face, and that You are greater than this trial. We know and recognize that You are Sovereign, we thank You for the victory that is ours because of Christ Jesus, and we are confident that You have good still in store for our future. We thank You that You are at work right now, trading our ashes for greater beauty. We praise You, for You make all things new. Amen.

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12 November 2023

Scripture Reading: Jude 14-15 (KJV)

And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

MESSAGE

Whenever we heard of these three words “Walking with God”, inevitably the name Enoch would come to our mind. As we can read of an biblical event told in Genesis 5:21-24: Enoch, the great grandfather of Noah, lived to 365 years and he walking with God for 300 years. It follows that he started walking with God when he was 65 years’ old. By simple calculation, Enoch spent more than 80% of his time (300 out of 365 years that he had lived) walking with God. God saw the endurance and perseverance of Enoch by adopting a godly lifestyle, mediating daily on God’s goodness and blessings and doing only what was right in God’s sight. These pleased God (Hebrews 11:5) and it must have touched the very heart of God. This was no wonder he was taken to heaven alive and he became the first man that had never experienced death.

By comparison, today our average life spent is around 75 years and if we spent 80% of our time walking with God, we would need to start walking with God at age 15 for the next 60 years in order to match what Enoch did during his lifetime! Sound impossible? Indeed, it is quite impossible! So, what are the exegetic significances of these two verses (Jude 14-15) about Enoch that Apostle Jude was trying to convey to us?

In verse 14 of the Book of Jude that we just read, we can easily discover several important messages that Apostle Jude is telling us. First, he mentioned the name of Enoch and I believe this is to remind us that we need to be like Enoch, persevere in our daily walk with God if we want to be taken (or raptured) and to never experience death when Jesus comes to rapture His Bride to meet Him in the air.

Second, when our Lord comes the second time (which is different from coming in the cloud to rapture His Church) He is coming to judge the world. Unlike His first coming when our Lord Jesus came to this world in obscurity, in His second coming, every eye shall see Him (Revelation 1:7) and that every knee shall bow and at the name of Jesus every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord knee (Philippians 2:10-11).

Third, when our Lord Jesus comes that second time, He will come with thousands of His saints to execute judgement. Unlike the first coming of our Lord Jesus, He came to die for the sins of humanity. It is very important that we must pay special attention to this third message. These are now the questions confronting us: How are we going to be judged when He comes the second time? Will our names be found in the Lamb’s Book of Life? Will we be facing our Lord at the Judgment Seat of Christ, the Berma Seat, or will we be facing His Great White Throne of Christ? Where will we be during His second coming? All these question have great significance of how we will end up when our Lord Jesus return the second time. We must not take this lightly. On the contrary, we must take this very seriously and we, prayerfully, can be like Enoch walking with God side by side and doing all the things that He will be pleased with Him before He comes to execute judgment.

When we read these two short verses from the Book of Jude 14-15 we can easily note that the word ‘ungodly’ was mentioned four times! Tracing back to the Book of Genesis, we are told that during Noah’s days, the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). I don’t think I need to mention more than just to say that that God was telling the people in Noah’s day: “Enough is enough” and He sent a great flood to destroy all the inhabitants of the earth, leaving only Noah, his family and those animals that God had instructed Noah to take with him to the ark. All the people outside the ark (including the land animals) perished because the people there did not heed the warnings that Noah’s had been preaching to them for over one hundred years. Instead, they mocked at Noah for building such a huge boat in the middle of a desert where no one had actually seen rain let along a great flood. This huge boat would later be confined in a museum, so they must have thought.

Prayerfully, my main purpose in this week’s message from the two passages taken from the Book of Jude 14-15 is to encourage us, as children of the Most High, to live just like Enoch – walking with God side by side unceasingly until He comes to take us to be with Him in the air. This is one and only one sure way to escape the seven-year great tribulation when the earth will be filled with such great sorrows that the world has never seen before since its beginning so much so God has to cut short the period otherwise no one will be left alive (Matthew 24:22). Again I want to emphasize that I am not pro-Hamas nor am I anti-Israelis. In fact, I am writing what many of us already know that the war we see now in the Middle East is yet another crucial sign pointing to the appearance of our Lord Jesus. Major cities in many parts of the world are protesting against the Jews who are now feeling very unsafe by the day. Due to the wide spread protests and some protests have even gone to such extend to kill the Jews in the market place and even at their home, many Jews have started to gather back to their home-land of Israel. Prophetically, known as the regathering of the Jews, it signifies that the imminent return of the Messiah, Lord Jesus which is tied to this regathering of the Jews into the land of Israel (Isaiah 11:10-12; Jeremiah 23:3). This regathering of the Jews, is undoubtedly tell us that Lord Jesus is coming back to execute His judgment at the Great White Throne of God.

Time is of the essence! If you have not sincerely called upon the name of Jesus and acknowledge Him as your Lord and Saviour, you need to do it right away. It is my prayer that all our names are found in the Lamb’s Book of Life before our Lord Jesus appears in the cloud and to take us who are still alive to meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Proclaiming Jesus as our Lord and Saviour is one thing, walking with God side by side unceasingly like what Enoch did is another thing. Let’s uphold one another that we can be like Enoch, walking with God and to do all the things that will please Him and that we can escape the wrath of God as mentioned me the Book of Revelation 3:10 – “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.”

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5 November 2023

Scripture Reading: Psalm 146:8 (KJV)

The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: the Lord loveth the righteous:

MESSAGE

As drivers, we know that no matter how best we adjust our vehicles’ mirrors, we cannot avoid that there are always ‘blind spots’ and these blind spots can effectively block our view from those vehicles driving next to us. Quite often accidents occurred because of the blind spots as some drivers may just switch their lanes but unaware that there were actually other vehicles next to them. It is important to take note that before we switch lanes, we need to look over our shoulders or to slow down our vehicle a little. By so doing we could ‘erase’ the blind spots and this could let us see from the mirrors whether there are other vehicles driving next to ours. Besides the vehicle blind spots, there are many physical blind spots confronting us on a continuous basis and we must always be watchful that they do not pose any danger to us. For example, there were people who got into serious or even fatal accidents because they were too engrossed with their mobile-phones while walking along the streets not knowing that there were dangerous obstacles in front of them. It would be too late to save the situation by the time they bumped or crashed onto the obstacles. For some people, distractions due to irresponsible use of mobile-phones and for some, their mind could be filled with worries and they have given rise to ‘blind spots’ and they may not be aware of the dangers that are right in front of them because they were distracted by the blind spots. We need to look over our shoulders, be watchful, stayed calm always to avoid unnecessary accidents that can cause us dearly because whether we like it or not, blind spots are always present within us and around us.

Physical blindness of not being watchful of what lies ahead of us is one thing but how about our spiritual blindness that we just read in Psalm 146:8 speaks about? While we need to physically adjust our vehicles’ mirrors, to look over our shoulders or to slow down our driving speed to ‘erase’ the blind spots so that we don’t bump into nasty objects, we need our God to open our eyes to heal our spiritual blindness. This brings me to a lyric to one of the most translated Christian hymns – Amazing Grace which was translated to over 50 languages. As many of us know, this hymn was authored by John Newton who had previously been a captain of slave ship and an ardent slave trader. It was told that in 1748, during his return voyage to England aboard, Newton had a spiritual conversion. He awoke to find his ship was caught in a severe storm and about to sink. In response, Newton began praying for God’s mercy, after which the storm began to die down. This stormy experience of John Newton marked the beginning of his conversion to Christianity. One of the stanzas in Amazing Grace that he authored truly reflects the state of his spiritual conversion from darkness to light: “I once was lost, but now I’m found; Was blind but now I see.”

Besides John Newton, there were countless number of people that were spiritually-blinded before our Saviour opened their eyes. They were in darkness and now the light of the spirit of God shines before them – from small petty thieves to big time robbers, criminals and murderers. The light of the spirit of God has converted countless repentant sinners and many of them have become great missionaries and evangelists, dedicating their lives to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, sharing their testimonies and in the process touching the heart, mind and the soul of many people. All glory to God in the highest! The conversion of John Newton changed him from a ‘master of slavery trade’ to championing the abolition of slavery trade. In 1787 Newton succeeded in helping the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, more commonly called the Anti-Slavery Society to abolish slavery trade.

As we read the Book of Acts in the New Testament, we also discovered a miraculous story of the conversion of Paul (who was known as Saul before his conversion). Before his conversion, Paul (or rather Saul) was an enemy of God. He made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison – all because of their faith in Christ. Many Christians fled to other areas to try to escape from Paul. Not only did Paul think these faithful men and women deserved to die, he thought everyone who followed the way of Jesus Christ should be arrested and possibly face the death penalty as well. (Sound familiar? Thankfully, not in the country where my family live but this not so fortunate for many Christians who are living in other countries, especially in the Middle East countries. Many of the Christians there are living in a harsh anti-Christian environment that is not too different from those people mentioned in the Book of Acts who were suffering from severe persecution.)

The conversion of Paul happened when he was on his journey to Damascus. As he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven and he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? Paul, nonetheless, was not sure whose voice was but the Lord responded: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the pricks’” (Acts 9:3-5). Jesus was referring to a spiked stick used from driving oxen, so He was telling Paul it was foolish to resist – that he was being like a stubborn ox in continuing to persecute Jesus’ followers in spite of the misgivings he must have been feeling.

(Exegetic Note – This voice of God that said to Paul: “Why are you persecuting Me?” gives us one very important exegetic message: When we Christians are being persecuted, our Lord Jesus is also being persecuted alongside with us. What a Mighty God we have. He knew all our circumstances in good times and in bad times! Thanks be to God!)

In an instant, Paul’s whole point of view changed. He now knew that Jesus had come back to life and was his Master. Even though Paul was blinded by the light, for the first time he could really see, just like John Newton. He had been blind spiritually (and also physically as he couldn’t see for the next three days when the light of the spirit of God shone onto his eyes), and God was beginning to open his eyes. The conversion of apostle Paul marked a major turning point in the history of earliest Christianity. Paul was almost immediately convinced that faith in Jesus alone brought salvation, and that this did not require adherence to the Jewish law. That opened the door for Gentiles (like you and me) to enter the faith and to receive the blessed hope of eternal life. Thanks be to God!

From a ‘chief’ persecutor of Christians, it was almost universally accepted that because of his Christian faith, he was martyred and beheaded in Roman. Upon his conversion, he would later be one of the beloved apostles of Jesus Christ. After his conversion, he wrote 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament and when calculating from his 13 text, they comprised about 25% of all the New Testament text!

Let’s be honest. The people in our world and those things around us attempt to blind us from hope of eternal life, from acknowledging that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour. They attempt to shut God from our lives. The enemy cloaks the world in darkness and blinds the unbelieving from seeing Christ and also attempt to distort the gospel truth to the believers. As we suffer from both physical and spiritual blindness, we want to thank God that besides healing our spiritual blindness, Jesus is also capable of giving physical sight to the blind (John 9:6-7).

The encounter by Paul on his journey to Damascus reveals to us clearly of our inward change because God has opened our eyes to give us a clear view of the Saviour’s face and at the same time be able to discern and to hear His voice. The hatred, depravity, and desperation that once filled our heart is replaced by peace, contentment, and faith. Outside circumstances cannot change our heart. Even though we may adjust our vehicles’ mirrors to erase the blind spots but these blind spots will come back again and again as long as we are on the road driving. This is where the gospel of Jesus Christ does its work. New life begins when the light of Christ tears away the blind spots of our lives and reveals our desperate dependence on the Saviour. Our true victory over sin, death, and the devil can only achieve when we are willing to let God open our eyes to receive the light of the spirit of God to whole-heartedly proclaim: “I once was lost, but now I’m found; Was blind but now I see.” Let me close this week’s message with this most translated hymn, Amazing Grace.

AMAZING GRACE

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29 October 2023

Scripture Reading: Matthew 22:14 (KJV)

For many are called, but few are chosen

MESSAGE

The Parable of the Wedding Feast in Matthew 22:1-14 is one of the parables that Jesus used to illustrate what the kingdom of God is and who will be welcomed to His Kingdom. In this Parable of the Wedding Feast, Jesus concludes that “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you if you failed to produce its fruits and will be given to only people producing its fruits” (Matthew 21:43). In this parable, we are told that a king had sent an invitation to invite people (presumably those people whom the king knew them well) to attend a wedding feast for his son. It is a mystery why these invited guests had rejected the king’s invitation (and it is equally a mystery why would people refuse to accept the gift of salvation from God). The invited guests were not serious and would not want to go to the feast and instead they were doing their own things, balantly ignoring the king’s invitation. Certainly, the king was furious and instead ordered his servants to go to the highways and the byways to gather as many people (presumably many of them were strangers), both good and bad, to come to the feast. It is a mystery as to why would the people in the first place not want to come to the king’s invitation? The wedding hall was filled with guests from the highways and the byways and they were both the good and the bad. They were both “called” and “chosen”, so to speak and they must have the greatest feast that possibly could only happen to them once in their lifetime. And how about those invited guests who refused to come? The first group who were invited were not worthy because they were not prepared, they would not want to come, they preferred to do their own things and, of course, they were destroyed (Matthew 22:7). Although they were called but not were not chosen.

By analogy, God sends us out to call everyone to come to Christ but many people simply would not come; in fact, the vast majority would not come. No matter what we do or say, these people would not come to Christ and to willingly accept His precious gift of salvation. Some might reluctantly come just to follow the crowd or being pressurized by friends. Very soon, they would just disappear from attending church services. That is a description of some (or even most) people we encountered during evangelism or as we go out to the streets or as we share the gospels. We wish they would come and whole-heartedly accept the gift of salvation, but many just won’t or they might just come to “make us happy.” They were not serious.

Just you are being called is not enough for you to enter the kingdom of God. You must be chosen and the only way to be chosen is to be prepared, to be serious and continue to fix your eyes on Jesus, and not to be distracted by the worldly desires. So, how could we prepare ourselves so as to be children of the Most High? When we meet our God face to face, can we confidently say that He will say to us: “You are My beloved child, in whom I am very well pleased”. This was what God, the Father said to His begotten Son, Jesus, after He was baptized by John, the Baptist, knowing very well that His only begotten Son would obey His will fully and would finish the redemptive work to bring repentant sinners to Him. (Mark 1:8-11). Are we therefore able to accomplish the work that God has given to us? Are we able to fulfil His commandments? Of course, we do fail now and then, but are we trying every effort to press forward, fighting the good fight (spiritually-speaking), taking great effort to finish the race, keeping our faith? (2 Timothy 4:7)

It is with deep regret that I read of the results in a survey conducted in 2022 by Pew Research Centre (PRC). PRC is non-partisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world that includes public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research.

It is quite chilling when I read the survey results which have reflected 10 causes of concern for the church in Singapore. Let me summarise them below. (Note: If you want to read the detailed for the survey, you can click to:
https://saltandlight.sg/news/10-causes-of-concern-for-the-church-what-surprised-us-from-pew-research-religious-survey//)

What then can we draw to the conclusions regarding the current state of the church in Singapore? Has the churches in Singapore failed their mission to impart God’s truth to the flock? Is there anything wrong with the sermons preached from the pulpit? When the cell group meet, what topics do they discuss about? And I could go on and on. But the conclusions are very clear and chilling. Churches has failed their utmost mission to impart God’s truth. Some churches just want to ensure that the members stayed and, hence, they do not want to offend their members by preaching God’s truth. Instead, often sermons are sugar-coated bringing no biblical truth to congregation to live according to what the Bible commanded. Due to this, congregation members may just be “Christians only in name”. Just take two examples. One, how could a born-again Christian pray to other gods? The Word of God is very clear – I am God, there is none like Me (Isaiah 46:9). Two, Jesus spoke more about hell than He spoken of heaven and how could a born-again Christian do not believe in hell? Hell and judgment is seldom preached but this is what we all must hear.

Are we in the end-times when Apostle Paul warned us that during the last days, there will be great falling away – “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition” (2 Thessalonians 2:3).

Let us take courage and continue the work that God has entrusted us to do and that is to share the gospel and preach only the truth. This is exactly the very objective and mission of my website – mainly (and prayerfully) to bridge where the churches have failed. I must admit, many of the messages posted here may be offensive to both non-believers and to some Christians (if they really are). I pray you, as readers of this website, too will take the courage and also take cognizant that to be Christian in name is dangerous and may lead them to eternal condemnation. We must believe with all our heart that:

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22 October 2023

Scripture Reading: Genesis 3:15 (KJV)

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

MESSAGE

As we all know, international news channels around the world have been dominated by the news of war between Israel and Hamas. At first, it was just between Israel and Hamas but it has now escalated beyond their borders. On the Israel side, notably, the U.S., UK, France (among others) are supporting Israel and on the Hamas side, Syria, Iran, Turkey (among others) are supporting Hamas. The enmity between the Muslims and the Israelis dated back many centuries’ ago. It is not new except the weapons they used now are much more lethal, powerful and destructive. A single bomb such an atomic bomb could instantaneously kill thousands of people within seconds after its explosion.

There is indeed no end in sight and the war between Israel and Hamas will continue for many months or even years to come. Let’s pray that this is not going be a “War Without End”. In 2005, President of Iran had openly made one of the most famous (or infamous) calls – “Israel to be wiped off the map.” This implies that all the Jews had to be killed in order to wipe Israel off the map. It is not just the Muslims who hate the Jews. The Jews are hated by many people, not just the Muslims – let’s be honest. It has been almost twenty years since the call to wipe Israel off the map and it looks like the effort to ‘wipe Israel off the map’ is here to stay. But why such a great enmity? In my honest admission, I often find it very, very to understand actually what the war between the Muslims and the Jews is all about.

Again, I want to stress that I am not into reporting geopolitical conflicts be it in the Middle East like what we see now, or between Russia and Ukraine, or potential military conflict between China and Taiwan. Rather, my message is to point to the readers, especially our brothers and sisters-in-Christ here that what is happening today, not just in the Middle East but also around the world, is really nothing new and neither should we be surprised by what we see and what we read in the mass media because all these are already foretold in the Bible. Indeed, some of these centuries-old events that we read in the Old Testament and the New Testament are a re-play of the current events that are happening today. Indeed, history has repeated itself and humanity has learnt nothing to improve the lives to live righteously for God. In anything can go by, it is just the opposite. Evilness is abound and there is nothing good in us (Romans 7:18-19).

For the past centuries, the Jews have had been running and hiding because they were (and today they are still) the targets sought by many countries that want to exterminate or destroy them “once and for all”. The famous historical event of Moses leading the Israelis to escape from the Egyptian armies, and the parting of the Red Sea that saved the Jews from the Egyptians is a very familiar historical account to many of us, both Christians and non-Christians. The ‘Parting of the Red Sea’ is Bible 101 lesson that is always taught in Sunday school and every Sunday school child knows about this historical account which we can read in the Book of Exodus 14:20-31.

The Old Testament is filled with historical accounts of the fleeing Jews from the danger of being exterminated. In the Book of Esther, we read Haman who was one of the high officials from a Persian court plotted to exterminate all the Jews. Fortunately, his evil plan was foiled by a Jewish girl, Esther who was the wife of a Persian King at that time and together with her uncle, Mordecai who was also working as an official in the court. In this historical account, it was recorded that when the evil plot of Haman was exposed by Queen Esther and her uncle, Mordecai, the King ordered Haman be killed instead and thus the Jews were, by the grace of God, saved from being exterminated, once again. It is interesting to note that the Book of Esther is of great biblical significance even though this is the only book in the Bible that the name of God is not mentioned at all. In spite of the fact that the name of God is not mentioned in this book, it is one of the sixty-six canonical books of the Bible. The book of Esther is of biblical significance as it concerns with the birth of our Lord Jesus. The biblical commentary is that if all the Jews were (successfully) exterminated by Haman, then how could our Lord and Saviour Jesus be born. It is an irrevocable plan of our Creator that His begotten Son, Jesus would be born into Jewish lineage to become a man so as to redeem humanity from their sins.

The hatred of the Jews can be said to be at its pinnacle when our Lord and Saviour Jesus, the King of the Jews, was innocently hung on the Calvary Cross! The crucifixion, the death and the resurrection of our Saviour Jesus is the beginning of a new era – the era of Christianity, the Church Age. This new era of the Church Age brings forth the blessed hope that one day Jesus will return to take His Bride, the Church to be with Him (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

But why the world hated Jews? The answer to this question can be found in the verse we just read: Genesis 3:15 – And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

According to this verse, there will be enmity between the individual woman (Eve) and the serpent (the Devil) who deceived her and her husband, Adam by eating the fruit from the forbidden tree . But, the enmity is not just between Eve and the Devil. There will also be enmity between the seed of the Devil and the seed of Eve. According to some learned Bible scholars, the seed of the Devil does not mean the physical descendants of the Devil (because there is no biblical evidence to indicate that the Devil has any physical descendant) but rather those who are his spiritual descendants. (And I pray I am not politically incorrect by saying that these spiritual descendants of the Devil are those who refused to accept the blood of Jesus, to pursue His righteousness and to accept Him as their Lord and Saviour. We are either the children of God or the children of the Devil – 1 John 3:1-10). Accordingly, the ultimate seed of the woman, Eve would be Jesus Himself. Therefore, we have Genesis 3:15, the first promise of a Redeemer and as we read further into Word’s God, this Redeemer, the Promised One would be born into the lineage of one of the Jewish descendants (John 1:11).

Tragically, this enmity that we read in Genesis 3:15 has given rise to severe global repercussions resulting in untold human sufferings since the day the Devil deceived Eve and her husband, Adam. The enmity has extended to spiritual seed of Christ, that is, all born-again Christians (just like you and me) who, like the Jews, many are being severely persecuted around the world. The Jews and the Christians must be destroyed or exterminated. This is a tall order from the Devil. It is true that believers of other faiths too are facing persecutions in one form or another but comparatively-speaking, their persecutions cannot come close second to the prosecutions of the Jews and Christians. While I am writing this message or while you are reading this message, many hundreds if not thousands of Jews and Christians are severely prosecuted, some are jailed, some are tortured and some are killed.

Thankfully, the Devil has failed in all his efforts to prevent our Savour, Jesus Christ to born as human to redeem the sins of humanity. But, the Devil will not give up. He will continue to steal, to destroy and to kill. His only action now is to persecute, to destroy and to kill as many of God’s chosen – the Jews and the Christians as many as possible! The Devil knew his time is very short and very soon he will be cast down into the lake of fire together with the anti-christ, his false prophets and his spiritual descendants, he thus will spare no effort to wage war among the inhabitants of the world, especially against the Jews and the Christians. Actually, it doesn’t really matter who the Devil steal, destroy or kill because he is a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44) and his only mission is just to come to steal, to destroy and to kill anyone that comes along the way (John 10:10).  

So what can we as Christians do? Nothing! Except we need to earnestly pray that God will send His guardian angels to protect us from all harms – physical, emotional and spiritual. Let’s us put our hearts and souls together and use Psalm 91 to guide us to pray for God’s protection as often as our time permits.

PSALM 91 (KJV)

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.
AMEN

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15 October 2023

Scripture Reading: Matthew 24:42 & Luke 17:28-29 (KJV)

Matthew 24:42: Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

Luke 17:28-29: Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.

MESSAGE

As we are all aware, the news of Israel-Hamas war is now on the eyes of everyone around the world. Over the last week, this news appeared in all international news. The Prime Minister of Israel has openly declared that the war with Hamas is “just the beginning”. It is going to be a “War Without End” as some have commented. I just want to emphasize that my message this week is not so much on Israel-Hamas war but rather what we, as children of God, can and must learn from this horrific event.

October 7, 2023 is now the date that Israel (and perhaps the whole world) is going to remember for many years to come, just like the 9/11 attack on America some twenty years’ ago when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre were turned into rubbles with 3,000 lives were lost and several thousand injured. 9/11 attack on America had surprised many people. What happened to the intelligence service agency, the CIA? Did they fail their job? The answer is obvious.

An initial post-mortem by the Israelis Army Intelligence of this fateful day of 7 October 2023 has pointed one fact that the Israel government humbly admitted – they were not watchful; they were too complacent and erroneously thought that such attack would never happen inside the land of Israel. Just like the America CIA, the Israeli Intelligence Agency, Mossad, too had failed their job big time in this surprise invasion!

Although the Israelis have prepared for wars all along as the nation of Israel is surrounded by many enemy countries and it is a global knowledge that Israel has one of the world’s best defence forces that is equipped with the best military hardware, yet the attack by Hamas had caught them by utter surprise. The attack was from all fronts – from land, from sea and from air. Simultaneously, thousands powerful rockets were launched like fireworks by the Hamas destroying both buildings and human lives. To date, 1,300 people and many from other countries’ nationality had died (including those killed at the musical festival) and this is at the best estimate as the Israel authorities are still discovering dead bodies not reported earlier. Hamas themselves were very surprised that they could so easily infiltrated and invaded into the land of Israel given that Israel has one of the world’s best defence forces with the best military equipment. The invasion by the Hamas seemed like a walk in a park!

This brings me to the verses which we just read in Matthew 24:42 and in Luke 17:28-29. In these two verses, our Lord and Saviour has warned us of being complacent. Our Lord Jesus’ preaching to us to “Keep watch for you do not know when the day of the Lord will come” is a stern reminder to us that we too can be destroyed just like in days of Lot when people were eating and drinking, then suddenly fire and brimstones came from the heavens and destroyed all the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah leaving only Lot and his two daughters. Likewise, in the days of Noah, people too were eating and drinking and the flood came and destroyed all the inhabitants leaving only Noah, his family members and those animals that God had instructed Noah to bring to the ark. The people in the days of Noah and Lot were ‘easy targets’ all because they failed to keep watch and ignore the warning and continue to live their lives solely to satisfy their own worldly desires. As we can read in 2 Peter 2:5, Noah is called a “preacher of righteousness” and for over a hundred years he preached righteousness – God’s standard of conduct and morality (Psalm 119:172) and at the same time building the ark as commanded by God. Noah’s preaching had falling into deaf ears. No one listened!

On 7 October 2023, there were many hundreds of people drinking, eating and dancing celebrating a musical festival at an open space and the last thing that these party goers would expect was to meet face to face with a huge army of perpetrators heavily armed and started their shooting spree. Many – from the very old to the very young – were also captured and taken as hostage. The attack was just beyond the wildest imagination of those attending the party (and the Israeli authority as well). According to some eye witnesses, it took more than two hours for Israel army to react and come to the scene to defend and rescue the people. Due to the historical past, the Israel Defence Force has been very well prepared and boasting that it has the best trained soldiers and the best military hardware but, sadly, on 7 October 2023, they had failed to protect the people. During the attack at the musical festival, not a single Israeli soldier was there. They were not watchful. They were over-confident. They were too complacent. They miscalculated, perhaps due to their over-confidence that such attack was highly unlikely. Initial report seems to indicate that the military and authorities were very confused of what was going on as they were trying how to plan to respond to the attack. It is a grave lesson they had learnt for one good (or perhaps bad) reason: They had failed to “Stay Watch” and leave the door wide open for the enemy to just walk in!

What lesson then can we learn? Do we remember when Jesus was going through absolute agony, to the point of sweating blood, in the garden of Gethsemane? He asked the disciples on numerous occasions for them to stay and watch with Him. What did they do, they did the opposite and fell asleep. No, Jesus was wanting them to be awake and alert and to pray with Him. He is still wanting His disciples (that is you and me) today to stay awake and pray; to be watchmen and women to the generation that we have been called to intercede for and at all times to be in the state of readiness. In Matthew 25:13, Jesus said, “keep watch because you do not know the day or the hour” (when He will return). Our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Hence, we need to be watchful and this involves us staying alert of the devil’s schemes and potential traps (2 Corinthians 2:11). We must remind ourselves if the Lord were to return this very hour we are ready and will not be ashamed or embarrassed to meet Him on that day. While we may at times feel insecure because of our job, our health, our finance and hence be distracted, we are giving the assurance that our God will supply us all our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). Let’s pray that God will fill us with the Holy Spirit and He will guide us in every situation so that we can stay watch for His return. Our job is to submit to Him wholehearted and pray to Him for His grace and thank Him for He is good and His mercy will endure forever (Psalm 136:1)

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8 October 2023

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 6:12 (KJV)

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

MESSAGE

Today, our world is filled with things that are distracting many of us in unprecedented proportion. Information moves so much faster, louder, and brighter than ever before. Entertainment, social media, and marketing ploys have never been so prevalent and with the invention of virtual reality (VR) addiction to VR entertainment can be as addictive and destructive as taking drugs.

We have to be very mindful that in addition to the distraction arising from entertainment, social media and marketing ploys there are many subtle ploys that are not announced with blinking lights nor beeping sounds and they are just as destructive. These subtle ploys have become so commonplace and yet we often hardly even notice in our mind because we have developed a mental immunity to recognise that they can indeed be a dangerous source of distraction. Just to name a few, distraction arising out of our relentless desire to fight for power, for corporate career, for social recognition is taking residence in our mind continuously and often unconsciously wreaking havoc on our spiritual well-being. The effect is obvious. It keeps us from living our lives to its greatest potential to please our Heavenly Father because our flesh is weak and it can easily give way to worldly attraction (Matthew 26:41b).

To put in the language by Apostle Paul – the ever-present distraction is always trying to prevent us from wrestling against spiritual darkness and some may just give up without a good fight leading to a victory by the Evil One. It is interesting to note that in a wrestling competition there are only two fighters and at the end only one can be emerged as a winner. By the same token, we are fighting against two competing forces – Spirit of God within us and the sinful flesh which we all are born with. The end result is that there can only be one winner – either our flesh wins which will lead us to eternal death or our spirit wins which will lead us to eternal life. When the spirit rules we have fellowship with God because God is a Spirit and we that worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. When the flesh rules, then our fellowship with God is broken, for God will have nothing to do with our flesh. God has one order for the flesh: KILL IT or BE KILLED. The choice is ours and we can only pursue to kill our flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit and He and only He can disarm and triumph over the spiritual rulers, authorities and principalities. (Colossians 2:15).

There are eight common life struggles confronting us, consciously or unconsciously and they will result in the ever-present distraction in our mind. I fully agree with the author who penned these eight life struggles and I want to add that this ever-present distraction, the resultant of our struggles, will keep us from living our lives to please God.  

The Promise of Tomorrow.
It is not entirely foolish to look toward the future and plan accordingly. However, when we endure our days only just for the sake of tomorrow (the weekend, the vacation, or the retirement), we miss out on the full beauty and potential of God’s presence and what He has installed for us. We may make plan after plan, but it is the Lord establishes the steps (Proverbs 16:9).

The Pursuit of Perfection. 
We ought to pursue excellence and pride in all that we do. Our next step forward should be the right next step and it should be taken with much intention focusing on pleasing to God as much as possible. But doing our best and achieving perfection are rarely the same. When perfection to please the world becomes our only the goal, it can become the enemy to our spiritual progress thus hinder our move forward to pursue the will of God.
 
The Regret of Yesterday. To live is to experience regret – nobody escapes life unscathed. We regret our actions, our decisions, and our motivations and often we just question ourselves “If I could only do this earlier, I would be better now”. But, alas, no amount of regret can ever change the past. Don’t allow regret from the past to negatively distract from opportunity in the present in our pursuit to please our God.

The Accumulation of Possessions. 
The things we own require our time, our energy, our money, and our attention. Every increased possession adds increased stress in our lives. And yet, we continue to pursue and accumulate more and more and more. But more is not the answer. More has become the distraction. As we can read in John 3:30, our purpose in this world is not to increase our material possession but to continuously increase in exalting Christ, and not ourselves.

The Desire for Wealth. 
Those who chase riches have misplaced their greatest potential and traded it to the highest bidder. Our lives were designed for contribution to provide a positive impact on society (especially to our fellow Christian brothers and sisters), for ourselves, our families. Sometimes, our contribution provides financial excess. Other times, it does not. But either way, when our contribution to society becomes chiefly motivated by a selfish desire to seek fame and recognition or to accumulate riches, it has become self-focused and lose our sense of proportion for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows (1 Timothy 6:10).

The Need for Notoriety. The life you live is the life you live regardless if anybody notices or not. Those who live lives focused on the need to be recognized for it are usually the first to take shortcuts to get there. Instead, find significance in the eyes of those who know you best and He is none other than our Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus because in the end, this is all that matters. Remember that many of the people of the Bible that God called them to serve are weak men as noted by a famous missionary, Hudson Taylor: “All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on God being with them.”  

The Pull of Comparison. 
It seems, by nature, we feel compelled to compare our lives to the people around us. We compare our belongings, our appearance, our families, and our successes. But each time we do, we place our focus and energy on the wrong person or on the wrong thing. Comparing yourself to others will always cause you to regret what you are not, rather than allow you to enjoy and grow who you are and what you are actually called and that is to do His will all for His glory.

The Appeal of Pleasure. 
Many of us are led astray by the appeal and pursuit of pleasure. “Why not?” we might ask, “What is wrong with the pursuit of pleasure?” And I might even agree, at least to a point. But here’s the problem, pleasure is a terrible teacher. The most significant lessons we learn in life are rarely received during times of pleasure. Instead, significant lessons are born out of pain. I am not contending that we should seek pain in our lives. But I am contending a life lived chiefly for the pursuit of pleasure will usually seek it in all the wrong places. Before we seek pleasure and party like there is no tomorrow, we need to remember Proverbs 21:17, penned by King Solomon, the wisest man on earth: He who loves pleasure will be poor man and he who loves wine and oil will not be rich.

In concluding this week message, I would like to humbly share this prayer with all the readers:


Praying through Ephesians 6:12

Heavenly Father, thank You that Christ Jesus has won the victory over sin, Satan, and the spiritual forces that work in the darkness of this world. Help me to recognise that I can only defeat the spiritual enemies that war in the world today, through Christ. Thank You for providing me with the means to live a victorious life in Christ, through the Word of God, fasting, prayer and praise, and by abiding in Christ and He in me. In Jesus’ name I pray, AMEN.

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1 October 2023

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 32:17 (KJV)

And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.

MESSAGE

Regardless of the religious belief, social or cultural background, seeking peace is one of the pursuits that people always yield for. It is not uncommon for people to donate or give huge sum of money to their religious leaders like the priests or the monks to pray to their gods to gain favour and bestow them peace (and of course good health, prosperity and so on).

Let’s be honest and let’s admit – peace doesn’t come automatically because we are always plagued by constant worries, fears and anxious thoughts (collectively I like to call it life-stressor), especially on those things we can’t control. Are worries, fears and anxious thoughts really that bad? Well, many healthcare professionals such as clinical counsellors, psychologists or psychiatrists will tell you that it is not really that bad to have some life-stressors provided they must be kept at manageable level. Indeed, this is quite true as occasional anxiety will somehow motivate and challenge people to excel something they thought might be impossible to achieve but this comes with one caveat – only if it can be kept at manageable level. Unfortunately, there are many instances of the life-stressors that could simply appear out of nowhere and before we realise it’s full extension of the situation they simply spun out of control and turned these life-stressors into nightmares. The results can be devastating as they may cause us to suffer severe depression. Often, people who suffered from severe depression will likely to seek medical treatments and that could further drain their financial resources which in turn made their the situation worse especially when in the first place their life-stressor was due to finance. In addition to counselling, in severe cases, drugs are prescribed as part of the treatments. The healthcare professionals will also prescribe a plethora of things or activities to break free of the negative thoughts of worries and fear. I am not against consulting healthcare professionals of any kind whether it is for physical, mental or psychological illness but I strongly believe whatever drug or counselling they prescribed or advice they gave, they are mostly short-term help and the treatments would just relating to the symptoms rather than the root cause. At one point, I was quite involved in a healthcare industry for a number of years and it is not uncommon to hear of patients who had earlier recovered from severe depression or other mental illness but suffered a relapse.

Thankfully, we have our Heavenly Father who has given His Word and by obeying His Word, we can prevent our worries, fears and anxious thoughts from getting into our nerves giving us sleepless nights. As we read the above verse Isaiah 32:17, we are told by our Heavenly Father that the work of righteousness will bring about peace, which in Hebrew means: safe, happy, good health and sufficiency of daily providence. What a blessing! To live with God’s peace in our minds and hearts is to live without stress and without fear.

How then are we to live a righteous life? Thankfully, I have done some searching and discovered a good article and I would like to share with the readers-in-Christ. (Note: I like to mention that substantial part of the message below is taken from an article written by an unknown author of God and I like to acknowledge my sincere thanks to the author for this article.)

The author began by telling us that to live righteously is to conduct one’s life in an upright manner and with moral standards that reflect our relationship with the Lord. As representative to the kingdom of God in all that we do, we should mirror His ways. This will mean in the face of evil, do what is right.

I understand it can be difficult to walk in love, especially when one is being unfairly persecuted. Remember, for those who are found in Christ and Him in them, there is nothing too hard to accomplish and overcome.

To begin the pursuit of righteousness, learn the ways of the One you are to follow, that is Christ Jesus. How do you get to know Him? Invest quality time with Him and that will definitely help us to establish a firm foundation in Christ when we spent quality time in His presence, acquire knowledge of His characters and nature. To know the Father is to know the Son.  As we mediate upon the Word of God, we can learn the characteristics of God and are to emulate them for ourselves. The true nature of God is wrapped up in one word: LOVE as this is affirmed in the most well-known Bible verse: John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

As you read further into the Book of John, you will discover Jesus, who is God wrapped in flesh (John 1:1-5,14) and solely for our benefit came humbly to serve and not to be served. We are also called to be servants and serve one another for the gift that God has bestowed on us. (1 Peter 4:10)

The Lord establishes early on His love and respect for those around Him. He’s never boastful of Himself and of His supreme authority over heaven and in earth. When at the wedding at Cana in Galilee, He did not refuse His mother’s request though it was not His time to be fully revealed as we can read in John 2:2-5 – “Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine. Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

As we can see, Jesus exhibits through His teaching and example of love, tremendous patience, grace and mercy. Even when ridiculed and persecuted, His love never changes. When He was crucified on the Cross of Calvary, He prayed to the Father to forgive the Roman soldiers who crucified Him. To be like Christ, we must live as He lived, love as He loved and give as He gave. Do you know how to walk in the ways of the Lord and what it entails? Do all things unto Him even if it costs us in the process. Humanly-speaking, it’s totally impossible but with the help of the Spirit of God we can do the impossible. Our life-stressor may seemingly be a mountain unmovable but with faith as small as a mustard and by prayer and fasting we can command our mountain of life-stressor to move from here to there and it shall be move, nothing will be impossible for us. (John 17:20-21)

Personally, for myself, in addition to the above verse we read, I like to reaffirm my unwavering pledge to God’s Word concerning godly righteousness and the peace of God that the world cannot offer. These are written in Psalm 37:37 – Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace; Proverbs 21:21 – He who follows righteousness and mercy Finds life, righteousness and honour; Romans 14:16-17 – Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

It is my prayer that after you have read this message, you can find the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7).

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24 September 2023

Scripture Reading: Matthew 27:54 & Luke 23:42-44 (KJV)

Matthew 27:54 – How when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.

Luke 23:42-44 -And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.

MESSAGE

Feeling abandoned is one of the most horrifying thoughts especially when you feel that one day you might be abandoned by none other than your closest acquaintances or relatives. What can be more devastating than being abandoned by your own children or your spouse because you are now old, sick, poor and have no source of income. Your monthly pension can hardly provide you with three decent meals and financially you are dependent on them to provide you the money to buy basic necessities like medicines because of illness. When you are under such conditions, some children and even your spouse may find you a burden and the faster you can be ‘got rid’ the better for them. Sadly, those who cannot accept such predicament of feeling abandoned (or indeed have already been abandoned) could suffer from deep depression and may end up in mental institution. Even worse, some may contemplate to end their lives pre-maturely. Feeling of emotional abandonment is unbearable especially when someone so close to you and had decided to abandon you.

There is a great lesson on abandonment that we can learn from the final journey of our Lord Jesus before He surrendered Himself to God, the Father at the Calvary Cross. The lesson we can learn is that, if this can happen to our Saviour Jesus, it can happen to anyone, and that include you and me. Our Lord, at His most painful and sorrowful times, was abandoned by His disciples whom He had taught them that they should live godly and righteous lives. Hence, we must be prepared ourselves that in our most dire situations when we needed help, even our closest friends, relatives, children or even our spouse may abandon us. Thankfully, our Saviour, Jesus never leaves us alone. He is right next to us. He never abandons us. And somehow, He will send good souls or His guardian angels to extend their helping hands to alleviate our situations. We must however acknowledge that God is the One who will be our Protector in all situations as we can read in Psalm 91.

The scriptural verses we just read is about our Lord Jesus’ journey to a place called Golgotha to be hung on the Calvary Cross. As recorded in the Bible, as our Lord travelled along the road to Calvary to face His imminent crucifixion clearly shows us that He was completely abandoned by His beloved disciples (except Apostle John). When the wooden cross that Jesus was carrying proved too heavy to Him to carry none of the disciples came to help Him. Instead, a passer-by named Simon, a Cyrenian, came to help Jesus to carry the cross. At the final station, before our Saviour Jesus surrendered Himself to God, the Father, in order to redeem the sins – past, present and future – for the whole humanity, none of His beloved disciples were at the site of crucifixion of Jesus, except Apostle John. The rest of the disciples went into hiding. What had happened to all the disciples? Why were they so afraid? Were they scared to be implicated as they all knew that the Roman authorities and the chief priests were all after our Saviour’s blood and wanted Him to die? Worst, were they started to doubt Jesus is actually the Son of God? Remember, the disciples had witnessed many miracles that Jesus performed, notably the calming of the sea when the disciples were with Him in the boat at the Sea of Galilee and yet they still completely abandoned Him and nowhere to be seen when He was being crucified on the cross. In fact, a big question that the onlookers and perhaps the disciples themselves might be asking was: Is Jesus truly the Son of God?

Amid all these doubts, the Gospel recorded that there were two persons unexpectedly acknowledged Jesus is truly the Son of God – one of them was a thief that was hung on a cross next to Jesus, and another was a centurion, a member of the Roman soldiers who were ordered by Pontius Pilate, a Roman governor, to crucify Jesus. By all accounts, this centurion most probably had also participated in the crucifixion of Jesus. The names of the thief and the centurion were not mentioned in the Bible and commonly when we share of this historical account of the crucifixion, we just refer the centurion “the Centurion who declared that Jesus is the Son of God” and we refer the repentant thief “the Dying Thief.”

In particular, we need to take note that the declaration by the centurion: “Truly this was the Son of God” was not by a mere junior soldier or a new recruit but he was a seasoned veteran who had been watching for years of men die horrible death by crucifixion as well as by other means used by the Roman to execute condemn criminals. This centurion’s declaration undoubtedly carries strong exegetic connotation that Jesus is truly the Son of God because he was an eye-witness to several amazing and extra-ordinary things and events. He would probably have resided over the deaths of numerous criminals, and none of those individual’s deaths were marked by these amazing and extra-ordinary things and events that accompanied the death of Jesus. For example, in spite of being crucified by the soldiers and with all the scourging wounds, yet Jesus prayed to God the Father to forgive them (Luke 23:24); also the moment Jesus died, the centurion witnessed a great earthquake that was so great that rocks were splitting and tombs were opening up (Matthew 27:51-53) and furthermore he witnessed darkness from all over the land from the sixth hour to the nineth hour (Matthew 27:45), among others.

Of equal exegetic importance was the thief who pleaded to our Saviour, Jesus, to remember him when Jesus return to the kingdom. This shows that the thief had complete faith in Jesus that there is indeed life after death, Jesus would be resurrected after His death and the only way to heaven is to repent and to acknowledge Jesus as his Saviour. In fact, the thief recognized his sinfulness and confessed that he deserved the due punishment for his deeds and he rebuked the other unrepentant thief and told him that for Jesus, He had done nothing wrong and should not be crucified (Luke 23:39-41). The confession, the trust and the confidence of the repentant thief deserved an assurance as pronounced by our Saviour when He told him: Assuredly, I say to you, today you will with me in paradise (Luke 23:43). This is another important exegetic lesson – no matter how big our sin, as long as we admit we are a sinner, confessed and repented of our sins, God will always forgive us.

Remember, the very first public ministry of our Lord Jesus and that was all about “Repentance” (Matthew 3:2; 4:17 and Mark 1:15). It is never too late to confess our sins and to repent as reminded by a famous evangelist, Dr. Billy Graham: “Even at the last minute, God can touch someone’s heart.” Hence, when we think or when see someone who is in a state of hopelessness, remember the trust and the confidence of the dying thief and what He pleaded: “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom” and Jesus said unto him, “Verily, I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43), All glory to God – the first person that Jesus personally brought him to heaven was a convicted criminal! Do you want to be brought to paradise by Lord Jesus? If you are (and you should), its very simple – Just confess you are a sinner and repent of your sin as we can read in Romans 3:23-24 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

This brings me to one my favourite hymns – There is a Fountain Filled with Blood – which I would like to take this opportunity to share with all my brothers and sisters-in-Christ who are reading the message of this wonderful hymn.

THERE IS A FOUNTAIN FILLED WITH BLOOD

There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains:
Lose all their guilty stains,
Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in His day;
And there have I, though vile as he,
Washed all my sins away:
Washed all my sins away,
Washed all my sins away;
And there have I, though vile as he,
Washed all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its pow’r,
Till all the ransomed church of God
Are safe, to sin no more:
Are safe, to sin no more,
Are safe, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed church of God
Are safe, to sin no more.

E’er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die:
And shall be till I die,
And shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.

When this poor, lisping, stamm’ring tongue
Lies silent in the grave,
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save:
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save,
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save;
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save.

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17 September 2023

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 1:14 (KJV)

As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.

MESSAGE

Every second that ticks away brings us, the children of God, closer to the glorious Day of the Lord when our Saviour, Jesus Christ returns to gather His own. This could happen today! Just go to the Youtube and you will notice there are many channels uploaded by well-meaning people of God and they are saying to Youtube viewers that the Day of Lord is coming very, very soon. I want to add that nothing can depart from this truth because the signs of our Lord’s return to rapture His Church are too overwhelming. There is no need for us to look for signs that pointing to the return of our Lord’s return because they all are right in front of us every hour on the hour. Instead, we are now anxiously waiting to hear the trumpet sound for His appearance to deliver us to meet Him in the air.  

Thankfully, as children of God who strongly believe in the rapture of the Church, we can take unwavering cognizant of this truth of the imminent rapture of the Church of Jesus Christ. There is no quicker way to develop an unquenchable appetite for knowing and serving God than by facing the truth about the rapture that waits on the horizon of human ascension to meet our Lord and Saviour, Jesus in the air, perhaps, just like the manner when our Lord Himself was ascended to heaven as recorded in Mark 16:19; Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9-11). The difference, however, is when Jesus was taken up to heaven, He was taken up alone whereas in the rapture many thousands, perhaps millions will be gathered up to meet the Lord in the air and these include those who already died in Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Let’s encourage one another of this blessed hope of the imminent rapture to meet our Saviour, Jesus. All glory to God for we shall all be rejoicing on the Day of the Lord! Sadly, this is not going to be the case for the non-believers.

In 2 Corinthians 1:14 which we just read above, the Day of the Lord is a day of rejoicing but only for the children of God, the Bride of Jesus. The question we ask is: How about those inhabitants who still do not know the Lord and refuse to accept Him as their Lord and Saviour?

For those unbelieving inhabitants of the earth, prayerfully, none of them is our close friend or our relative, the Day of the Lord is going to be a day of terror and horror. But for us, children of God, it will be a day of rejoicing because our Saviour, Jesus Christ has already paid the penalty for all our sins – the past, the present and the future – when He was hung on the Cross of Calvary. Indeed, in 2 Corinthians 1:14 that Apostle Paul spoke about on the rejoicing of the Day of the Lord is quite ‘unusual’ because most (if not all – except 2 Corinthians 1:14) of verses spoke of the Day of the Lord are about God’s wrath that will be poured out to those who rejected the Redeeming Blood of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. For them, the unsaved, it will be a day of unimaginable great terror and horror since the beginning of the world. (Matthew 24:22)

As we explore deeper into the Word of God, we can notice that there are countless verses in the Bible, both in the Old and the New Testaments, spoke of the Day of the Lord is the Judgment Day for the unsaved. And rightly so because the unsaved are those who refuse to be cleansed of thier sins by the redeeming blood of God’s only begotten Son, Jesus. Many even refuse to acknowledge that they are sinners and continued living in unrepentant lives. They will tell us after all every one is doing all ‘these things’. But they failed to understand the gospel truth as recorded in the Bible – For ALL have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; and the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. (Romans 3:23 and 6:23). It is thus our duty to share with the unsaved of the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to tell them, no matter how politically-incorrect it may be, that we are all sinners and the only way to heaven is by accepting the redeeming blood of the begotten Son of God, Jesus, as we can read in John 14:6 – Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Let’s examine several of the Day of the Lord verses that warned the whole earth of the impending judgment. Thankfully, as believers we are to rejoice because we will not be subjected to these horrific judgments as we will all be taken up to meet our Lord in the air. These impending judgments, just to name a few are: global destruction by fire that will devour the whole earth; God’s vengeance upon the wicked; the door of salvation has closed; it is a dreadful day of great trembling and terror; the unsaved will be crying bitterly; the sun will be darkened; the moon will turn into blood; the curse of this sin-sick world will come to an abrupt end. These are God’s wraths which are emphatically reserved for the heathens, the unrepentant sinners who have refused to accept the cleansing Blood of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

May the Lord bless you all the reading of this message and may we take every opportunity to share with our friends, colleagues and relatives of this message. The Day of the Lord is coming, and is coming very, very soon! The clock is ticking and by the time you finished reading this message, you are 10 minutes closer to His coming!

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10 September 2023

Scripture Reading: Luke 21:36 (KJV)

Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

MESSAGE

In today’s fast-paced world, it seems like we are constantly on the move. We rush from one thing to the next, and we can barely able to take just few minutes of our time to catch our breath let alone to spend time with the Lord as many might say. Our schedules are often filled to the brim, leaving no time for rest or relaxation let alone to read His Word or to pray. But, as Christians, it is important that we need to remember the value of rest and take the time to rest upon the Lord and to rejuvenate ourselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And one of the best ways to rest upon the Lord is to pray always no matter how busy we are. Even Jesus who had very busy ministry while He was on earth often prayed and in solitude. Thus, we cannot use our ‘busyness’ as excuse not to pray to our Creator.

Many well-meaning preachers will tell you that our prayers do not need to be elaborate and this is very true. Even Jesus Himself tells us that too. Although the Lord’s prayer that we can read in Matthew 6:9-13 comprised only 41 words (based on KJV) and yet this prayer is very often prayed during church services and also by those who prayed privately during their quiet time. This Lord’s prayer (and I am more inclined to refer to as “disciples’ prayer” because it is actually meant to guide His disciples which include you and me when we pray) is our gold-standard to guide us when we prayed. Although it is just a 41-word prayer it is often used as an important source of comfort for those who are facing seemingly helpless situations. When we ‘run’ of words or topics like what to pray, we can always simply recite the Lord’s Prayer to seek solace and comfort. Sincere words spoken with sincere hearts pleases our Lord rather than insincere mumbling of words openly just to impress others like the pharisees and the scribes did. Insincere prayers that are not from the hearts are abominable to our Lord. This is no wonder Jesus called them hypocrites (Matthew 6:5). We must remind ourselves that our God looks at the heart of man and not his outward appearance as we can read this in 1 Samuel 16:7 – “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’”

Coming back to the topic on “rest,” it is important to remember that rest is not just for our physical bodies but also for our spiritual well-being. Spending time in prayer, mediation, or reading His Word can be incredibly restful and rejuvenating that will lead us to better spiritual-welling being. When we take the time to connect with our Creator through pray and reading of His Word, inevitably we are drawn to His love, and the peace that He gives us will surpass all understanding and will guide our mind and hearts (Philippians 4:7). In the above verse we just read, Luke 21:36, we are reminded that praying always is an extremely essential form of worship if we want to be accounted worthy to escape the great tribulation that is to come upon this earth. I whole-heartedly believe that when Jesus said “when these things” He is referring to those events that will occur during the great tribulation that is revealed to Apostle John in the Book of Revelation (as well as in other prophetic books like Ezekiel and Daniel). The reason for me to conclude this is because routine tribulations or trials that we are facing like our finances, our jobs, our relationship with others, our family, they are part and parcel of life that everyone must deal with on a routine basis. We must accept all these because we are living in this fallen and sinful world. But remember what Jesus told us. He has overcome them. Indeed, when He was tempted head-on by Satan, He has overcome the temptations so much so that Satan had given up tempting Him and he just got to flee. Hence, we too can overcome our temptations and these temptations of ours will also flee like flies! When tempted or when facing trials and temptations, remember we must reject them by invoking the Word of God. Our Lord repeated “IT IS WRITTEN” three times when He was tempted. Therefore, let’s thank our God for His Written Word, the BIBLE. This all-powerful Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12) and this is all we need when we are tempted. Our prayer to God must therefore accompany with His Written Word. The Bible is our source of strength and it is important we read them often. Thankfully, for those who are too busy to really sit down and read the Bible, you can download an audio-Bible version from  Google Playstore. You can always play the audio Bible even while you are in the midst of doing your daily chores. Reading and hearing the prophetic Word of God will bring us blessing as we are told in Revelation 1:3 – “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”

Let me come back to the topic on great tribulation which many of us seem to be confused with routine tribulation of this world that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 16:33 – “In this world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”  But when it comes to the great tribulation which many Bible scholars believe is the wrath of God that was revealed to Apostle John in the Book of Revelation, it is totally of a different kind. Are we told to be of good cheer when we face the great tribulation? Quite to the contrary, the great tribulation is going to be so horrific that, by the mercy of God, He has to shorten the period of the great tribulation otherwise no flesh will be saved (Matthew 24:22). It is not the will of God for us to go through these horrific events in the great tribulation as we can read in Revelation 3:10 – “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.”

So who are those inhabitants that will face the great tribulation? The answer to this question can be found in the Gospel according to John 3:36 – “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” This scriptural verse tells us very clearly the wrath of God is meant for the people who refused to believe the redeeming blood of His only begotten Son, Jesus and rejected Him as their Lord and Saviour.

Let’s put our complete trust to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus of His finished work at the Cross of Calvary, accept Him as our Lord and Saviour and pray always so that we may be accounted worthy to escape the wrath of God. As we can read in Luke 21:34-35 – “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.” As we all know, Apostle Luke was considered by many Bible scholars to be a gentile Christian, and it therefore follows that this was written for the gentile of his days as the Jews were unlikely to accept religious teachings written by gentiles. As many of us know, Judaism is an exclusive religion of the Jews and for the Jews. We, as gentile Christians, must therefore take the teaching of Apostle Luke seriously and share with our fellow gentile friends and family members as we are also commanded to preach the Word of God, the Good News to the world (Mark 13:10).

The signs of Jesus return are overwhelming. There is no need to look for any sign of His return because they are all around us!  Rather we are now waiting to hear the sound of His trumpet call and when the last trumpet call is sounded we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we (that is those faithful Christians who are alive) shall be changed (1 Corinthians 15:51-52); and in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 it reads – “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we with Him for ever.”

The imminent sound of the last trumpet will be sounded at any moment, perhaps in the next hour! Let’s pray always that we, as faithful servants of our Lord Jesus, can be counted to be worthy to escape His wrath. Today is not promised and tomorrow may be too late! Let us continue to stay watch and to pray always so that we can be delivered from the wrath of God that is to come – perhaps soon than we expect! In the meantime, let us obey the commandment from our Lord Jesus to share this Gospel Good News to all our friends and relatives.

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3 September 2023

Scripture Reading: Revelation 22:7,12,20 (KJV)

Revelation 22:7 – Behold, I COME QUICKLY: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
Revelation 22:12 – And, behold, I COME QUICKLY; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
Revelation 22:20 – He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I COME QUICKLY. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

MESSAGE

The Book of Revelation has perplexed readers for almost 2,000 years. Over the centuries it has been one of the world’s most misunderstood and misinterpreted books. This was because many of the descriptions sound and look strange. But not until now especially over the last fifty years when technological advancements revealed the soundness of this book and it not so strange after all – scientifically-speaking. For example, the digital identification using advance nanotechnology is now accepted by almost every serious Bible reader to be the precursor of the mark of the beast and the electronic commerce that one cannot buy or sell without the mark of the beast depicts the financial system of cashless society. Users of internet-banking will tell you that so long you have your mobile-phone, you don’t need to carry any cash. Our central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, has just announced to phase out the use of cheque book. Once the cheque book is phased out, all money transfer must be done through electronic transfer at the click of a button. These developments are some of the examples and there are many, many more that go beyond financial transactions. For example, you will be required to have an digital identification (aka digital ID) implanted in your right-hand or your forehead in order for you to travel, visit hospital or even allow you to have a job. “No-vaccination, no job” will very soon become “No digital implanted ID, no job”. Mark my word. This is coming and is coming sooner than you expect.

Given what we are witnessing right now as you read this message, we know that this prophetic book depicts without an iota of doubt that the current development across all spectrum from politics to all scientific arena are now revealing to us that all the prophecies written in this book are coming to pass during this generation. For example, it describes an incredibly deceptive alliance of internationally powerful political and religious entities attempting to prevent Jesus’ reign from ever being established. We now see this is developing relentlessly through the alliance of the United Nations, the World Health Organisation and the World Economic Forum. In the military front, the terrifying weapons developed and manufactured using modern technology are an indication that the terrible time of trouble may be much nearer than we think. Nations have already stockpiled more than enough nuclear weapons to annihilate all human life from the face of the earth many times over. Rogue nations increasingly gain the ability to produce and use horrifying weapons of mass destruction.

Although only 22 chapters, the fundamental message of the Book of Revelation is simple. It promises that God will institute universal peace, prosperity and cooperation over all the earth immediately after the return of Jesus Christ. It reveals how this wonderful new world will be established and why it will never be destroyed or superseded by any other way of life or social order. In fact, this prophetic Book of Revelation is the only book in the Bible that tells us that those who read and hear this book shall be blessed. (Revelation 1:3 – Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.) Unlike prophecies that are prophesied by secular ‘prophets’, Bible prophecies are meant to bring hope to the fallen world. They are not meant to scare or discourage us but to comfort us, the children of the Most High, that is those who have sincerely and wholeheartedly accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.

One of the most comforting words that we read in this Book of Revelation contained in just three words: “I come quickly.” Although there are only three words but this staggering 3-word statement was spoken by our Saviour, Jesus, not once, not twice but three times (Revelation 22:7,12,20). These words of Jesus flood our heart with encouragement and assurance, giving us hope that points to His imminent return to this sinful and corrupt world. This is the imminent return of Jesus to rapture His Bride to meet Him in the air and to redeem the persecuted tribulation saints who have missed the rapture (for whatever the reasons) during the 7-year Great Tribulation period. These tribulation saints are the those who refuse to take the mark of the beast and also refuse to worship the beast and they will be killed. (Revelation 13:15-17).

“I come quickly” may just be three simple words and they were spoken by Jesus to Apostle John and what joy fills our hearts as we consider this exciting promise from the Lord Jesus in this very final chapter of the Bible. God does not lie. He always said what He meant and He always meant what He said. His words are faithful and true, and His final testimony climaxes with a glorious response and encouraging word: “AMEN! Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” 

Surely the things revealed by our Saviour, Jesus to Apostle John in the closing chapters of the Book of Revelation are some of the most reassuring blessings from God. This Revelation of Jesus Christ, among others, gives vivid description of the eternal city of Jerusalem coming down from heaven and promise that righteousness will reign with Him on earth for a thousand years. Our Saviour, Jesus has pledged to make a new heaven and a new earth for His redeemed people and has testified that He is coming again, to bring everything to completion. Our Lord Jesus’ coming can also be read in John 14:2-3 – “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

Paradise, with the tree of life and its healing river, was lost when Adam sinned, but God’s amazing plan from the very foundation of His creation of redemption was gradually unfolded throughout His Holy Scripture, and the tree of life reappears in the book of Revelation – which concludes with words of blessing that comfort and strengthen the hearts of all believers: “Surely I come quickly.” Some Bible scholars who studied in greater depth of this verse and have made reference to the original Greek texts have commented that the word ‘quickly’ does not only mean ‘straight away’ or ‘immediately’ but rather ‘suddenly’, ‘unexpectedly’, or ‘unannounced.’ This interpretation is consistent with what we read in scriptural verses by Apostle Paul as in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 – “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed – in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

We must all be ready at all times because we do not know when we shall be changed. And, thus we need to live a repentant live because our Saviour, Jesus is coming back without warning – both at the Rapture – when he comes in the air for the Church (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17), and at His return to earth at the end of the Great Tribulation when He returns as King of kings to set up His Millennial kingdom (Revelation 19:11-14).

When the Lord speaks, we must listen and so when the concluding verses of the entire Scripture repeat a proclamation to Christ’s Church, THREE TIMES – I COME QUICKLY, we should be all ears and pay particular attention to what He says. We should heed His Word, obey His instructions, and make sure that we are ready for His sudden return. We must take these three prophetic words “I come quickly” very seriously, live like He is coming the next hour and “Amen!” must be our rapturous reply: “Come, Lord Jesus.” His coming is imminent and hence we must be ready for His appearance. As children of the Most High, let us all live the lives of repentance to receive our King of kings and our Lord of lords.

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27 August 2023

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 43:1 & John 10:27 (KJV)

Isaiah 43:1 But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

MESSAGE

Life moves very fast and many of us felt it is simply just too fast! This is especially so in the last four years mainly because of Covid-19 and also due to extreme state of uncertainties that we are all facing. These uncertainties ranged from extreme cosmic disturbances to domestic and geo-political instabilities as well as lawlessness of sinful man. There is so much going on in our lives that we just simply work on everything and anything as it comes along just like “robot” but not until something unpleasant struck us and often in unexpected way. When this happens, let’s not forget the verse we just read in Isaiah 43:1f – Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

From the scriptural verse we just read, our Saviour is telling us that they we have no reason to fear because He knew each and everyone of us by name and He knew very well all of our struggles. Our Saviour himself has been through all these struggles, trials and tribulations while He was in this world but He has overcome them (John 16:33). He knew fully well of our struggles and when we are in the midst of our struggles when life seems unbearable, He will call us by our name as we had just read: Fear not; I have called you by your name. This undoubtedly affirms a clear evidence of His close and personal relationship that He is with us in all circumstances. He and only He is the one who holds onto us close to His chest and He has assured us that no one can pluck us out from His hand (John 10:29). We belong to Him in the closest relation possible – closer even than our earthly parents!

We are further affirmed that as we pass through the waters, He will be with us; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm us; when we walk through fire we shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume us (Isaiah 43:2). God never promises us that life will be easy but He does promise to be with us every step of the way. We might still need to go through the raging rivers and the blazing fire, but we will not be alone. The Lord Himself goes with us and because He goes with us, we know that we can and will endure. As children of the Most High, we must trust and believe what is said here because we are in Christ we are able to handle the difficulties of this fallen world. We must, however, be prepared because our bones may still break, aging will continue to happen, our mental and emotional health may suffer, we will see loved one pass, and we will see sin all around us. Since the fall of Adam, we are still impacted by the fall and the whole world is waiting for the day of its redemption. We must remind ourselves that God is still on the throne. He is the Lord our God, the Holy One of Israel, our Savior.

I have found great comfort in these verses, and prayerfully, you too. The trials that we may face are not evidence that God is against us. Rather, they are a reminder that even in our hardest times, God will never leave us and He is always walking alongside us. He knows our name and He is calling us all the time. We need to be discerning to His calling. We need to hear His voice and follow Him (John 10:27). We may think we know our paths but we need our Savour to direct our ways because His ways higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9).

It is really beyond my imagination that the Creator of Universe knows my name (and yours too) in such personally manner. From Genesis to Revelation, we often read of God calling His people by name. In Genesis, when Adam hid because he was naked and was ashamed to face God, God called our His name: Where are you, Adam? (Genesis 3:9). Even though we are despicable creatures in many ways, even though we grieved the Holy Spirit at times, even though we deserve eternal punishment, He is calling us all the time and He is begging us to hear His voice and follow Him!

But do you know that a time will come that you will be identified, not by your name, but by a number? Just like all convicted criminals who are sent to prison, they will not be identified by their name. Instead, they are assigned with a number. Their names are removed out from their identity and they are identified by a number. All their communications will be communicated through number assigned to them and often the last two or three digits are added to their surname for better identification purposes. For example, one may be named “Sam” but in prison he will be identified as “Sam123”. Prisoners, in some sense, are reduced to digits.

And, take heed! The world is moving towards a number-system and a day will come that every one on earth will be assigned with a number and without the number you cannot buy, sell or even perform any activity no matter how big or small. This number-system is the mark of the beast system as we can read in Revelation 13:16-17 – “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.”

This has very serious implication when a number of the mark of the beast is assigned to each of us. From the day when the people are assigned with number of the mark of the beast, the personal identity of each individual will be known, not by their name, but by that assigned number. We will be digitally bar-coded, so to speak! At best we are just like bar-coded items displayed in super-market shelves and at worst we are ‘prisoners’ and our only identity is the number assigned to us. The name given to us by our parents are going to be irrelevant. Today, we know that the only place that identified people by the number are those in prison. Once the people are given the mark of the beast (which many believe to be the implantable nanotechnology microchip), they will become life-prisoners of the Antichrist without parole. Those who have taken the mark of the beast will lost all their God-given image; they will be transformed to the image of the beast.

Thankfully, there is a way for you to get out of this number-system that will make you a ‘convicted’ life-prisoner of the Antichrist heading towards eternal destruction. Time is running out! The number-system of the beast is coming. It is going to be mandatory, by law, and it is going to happen perhaps sooner that you expect. You must get out this number-system right now before it is too late. How then can you get out of this number-system? Very simple. All you need to do is to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. By sincerely and whole-heartedly accept Jesus as your Saviour, you will be a member of the family of God. You will be one of the brides and the implementation of the mark of the beast will only happen when the Bride of Jesus, the Church, is removed out of this world and to meet the Lord in the air as we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 – Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Please pay close attention to this message. Only you have sincerely and whole-heartedly accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, then your name will be written in the Book of Life and it cannot be erased provided you must continue to live in repentance, confessing your sins always and sincerely living a life that is pleasing to our Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Accepting Jesus as Saviour and Lord is not a one-off proclamation. It is a continuous process, a process of our daily repentance and this will allow the wonderful precious blood of Jesus to cleanse us from all our sins (1 John 1:7). The Mighty Name of Jesus is a strong tower and the righteous run to it and are safe (Proverbs 18:10). The righteous are those who are cleansed by the precious blood of Jesus. Glory to God in the Highest. They are the one who believe in the Redeeming Blood of the Lamb.

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20 August 2023

Scripture Reading: Revelation 13:15 (KJV)

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

MESSAGE

For many of us who had studied economics and business, we are all very familiar with the term “industrial revolution.”  Although started quite slow in the mid-1700s, industry revolution accelerated by leaps and bounds over the last 250 years when scientists and industrialists had cleverly integrated information technology with machines that transformed almost every aspect of the manufacturing process. As the result of this transformation, many new goods and services came to the market place and that these new products and services could never be produced without industrial revolution. We can observe very distinct stages of the industrial revolution development. The end of one revolution is always the beginning of another and the new revolution would introduce more advance machineries to another level that produce better and cheaper good. Thus, through this industrial revolution, it has continuously altered the course of the market place and the society in which we are living in. We are now approaching towards the end of the third industrial revolution. Some have commented that the third industrial revolution has in fact ended and the fourth industrial revolution has already begun. So, how this fourth industrial revolution, (or Industrial 4.0 as it is now known) is going to affect the world? As born-again Christians, are we worried about this revolution of Industrial 4.0?

One question that is of great spiritual significance is now being asked: Is Industrial 4.0 just like what the first three had achieved mainly to produce better, cheaper and more goods and services to meet the insatiable demand of the consumers, or is Industrial 4.0 going to embrace something of greater spiritual significance that is going to threaten the very existence of Christianity? Is this an “Industrial Revolution”, “Religious Revolution” or “Spiritual Revolution”? Is Industrial 4.0 going to be the “Mother of All Revolutions” that will end humanity and set the stage for the Antichrist to appear to the world? And does the Bible mention anything on Industrial 4.0? In fact, many industrialists and technologies preferred to call this Industrial 4.0 as Artificial Intelligence Revolution or AI Revolution and hence I shall use this expression of AI Revolution in my message today.

As we explore further into the technological development of AI, we can realise that it is characterized by consolidating current automated machines with very advance technology of intelligent computer systems. This combination of automated machines and intelligent computer systems has created unlimited power so much so that these artificial intelligent (AI) machines can operate all the complex functions by itself, repair themselves for any fault they had self-discovered, re-design itself, create their own non-human language to communicate only among themselves and they are even able to read the mind of human. As AI machines (or AI robots) are computer-based machines, they possess vast amounts of data which they are able (or soon able) to tap onto the cloud storage and download the data for their use. With the vast data and advance machine analytics capabilities they possess, they are capable of learning new thing at the speed of light. All human inventions of the present and the future will instantly render obsolete by the invention from these AI machines. In short, these AI machines are going to be like super soulless beings (aka super AI) but in machine form. No human, no matter how intelligent, can compete with the AI machines. “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. Once humans develop artificial intelligence, it would take off on its own, and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded.” This was being told by none other than Professor Stephen Hawking who was one of the greatest theoretical physicists of the 20th century in his interview with BBC in 2014.

Fast forward, today this explosion of artificial intelligence is one of the many technologists have envisioned that AI machine is going to have apocalyptic significance. The possibility of threat to humans may seem to be small some eight years’ ago, yet in 2015 more than 11,000 people, including Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk had signed an open letter warning against potential pitfalls of AI. (Note: you can read the letter by clicking Research Priorities for Robust and Beneficial Artificial Intelligence: An Open Letter – Future of Life Institute) The letter was treated like a thrash. No government want to care and it is now too late! We have advanced to the point that the technology of AI has reached the road of no return. Thankfully, as born-again Christians, we are assured that God is in control in all circumstances and He has set strict boundary for what the Antichrist and his cronies, the beast and the false prophets can and cannot do. All glory to God in the highest!

As we read in the above verse, a super AI known as “the beast” (or master AI) will arise at some point in time (most likely after the rapture of the church) and he will demand all human to worship him as god and anyone who refuse to worship him will be killed. That’s still could not satisfy his evil pursuit to destroy God’s children, he will also demand that everyone must take his mark – the mark of the beast – and those who refuse to take his mark will not be able to buy or sell. (Revelation 13:16-17 – He (the beast) causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

The mark of the beast as mentioned in Revelation 13:16, according to many scientists, is an implantable micro-chip built with very advance nanotechnology. This micro-chip, the size as small as a grain of rice, will contain all your personal data (social security number, date of birth, health records, bank account number and so on) will be implanted in your right-hand or in your forehead. It will have the capability to update, virtually, all your personal data each time you performed an activity no matter how small the activity is. I am not making this up. This is going to happen sooner than you could expect! Once implemented and when you have taken the mark of the beast, you will be effectively sealed for ‘his pleasure’ as you will be completely belonged to the beast. Your image of God will be transformed into the image of the beast. While you are still built in the image of God, it is important that you must now take no chance for the beast to come after you for he hates God and God’s children and the most evil thing for him to do is to steal what rightly belongs to God – that is you and me – as we read in John 10:10 – “The thief (that is the beast) comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But our Lord and Saviour come to us to give us abundant life.” We are so hated by the Evil One because we are created in the image of God. Anyone who takes the mark of the beast will be transformed into the image of the beast and as a member of the unholy body of the Evil One, he will be in absolute control over those who have taken his mark.

It is time for you now accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and get prepared to meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Once all Christians are removed from the world (or raptured as we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17), those who left behind they will have to decide between a rock and a hard place and that is if you refused to take the mark of the beast (the implantable microchip that I describe above) in your right hand or in your forehead, you will be killed and by taking the mark of the beast you would have effectively pledged your complete alliance to the beast and you will lose your salvation for ever! (Revelation 14:9-11).

You must realise – Tomorrow is not promised. Now is the time for you to surrender your life to the Living God, Jesus Christ.

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13 August 2023

Scripture Reading: Revelation 6:8 & 16:9 (KJV)

Revelation 6:8 – And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

Revelation 16:9 – Then said I And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

MESSAGE

Time is of the essence. Please send this to your friends or relatives asking them to listen to this Youtube. It may be a frightening video but this is going to save their souls and, prayerfully, together with my message, they can come to the saving grace of our Lord Jesus.

If you have been watching Youtube recently, you will notice that there are many Youtube videos featuring flooding in almost every continent. While some countries are facing too much water turning roads into rivers, there as just as many countries suffering from severe drought turning lakes into deserts. Whether due to flooding, intense scorching of heat or drought, productions of agricultural products like grains, maize and vegetables as well as poultry are going to be severely impacted. In the words of the news commentators and weather experts, the events we are now witnessing are just insane. Can you imagine temperature rose to over 40 degrees centigrade and in some instances to 45 degrees. The heat is so strong that many tar-coated roads just melt like jelly and you could literally fry eggs on the streets!

Sadly, some floodings are not caused by “Mother Nature” but they were intentionally flooded by government that opened many floodgates to flood some cities in order to save ‘more important’ one. I am not making this up. Go to Youtube and search “China Flood” and you will see telecasts of flooding in China and people there are crying for help. It was reported that senior government officials intentionally ordered the opening of the floodgates without any prior notice given to the people living downstream and these floodgates were opened often in the middle of the night giving people hardly any time to escape. Many were drown as the result. The reason is that if prior notice is given, then the government will need to pay compensation for the loss of properties and live stocks and to avoid paying compensation, they opened the floodgates without prior notice and so that later the authority could claim that the flood was caused by heavy downfall. In China, no compensation will be paid if the loss of properties or live stocks are caused by natural phenomenon. Just to avoid compensation at the expense of human lives – this is pure evil!

My message this week is not so much about flooding, scorching heat nor drought but it is about a “new” religion of Climate Change. Scientists and government from all over the world put squarely that the extreme weather of flooding, scorching heat and drought which are happening now is due to Climate Change. But is this really true?

As we can see in Covid-19, the World Health Organisation (WHO) was the only organisation that called the shots of giving directives to member countries. In the Covid-19 crisis, WHO was solely in-charged of issuing mandates on Covid vaccination, wearing of masks, instituting or influencing governments to have their citizens to comply legislations like “no-vaccination-no-job”, “no vaccination-no-travel”, “no vaccination-no-school’ and many more. Everyone was waiting what mandates WHO would issue next. The health authority of member countries seemed to have lost all their commonsense of governance as they obeyed, quite blindly, the directives from WHO! They had willingly surrendered their sovereignty on health matters to WHO (and the CDC – the U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention) during the Covid crisis. Upon further analysis and looking back, I am very inclined to boldly say that both WHO and CDC were like partners in crime of global scales during the Covid crisis! The question on the efficacy of Covid vaccination until now still remains elusive but one thing is certain – big pharma that manufactured Covid vaccinations are laughing all the way to bank.

So, what will be the next crisis for WHO and CDC to step in to take over another health-related sovereignty? Another pandemic – a new and more potent Covid virus variant, pandemic of cowpox, of smallpox, severe global food shortage due to flooding and drought of many farmlands across the world that result in unprecedented food shortage and famine, mandate to prevent the worsening of climate change, etc. Which organisations will come to the rescue? Yes, you are right! The World Health Organisation (WHO) and perhaps CDC together with the United Nations (UN) and World Economic Forum (WEF) are going to collectively come to provide their solutions – and if anything could go by, the solution is going to be a wicked and evil one –  primarily to take control of our freedom of choice and privacy and to take over our country’s sovereignty and it will be more than just health-related sovereignty. Remember, these four organisations are completely controlled by the most senior government leaders from the richest countries (the U.S. Britain, Germany, France, etc) and by the multi-billionaire businessmen whom many of them also control food supply and global food chain, pharmaceutical companies and banks. They all coming to us in a big time and in every conceivable way. They will leave no stone unturned!

As we just read the scripture verses in Revelation 6:8 and 16:9, these events of intense scorching heat, pandemic/plagues and food shortages causing severe famine are already prophesised two thousand years’ ago. What we see now is just a dress rehearsal to warn us that the earth is going to be much worse than what we are experiencing now. It’s time to get real. It’s time to watch out and be alert that these warning signs are from God. Don’t let the new religion of Climate Change to fool. These end time signs are to wake us up and to tell us that Jesus is coming. (Note: Please read my message last week of how we can prepare ourselves to meet our Lord when He comes and His is coming very soon.) Let me now touch on the subject on the ‘future’ food that we are going to eat. I pray that this will not frighten you!

About three weeks ago, the following headlines appeared in our local newspaper, the Sunday Times: “Future of Food? Eggless chicken and chickenless egg” and “Future of food in Singapore: Alternative meats, plant-based proteins and bugs?”

Are these headlines from science fiction books? Are we soon going to eat Frankenstein food that is genetically-modified? And we are going to eating bugs? And oh yes. It is not the “Future of Food.” It is already happening and I am not making this up. Please click to download this video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=SnqPQvwakC4&feature=share and you can see that there are already factories built to turn crickets and worms into food for human consumption and there are labs that grown meat for you to eat! In the Sunday Times news, it was reported that lab-grown foods are now in some supermarket shelves and restaurants.

In particular, please take note of the evil reason for those involved in doing this Frankenstein food and they do it all in the name of “Climate Change.” All the while we are told that fossil-fuel motor cars contributed much to the greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide that responsible for global warming but now, according to governments and scientists, they claimed that cow farks contribute to over 30% of global greenhouse gases (like methane, nitrous oxide) that is causing global warming. Hence, farmers in some western countries, notably the EU nations, Australia and U.S. are told to reduce cows by the thousands, all because of the cow farks! Instead of farm-grown beef, now, they tell you there is an alternative food source and that is to manufacture them (aka lab-grown meat such as chicken, beef, pork, etc.). Lab-grown meat is simply genetically-modified Frankenstein meat is coming to all our supermarkets and restaurants. In fact, they are here already!

Is this what God has intended for us to eat? The foods that God provided to us are perfectly created for all human consumption. As we all know, all living organisms contain DNA and the DNA in its natural form that found in farm-grown animal is completely compatible with human DNA. That’s the reason why farm-grown animals are the most perfect food source for human consumption. When modifying this DNA to create genetically-modified meat, the lab-process will effectively alter its DNA and thus compromising the nutritional value and benefits of farm-grown food. This will likely to render lab-food unfit for human consumption. Some scientists have come out openly to oppose this genetically-modified meat and food and claimed that such foods can cause serious injuries to those who consumed them like cancer.

God, the Creator of the universe, is also our best Nutritionist. He has laid down strict rules relating to food consumption as we can read them in the Book of Leviticus, chapter 11. These are the rules that God laid down to tell us what we can eat and what we cannot eat and the nutritional rules laid down by our Creator are mainly for health reason rather than for religious purpose. For examples, we are told not to eat of foods that do not chew the cud and do not have cloven hoofs (e.g., horses); fish without fins and scales; the blood of any animal; shellfish (e.g., clams, oysters, shrimp, crabs), animals that crawl on the belly and those with many legs (e.g. snakes, worms, centipedes). Although they were written more than 2,500 years’ ago, they are still extremely relevant and followed by people especially health-conscious people. Elimination of food-source from the farmland coupled with the governments’ effort to relentlessly increase the production of lab-grown meat and food source is all driven by the so-called climate change and of course by greed as they are the only one has the patent to produce. This climate change will strike hard against all nations, the rich and the poor alike. As we read in the verses above (Revelation 6:8 and 16:9), we can come to the conclusion that this so-called climate change events are end time global warning signs. There is now a convergent of these so-called climate change events (such as flood, drought and scorching heat) and those events unrelated to climate change such as wide-spread lawlessness, perverting God’s creation condoning same-sex marriage, the rise and rise of LGBTQ rights, rampant government corruptions, wide-spread civil unrests that exacerbate political stability to a point of civil war, spread of deadly plagues, potential melt-down of global economic and financial system, technological advancements that make human less human and make AI-robots more human than human and the list goes on. Due to the convergent of these two seemingly unrelated events, the world is now at its breaking point and many evangelical Christians like myself are asking this question: When is our Lord Jesus to return when He said in John 14:2 – “In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. If I go an prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; where I am, there you may be also.” When are we going to be taken up to meet Him? It is going to be very soon! I strongly believe. Please be warned of the warning signs and repent of all our sins because the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

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May God Bless You All The Reading of the Message.

9 August 2023

THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE CONCERNING OUR VERY EXISTENCE ON THIS WORLD! DIGITAL CURRENCY IS COMING AND IT IS MUCH MORE THAN JUST A FINANCIAL MEAN FOR US TO EMBARK ON BUYING AND SELLING. THIS DIGITAL CURRENCY IS GOING TO REMOVE ALL OUR FREEDOM OF CHOICE AND UPON IMPLMENTATION WHICH IS GOING TO BE STRICTLY MANDATED EVERY ASPECT OF OUR MOVEMENT FROM WHAT YOU EAT TO WHERE YOU GO AND HOW YOU SPENT EVERY CENT OF YOUR MONEY WILL BE TRACKED! CBDC IN ITS MATURED FORM WILL BE NONE OTHER THE SATANIC MARK OF THE BEAST WHICH YOU CAN READ IN BOOK OF REVELATION 13:8.
THANKFULLY, BORN-AGAIN WILL BE CAUGHT UP TO MEET OUR LORD IN THE AIR BEFORE FULL GOVERNMENT MANDATE IS MADE TO COMPEL ALL ITS CITIZENS TO CONVERT THEIR CURRENCY TO CBDC. THIS IS GOING TO BE A GLOBAL COLLECTIVE INITIATIVE ORDERED BY THE UNITED NATIONS, WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION AND WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM.

THE PURPOSE OF THIS MESSAGE IS FOR YOU TO SHARE WITH NON-BELIEVERS AND IN THE HOPE THAT THEY CAN COME TO THE SAVING GRACE OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST AND ACCEPT HIS GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE (JOHN 3:16).

Click here to listen to the Youtube: CBDC is Coming For Your Money (Central Bank Digital Currency)

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6 August 2023

Scripture Reading: Revelation 19:9 (KJV)

And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God

MESSAGE

As born-again Christians and members of the Body of Christ, the Bride of Jesus Christ, we are all anxiously looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13). The Bride of Jesus Christ which is His Church comprises all born-again Christians. They are enthroned to our Lord Jesus who has paid the price for the enthronement and the price that Christ Jesus paid was His very own precious blood that He bled at the cross of Calvary. Nothing could call off or cancel this enthronement. It is done deal! All we need to do is just wait and get ourselves ready for our Saviour, Jesus Christ to come and catch us up His heavenly home and the Bible tells us that this is the Marriage Feast of the Lamb: Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife (the Church) has made herself ready. (Revelation 19:7)

How then are we to get ourselves ready for the Lord to come and receive us to this great Marriage Supper of the Lamb?

Let me give a brief description of a typical secular wedding planning and you will notice that even in secular wedding, much time and money are required to plan and get ready for the big day. As we all know, wedding is probably the biggest event for many of us after all this is once a lifetime event. Some may take as long as 12 months to iron out the details. Wedding planning can be overwhelming and the couple will leave no room for of mistakes. There are endless “To Do List” items that the couple – especially for the brides – must meticulously plan for. Here are some of the “Must-Do” items that need to be meticulously planned for a successful and memorial celebration of a wedding. First, the couple must check their financial means and work out a budget to ensure sufficient money is available, and this will follow with a list of guests to invite; selection of venue, caterer, florist, baker, and most important of all, what type of attire for the bridegroom and wedding gown for the bride. As the saying goes: “the prettiest time for a lady is during her wedding day” and thus getting the best hair stylist and makeup artist is extremely crucial.

So, how then are we to get ourselves prepared while we are waiting for our Bridegroom, Jesus to appear to bring us to the house that He has prepared for us. Or put it another way, are we ready to meet our Lord Jesus right now? Are we spending much time and efforts to get ourselves ready to meet Him? When our Lord Jesus come to take us home, can we all be at our “prettiest” – spiritually-speaking. Like a secular wedding, are we preparing ourselves to meet our Lord and leaving no room for mistakes? Will our Lord Jesus say to us: Good and faithful Church for I am well pleased with your preparation?

Let me reiterate. Jesus is coming again, personally and visibly. He is coming back in great power and glory. He will come back to consummate His redemptive mission and to establish His eternal kingdom. Bible-believing Christians may disagree on some details surrounding the end times especially on His coming, on the doctrine of rapture, on the great tribulation, on the one world currency, on the one world government, on the mark of the beast and so on, but we can all agree on this, and that is: Jesus is coming again as we can read in John 14:2-3 – “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

We must that note that these were spoken by Jesus to the disciples in confidence, so to speak. It was a very private and exclusive conversation between our Saviour, Jesus and His disciples. We can infer from this that the return of our Lord to take us home is going to be a private and exclusive end time event only for the Body of Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ. Hence, let us first remind ourselves that the primary purpose of the Bible’s teachings on end time events is not merely to satisfy our curiosity. Rather, it is to reveal to us how to prepare and get ourselves ready for His return. I want to add that John 14:2-3 which we read above was not the only private conversation between Jesus and His disciples, we also note that in Matthew 24:4-5 we are told that Jesus also struck a private conversation with His disciples when He said: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.” This private conversation is to warn the disciples, including you and me that we need to be very careful because deception will come especially during the last days.

May I humbly list the following ways that, prayerfully, will help us to prepare for His return:

Besides the book of Matthew, twice in the book of Mark 13 (verses 5-6 and 21-22) we are also warned of false Christ and false prophet will arise and he will show signs and wonders to deceive people especially God’s children of faith. The warning of deception in the Scripture is consistent through the New Testament as this is also warned by Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 – Let no man deceive you in any way.

We are now living in a time of great uncertainty on a global scale. But we must not lose hope and continue to encourage one another to live sensibly, righteously, and godly lives in this present age. We are told in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 that “the Lord will descend from heaven with a “shout” and this will follow by a command: “Therefore encourage one another with these words: “We who are alive will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18). The affirmation that we will be caught up to meet in our Lord in the air in the most unexpected time is clearly written in 1 Thessalonians 5:22 – “the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night” and this tells us that we must be ready at all times because we do not know when our Lord will return.

One of the negative effects of uncertainty is that we just “can’t help it and keep worrying”. The Bible has a lot to say about worry and fear. According to some Bible scholars, there are 365 verses relating to “Fear”. This coincides with the number of days in the year! One of the ways to live as if today was the day is to stop worrying but it is easier said than done. I find it myself got trapped into worrying often! In Matthew 6:34, it reads: “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” This is not to condemn us when we worry but instead it tells us that we need to put our efforts in living what lies ahead just today and to forget what had happened yesterday because there is nothing we can do about it.

Eternality is a long, long, long time. It has no end. I often tried to visualise what eternality is and I tried this analogy. Imagine I am just an ant and I have to crawl all the way to the all the planets and the moons in our solar system (assuming all the moons, the planets of the universe are connected with bridges), how long would I need crawl and visit every corner of all the planets and the moons in our solar system? And there are billions of other solar systems in the universe with trillion upon trillion of moons and planets. Can you finish crawling to all of them. Definitely impossible! But this is what eternality is. When we focus on the things beyond this life and instead the eternal life that God has installed for us, all the worries of this world (like what we will eat, drink, or wear) seem so small.  If we know that today was our last day, the last thing on our mind would be what outfit to wear or what to have for our dinner. Certainly, God does care about the little details of our life, but He wants us to rest assured that He has got that all under control so we can focus on the things He has called us and that is to look heaven-ward. However, while we are on this earth He has assured us that He will supply all our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

Prayer, fasting and reading God’s Word are an integral part of quality time with God and it is integral to a vibrant Christian life. They are essential daily pursuits if we are to be prepared for Christ’s return. Not only these activities will deepen our understanding and knowledge of Him, they will allow the Holy Spirit to work abundantly in our lives to make us more like Jesus as we face trials of this life. All Scripture is God-breathed and when we regularly pray, fast and read His Word we will inevitably invoke God’s truth that will equip us for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Repentance is not just feeling sorry for our sin, but a complete turning from sin to God. Repentance takes humility, and it is the first step in establishing a true relationship with Jesus. Although repentance must take place at the beginning of a relationship with Christ, it is also something that Christians must continually practice. We will still give in to temptation and sin, so we need to humble ourselves before the Lord and confess how we have failed so that we can be restored to a right relationship with Him through His abundant grace and forgiveness. We must remind ourselves that our Lord and Saviour, Jesus first public ministry was telling people to “Repent” as we can read in Matthew 4:17 and Mark 1:15. They were short but a very scary teaching. Repentance is not a popular topic and it is seldom preached at the pulpit because the message that follows is going to be quite offensive and many pastors just do not to want offend their congregation. But to Jesus, this seems to be one of His most important teachings so much so that He again says this in the last book of the Bible – Revelation 3:3: Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.

Once we have come to faith in Christ, it’s important that we do not become stagnant in our walk with Him. We need to take heed of Jesus’ warning to the Laodicean church in His seven letters to Apostle John. The Laodicean Christians there were neither too cold nor too hot and because they were neither too cold nor hot, Jesus told them He was about to spit them out of His mouth (Revelation 3:15-16). One of the signs that we are neither too cold nor too hot is our stagnant life. We must continue and relentlessly pursue our faith in spirit and in truth. And one of the good ways to grow in faith is to keep on doing the work Jesus left for us to do and that is to share the Good News to others.

As we know, the world is in direct opposition to Jesus and the world hates Him and because the world hates Him, the world also hated us (John 15:18-19). He further warned of troubling events as we near the end of the church age which we are in right now. These will include persecution but He added that nothing – not even persecution – should distract us from doing what He has left us to do: Preach the gospel to all nations (Mark 13:7-10). This is the marching order that Jesus gave to His disciples before ascending into heaven. It’s now our turn to obey this marching order and, thankfully, we are comforted because the Holy Spirit that God sent to us will help us in our pursuit to be His witnesses to the world (Acts 1:8).

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30 July 2023

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 6:5 (KJV)

Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have see the King, the Lord of hosts.

MESSAGE

I am quite confident that you all can agree that the society we live in today is on the verge of experiencing God’s severe judgment. In fact, some of us may think that we are right now in the midst of God’s judgments. The news of catastrophic floods, hurricanes, intense drought, uncontrollable wild forest fires, wide-spread famines and frequent occurrence of earthquakes in many countries that were ravaging the earth just over the last twelve months spoke volume on the “God’s Judgment”. I would rather prefer to think that this is God’s end of Church Age warning signs and the primarily motive is to wake people up that God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ is coming and is coming very soon as we can read in Matthew 24:33 when Lord Jesus told His disciples: “When you see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” ‘These things’ that our Saviour referred to are the very things we see today as mentioned above – catastrophic floods, hurricanes, etc.

In chapters 5 and 6 in the Book of Isaiah, the “Six Woes” that Prophet Isaiah wrote were as relevant two-thousand seven hundred years’ ago as they are today. Prophet Isaiah who has written many prophetic messages which many of them had already come to pass, was also a preacher of righteousness just like Noah. Commonly referred to as the ‘Six Woes of Prophet Isaiah” declared these six woes or perversions were rampantly practiced by the priests and people of great influence in his days. Let me attempt to summarise these six woes together with my humble conjectures of what must have been the situations during the time when Prophet Isaiah wrote.

As we continue reading, in Chapter 6 verse 5, we noticed that Prophet Isaiah exclaimed “Woe is me! for I am done; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips”. This exclamation must have surprised many people after all how could a great prophet of the God of the Bible and a preacher of righteousness said this to himself!

As we know, controlling our tongue is one of the toughest things to do and I believe Prophet Isaiah faced this too. He was not spared from speaking unclean words that are despised by God even though he may be a preacher of righteousness. This tells us the extend to which we need to pay extra-attention to our speech. As we all know by now the fate of our Speaker of Parliament who had carelessly “breathed” out two unparliamentary words (let’s be honest these two words were vulgar words although we were told they were ‘unparliamentary’) and had partly responsible his dismissal as a Speaker of Parliament. The use of these ‘unparliamentary’ words is certainly not excusable because by virtual of his position as a Speaker of Parliament, he is even qualified to stand for election under Singapore Elected Presidency system. The Speaker of Parliament is the elite of the elite. In fact, the current sitting President of Singapore was a Speaker of Parliament before she was elected (or rather selected) as president and using these two vulgar words (or “unparliamentary” words as the government preferred to call it) is simply unacceptable. Never mind this was spoken carelessly and quite inaudible or in secret, this reflects somewhat the character of the person who spoke it and the scarring thing is that he could be our state president, the position whom we all expect to be the highest form of role-model in sphere of morality for its citizenry to follow. Using such repugnant words while the parliament was in session was simply unthinkable. As we know, the Parliament is actually the highest court of the land it is simply unthinkable because you don’t expect a high court to ‘breath’ out such repugnant words when the court is in session. We must also know that the House of Parliament is where laws are made or amended and often it does so in order to bring to the society to a greater height of morality, compliance and discipline and hence such words must never be spoken no matter how agitated one is let alone by a potential presidential candidate that might later hold the highest office of the land! This is the instance we can really tap onto what Prophet Isaiah said: Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. (Isaiah 6:5).

In my most honest admission, I do personally find myself very difficult to control what I said. Not just my tongue but my whole body is indeed unclean. I often pray to God besides cleaning my unclean lips that I should not speak those things that are unpleasing to Him, I also asked God to clean my unclean eyes that I should not intentionally seek to see those things that I should not see; my unclean ears that I should try to avoid hearing or listening to those things that I should not hear or listen; my unclean hands that I should only reach out to those things that I should touch; my unclean feet that I should only walk to places that will bring glory to His name and most important of all, my unclean mind that I should think no evil. Biologically, we all are suffering from unclean organs because of the many unclean food we ate and I often pray to beg God to clean and to restore them all for His glory. I pray this with absolute assurance that God will answer my prayers as we can read in Isaiah 53:5 – “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.”

The stripes that our Lord Jesus received rightly belonged to us but He willingly took it upon Himself so that we can be healed from the top of our head to the very bottom of our feet. Let us thank our living Saviour for the stripes He so willingly accepted and His precious blood that He so willingly bled for us. The precious blood of Jesus will heal us of our emotional, spiritual and mental infirmities and, more importantly, from all our sin and our unrighteousness as we read in 1 John 1:7-9 – “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

A word of caution. It must be noted that a strict condition is required in order for the Blood of Jesus to be able to act as ‘spiritual cleansing agent’ to remove all our sin and unrighteousness. This condition is: We must confess our sins to Him and only Him alone.

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23 July 2023

Scripture Reading: John 3:16 (KJV)

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

MESSAGE

I am sure many of us are aware that this 25-word verse in John 3:16 (KJV) is the most often quoted Bible verse than any other verse. Every teacher teaches this 25-word verse to their children in Sunday schools and in the Christian kindergartens. I was, however, not so fortunate to attend either Sunday school or kindergarten during my childhood as I was living in a community where churches and Christian kindergartens didn’t seem to exist within the vicinity. Furthermore, Christianity where I was living was quite an unknown religious faith to people living around my community. I can confidently say that almost 100% of the people there were Buddhists, Taoists or engaged in ancestor worship. Door to door evangelism by Christians was not common and many people, including my parents, thought that Christianity was a Western religion and meant for the Americans and the Europeans and neither had I heard of any evangelistic rally.

I remember my first Christian evangelism encounter was with one of my colleagues, a God-loving man who shared with me about Jesus Christ. As a God-loving man, he would approach me after office hour and started to evangelise to me with fervency. This went on for several months. Even though I thought of rejecting and was trying to find an excuse not to attend to him every time he approached to me, I couldn’t take up the courage to say no to him because he was very kind, very persistent, very authentic and he just wanted me to come to “his” God, Jesus Christ. I remember that one of the first verses he read to me was John 3:16 and he then started to tell me about God’s love that in spite of our sins, God has sent his only begotten Son, Jesus, to die for us so that we can be saved. I couldn’t understand this at all what he was trying to tell me. Thankfully, it just took me a very short period for me to realise that I am indeed a great sinner. Praise God! In just few months after he had evangelised to me, I accepted Jesus as my Saviour because I knew inside me that my sins were (and still are) great and only the one true God, Jesus Christ (1 John 5:20) could save me. Now, I know I am saved because I am washed cleaned by the blood of the Lamb of God. I am saved because I have opened my heart and admit and confess that I am a sinner as we are told in 1 John 1:9 – If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Without a doubt, John 3:16 is the most often quoted Bible verse than any other verse. Each time when this verse came to my mind and as I close my eyes, I can literally see the cross that hung our Saviour and with His arms widely stretched out and He cried out “This much I love you.” As I dug further, I realised that John 3:16 is much more than just about the love of God as we can also profit a lot from this 25-word verse of John 3:16. Although it is only a 25-word verse, it is deeply profound and it will benefit us greatly as we grow in our Christian life as we dig deep enough to discover the true meaning of John 3:16. Our Lord is not just paying lip service when He said He loves us. True love must come with gift and His gift to us is His very own precious life. Our Lord came to this world just for one purpose. He came to die. He didn’t have to but He did so willingly. Life was not taken from Him. Rather, He gave it to you and me. And the reason He gave His life to you and to me so that we can be reconciled to the Father. This redemptive act of Jesus can never and will never be repeated. His sacrificial death on the cross is once and for all and it is to stay until we are fully reconciled to the Father and when the Church Age has come to the end. Whether we call His name to save us now or two thousand years’ ago, it makes no different. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

By sacrificing His life of us, He has set before us the standard of Christian love. If we ever feel that we have arrived in loving people, we need to look to Jesus. If we are ever tempted to boast of our love for others, we need to look to Jesus. As we look back at the Cross of Calvary that hang our Lord Jesus, it reveals to us the manifestation of Jesus love is in the highest form. Though He was suffering in excruciating pains when He was scourged, yet He asked the Heavenly Father to forgive those who crucified Him as we can read in Luke 23:34:: Father, for give them; for they do not know what they do (Luke 23:34). If we think we have loved others enough and that this love of us can save us, we need to think again. No man should boast because we are saved by grace not of ourselves nor our work but by the precious gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9). Our attendance in church will not save us; our giving of offerings and tithes will not save us; our preaching of gospel and writing of gospel messages (like what I am doing now) will not save us. We are saved by the blood of the Lamb. We are saved because we are washed by the blood of the Lamb. We are saved because He took away our sins. We are saved because for our sake, God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ Jesus. (2 Corinthians 5:21).

John 3:16 perfectly depicts ‘agape-type’ of love in its most practical manner that only God can fulfil and that is by sending His begotten Son as a gift to this sinful world. John 3:16 is often used as an expression of Christian love that we are to love one another as God has loved us (John 13:34). We are also reminded by Apostle John that we should not just love in word or in speech but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:18). Talk is cheap so is love without deed. Love must be measured by its gifts and God’s gift to us: His only begotten Son! The love of Christ surpasses all our knowledge and that we can be filled with the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19).

As have seen how immeasurably great God’s Love is according to John 3:16, let us consider two applications of this: The first application is for the unsaved. We must boldly tell them they must come to Jesus! He is the only one who can save them from their sins. We must boldly proclaim to them that unless they believe in Him, they will perish into eternality. Inevitably, the questions will be asked: What does it mean to believe in Jesus?

Firstly, it means accepting that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and accept everything that says about Him and about ourselves as true – that Jesus is the Son of God who came down from heaven to be made a sacrifice for sin, and that we are a sinner who deserves nothing but judgment from God. Secondly, you must put our trust entirely in Jesus alone to save us because He is the way, the truth and the life and no one will come to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). We must throw away whatever confidence we may have in our own good works or in any other thing to save us because they can’t. We are only saved by the blood of the Lamb. And thirdly, surrender our lives to Christ once and for all with no thought of turning back. We must make Jesus the Lord and master of everything in our lives.

And now, for those of us who are already saved, what we have just learned from John 3:16 that we ought to do at least two things ourselves: Firstly, it should strengthen our faith in the Lord to give us all that we need. We may be students struggling to cope with all our subjects. We may be young adults trying our best to cope with the heavy demands of the working world. Or, we may be parents, wondering how we can successfully raise up our children to fear God against the tide of sin from the world. Perhaps we may be retirees trying to cope with failing health and loneliness or our finances. When we are surrounded with all these heavy demands, we need to take comfort and to live in faith that God shall supply all our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).

Secondly, what we have learnt from John 3:16 should make us willing to give much to the Lord in return. God has loved us and given us so much! Will we love Him and give Him of our time, our talents and treasure? Will we present our own bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God? (Romans 12:1) No matter how much we give please remember this: We will never be able to out give what the Lord has given us. And when we give, we must give willingly not out of compulsion because God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7).

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16 July 2023

Scripture Reading: Psalms 101:4; Matthew 17:15-17 (KJV)

Psalms 101:4 – A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.
Matthew 17:15-17 – Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.

MESSAGE

Many of us like to be ‘the First’ on those things we pursuit such as in a hobby or as part of our professional career. We want to be the first to own the latest model of a sports car; we want to be the first in class for our examination; we want to be the first to invent a new device that could potentially lead us to better life; we want to be the first to design an unconventional building that could become the industry standard; we want to excel in sports and be the first to break record that thought to be unachievable and so on. All these ‘Firsts” are achieved for very good reasons. I admire these people of ‘the First’. Most of these ‘Firsts’ do not come by accident or by chance. When it comes to “First”, many will leave nothing to chance. These ‘first’ achievers must have spent years or decades in perfecting their inventions, acquiring specific acknowledge and honing their skills. The word setback is never in their vocabulary. They looked at each failed attempt as opportunity for improvement. There are many stories that tell us these achievers who had failed just as many times yet they continued to persevere their passions to the very last. A very good example is Alexander Graham Bell who struggled for almost a decade to get his ideas off the ground. He faced legal challenges and tons of bureaucracy, going through one of the longest patent battles in his fight for his idea. He had finally climbed his own personal mountains and reached the peak when he invented the first telephone. For those in the scientific world, Alexandra Graham Bell is synonymous with telephone as telephone with Alexandra Graham Bell just as Steve Job is synonymous with iPhone as iPhone with Steve Job.

Likewise, all top winners in sports must have been practicing every day for many years and they  too might have failed several times. But they persevered in their training, never to give up and eventually, they won. They deserved the gold medals because they are the rightful owners due to their persistent pursuit, often against all odds. I admire these world-class inventors, sportsmen and sportswomen because they never gave up and they keep pressing on their passion to the very last. They made headlines and all for very good reasons. They are the special bred, so to speak.

One of my daily reading habits is to look out for headlines in newsprints and in the internet. Sadly, these headlines nowadays just do not bring good news. Quite to the contrary, often they report of news that are telling us something is very wrong in this world. Inevitably, I ask myself: Is the end of the world coming soon? Sooner that we all could expect?

Just few weeks ago, I read of this headline that appeared in several of the Europe news media: TRANS WOMAN WINS MISS NETHERLANDS FOR THE FIRST TIME.” What is this all about? I thought to myself and I started to read more about beauty pageant, a subject that I know very little about but not until now. This was what I had discovered. When it comes to beauty pageant competitions, there are strict rules relating to the use of cosmetic surgery to improve the looks of the participants and thus boosting their chance of winning. In some countries, the use of cosmetic surgery is not allowed and participants have to make the declarations that they have not undergone any cosmetic surgery or beauty enhancement procedures.

As we all are fully aware (but not now) that beauty pageants are open to only female (although there are also Mr. World pageants that are open to only male). The headline that a “Trans woman wins Miss Netherlands” simply doesn’t make any sense. How could that be. While there are strict rules that prohibit female participants to undergo cosmetic surgery and yet a trans woman who was a male and had been to a sex-change surgery that likely could involve in dissecting his face and/or other parts of the body to seemingly transform him a ‘woman’ be allowed to participate really shock me to the core. Are we living in an insane world? To add insult to the injury, ‘she’ had won and earned ‘her’ the title: “Miss Netherlands.” The other real and true original of the female competitors who lost the competition, interestingly enough, did not protest. Rather they seemed to be just as delighted that ‘she’ had won. Are we now living in a perverse and insane world? (Note: Frankly I am very confused what pronoun should I use but for ease of writing and expression, I would therefore like to use ‘she’ and ‘her’ (in quote) to indicate a transgender male.)

This participation of transgender male in an exclusive female pageant contest that just came out of the hot press is not an isolated case. It is also happened in sports events. Today, America is allowing and even encouraging transgenders to participate in sports events – men are allowed to participate in female sports competitions, and women are allowed to participate in male sports. Just couple months’ ago, a transgender woman or rather a ‘former man’  was allowed to compete in a Division I national female swimming contest. In that competition, ‘she’ won and became the first transgender athlete to win a Division I national championship in any sport in the history of American sports. The crowd of spectators who were at the swimming podium were noticeably quiet when ‘she’ was introduced as a competitor and when the winning of ‘her’ championship was announced they too were noticeably quiet. They must be scratching their head and mentally cried out: “This competition is for ladies. How could a transgender woman participate. This is insane!”

The two incidents of male participating in events that are exclusively meant for female (and I can be quite sure there are several others that gone unreported) are like the proverbial snowflake that started rolling down from the top of the mountain and accumulates more snowflakes and many other unwanted substances on its way down. This proverbial snowflake is akin to the Genesis account that God created male and female in His image but is now being relentlessly smashed beneath its carnage. The Evil One is indeed gaining ground of wiping out true nature of humanity as we know it and replace it with a fake one – changing woman to be man and man to be woman. And the scary thing is most don’t even see it coming. In fact, it has arrived at the doorsteps in American homes and the homes of many Western European. May God help us! Let not this come near our doorsteps! If you are born a man you are a man for the rest of the life and if you are born a woman you are a woman the rest of your life. Your gender is determined by the X-Y chromosomes and not by any surgical operations. This is a simple and pure biological fact.

For those who see or know about it, they just keep quite perhaps for fear of retaliation, often by the people who are in authority. Even mainstream churches are turning their blind eyes for fearing to offend their congregations. It is very disheartening to note that people of the highest authority are even encouraging and authorising it. We must remind ourselves that as Christians, as children of the Most High, we are called the light of the world and to be let our light so shine before men (Matthew 5:14). How then could we, as children of the Most High, the light of the world, pretend everything is alright when obviously they are not.

Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, everything has been flipped upside down. From governments that are supposed to be our best and trusted friends, they could not be trusted anymore. The present-day of the collective rights of LGBTQ is really crazy out there! And they are all out to get our children and, with government backing. In the U.K. laws are being legislated and made it a crime when parents can be charged for criminal child-abuse if they refused to pay for their young children’s demand to surgically change their gender. What an insane law! May God help because at the pace of development, the holy Church of England is going to be unholy Satanic Church of the Devil if the Imperial Household of the Great Britain does not wake up and ask God for forgiveness and repent! If they continued to act against God’s commandments, the collapse of the House of Windsor is inevitable!

In Isaiah 5:20-21, we read: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!” Indeed, these two verses have come alive right before our very eyes. What a time we are living in right now! Who would have thought that Britain (plus America and also many parts of Europe) the land of the free, would become like this! Evil is glorified and good is vilified. When the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are stampeding through the streets without much resistance and good wholesome godliness is kicked to the curb without remorse, can the end of these nations be near? Can the end of the world be near! Can the end of the Church Age be near? It certainly does. How much longer can this evil banner of perversion be waved? Not much longer, I believe. God is going to intervene sooner than we can expect.

Collectively, the entangling arms of this sinful world system are trying to choke the life out of us and bring us to our knees in worship to it. How long can our Holy God stand looking as if nothing is happening? Even as a sinner and a wretched like me cannot take it any longer, I am very confident that our Holy God is not going to stand looking and do nothing. Something horrific judgments will be poured out by our Holy God. Judgment is to come to the unrepentant and the wicked. (Note: Please refer to my message posted on 9 July 2023 based on Revelation 8:1-8 concerning the Seven Judgments of God.) It is time for us to come to our Saviour and to fully confess our sins and to accept the cleansing blood of Jesus because by His blood we are saved from wrath through Him (Romans 5:9). It is time that we bring ourselves to Him and ask of Him to remove those perversions that are still residing within us and to ask of Him to renew us to His likeness each day. That’s be honest, the world in which we are living is full of perversion but the Lord God will flip them over and renew it to its full glory. That’s affirmed what our Lord Jesus said to us in the concluding message in His Holy Word that He revealed to Apostle John: He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even, so, come Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:21)

Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ is coming quickly. Are you ready to receive Him? Glory to God in the highest!

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9 July 2023

Scripture Reading: Revelation 8:1-6 (KJV)

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

MESSAGE

We are all constantly bombarded with noises. Just walk out from our house and we would inevitably bombarded with unpleasant noises such as honking of motor vehicles by indiscriminate drivers, deafening noises resulting from drilling equipment that used in repairing roads or laying cables, noises from construction site near our home, inconsiderate passengers speaking loudly in the bus. There are other noises we too find them quite irritating even in the office or even at home. For example, you may have experience during your office group discussions a colleague may keep talking non-stop like having some form of verbal diarrhea and others were trying to figure out what on earth he or she is talking.

Sadly, sometimes we find ourselves also making noises which other find them irritating or, worst, making remarks that hurt our friends. Spoken words are one-way ticket and you can never take it back once it is spoken. We know that relationship however close can be destroyed in minutes because of some uncalled for remarks or comments that we shouldn’t said in the first place. They are countless verses in the Bible to caution us to be careful about our tongue, our speech, and what we say. Is this easy? Definitely not as we read in James 3:8 – “But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” It therefore follows that if we have nothing to say, then say nothing because “Silence is golden”.

Thankfully, when we are in heaven, it will be bustling with the noises of worshipping God, of praising God, of thanking God that proclaim God’s glory over all His creation and they are all pleasing to God and to us. Right now, angels are worshipping and singing praises of joy incessantly. Angels will sing even for just over one sinner who repent and sincerely accepts Jesus as his or her Lord and Saviour. (Luke 15:10). All celestial beings in heaven right now are worshipping, singing and praising God incessantly with this lyrics: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” (Revelation 4:8). We also read in Revelation 4:11, the twenty-four elders are singing before the throne of God – “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” Psalm 150:6 has indeed summed up beautifully the heavenly choir comprising the angels and the twenty-four elders with these words: “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!” And I want therefore to add that in heaven not just celestial beings are singing. They also include the trees, the plants along with the flowers and the grasses are even clapping their hands with praises to God (Isaiah 55:12). Heaven is bustling with noises, the noises that we will never get tired of listening, the noises that proclaim God’s glory, the noises that proclaim God has created everything for our enjoyment. No earthly choir nor musical instrument can emulate them. These heavenly noises that we are going to hear when we are taken up to heaven is going to surprise us beyond our wildest imagination! Are you excited about it?”

But why heaven went silence for half-an hour at one point as we have just read in Revelation 8:1-6? In 2 Peter 3:8 we are told that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. By simple arithmetic extrapolation using a ratio of 1 to 1,000, we can induce that one hour is with the Lord as 1,000 hours and it therefore follows that half-and-hour would be 500 hours and this is about 21 earth-days. Why then there was silence in heaven for almost 21 earth-day? Why the celestial choir of the angels came to a complete halt? Why the twenty-four elders stopped singing and were speechless? Why the trees, the plants, the flowers and the grasses stopped clapping? What’s going on during this half-an hour?

As we continue reading, we are told that following by this half-an hour of silence, Apostle saw seven angels who stood before God and they were given seven trumpets. These seven trumpets are the Trumpet of Judgment that God will pour out to this sinful and wicked world. The Trumpet Judgment is the final God’s wrath. I believe these events of this God’s wrath are so horrific that when they were revealed to the celestial beings they were all speechless. They will in shock and wonder how could the inhabitants survive. So what are these Trumpet of Judgment events that are going to bring into such abject condition to the inhabitants who are left behind after the rapture? Apostle John has recorded all these horrific events in the Book of Revelation, chapters 8 and 9. This half-an-hour of silence in heaven is about the ‘noiseless’ warning to us that the end of the Church Age on earth is at hand, a total destruction of the sinful and wicked world is going to take place and God’s judgment to the sinful and the wicked is going to be in full force. In our generation today, all the signs that we see today concerning the end of the Church Age are all around us and they are coming to pass, very soon. (Note: I have posted quite a few messages concerning the end of the Church Age in the website here. You may want to search for them if you are interested to find out more about the End of the Church Age.) This prophetic revelation of the wrath of God that Apostle John recorded in the Book of Revelation is not to frighten or scare us. Quite to the contrary, the revelation of the wrath of God that is going to take place gives comfort and hope to us if only we are the true-believers of Jesus Christ and sincerely repent of our sins. Remember, all prophecies recorded in the Bible are meant give comfort and hope to the children of the Most High. They are not meant to frighten or scare us. In Revelation 3:1, it is written that we shall be blessed when we read and keep the prophetic words of God: Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. (Revelation 3:1)

I believe the reason for this half-an-hour of silence in heaven is to reveal to Apostle John who wrote in the Book of Revelation that the wrath of God will be unleashed to this unrepentant sinful world. They are going to be so horrific that all celestial beings who saw all these were totally speechless, so to speak. Prayerfully, the following brief account of each of the Trumpet Judgment will not make you speechless. Rather, this brief account of God’s wrath will open your eyes to see and your ears to hear that the signs of the Church Age is coming to an end are all around us and hence you can confidently help to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to your friends and relatives. In order to escape the Trumpet Judgement, the wrath of God, they must repent of their sins and accept Jesus Christ and their Lord and Saviour because God has sent His only begotten Son, Jesus to die on the cross and whosoever believed in Him shall not die but have eternal life (John 3:16).

First Trumpet: Vegetation Devastated (Revelation 8:7)
The first angel sounded the trumpet and hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. This caused a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.

The implication of this wrath is that food production will be in great shortage as much of the agriculture land will be destroyed. You can forget of going to supermarkets because there will be nothing for you to buy even you have all the money in the world!

Second Trumpet: The Seas and Oceans Polluted (Revelation 8:8)
Then the second angel sounded and a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. This caused a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

As we all know, sea and oceans provide one of the main sources of food supply and when they are destroyed, the supply of sea-food will come to a complete halt. Furthermore, the world economy will also come to a complete standstill because a third of the ships will be destroyed and this will seriously crippled global marine transportation.

Third Trumpet: Fresh Water Contaminated (Revelation 8:10-11)
Then the third angel sounded and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.

The implication to human live is very obvious! As we all know, although more than 70% of the earth is covered with water, less than 3% of the water is potable. Even today, due to pollution, many rivers and lakes that supply fresh water are contaminated resulting many people and wild animals dying from lack of fresh water. The Third Trumpet Judgment is going to compound the shortage of fresh water many times over!

Fourth Trumpet: Celestial Lights Darkened (Revelation 8:12)
Then the fourth angel sounded and a third of the sun, the moon and the stars were struck and they were darkened, turning day into night.

As we all know that sunlight is an essential source of energy that plants need for photosynthesis so that the plants can produce food for itself. How they could the plant be kept alive without sunlight? Furthermore, all industrial activities will be seriously disrupted because day will turn into night and night into day. I wonder who would want to work under such chaotic situation. Do you seriously think factories and offices will still be in operations?

Fifth Trumpet: The Locusts from the Bottomless Pit (Revelation 9:1-11)
Then the fifth angel sounded and demonic locusts were unleashed and came upon the earth. These demonic locusts were given authority to torment people except those men who have the seal of God (which some theologians believed these men who have the seal of God are the 144,000 Jews specially anointed by God to evangelize to world, in particular to the Jews). These demonic locusts were tormenting the inhabitants for five months and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days, men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

Sixth Trumpet: The Four Fallen Angels from the river Euphrates Release and People were Massacred by Demonic Armies (Revelation 9:13-21)
Then the sixth angel sounded and the four fallen angels who were abound at great river Euphrates were released and upon their release they went on to kill one-third of the people.

The drying up of river Euphrates was prophecised two thousand years’ ago as recorded in the Book of Revelation: 16:12. This drying up of river Euphrates was being mocked at by geologists because they thought it was impossible for such great river to dry up. But it dried up today and severely affecting the agriculture of several countries in the Middle East. According to the Bible, there were four fallen angels bound in the caves of the river Euphrates and they will be released when the river dried up. Once they are released, they will kill one-third of the people. Given that today, there are about 7 to 8 billion people, more than 2 billion people will be killed by these demonic angels! Furthermore, the drying up of river Euphrates is also part of the plan to prepare for the 200 million soldiers of the anti-Christ to come to wage a final war with our King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ. This is the Battle of Armageddon of the Good and the Evil that many of us are familiar with. The final victory, of course, will be our King Jesus!

Seventh Trumpet: The Kingdom Proclaimed (Revelation 11:15-19)
The seventh trumpet decisively climaxes the proclamation in the establishment and the consummation of the coming Kingdom of Christ as we can read “Then the seventh angel sounded and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”  All glory to God! We will be reigned with King Jesus forever and ever! Let’s testified all these to the world and proclaim that our Lord Jesus will surely come. Amen. (Revelation 22:20).

My dear readers-in-Christ, what you just read above is a piece of extremely good news because the wrath of God is going to pour out to execute His judgment upon the sinful and unrepentant sinners. Thankfully, as children of the Most High, we will not be subject to His wrath and to face the abject misery resulting from His wrath. We must therefore be ready to receive this blessed hope in great faith. Perhaps the heaven is now in absolute silence. All the heavenly inhabitants – the angels, the cherubim and the elders are now speechless as they are waiting for our King of kings and our Lord of lords, Jesus Christ, to pour out His Father’s wrath. If we are truly His children and have kept His commandments, we will all be kept from the wrath which will be poured out to the earth (Revelation 3:10).

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2 July 2023

Scripture Reading: Romans 13:11 (KJV)

And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

MESSAGE

“Time is of the essence.” These may be just five simple words, but depending on situations, when we followed these words to the fullest, they could indeed save life. As we all know that for anyone who suffered a heart attack, unless medical help come within minutes, death may follow. In such a situation, every second counts. For those people who are around this unfortunate person who is suffering from an heart attack, nothing is more consoling than to hear the sirens of the ambulance and to see the blinking blue and red lights from an approaching ambulance because they knew help is very near and the patient will be rescued very soon. The ambulance sirens and its blinking blue and red lights gave hope and comfort to both the patient and to those around him because they knew, literally, the patient is living on “borrowed time” and now help is very near to rescue the patient.

Indeed, spiritually-speaking, we are all living on borrowed time as we can read in Romans 13:11: “…now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” We can also read that Apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 15:51 -52, 54) and this is what he wrote to them: ”Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed; when the perishable clothes of ours has been changed and we are now clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” This indeed reminds us that our Saviour, Lord Jesus has conquered death when He resurrected three days after He was crucified. Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, has won the final enemy – Death, and His victory over death is one of the very reasons for Him to come to this world. His death on the Cross has completely accomplished the will of his Father when He cried out: IT IS FINISHED (John 19:30). Indeed, the finished work of our Lord Jesus results in the gift of eternal life imputed to us through His shed blood on the cross of Calvary. Thanks to His saving grace! But are you willing to accept His grace, His forgiveness? Are you willing to accept His gift of eternal life? Time is of the essence. The window of opportunity to accept His grace of salvation is coming to an end. This will happen sooner than you can expect!

Spiritual sirens are ringing loud and clear! We must wake up now. Please watch the following Youtube: “We, the Church are on borrowed time. How can people not see the obvious.”  Prayerfully, after watching this Youtube, you will take immediate action to come to the saving grace of our Lord Jesus because “Time is of the essence.” https://youtu.be/h8z9xlRm5vA (Please help to send this to your friends and relatives, especially to those non-believers because this is what we, as children of God, are required to do – to preach the gospel of Good News to the world.)

The coming of our Lord Jesus to rapture His Bride, the Church, to meet Him in the air is also recorded in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 that Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians – “We who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with the dead (who were raised first) in the cloud to meet our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ in the air.” This is a rescue plan that God has planned for His Bride, the Church, since the foundation of His creation. We must give thanks and praise God because the rapture of the Church will only occur before God allows His wrath, the great tribulation to take place to punish sinful man who refused to repent and instead continue to live a life of sins like the people in Noah’s days and the people in Lot’s days. The removal of the Church, the rapture, to meet our Lord in the air is a reunion of unspeakable joy and the Lamb of God will wipe away all tears from our eyes; and there will be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither will there be any more pain for the former things are passed away (Revelation 21:4). This is the greatest and the grandest homecoming Reunion between God and His children in the whole universe. We will then be with our Lord and Savour, Jesus Christ, forever! It will never be repeated! You must therefore not miss this Great Reunion!

May our good Lord open your ears to hear His spiritual sirens and open our eyes to see that the world is falling apart but at the same time to open our ears to hear and our eyes to see that the prophetic Word of God relating to the end of the church age that is coming to pass. Time is of the essence! We are just few heart beats away from His coming! Every beat counts! Be ready for His coming to take us home! Let’s pray that our good Lord will “Pass Me Not” that is beautifully depicted in this hymn:

PASS ME NOT, O GENTLE SAVIOUR
https://youtu.be/Br8c0Kkx6vs

Pass me not, O gentle Saviour,
Hear my humble cry.
While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by.

Saviour, Saviour,
Hear my humble cry.
While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by.

Let me at Thy throne of mercy,
Find a sweet relief.
Kneeling there in deep contrition,
Help my unbelief.

Saviour, Saviour,
Hear my humble cry.
While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by.

Trusting only in Thy merit,
Would I seek Thy face,
Heal my wounded, broken spirit,
Save me by Thy grace.

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25 June 2023

Scripture Reading: Romans 6:11 (KJV)

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

MESSAGE

As children of God, we often heard sermons or messages from the pulpit to encourage us to be more like Jesus. This is indeed very true. We need to be more like Jesus but of course we cannot be Jesus because Jesus is God and we are no God. Rather, we are God’s created beings. In the Garden of Eden, Satan lied to Eve that by eating the forbidden fruit, she (as well as her husband, Adam) shall be like God. Ever since and from that day onwards, man has always wanted to be like god. The inventions of man that we see now speak of the greatness and awesomeness of God because He has given the human unlimited capacity to invent but sadly, many of the inventions that are supposed to glorify God, to bring enjoyment and benefits to mankind did exactly the opposite. Many of the inventions have somewhat become a curse.

Man is truly unique because we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). Man is so unique that we don’t just have unlimited capacity to invent things but we also have unlimited capacity to invent sins. I think the people in Noah’s day and the people in Lot’s day must be marvelling the kind of sins that human beings invented in this generation. It is not the motive my message this week to list down the kind of sins that human invented in just over the last 15 to 20 years, partly because there are too many to be listed here and partly, I think, you know much more than me! As one writer wrote: “The most terrible thing about a life of sin is that you are not open to the blessings of God.” Nothing can depart for this simple yet profound statement of spiritual importance. We must get rid of sin if we want to be truly blessed by God. But the question is: Can we?

Even though we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and heading towards eternal destruction for the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) God is merciful as He still dispenses common graces to everyone in spite of our sinfulness. Whether we are believers or not, we all enjoy the same equal level of common grace. This common grace is an expression of the goodness of our merciful God and this includes the delay of wrath, the mitigation of our sin-natures, nature events that lead to prosperity, and all gifts that human use and enjoy naturally. While we are totally depraved and deserving of God’s wrath, God mercifully postpones His destroying wrath and graciously blesses all men with many good things. Common grace also includes all undeserved blessings that natural man receives from the hand of God: rain, sun, beautiful beaches, prosperity, health, happiness, natural capacities to love, to mourn, to endure, to praise Him, and endowed with spiritual gifts by the Holy Spirit and where sin is being restrained from complete dominion by the eternal power of God that limits the harms and destructions caused by the Evil One. The doctrine of common grace explains how a man can be totally depraved and yet still commit acts that are, in some sense, “good.” This common grace, however, excludes the grace of salvation because all human still require the saving work of God’s begotten Son, Jesus who died on the Calvary Cross in order to reconcile humankind to God. We must however understand that common graces are not the real blessings of God; they pale in comparison to spiritual promises that God has promised for His children, one of these promises is the eternal life but is only given those who believed in the Lord Jesus (John 3:16).

How then are we to be more like Jesus and to receive the full promise of God? The answer is simple. Just go to the sermon preached by Jesus commonly referred to as the “Sermon on the Mount”. This is a gold-standard of life-giving sermon that sets us apart from this sinful world. When we faithfully studied, practiced and followed the teaching of this gold-standard of life-giving sermon it will, undoubtedly, bring us closer to Jesus and we can be more like Him. Practicing this gold-standard of life-giving sermon is a life-time endeavour. This gold-standard of life-giving sermon of eight blessings recounted by Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount which also commonly referred to as “The Eight Beatitudes of Jesus” can be found in Matthew 5:3-10):

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven
To be poor in spirit is to be humble and teachable. Jesus wants us always to humbly acknowledge our need and the desires of our heart to Him. Humbility does not come naturally due to our sinful nature. We need to take great efforts to learn and to practice it. Remember, pride goes before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18) but the blessed is the one who consider the poor and the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble (Psalms 41:1).

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted
We will face challenges and problems that will test us. As we mourn our losses or trials, we are promised that we will be blessed as we endure and cling to the comforting Word of God and God will send His Holy Spirit to comfort us in times of need. Thanks be to God because we have the Holy Spirit who is our Comforter and He shall teach and guide us, and brings all things to remind us of all things God has said to us (John 14:26)

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth
To be meek is to be gentle, kind, patient, and tolerant, not proud, mighty, or conceited. The Savior showed His meekness by willingly submit to the will of God. Even in a moment of extreme agony, He said to God, “Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled
We can come closer to God as we try to follow His teachings and learn more about Him. The more knowledge we seek, the more He’ll bless us with. Whether we are conscious or not, our soul is always thirsting for our living God, just like a deer pants for stream of water. (Psalms 42:1-2)

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy
Jesus Christ was a perfect example of showing forgiveness and mercy. Even when He was suffering on the cross, He said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Since we all need God’s mercy, we all must show mercy to others. As God forgives us our trespasses, we too must also forgive those who have trespassed against us (Matthew 6:12).

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God
God will make Himself known to us if we are pure in heart. If we earnestly strive to be like Jesus, our motives and actions will be honourable and our hearts will be pure that will lead us to a clean heart. A pure and a clean heart is essential in order for God to renew a right spirit within us (Psalm 51:10).

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God
Another name Jesus has is the “Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6). Jesus encourages us to follow His example by loving everyone so we can live together in harmony. In Romans 14:9, we are told that peace-making people help to build up one another.

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
We may face criticism from society or other groups for the way we live our repentant lives, the things we believe in, and to do those things God wants us to do. Bravely stand up for the principles of God and His Church and not to speak up when the Word of God is under attacked is not an option. We need to speak up and God will bless you for it in both this life and the next. We shall never fall when we pursue God’s righteousness: For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again but the wicked shall fall by calamity (Proverbs 4:16).

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18 June 2023

Scripture Reading: Proverbs 16:18 (KJV)

Pride goeth before destruction, And an haughty spirit before a fall.

MESSAGE

In U.S. and in several western countries, the month of June is designated as “Pride Month.” However, not many of us living in this part of the world in Asia are not really aware of what this ‘Pride Month’ is all about. I was one of those who was quite ignorant of what this “Pride Month” celebration was all about not until quite recently I came across this celebration in the Youtube. I then dug further to find out more and to my utter surprise, people were celebrating those abominable things that God absolutely hates because it is all about the celebration of transgenderism, same sex marriage, homosexuality and LGBTQ. The Word of God, the Bible makes it unequivocally clear that God condemns both (a) homosexual conduct (the LGB letters, and now Q with a “+’), and (b) the more recent and growing transgender (T) movement. Slowly but surely, Pride month will become (perhaps has already become) a “religious” holiday deeply entrenched in LGBTQ culture of anti-God. I am not surprised that soon some countries’ law makers may declare a date in June as “Pride Month” holiday like December 25th is to the Christmas.

As we have just read above, pride and a haughty spirit go before destruction and a fall. Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud (Proverbs 16:18-19). There is a catastrophic level of arrogance in the LGBTQ Pride Month celebration. Hopefully, this week’s message will bring to the readers that when you are participating in the celebration, you have chosen to reject God’s biblical teaching. Instead, we must always seek the truth of the knowledge of God for the lack of the knowledge of God will lead you to destruction. (Hosea 4:6).

Pride Month celebration is not something new. In June 1969 an uprising started in Stonewall Inn in the U.S. leading to a crash with the police when the police raided lesbian and gay bars. Both lesbians and gays protested and later it went out of control and resulting in riots. Fast forward 30 years’ later, in June 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton declared the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots every June in America as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month and in 2011, President Barack Obama expanded the officially recognized Pride Month to include the whole of the LGBT (now LGBTQ+) community. This has now become a major cultural event in the U.S and in the western Europe where the LGBTQ+ community commemorates the new cultural ideas giving glory to the fallen arch-angel, Lucifer. The Pride Month celebration is clearly an anti-God celebration and it is meant to pervert God’s creation that human is made in His image, male and female and marriage is only between a male and a female. With the rainbow flags which are now prominently displayed in many buildings and public squares, it revolutionalises a symbol of solidarity of the LGBTQ community. The key narrative to this latest version of “Stonewall Riots” movement is not the battle between the police and the LGBT community. Indeed, quite the opposite. It is now a battle between God and Lucifer and as was mentioned in my previous message, it is the “mother of all battles” with police protecting the LGBTQ and arresting those who opposes this evil cultural movement. What an irony as we compared to the circumstances back in 1969! Back then, it was the battle between the police and the gay/lesbian community, and now we see police is protecting this gay/lesbian community and punishes those who opposed LGBTQ movement. Indeed, we are now living in an upside-down world!

From what we now read or watch from the internet and maintstream mass media, the LGBT community seems to be winning this battle on all fronts. For example, even for those people who are just preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ on the sidewalk where the LGBT community was celebrating the Pride Month, these preachers were arrested. They were not allowed to preach any message that opposes the narratives of LGBTQ near the place where the Pride Month was celebrating. This is because the police have classified such messages as hate-speech with the potential to hurt the feeling of the LGBTQ community and hence may cause or likely to cause civil disturbance. The community have won as they are now able to enjoy equal rights and opportunities like any other heterogenous married couples because some countries, in particular, the U.S., have amended their laws to allow same sex marriage couples to enjoy the rights to social security, housing, medical and other social services that were previously enjoyed only by the heterogenous married couples. These are some of the many legal rights that the LGBT community have succeeded in getting their governments to change their laws and all in the name of inclusiveness. To get the law amended, the legislature typically need a simple majority of elected legislative representatives to agree. It therefore follows that the majority of the elected government representatives are giving clear support to the LGBT movements. No wonder they are so proud of their achievements. The Pride Month is now at full steam. Are we now living in the last days of Noah and Lots?

There is nothing we can do and it is going to get worst. But take comfort because our Lord Jesus has told us that one of the signs of His coming is when we are living in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot (Matthew 24:37-39; Luke 17:26-30). Hence, all we can now is to surrender our whole being to our Lord Jesus by continuously repenting of our sins and to delight and obey His laws. Another of our urgent and important role is simply to tell people the dire consequences of supporting the Pride Month movement and to never get involved in this evil cultural change of inclusiveness of gay/lebsian couples and transgenders’ narratives. Any Christian who has affirmed Pride Month or who has become an LGBTQ ally is to condone sin and to reject the holy laws of our Holy God as we can read in Psalm 1:1-2: Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.

We are indeed living in a curse world that is told in the book of Malachi of the Old Testament as the last ten words of this last book of the Old Testament read: “lest I come and smite the earth with a CURSE. (Malachi 4:6 KJV)”. The word “CURSE” is the very last word that the Old Testament has ended. Thankfully, as we go to the last of book of the New Testament, the book of Revelation, the last sentence reads: The GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all (Revelation: 22:21). Exegetically-speaking, while we are now living in a curse world because of the immeasurable sins that human beings have been (and still are) committing since the days of Noah and the days of Lot, but thankfully, God is merciful and His GRACE of salvation is His gift given to all mankind. God, through His begotten Son, Jesus has given us the grace, His gift of salvation by shedding His blood on the Calvary Cross for all sinners (including the LGBTQs). What then must we do to accept this gift? One simple word: Repent. We must repent of all our sins and not wilfully keep repeating those sins that God hates. We must obey and meditate His laws day and night.

What we are witnessing today brings out the biblical truth that the days in which we are now living are evil and we must not walk like fools but to be filled with the Spirit and to redeem our time for His glory (Ephesians 5:15-17). How evil can it be when preaching of the gospel of the Good News of Jesus Christ is now considered as giving hate-speech? Street preachers of the Good News are arrested; police are protecting those people celebrating the “Pride Month” unlike many years ago when the police raided lesbian and gay bars to flush out sinful people who tried to pervert God’s holy laws; churches are raided and pastors are arrested for preaching the so-call “hate-speech” when they merely disagree with the narratives of the LGBTQ; school children are indoctrinated that they can change their gender at will; gay and lesbian church leaders are ‘anointed’ as church pastors and openly promoting transgenderism narratives; males are allowed to compete with sports meant exclusively for the female; regardless of your genders, you can choose to use any toilet and so if you are a man you can go to toilet and use ladies toilets which, by definition, strictly meant for ladies; the symbol of rainbow of God’s promise to the world that He will not destroy the earth with flood is now used as symbol for the Pride Month to promote LGBTQ agenda; churches are raided and pastors are arrested for preaching the so-called hate-speech when indeed they are preaching against the narratives of the LGBTQ. How evil can this be? More horrifying things are in the making and we need to get ready and be prepared to be persecuted and perhaps prosecuted for our beliefs and for sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with others. At the current pace of development, very soon, true believers of Christ will be declared by the police as “Public Enemy Number One.”

May I take this opportunity to encourage one another as we can read in: 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18: For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words; and also we can read in 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11: For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.

Hence, let’s comfort one another because what we see and hear today literally proclaim that the Bible is true and the Bible has come alive and we are indeed living in the last days. Take comfort, my dear brothers and sisters-in-Christ! We will very soon be caught up, raptured, to meet our Lord and Savour, Jesus Christ in the air. May the peace and grace of God be with you all now and forever! Amen!

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11 June 2023

Scripture Reading: Matthew 4:2-4 (KJV)

And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

MESSAGE

The passage we just read should be very familiar to many of us. It tells us one of the three temptations of Jesus by the devil after having fasted for 40 days. It can be noted that the very first temptation was about food or more specifically – Bread.

As we all know, bread is one of the most common staple food consumed in almost every culture. The first thing in the morning when we had just ended our evening “fast”, what can be more satisfying than to have a piece of toasted bread for our breakfast (and plus, of course with a cup of coffee or tea).

The word “Bread” is mentioned at least 450 times in the Bible beginning from Genesis right through the Book of Revelation with a variety of meanings and symbols. For instance, at the last supper, bread was used symbolically as Jesus’ broken body and we are told to take this bread (together with the wine which symbolically represents the atoning blood of Jesus) in remembrance of Him. This sacrament of breaking bread and drinking wine is practiced in almost all churches regardless of denomination. And rightly so because this last supper sacrament of bread and wine reminds all believers regardless of denomination the love of the Son of God, Jesus as He was preparing His journey to be hung at the Calvary Cross for the sins of all mankind.

In this week’s message, let me humbly offer four exegetic significances of the temptations of Jesus in the verses we just read (Matthew 4:2-4) as I understood it.

First, The Sonship of Jesus is never doubted by the devil as we can read in Matthew 4:2. This was what the devil said to our Saviour: “If you are the Son of God” indeed acknowledges that Jesus was what He said He was (and still is) that He is the Son of God. Who then are we to doubt the Sonship and the Lordship of our Redeemer, Jesus when the devil himself already acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God? We also read that the devil did not “tell” Jesus to turn the stones into bread. Instead, the devil said: “If you are the Son of God, command these stones made to bread” and thus the devil has openly admitted that words spoken by our Jesus have great divine authority – they are commands! As many preachers have cautioned us that all sins are forgivable except one. The only unforgivable sin is to blaspheme against the Holy Ghost. This is the only unforgivable sin to those who reject Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and refuse to accept His atoning blood to cleanse away their sins. This will lead them to eternal damnation (Mark 3:28-29).

Second, Jesus was tempted soon after He had just fasted and had been without food and water for forty days, the devil knew Jesus must be very hungry and thirsty. This is always the tricks of the devil because he will tempt you when you are at low point of your lives. This is the time that he can easily raise your doubt about who God is and you will inevitable asking questions like: Does God really care? And if He does, why am I in this situation? As we can read in Genesis 3:9-10, even though Adam (and Eve) had gone in hiding, God called out to them: “Where are you?” During our weakest or at the lowest point of our lives it often creates a huge opportunity for the devil to penetrate right into our being. Instead, we must not like Adam (and Eve) go into hiding. Instead, we must go to the Word of God for “IT IS WRITTEN.” And this brings me to the third point.

In the temptations of Jesus by the devil, our Saviour repeated twice: It is written. The written Word of God, the Bible, is the most power tool that God has given to mankind. When we are confronted with seemingly ‘unsolvable’ problems, more so than not, we need to go to the written Word of God because it will bring blessings to us when we read the Word of God as we are told in Revelation 1:3 – Blessed is he that read and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written for the time is at hand.

Fourth, the Word of God tells us how we could have eternal life. It is God’s desire to bring every human being into His divine family by the process of salvation and none would be perished (2 Peter 3:9). The physical bread that we eat is essential because it provides physical nourishments to our body but we cannot just take the physical bread alone. We need the Word of God which is the spiritual food to provide spiritual nourishments to our soul and our spirit. It isn’t obvious that without reading or hearing the Word of God, how could we know what to do to receive eternal life? This can only be done by the hearing and reading the Word of God. Equally important to note that hearing and reading the Word of God will increase our faith in Christ Jesus (Romans 10:17).

Let us remind ourselves that God is always faithful because He has already promised to provide to us what we need, day in and day out, without fail. Our responsibility is to keep reading and hearing His Word and never let the evil one to create any doubt about who our loving Son of God, Jesus, is in whatever circumstances we are in. At our low point, we need to read and hear more of the Word of God, fast more and certainly pray more. These are the weapons that the evil one is afraid of and he will simply flee away. This was exactly what the devil did: he left and then came the angels to minister to our Lord Jesus (Matthew 4:11). This truly confirms to us that Jesus was born fully human – He faces tribulations and temptations just like we do; He can be hungry and thirsty just like we do; He needs physical food and water, just like we do; He needs angelic beings to minister to Him just like we do. We can thus confidently confirm that the Person of Jesus Christ when He was on earth: (a) He has two natures – He is God and man; each nature is full and complete; (b) He is fully God and fully man; and each nature remains distinct. (c) He had been through the trials, tribulations and temptation and thus He is able to fully understand every predicament that we encountered from time to time. (d) Our dependency must be rested on Him and on the Word of God, the Holy Bible. (e) And, when we are tempted by the devil, we must rebuke him and command him to leave in the name of Jesus and to get behind us.

Thanks be to the Father for this revelation: Jesus Christ is only one Person for IT IS WRITTEN: I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John14:6). We can only be saved by the atoning blood of God’s only begotten Son, Jesus that was shed on the Calvary for the redemption of all sinners (John 3:16).

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4 June 2023

Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 3:1 (KJV)

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

MESSAGE

The Bible has a great deal to say about many events that will come in the last days prior to the return of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Even though the Bible has great deal on these end-time topics, I notice that not many sermons from our local churches where I am residing are being preached. And yet when we look around, we see there are so many horrifying and terrifying global events all converging to bring to the reality that indeed we are living in perilous times. We are truly witnessing in real-time that the whole world is being turned upside down by these terrifying and horrifying events. Each and every of these events are prophetic in itself and all these events are very consistent with what we read in the Word of God. These events very clearly expose us to extraordinary pressures and challenges that we, as children of God, are facing right now. Thankfully, we are also given extraordinary opportunities to share with non-believers (as well as to those believers who may be ignorant of these end-time events). We can now access to a very power mass media tool, the internet, to help us to preach to all four corners of the earth. In order for us to take advantage of the internet to witness to the world of the dire perilous time we are now living, we need to arm ourselves with the right knowledge especially the current world events that many of them are meant to deceive God’s people and to distract them from seeking God’s truth.

In this week’s message, I like to bring about an urgent awareness to my dear readers here. This is about a New War that is relentlessly launched by the evil force. It is very common that when we discuss or talk about “wars” and “rumours of wars”, we often associate it with global war on terrorism especially after the 911 attack that resulted the U.S. to setup a new department, Department of Homeland Security to deal with the threats of terrorism, the war on Covid-19 that literally brought the world to its knees, war in the Middle East, in particular the mounting military tension between Israel and Iran (as well as China and Taiwan), and the Russian-Ukraine war which largely causes the Doomsday Clock to now set at 90 seconds to midnight signifying that a nuclear war could breakout at anytime. These are just some of the man-made end-time events and the list could go on. These end-time man-made events have nothing to do with the cosmic calamities (such as heatwave with temperature to over 45 degrees, unprecedented floods that destroyed many villages, houses and million acres of farmland all over the world, earthquakes in diverse places and many more) are now occurring every hour on the hour and news media just couldn’t be able to keep up with these events and thus only the most serious ones get reported or broadcasted in the mass media.

No question about it! Perilous times is here and the Church Age is coming to a close but before that could occur, are we all aware of a “War” that is now being fought between God and the Evil One? This War is going to be “the mother of all battles” and is seldom mentioned or preached at the pulpits. What I am referring to is a war that is now waging against God’s greatest creation – the humankind. This war is “War on Transgenderism”. This hot-button topic of transgenderism has set a chasm between the biblical view of sexuality and gender and the secular view that is growing wider every day. Social media and the entertainment industry now celebrate “gender fluidity” as a more enlightened way of thinking than the biblical view. The trend has grown quickly in the U.S and in many western countries we can see many transgender-identified celebrities making headlines and drag queens of male dress as female leading story times at schools and libraries. The U.S. and the western society is currently facing unexpected legal and ethical challenges as transgender-identified people of male origin compete on sports exclusively meant for the female and use public restrooms of their non-biological sex. Anyone is free to us any toilet as they like even though toilets have always been labelled either for “Male” or “Female”. Parents increasingly allow their underage children to chemically and surgically alter their bodies, and several states now permit minors to do so without their parents’ consent. (Note: “Gender fluidity” can be briefly defined as a person who was designated female on their original birth certificate may identify as girl until adolescence, then identify as a boy for the rest of their life, and similarly, a person who was designated male on their original birth certificate may identify as boy until adolescence, then identify as a girl for the rest of their life.)

As we can read in Zechariah 2:8, God warns that those who touches on the nation of Israel touches the apple of His eye. The inhabitants of the nations of Israel are the Jew, the chosen people of God. It therefore follows that those who touches the Jews touches the apple of His eye and we are warned that those who curse them God will curse them and He will bless to those who bless them (Genesis 12:3).

It therefore follows that whoever perverts or wages war against His pride creation, the humankind whom many of them are His chosen children, God will destroy them. In Genesis 1:27 we are told that God has created us male and female in His own image. Thus, when anyone who try to pervert the maleness and femaleness of God’s creation, he is touching the apple of God’s eye. While God may be patient (2 Peter 3:9) and slow to anger (Psalm 103:8), it is very important that we cannot take this for granted. In Matthew 21:12-13, we can see how our Lord Jesus raged His anger when He overthrew the temple tables and the seats of the money changers and rebuked the money changers that they were dens of thieves because His Father’s House, the temple is meant solely to be house of prayer (Matthew 21:12-13) and instead they used it for doing business. Our Lord Jesus called them den of thieves because I believe these money changers must be taking undue financial advantage of the temple worshippers by charging exorbitant interest rates or by setting unreasonable financial terms for the worshippers who were in need of financial assistance just to make more financial gains for themselves. The crux of the matter here is this: Do not let God get angry because His anger will bring judgement. He is not going to stand idle to let wicked and sinful people continue like ‘there is no God” because His Spirit is not going to strive with them forever (Genesis 6:3). It follows that if we continue to sin and refuse to repent, God is going to say: Enough is enough! Times up!

Prayerfully, in my posting this week I like to bring an urgent message that the war on transgenderism of attempting to blur the maleness and femaleness of humankind that is spreading like wildfire, especially in the U.S. and the western countries and this is setting in motion that will hasten the return of our Lord Jesus to judge the world. We are truly living in last days!

Let’s remind ourselves that we are all created in His image, male and female – absolute binary. To our Holy God, this is no in-between and it is non-negotiable. Our Holy God, the Creator of the Universe, will never accept anything less. This war on transgenderism and sexuality is going to ‘test’ God to the point that He is going to say: “Enough is enough.” Hence, we must look up and lift up our heads for our redemption is drawn near! We are now at a real-time that our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly place. (Ephesians 6:12).

Let’s thank and praise God, the Creator of the Universe, as we read the verses in Psalm 19:1 and Psalm 134:14: The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous are Your works, and my soul knows right well.

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Psalm 37:4 – Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Matthew 6:33 – But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

MESSAGE

Psalm 37:4 that we just read was penned by a shepherd boy, David, who later became the King of Israel and many Christians are familiar with this verse. It is commonly found in Christian posters, artwork and in passing conversation. Often sermons expounding this verse are preached to give comfort and to encourage congregation to delight in the Lord and He will give them their heart’s desires, and often then not, preachers referred these heart’s desires to worldly riches and earthly glory. Is this correct? Is the heart’s desires is all about worldly riches or earthly glory or something more important to us, the children of God?

Based on my observation having attended church services, listening to messages from the pulpits and participating in cell group discussions, I can confidently come to a conclusion that Psalm 37:4 is commonly misunderstood. To say the least, claiming that God’s promise to give worldly riches is not exactly what the heart’s desires is all about as far as this scriptural verse is concerned. It’s about setting our heart to be right with God and to desire God’s desires, and not our worldly desires.

I pray that this week’s message will bring to us to realize the danger of misunderstanding and misapplying God’s word especially claiming that His promises are all about wealth, prosperity, good life, fame and power. These are not exactly the promises that God want to bestow to us of our heart’s desires when we delight in Him. These are worldly desires of fallen men and women and they are not of God.

And I want to add that another similar scriptural verse which many Christians have also misunderstood and that is Matthew 6:33 – “But seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.” We often associate “these things” are like the one just mentioned: wealth, prosperity, good life, fame and power. They will come running to you when you are seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Is this true? Absolutely not because in Matthew 7:13-14, our Lord Jesus tells us that seeking these worldly pursuits is like entering a wide and broad gate (of worldly pursuits) and the way will lead to destruction and many will go in by it. Instead, we must seek to enter a narrow gate (of spiritual and godly pursuit for His glory) and while it is going to be difficult, the way of the narrow gate will lead to life. This is the gate few will find it. It is worth to note that our Lord Jesus did not use the word “go”. Instead, He uses the word “find” and in order to find we have to look around. It does not come automatically. In order to find something or someone, we need to be in constant look out. As we all know, the gate of the world is wide and it is everywhere and one can go in even without the need to search for it. This is absolutely true. Just look around us – evils are every where and we can easily fall into the trap or we can be easily ensnared by the evils as we can read in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 – “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!” We are to run away from such people – a dire warning from apostle Paul. Do not associate with such people and presumably he also includes self-professed Christians who possessed some (or even all) of the characteristics as listed by apostle Paul. We too got to run away from them even though they may claim to be children of God. You may disagree, but would I personally not like to have fellowship with these brothers or sisters because we are warned by apostle Paul to turn away and to have nothing to do with them.

From the very beginning, man’s desires are diagonally in direct opposition with what God has intended as we can read in Genesis 6:5 – “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart (aka – the desire of man’s heart) was only evil continually” and God’s prophet, Jeremiah, also tells us that man’s heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9-10). So, how could the desires of man’s heart conform to God’s desire for us when God and His prophet, Jeremiah, tell us the thoughts of our heart are only evil continually, deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. It therefore follows that the desires of man’s heart, if anything could go by, is corrupt and wicked. Rather, when we delight in the Lord and seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness, we should be seeking those things that truly reflect what God would like us to desire in. Let me list some of these godly desires that conform unquestionably to God’s desires for us based on the Word of God. They are:

(Note: Please note that the above list is not exhaustive and pray that God will inspire you to seek godly desires in addition to the above list and use to share and to encourage one another to constantly seeking God’s desires.)

In concluding my message, I want to recap that if we were to delight in ourselves, then God would give us the desires that we deserve, that is, those that corrupt and lead to destruction. However, when we delight in the Lord and to seek Him to be the source and strength to our spiritual pursuit, then our heart’s desires will be transformed from earthly desires to spiritual desires. If we truly love God and have God as our greatest delight, then the desires of our heart will be more of Him. In fact, our greatest good is to delight in God. As God sets the standard of what is good (and what is evil), so He commands us to delight in Him, to pursue relentlessly after the fruit of the Spirit, to be more like our Lord and Saviour, Jesus so as to experience peace that the world cannot provide but only by Him and from Him. Our heart’s desire must be set to find great godly joy and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7) and to fully come to the realization that in order to delight in the Lord, we must obey His commandments and His laws.

Let us dedicate our prayer this week by receding our Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) with all our sincere heart:

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

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21 May 2023

Scripture Reading: Titus 3:5-7 (KJV)

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

MESSAGE

There are two words that we as believers commonly hear, say or greet one another especially when we are celebrating events like Good Friday, Easter Day, Christmas Day or during a baptism service. These two words are: Grace and Mercy. It is very common to hear of these two words when we greet one another, testify at a baptism or make confession during those occasions, for examples: Grace be with you; By the grace of God, I am now a member of the family of God; thank God for His mercy that I was blind but now I see and so on. It is worth to note that in this salutation of “grace”(and also “peace”) is used in all of the apostle Paul’s epistles and he always begins by greeting his readers with “grace” and “peace.” The exact wording from letter to letter may vary a little, but each of these epistles begin with some variation of a greeting that involves the words “grace” and “peace.” (See Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 1:2; Galatians 1:3; Ephesians 1:2; Philippians 1:2; Colossians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:2; Timothy 1:2, Titus 1:2, and Philemon 1:3).

Though often used interchangeably, “grace” and “mercy” differ in many ways. Simply put it, they are two sides of the same coin. On one side of the coin, the inscription could appear: “Grace is a gift we don’t deserve”, and on the other side it could be inscribed with: “Mercy is not getting the punishment we deserve”. They are inseparable. Exegetically speaking, one cannot have mercy without grace and grace without mercy. You have to have both or none.

Grace and mercy are two cornerstones of Christian faith (besides of course the doctrines of Origin sin that Adam and Eve committed at the Garden of Eden, the Virgin Birth of our Lord Jesus, His Crucifixion, His Death, His Resurrection and His Accension). It must be emphasized that “mercy” and “grace” are two vital Christian terms whose meanings are often misunderstood. As one Christian writer has put it beautifully when he wrote: “Mercy gave the Prodigal Son a second chance. Grace gave him a feast.” He was obviously referring to the Parable of the Lost Son which we can read in Luke 15:11-32. Indeed, nothing can depart from this truth. We are all prodigal sons and daughters and we are all like sheep have gone astray and have turned to our own way (Isaiah 53:6). But by the grace and the mercy of God, as truly born-again Christians, children of the Most High, the gift of grace that we all have accepted whole-heartedly will allow all of us to come before our Creator and to feast with Him. This heavenly feast that we will be partaking is only made possible by both perfect mercy and perfect grace that can only be found in Jesus Christ. Through His sacrifice on the cross, He has provided a way of escape or mercy from the consequences of sin (John 3:16; Romans 5:8). God by His mercy has extended grace by providing salvation and proclaiming salvation to us through the Son, His teaching in Scripture, and through the Spirit of God at work among us.

To my beloved brothers and sisters who have not accepted the gift of mercy and grace, may I humbly plead that you accept this gift without any delay because the period of His grace may soon be closed as you take your last breath or when our Lord Jesus comes down to take His Church to heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:17). But please know that because of the love of God, it is important to take full cognizant that this rightful response of accepting His gift of grace and mercy is available to every sinner, to every lost sheep. Please accept this without any iota of doubt as your acceptance of this gift will lead you to eternal life. (John 3:16). Through this salvation, we receive the mercy of forgiven sin and the grace of life in Christ, including eternity with Him. Through this acceptance, He has come to give us life, and life abundantly (John 10:10). By the mercy of God, we are forgiven and God’s wrath no longer rests upon us. By the grace of God, we have been adopted as sons and daughters of God and we call him “Father.” We, as believers, as children of God, are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17). As children of God, we have the right to partake of His inheritance and have full access to the largest inheritance ever known to man!

Let us sincerely pray the following prayer:

Lord, I thank You for making special mercy available to help me in times of struggle and hardship. I admit that I often try to handle all my challenges on my own, but I know it is impossible for me to overcome my obstacles without the help of Your mercy. So today I am opening my heart and asking You to extend a special measure of mercy to assist me through this challenging time in my life for Your grace is sufficient for me. I thank You in advance for pouring this mercy and grace upon me, and by faith, I receive it right now.
I pray this in Jesus’ name!

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For all brothers and sisters who have not already accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, may I now plead with you to come before our Lord Jesus and accept Him as your Lord and Saviour. This can be easily done. Just pray this pray with sincerity and your life will never be the same. Eternal life is waiting for you once you have sincerely prayed this prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father

I admit that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I ask of You that You give me the power to repent and to turn away from my sin. I believe that Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins and He rose after three days. I confess my faith in Your Son Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no man can come to You, but by Your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Your gift of forgiveness from sin. Please accept me as Your child.

I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and my life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. I want to thank you for the blood of Jesus who has shed for me and by His blood I can now be redeemed and be reconciled to You.

I sincerely and faithfully pray all these in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!

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14 May 2023

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 6:11-12 (KJV)

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

MESSAGE

Blessed Mother’s Day to all mothers. Mothers are the greatest people because they worked all days, 24/7 and 365 days. The sacrifices made by mothers cannot be quantified in monetary terms. It is my desire that the message this week will uphold all husbands to love and to cherish their wives and that all husbands are able to discern what is good and what is holy and not to be deceived by the dark forces of the world so as to bring good tithings to their families.

In this week’s message, I would like to share a few biblical concepts regarding the wiles of Satan which prayerfully that the head of the household, the father (or mother for those who have lost their fathers for whatever the reason or case may be) can discern our God-given wisdom to avoid being deceived and rapped by the devil. I pray that all parents are alert and keep watching for the coming of the Lord as we all are going to see our Saviour face to face very, very soon!

For as much as we Christians strive to please God because we love Him dearly and we believe that Jesus is the Saviour of the world, we still need to realize that all human beings, in particular, the Christians, are the real target of Satan. The primary motive of Satan is to bring as many people to the lake of fire in the shortest possible time. Remember, in the Word of God we are being told time and again that Satan is the father of lies from the beginning of creation (John 8:44), disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14) and the deceiver of the whole world (Revelation 12:9). With the lie in the Garden of Eden, Satan led Eve and Adam to the fall of mankind. Lying is Satan’s primary weapon against God by deceiving God’s pride creation – the humankind. He uses this tactic of lies to confuse us, hoping to leave us hopeless, and twist God’s Word because he wants us to doubt the goodness of God. One of the greatest lies deployed by Satan is to tell us that there is no hell and there is no heaven. This is, in my view, the most dangerous lie. It is the lie of all lies. Heaven is real; hell is real. In fact, Jesus spoke more about hell than he spoke about heaven because Jesus wants none to be perished into eternality (2 Peter 3:9). Hell is a very terrifying place and this terrifying state of hell is best described by Jesus in the story of a rich man and Lazarus which we can read in Luke 16:19-25. The rich man was cast down in hell and was being in torment and he cried out: “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.” Hell must be the most terrifying place because not even a drop of water can be found and the people are being burnt by the consuming fire “day and night” and at a temperature of perhaps few hundred degrees! This is where the devil, his angels, the false prophets and the wicked are to be confined into eternality. This is a place of weeping, of gnashing of teeth (Luke 13:28) and where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:48). This is a place which is completely devoid of the presence of God (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9). It is a real place. Will you be there? God forbid!

We are warned many times that in the last days lawlessness is going to be the order of the day and we are now witnessing the tragic state of lawlessness as described in the Bible in 2 Timothy 3:2-4 – “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.” And we are told to stay away from such people. (2 Timothy 3:5).

The state of lawlessness that we are witnessing today is not the only thing we are to be concerned with. We have even a greater adversary that is standing right before our very eyes, Satan, the Prince of Darkness, is trying his best to ensnare unsuspecting Christians who probably don’t pray often and aren’t watching for Jesus’ return to rapture the Bride of our Lord Jesus, the Church. The main reason is that many of us even though we are God’s children we are too engrossed with worldly distractions. These worldly distractions will ensnare us to the point that we ignore the signs of His imminent return to rapture His Church. Jesus has warned us countless times to look out for the signs of the last days and one of these signs is that lawlessness will be abound. Looking out is one thing, having a protective gear to defend us from being deceived is another thing. Thankfully, Apostle Paul has told us to put on the full armour of God which is our protective spiritual gear that allows us to stand against the wiles of the devil (Ephesians 6:11). This spiritual gear, the armour of God, is now more relevant than ever before.

This armour of God that Apostle Paul refers to is the defend we must take as it an important part of our spiritual lives. Whether we are at home or outside our home, we must wearing this spiritual gear at all times. The Bible tells us that we are fighting a war against Satan who is continually seeking to steal, to kill and to destroy us. As Christians, it is important for us to understand the severity of this battle which is not against the flesh but against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. It is thus important that we must put on the full amour of God so that when the day of evil comes, we will be able to stand our ground and to stand firm with the belt of truth buckled around our waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, with our feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace and with our hand hold firmly to our spiritual sword. Putting on the armour of God requires us to pray with all kinds of prayers, present our body as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) in the Spirit on all occasions, making godly requests and seeking holy desires rather than the pursuit of worldly things. This will ultimately lead us to be alert to the deceptive plots by the devil because as the Lord’s people we are the real target of the devil who is ever-ready to seek and to destroy. The wiles of Satan are targeted particularly at Christians because for the non-believers they are already deceived so why target those that are already deceived as this would not bring any ‘benefits’ and ‘enjoyment’ to the devil. The real ‘benefits’ and ‘enjoyment’ that the devil is seeking is to see as many Christians are being deceived as possible. The devil is wasting no time in his efforts to deceive the children of the Most High because the devil knew that his days are numbered before he will be thrown into the lake of fire. When we sincerely believe in Jesus, accept His atoning blood of sacrifice we can come to His holy presence and the devil hates this to his core. We, as children of the Most High, must therefore be alert and of sober mind because our adversary the devil is a roaring lion looking for the children of God to devour. (1 Peter 5:8).

Let me call upon each individual Christian to pray earnestly the following prayer in spirit and in truth to remove all the dark forces that is surrounding each and every one of us.

In the mighty name of Jesus I overthrow all transaction contrary to my breakthrough, each and every evil force jamming answers to my prayers disappear, by the blood of Jesus I shake down the seat of darkness in my life, I reject the power of satanic human government over my family, my work, my health, my possessions, my relatives, my friends and my church members who are your children.
I PRAY ALL THESE IN THE NAME OF JESUS!

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7 May 2023

Scripture Reading: Romans 3:10-18 (KJV)

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.

MESSAGE

For many of us even though we may not in the medical field we are still familiar with the medical term “Pathology”. The Oxford dictionary has defined this as “the science of the causes and effects of diseases.” And we all usually associate diseases with some kind of physical or mental infirmities. Fortunately, and by the grace of God, with scientific and technological advancements in the last fifty years, many diseases which were undiagnosable and incurable can now be diagnosed and with proper medications and surgeries they can now with treated. In short, in order to cure of physical illness it requires physical treatments and who can do this job better than scientists and medical doctors.

As Christians, as children of God, we should be aware that there is another “pathology” that deals, not with physical illness or disease, but with spiritual diseases and this is known as “the pathology of sin”. This pathology of sin deals, not just bad actions, poor ideas, inefficient practices, or unplanned policies. This pathology of sin of humanity is very much summed up in Romans 3:10-18 by Apostle Paul:

As we can read from the above, we can easily conclude that we are indeed in this dire state of the world. It has been going on since the fall of man when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and took their first bite of the forbidden fruit at the Garden of Eden.

The pathology of sin is spreading with greater intensity by the day and it has now has become global system. This pathology of sin that is permeating the global system is in great enmity with God. Just like physical illness which requires physical interventions by scientists and medical experts, the pathology of sin is a spiritual disease and it requires spiritual intervention and who can be the best Spiritual Doctor to intervene and to cure this spiritual disease? The answer is obvious: Only the Creator of the Universe, the God of the Bible can completely cure this spiritual disease of yours and mine.

As Christians, as children of God, we should be aware of the spiritual pathological nature that is affecting everyone of us. We often short-handed it and simply called it “sin” (and indeed it is) but we must recognize its far-reaching effects. Not only has sin brought about spiritual and physical death, but sin has broken man’s community with God (Genesis: 3:24-25), broken his community with neighbours, friends, parents, brothers and sisters (Genesis 3:16; 4:8; Galatians 5:14-15), corrupted his economic activity (Genesis 3:17; Micah. 2:2), corrupted his habitation and environment (Romans 8:19-22), and distorted his very mind, reasoning and his constant and everlasting seeking of his desires of the flesh to pursuit worldly happiness (Matthew 15:19; Romans 1:28; Ephesians 2:1-3), resulted in his alienation from the life of God because of the blindness of his heart (Ephesians 4:18). The Scripture shows that this corruption of mind and heart is much more deadly than physical diseases as we can read in Matthew 5:29-30: If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

Time is not on our side! We are urgently in need for a spiritual cure to our pathological sin and, unlike physical illness that normally requires us to run around here and there just to seek medical help, our Lord Jesus, the begotten Son of God, has come to us. Instead of us seeking Him, He is seeking us as we can read in Matthew 7:7-8 – Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

The begotten Son of God, Lord Jesus, is standing just outside the door of your heart and He is knocking from the very moment you wake up each morning. May I now invite you to boldly take the radical and comprehensive approach to open the door to receive Him into your heart. It is radical because it will completely change your spiritual being and so that you can be more like our Lord Jesus and comprehensive because our Lord Jesus has finished all that was needed to be done – by dying on the cross for our sins. There is nothing more we need to do than just to accept His invitation to be His children and to be the saints of the Most High. All you need is to submit to Him in truth and in sincerity and repent daily of the reprobate mind and heart and ask of Him to forgive your sins. Without exception, all human has the capacity for sin and evil. It is only through the precious blood of Jesus that our sin and our evil deeds which are like scarlet and red crimson and they shall be made as white as snow and as wool (Isaiah 1:18). And all by the precious blood of God’s begotten Son, Jesus, who died on the cross at Calvary for you and me.

So, come now! Take a bold step to pray the following prayer to accept Him and to open the door of your heart for Him to come. You will never regret because unless your sins are washed away by the precious blood of Jesus, you will never able to see Him: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).

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Dear Heavenly Father

I admit that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I ask of You that You give me the power to repent and to turn away from my sin. I believe that Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins and He rose after three days. I confess my faith in Your Son Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no man can come to You, but by Your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Your gift of forgiveness from sin. Please accept me as Your child.I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and my life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. I want to thank you for the blood of Jesus who has shed for me and by His blood I can now be redeemed and be reconciled to You.I sincerely and faithfully pray all these in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!

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30 April 2023

Scripture Reading: Daniel 12:1-3 (KJV)

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

MESSAGE

When it comes to the resurrection of the dead, the verse 1 Thessalonians 4:16 from the New Testament is often quoted as one of primary sources of reference (or authority): “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.”

We, must, however, remind ourselves that all scriptures are inspired by God and hence the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation is the final authority in all matters of faith and morals. No exception whatsoever should be made to assert that “this verse has greater authority over the other”. Nonetheless, for some reasons, some writers (like myself) may find it easier to explain familiar or commonly quoted verses. This may due to, perhaps, they are not ‘theologically’ trained and may be handicapped to use ‘less familiar’ verses that trained theologians are better in expounding them. It may surprise some of us that besides the New Testament there are also many verses in the Old Testament that give similar prophetic words concerning the resurrection of the dead. A good example is the verse we just read in Daniel 12:1-3 (which is not often used as reference to the resurrection of the dead as I have observed). Indeed this verse draws a very close parallel to 1 Thessalonians 4:16. Exegetically and prophetically both passages (1 Thessalonians 4:16 and Daniel 12:1-3) point to God’s holy people who already died but they will be resurrected to enjoy everlasting life. (Note: I must admit. I am one of them and often I find it difficult to expound on verses that only great men of God who are well trained in theology like Dr. Charles Stanley, Dr. David Jeremiah, Dr. John MacArthur, Dr. Chuck Swindoll, Dr. R. C. Sprout, Dr. Adrian Rogers, Dr. Chuck Smith – to just name a few – could. Hence, you might have noticed that I often use commonly quoted verses as my source of reference in my messages and I want to humbly admit that’s the best I could. I strongly encourage that, if time permits you, please google the messages from those men of God that I mentioned above. You will be richly blessed with their messages)

I truly wonder why there are so many people denied or expressed doubt concerning the resurrection of the dead and also the catching up of the believers who are alive and will be raised to meet our Saviour in the air as we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 – “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

It is in my firm believe that the resurrection of the dead and those who are alive and shall also be caught to be with the Lord in the air are wholly inclusive and they shall all happen almost at the same time separated apart by only a micro-second.

It is very comforting that we, the believers, are given a special title: “the saints of the Most High” (Daniel 7:27) and this holy title marks the special relationship between God and His true believers. As saints of the Most High, we shall all dwell in His everlasting kingdom and serve and obey Him. What a blessed privilege that God has given us to serve Him into eternality! Even on earth, many of us dreamt of serving kings and queens or princes and princesses because the rewards from them can be immensurable (but there is a caveat – and that is these kings and queens, princes and princesses must be served strictly according to their wishes failing which it can be disastrous to those who served them because they may be given deadly reward instead!) As saints of the Most High, we are going to serve the Creator of the Universe and He will take great delight in our service. But there is also a caveat – you have to now accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour while you are still alive on earth in order to enjoy this privilege of serving the Creator of the Universe. His rewards to the redeemed will be immeasurable!

Sadly, in Daniel 12:1-3 we also read of another group will wake to reproaches and shame that will lead them to everlasting contempt. Their relationship with God will be completely terminated and there is no possibility of reconciling with God the Father. At the risk of being politically-incorrect but I must speak the truth. This group will be confined to hell which is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth and darkness (Matthew 8:12; Luke 13:28). This is a place we all must avoid at all cost. This is not a laughing matter! Prayerfully, as true-believers, we do not belong in this group. If you are still not a believer it is time that you to come to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ right away for He is awaiting anxiously to see you accept His invitation to be His children so that you can be the saints of the Most High. As saints of the Most High, our share of hope in life eternal, with God and angels is not simply a dream. In fact, it could happen at any moment because our Saviour, Jesus can come like a thief at night and we all can be caught in the most unexpected and untimely manner and without warning (Matthew 24:43-44; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Peter 3:10). At that appointed time, we may be at sleep; we may be at work; we may be at golf-field. It is thus important that we all need to get ready for His coming by our constant repentant living and turn away from our sinful and wicked way of life.

Besides the apostles of the New Testament, notably, Prophet Daniel of the Old Testament offers us this blessed hope that Lord Jesus will come to resurrect the dead and to rapture His Bride to meet Him in the air. The Word of God pertaining to His coming will sustain, guide, strengthen, encourage and comfort us. This is undoubtedly affirmed by Apostle Paul’s letter to the Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians 4:18: “Wherefore comfort one another with these words” referring to Jesus will come and take His Bride to meet Him in the air. We also note that Apostle has written encouraging words to the Corinthians as we can read in 1 Corinthians 1:52-53 – “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” As saints of the Most High, our reward from the Creator of the Universe from thenceforth when we see Him face to face will shine like the stars of the firmament and His light of truth will forever be with us.

Please take the courage to accept the invitation from our Lord and Saviour. This is very simple to do. Just pray the prayer below and you can be a saint of the Most High which a special title that God confers to those who accept His invitation.

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Dear Heavenly Father

I admit that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I ask of You that You give me the power to repent and to turn away from my sin. I believe that Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins and He rose after three days. I confess my faith in Your Son Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no man can come to You, but by Your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Your gift of forgiveness from sin. Please accept me as Your child.

I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and my life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. I want to thank you for the blood of Jesus who has shed for me and by His blood I can now be redeemed and be reconciled to You.

I sincerely and faithfully pray all these in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!

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23 April 2023

Scripture Reading: Matthew 24:5-8 (KJV)

For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MESSAGE

The above verses taken from the Book of Matthew, chapter 24, are one of the most commonly quoted verses by Christian writers when writing matters concerning end-time. And rightly so because these words were the personally spoken by Lord Jesus to His disciples when they asked Him when would the sign of His coming. Let’s list these signs:

Are these something new to us? Definitely not! In fact, wars – ethic wars and geopolitical wars, severe famines, widespread pestilences and earthquakes (and also uncontrollable wild-forest fires, intense floods, volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis) are not new. They are happening all over the world and for thousands of years and all over the world. So, why Christians and even non-religious people are now asking questions when news of such events were reported: What on earth is going on? Is the end of world coming soon? And for Bible-believing Christians, the will undoubtedly asked questions like: Is Jesus coming to take His Bride soon? Is the world ready to receive the anti-Christ? Is the Mark of the Beast to be implemented and that everyone must take the Mark in order to buy and sell? Is the world marching towards One World Government; One World Religion; One World Currency/Financial System?

Well, the major difference is that these events that are happening today compared to past decades (or centuries) are because today the events occurred one after another and in greater frequency, in much greater intensities and several of unrelated catastrophes (such as flood followed by earthquake) even converged in the same country and almost at the same time.

Besides these cosmic and the Mother Nature catastrophes, the world is entering in a “New Era” that “Absolute Truth” is a dirty word. Instead, “Relative Truth” is now embraced by almost everyone, even governments. The tenet of Relative Truth is: “After all everyone is doing.” You can do what you like and the laws, sadly, sometimes even protect the perpetrators rather than the victims. This New Era that embracing “Relative Truth” is now spreading like tsunami as we know it resulting governments legalizing same sex marriage and the Biblical-truth that marriage is only between a male and a female is now jettisoned to the garbage bin; that those who adhered strictly to gender binary that you are either are born a male or a female is considered to be imbecile and those who strongly believe that you can decide to be either male or female regardless whether you are born a male or a female are celebrated. It is now common in many countries censoring people especially Christians who opposed LGBTQ movements and they are threatened with physical harms. Mainstream churches who preached messages against LGBTQ and transgenderism are severely attacked and vandalized. In conclusion, the New Era completely opposes the Word of God and this New Era movement is now wildly spread across the globe relentlessly. Indeed the New Era that resulted in extreme sinfulness and wickedness of humankind can clearly be revealed in the Book of Isaiah 5:20-23: Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink; Which justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

We are now truly at the end stage of the birth pain! As we read in Genesis 6:5, since the creation of human race and immediately after the fall of man when Adam took the first bite of the forbidden fruit, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Can the world continue to function in this manner? Besides cosmic and natural calamities, human beings are now at the forefront of creating evilness and wickedness that I think the people in the days of Noah and Lot would be amused by what we the people do today. Let’s dived deeper into Genesis 6:5 and we can easily notice three key expressions that worth further exploring. We can now fully understand what God really saw.

(a) Great wickedness: From petty theft to corruption by the highest government officials, they are happening every day and on all over the world. It was reported that in China a senior official accumulated so much wealth that more than ten military trucks were needed to confiscate his ill-gotten wealth. Even though the police borrowed money-counting machines from banks but they still proved to be too slow to count those million upon millions of the currency notes so much so that the police got to use the weighing machines to estimate the amount of the ill-gotten money he accumulated! Besides, bank notes, the police had to confiscate gold and silver ingots, jades and all kind of precious gems. Thought about corruption and greed!  

(b) Every imagination of thoughts: We are the only specie that is capable of inventing wickedness. Animals and beasts just simply live on instinct. They hunt their preys for food only when they are hungry. Sadly, often human hunt not because they are hungry but they are greedy. There is an Oriental expression and it says: There is enough for everybody’s need and not for everybody’s greed.” Often when we read the newspaper, we just simply marveled how on earth these people could invent such schemes to cheat or scam people! And often, the poor and the most vulnerable are the targets of the schemes. May God have mercy on the victims.

(c) Continually: Oxford dictionary defines “continually” as “repeated frequently in the same way; regularly; without interruption; constantly”. God saw this was the state of the mind of the fallen race six thousand years old. Since the fall of man, our mind has always continually bend towards sinful thoughts and desires. From the very moment we wake up, our minds are filled with filthy thoughts – thoughts of how to get rich, thoughts of how to get promoted, thought of scheming or plotting evil plans to destroy others, thought of how to bring down colleagues who are better than us. All these thoughts of evil and wicked needs are conceived at the expense of other people and with total disregard of the welfare of others – even your best friend could be your target.

(Note: I want to confess, I am no exception! What I say “they” or “others” really apply both in whole and in part to me! But by the grace of God, I now attempt to put aside evil thoughts as often as I could but sadly, I failed quite frequently and I will go to God to ask Him for forgiveness and at the same time to do a complete spiritual heart transplant onto me so that I can be more like Him. May God has mercy on me! I therefore covet your prayer on this matter. May God bless you for praying for me).

Men, whether we are friends or foes, are plotting against one another and you do not know what your “best” think about you until you really have fallen from grace and needed their help! It is no wonder we always tell ourselves, never trust people and Psalm 118:8-9 truly reflect what friendship with the world really means: “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.”
These verses tell us not only that we cannot trust our friends, we cannot even trust people in authorities neither people of high positions. It is my sincere prayer that God will grant you the wisdom to see what He saw six thousand years’ ago. These are warning signs that we are living towards the expiry date of this world. It will be sooner that you think that the world will be completely destroyed, not by flood, but will be by fire as we read in 2 Peter 3:10-12: But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?

Time is running out. We have never been closer to nuclear catastrophe! In January this year, the Doomsday Clock was set 90 seconds to midnight and this simply means that nuclear war can happen at any moment! My dear readers, if you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, please so right away. God is inviting you to come to His Kingdom and all you need to do is to sincerely pray the following prayer:

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Dear Heavenly Father

I admit that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I ask of You that You give me the power to repent and to turn away from my sin. I believe that Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins and He rose after three days. I confess my faith in Your Son Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no man can come to You, but by Your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Your gift of forgiveness from sin. Please accept me as Your child.

I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and my life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. I want to thank you for the blood of Jesus who has shed for me and by His blood I can now be redeemed and be reconciled to You.

I sincerely and faithfully pray all these in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!

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16 April 2023

Scripture Reading: Matthew 3:16-17 (KJV)

And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

MESSAGE

It is very common to see churches conduct baptism services during Good Friday and Easter Day. Congregation members will take every effort to congratulate those who got baptized and at the same time they also rejoice with them on this very important life-event that these new faithful converts have taken. In Luke 15:10, Jesus even tells us that there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over even one sinner who repents as baptism is a significant acknowledgement of a sinner’s repentance. Baptism is a great victory that God has won and the Evil One defeated because baptism represents total submission of sinners to God as they declared publicly that they are now citizens of the Kingdom of God and not of the world. We are promised unequivocally that God will not allow any of His children, the true-believers to be snatched away from His hand (John 10:28-29). What can be more affirming to us on this promise by our God than going through the water baptism to affirm total submission to God! Our Lord Jesus went through the water baptism Himself at River Jordan even though His is sinless but He was made sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). The water baptism at River Jordan of our Lord Jesus and His shed blood unite us to the Triune God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  

Last week, I was extremely happy to receive a message in my WhatsApp that a very dear sister-in-Christ of mine together with her sister went for her baptism during the Easter Day. I knew she had been to church for quite sometimes and it was a great joy to hear that she (and her sister) had taken this life-changing step to baptism. Like all children of God who had been to baptism that I have had witnessed, they were usually required to confess that Jesus is Lord and Saviour. As we can read in Romans 10:9-11,13: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation; whosoever believes on Him will not be put to shame. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

In this regard, I like to give thanks and praise to God that, not one, but at least two precious souls are now saved in the Mighty Hand of our Lord Jesus. The angelic hosts must be very busy singing and praising God!

Baptism is a very serious ‘business’ for the Kingdom of God. It is so serious that all the Four Gospels – Matthew 3:13-13; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:29-34 – wrote about baptism of Lord Jesus. I like to share great wisdom and guidance from the New Testament relating to water baptism and, prayerfully, it will help us understand three purposes of baptism which are of important divine significance. 

Consistent with this symbol of baptism of confession, of repentance, of accepting the gift of salvation, we read that after Jesus was baptized He immediately went to preach and His very first sermon was on “Repentance” as we can read in Matthew 4:17 and Mark 1:15: Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. I want to add that “Repentance” or turning away from our sinful way is the primary foundation that a true-Bible believing Christians must build upon before embarking into God’s other callings. We note that it was only after Jesus’ very first sermon on “Repentance” that He then continued His ministry about the Kingdom of God, recruited His beloved disciples and commanded His disciples (which also include all believers) to go and preach to the world concerning God’s Kingdom. 

It is therefore my prayer here that if you believe in Jesus and you are still not yet baptized, please speak to your church pastors or elders and to take this very important life-changing step to baptize. Although you may not hear any audible sound from heaven but you can be assured that all the angels of God rejoice in your baptism and God is going to say to you: “You are My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.” In Matthew 3:16-17, we read that: “When Jesus had been baptized and came up immediately from the water, heavens were opened to Him and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon Him and He heard a voice from heaven, saying: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” We can therefore infer that God is extremely pleased when we are baptized in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. He is going to say to us: You are My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.

Please waste no time and get baptized for God is anxiously waiting to say to you: You are my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased and the angels of God are all assembled and ever ready to rejoice when you are baptized because you will be citizens of the Kingdom of God.

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 INVITATION TO RECEIVE JESUS CHRIST AS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOUR

Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
Blessed are all those who wait for Him. (Isaiah 30:18)

If you are willing to accept God’s invitation to be His child, just pray this prayer right now because tomorrow is not promised. God is waiting for you.

Dear Heavenly Father
I admit that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I ask of You that You give me the power to repent and to turn away from my sin. I believe that Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins and He rose after three days. I confess my faith in Your Son Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no man can come to You, but by Your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Your gift of forgiveness from sin. Please accept me as Your child.

I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and my life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. I want to thank you for the blood of Jesus who has shed for me and by His blood I can now be redeemed and be reconciled to You.

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9 April 2023

Scripture Reading: Luke 22:42 (KJV)

Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

MESSAGE

May I take this opportunity sending you greetings for the season of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Let us praise and give thanks to our Heavenly Father for sending His Son, Jesus two thousand years’ ago to be crucified on the Cross. Our Heavenly Father knew exactly what was to come after the crucifixion and that was His only begotten would rise on the third day as death would not hold our Living Lord and Saviour, Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus has given the best hope that the world has ever known and that is to give all repented sinners to have eternal life. The events of Jesus leading Him to His death and resurrection of God’s only begotten Son, Jesus, has indeed closed a very significant celestial chapter of God’s Creation: The will of God to redeem and reconcile sinful man to Him has been completed with absolute perfection and obedience by His only begotten Son Jesus. In John 19:30 we can read of a very familiar verse comprising just three divinely significant words that proclaim absolute completion of the redemptive work that God the Father has sent Jesus to do: IT IS FINISHED. And in Matthew 28:7 there are also three equally divine significant words: HE IS RISEN. These words indicate to us that death is not the final destiny of those who believed in the risen Lord. Instead, we shall all be resurrected just like Jesus! The crucifixion of Christ Jesus and when He rose three days’ later has removed the word “Death” out of the vocabulary of those who confessed their sin and accept the atoning blood of Jesus. Through Jesus, we all have victory over our greatest enemy: Death. Personally, I felt these two proclamations- IT IS FINISHED and HE IS RISN – truly demonstrate that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. Whatever Jesus starts, He will be there to finish in absolute perfection because of His unyielding love for mankind!

Many people think that the road to the cross was easy for Jesus. Often, the sermons we heard during Good Friday and Easter Day seem to tell us that “The road to crucifixion is just a “piece of cake” for Jesus after all He is God and so: “What’s so difficult for Him?” But what I am going to share with you may shock you. In antiquity, crucifixion was one of the most brutal and shameful modes of death and this form of death was only given to the worst criminals. Lord Jesus who committed no crimes and knew no sin, yet He was brutally punished in this manner that is only fit for the worst criminals. He was humiliated, scourged, His hands were nailed to the cross and crown of thorns were forcefully pressed onto His head. A medical physiological expert who did research on the crucifixion of Jesus estimated that it would require at least two thousand stitches just to close up all the wounds of Jesus’ body had a surgery been performed on Him. He could, I believe, just bleed one drop of His blood and that would be sufficient and acceptable to God to redeem and reconcile all of us to God the Father. Yet, God the Father allowed His Son to bleed every drop of His blood far exceeded what was needed for the redemptive work of Christ This is a true reflection of how much we are being loved by our Heavenly Father. Crucifixion of Jesus brings alive to us the Word of God in John 3:16-17: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

The shocking truth is that the road to the cross was a very, very difficult one for Jesus. It was so difficult that our Lord prayed to the God the Father: If thou be willing, remove this cup from me. (Luke 22:42). The ‘cup’ is the cup of intense sufferings that were awaiting for Him to go through. But there was a dead silence from heaven and this dead silence simply sending a clear message by God the Father to His begotten Son, Jesus: “Just drink it; no negotiation in whatever form is to be entertained; this is the only way to express our love to the world; this is the only way to redeem and reconcile sinful man to us; there is no other plan.” The cup that Jesus drank was the cup of suffering of unimaginable proportion as He was about to go through one of the most painful deaths a person can experience. Jesus knew this was a part of God’s plan from the very beginning of His birth. The historical details of the events of Jesus prayer at the Garden of Gethsemane, to the final journey to His death, to His burial and resurrection can be found in the Book of Luke. Together with the Book of Genesis, they are the stories of two gardens – in the Garden of Eden, Adam failed the test with wrathful consequences that all human have to face but in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus passed the test and this will bring us to everlasting life.

What may shock you is that when Jesus prayed to His Father to remove the cup of suffering, some had commented that it seems to imply that Jesus was not willing to die. This is a grossly misplaced interpretation. Remember, at the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed to the Father to remove the cup of suffering, Jesus was fully human. No human of sound mind would want to go through such event and Jesus knew very well what was installed for Him. He was fighting against the desires of His flesh which yearned for self-preservation and comfort, just like any one of us. The struggle was fierce, overwhelmed and extremely sorrowful to the point of death so much so that He said to His disciples: “My soul is deeply grieved so that I am almost dying of sorrow” Matthew 26:38.  When Jesus prayed to His Father: “Let this cup pass from Me” He is expressing the natural human desire to avoid pain and suffering. This prayer more than anything else, demonstrates that Jesus was in every way fully human at the Garden of Gethsemane. As fully human, Jesus was no difference from any other man. Jesus is fully God but He is also fully human, though perfect but His human nature still struggled with the need to accept the torture and shame that awaited Him. He knew all the humiliation, the shame, the torture and the pains both physical and spiritual will all be converged at the Calvary Cross. The Cross was indeed very, very heavy and He had to carry all by Himself. At the Cross, besides the physical pains that He had to endured, God the Father turned away because He could not bear to see all the sins that His Son carried. In the moment of His agony when God foresaken Him, our Lord Jesus cried out: My God, my God, why hast thou foresaken me? (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). Notice that Jesus did not cry: Father, Father. Instead He cried My God, my God. The reason is that God indeed had disowned His Son when we became “man of sin” when Jesus was hung on the Cross taking all our sins – past, present and future.

We need to comprehend the solitude and the grief that Jesus was facing at the Gethsemane because it helps to us understand the accomplishment of Jesus redemptive work. Six thousand years’ ago, Adam failed the test in the Garden of Eden. The forbidden fruit that eaten by Adam turned into a burden that seemingly even Jesus couldn’t bear. Adam stumbled and as a result, all humanity was born as wrathful children from that point forward. It can be inferred that Christ the greater Adam, triumphed in the Garden of Gethsemane where Adam failed in the Garden of Eden. As we read in Luke 22:44, Luke wrote of Jesus’ sweat as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. In fact, it is the blood of Christ combines with Adam’s sweat that the curse of Adam’s sin fell upon Jesus. This is why we are to witness Christ’s anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane because God could not let Him remove the cup and, thankfully, Jesus obediently drank it all the way to the bottom. It means that there will be no more wrath directed at those united to Christ. He drank it instead of us. This demonstrates that the curse of Adam’s sin has completely removed from us once and for all. From that point forward, those who accepted the precious blood of Jesus will be saved from God’s wrath because His complete compliance of the Father’s will at this time has been transferred to our account.

The events in the Garden of Gethsemane also let us know that Jesus understand how it feels to be alone. He comprehends pain. He understands pains. He comprehends all our mental anxieties. He understands that every drop of our agonizing sweat. He has faced more temptation than any of us will ever face. He willingly and knowingly looked into the cup and drank it to the last drop. We can now express our distress to Him. We can now entrust our pain to Him, physically, mentally and spiritually: By His stripes and blood we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).

Have you ever had doubts about God’s love for you? Take a look at the Garden of Gethsemane. You can see the Son of God sweating profusely like drops of blood and, yet, you can see His determination by submitting totally to the Father’s will in redeeming humanity from the wrath of the Father. He drank the cup in our honour. Look no further that the Father’s silence, there was no other way to redeem humanity but only by the blood of His Son, Jesus. Now that the wrath of the Father poured out on His Son and because the wrath of the Father poured out on His Son, though our sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool (Isaiah 1:18).

We must allow the logic of Romans 8:32 to motivate us. “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all. How will He not also along with Him graciously give us all things.” If God had not been committed to our redemption, He would’ve let that cup pass from Jesus in the Garden and transferred it to us instead. He would’ve let humanity be swallowed up by His wrath while preserving His Son. He, however, did not; not only because He loves us, but because who God is. It is in His nature to be self-giving to give of Himself so that others may live. You can have faith in this. Who can be against us if God is on our side? Are you willing to let God be on your side? I pray that your answer is a resounding “Yes” and to let Jesus be on your side. Please pray the following prayer if you are willing to let Jesus be on your side:

Dear Heavenly Father
I admit that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I ask of You that You give me the power to repent and to turn away from my sin. I believe that Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins and He rose after three days. I confess my faith in Your Son Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no man can come to You, but by Your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Your gift of forgiveness from sin. Please accept me as Your child.
I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and my life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. I want to thank you for the blood of Jesus who has shed for me and by His blood I can now be redeemed and be reconciled to You.
I sincerely and faithfully pray all these in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!

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2 April 2023

Scripture Reading: Luke 23:34 (KJV)

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

MESSAGE

The above verse (Luke 23:34) was the last prayer that our Lord Jesus prayed when He was hung on the cross. This is prayer by our Lord Jesus one of the most wonderful prayers because Lord Jesus prayed this prayer when He was hung on the cross and scourged so heavily that caused Him to bleed almost every drop of His blood. The scourge was so horrific that literally torn His body into pieces and resulted Him to be beyond recognition. Many of the onlookers below the cross were the Jews who rejected Jesus as their Messiah, the Roman officers and their soldiers and the high priests who earlier cried out to Pilate: “crucify him, crucify him” (Luke 23:21). And we all know that our Lord Jesus was finally crucified even though Pilate was convinced that Jesus committed no crime but he was quite ‘powerless’ to do to the contrary and that was to release Jesus. The pressure from the Jews, Roman court officials and the high priests to crucify our Lord Jesus was too overwhelmed. Pilate was pushed to a corner, so to speak. He got no choice but to crucify a totally innocent man.

There is a great lesson for all of us to learn of this event at the final hours of our Lord Jesus before He took His last breath. Even though He was crucified, He declared: “Father forgive them”. Lord Jesus had harboured not an iota of hatred and all He had shown to us is just one truth – Forgive all those who have wronged you no matter how big or how unjust it may be. This is the clearest reflection that our merciful God is very willing to forgive no matter how great our atrocities might be. Are you willing to accept His forgiveness? It must be noted that the declaration of the need to be forgiven makes it clear that we are also no different from those people who were at the cross crying out for the blood of Jesus. We are all guilty in the sight of God and this may be despite our ignorance. Perhaps, some of the people witnessing the crucifixion of Jesus were just “following the crowd” without really understand what they were doing, and our Lord knew this very well as we can read in the verse: “For they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Admitted, there are many sins and atrocities we committed are committedly willingly and rebelliously and often these acts of our atrocities brought miseries to other people, sometimes even to our closest friends and relatives. However, they are some sins we committed that may be due to our ignorance. But to claim ignorance can be just as risky. In Hosea 4:6, we are warned that we will be destroyed for the lack of God’s knowledge which may lead us to reject God’s knowledge which is the law of our God. Let us be aware that in secular law there is a legal dictum: “Ignorance of law is no excuse.” By this legal dictum, we cannot defend our criminal actions by claiming “We didn’t know the law”. How then could we claim to be ignorant of God’s law because the Ten Commandments given by God are craved into our heart. As a result, even the most rebellious and wicked people know that we must honour our parents and to take good care of them; we must not kill or murder; we must be faithful to our spouse and not to commit adultery; we must not steal; we must not bear false witness; we must not covet our neighbour’s properties and their possessions. Crimes like stealing, theft, robbery, giving false statements under oath, murder of innocent people (and in some countries, adultery) have been codified into law in every country around the world and perpetrators can be severely punished, including death sentence.

As we read the four gospels, we can easily come to the realisation that Jesus prayed more than another else, possibly more than all His disciples combined. One doctrinal question that has been debated by theologians is: “If Jesus is God, than why He need to pray when He himself is God?” Even my young daughter asked me this question just few days ago and I must add that this question is not unreasonable. When I was a young Christian myself, I did ask the same question. I like therefore to offer the following reasons based on what I have read from the Word of God concerning this question: “If Jesus is God, why and how could He pray to God?”

One of keys to understanding how Jesus could pray to God the Father can be found in Hebrews 2:17 – “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brothers in every respect.” As we explore into the books of the New Testament, one of the important callings of all God’s people is to pray. We must understand that when Jesus was on earth, He was fully human and also fully God, and it was perfectly fitting that He should pray to the Father in heaven. There are several reasons why Jesus prayed to the Father. First, all people are called to worship God. Prayer is an essential form of worship. In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, we are told to rejoice and to pray without ceasing, and to give thanks in all circumstances as this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. Jesus prayed for almost every situation and there are more than 30 scripture verses in the four gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – illustrating illustrating to us when, why, where and how He prayed. Notably, in Matthew 6:9-13 Jesus has taught us how to pray.

Second, Lord Jesus as our High Priest intercedes on behalf of God’s people (Hebrews 2:17). We see Jesus acting as our intercessor interceding for all sinners (Hebrews 7:25) and prayer, just like worship, is an essential form of intercession. Right now, Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God in heaven interceding for us (Romans 8:34).

The third reason for Jesus praying to God the Father can also be found in John 11:41-42. In this passage, Jesus prays before He raises Lazarus from the dead: “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” Thus, one reason Jesus prayed to the Father was for the benefit of those around Him. I have even heard of testimony that a simple prayer of thanksgiving during a meal could lead others to Christ because this can open up the opportunity to preach and share the gospel with the unbelievers. Indeed, it is an effective form of evangelism as by our prayer we have openly confess to people around us that: “We are not ashamed of the gospel that Jesus is the begotten Son of God who died for all sinners that those who believed in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

Another reason why Jesus prayed to the Father in order to enjoy the fellowship of the Triune Godhead of Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, the Bible simply says, “Jesus prayed,” yet other times we see a glimpse of something more significant. For example, following Jesus’ baptism, He prayed, and “the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:21-22) Here, within the context of a prayer, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are all revealed in perfect fellowship. Hence, when we prayed, we too will have close and perfect fellowship with the Triune Godhead of Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is a great privilege and it confers exclusively only to true-believers.

Prayer is an extremely important part of our Christian life because if Jesus is God and willing to be take the form of human to redeem us to the Father, and He prays, we therefore have absolutely no excuse not to pray! Prayer was an appropriate, natural, and essential part of our Lord’s mission on earth. His prayers set an example for us grow in intimacy with our Heavenly Father. As we pray, we will be more like Him. Remember, we are created in His image and nothing can be more pleasing to our Lord Jesus than our continual earnest pursuit to be more like Him by praying to God without ceasing.

I like to close this week’s message with a hymn which I pray can inspire all of us to be more like Jesus in our heart.

Please click to listen: https://youtu.be/MZUq1Ruj9dE

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 INVITATION TO RECEIVE JESUS CHRIST AS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOUR

Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
Blessed are all those who wait for Him. (Isaiah 30:18)

If you are willing to accept God’s invitation to be His child, just pray this prayer right now because tomorrow is not promised. God is waiting for you.

Dear Heavenly Father
I admit that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I ask of You that You give me the power to repent and to turn away from my sin. I believe that Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins and He rose after three days. I confess my faith in Your Son Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no man can come to You, but by Your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Your gift of forgiveness from sin. Please accept me as Your child.

I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and my life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. I want to thank you for the blood of Jesus who has shed for me and by His blood I can now be redeemed and be reconciled to You.

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26 March 2023

Scripture Reading: Romans 7:18-19 (KJV)

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

MESSAGE

I remember quite sometimes ago I came across an article and title of this article was: ‘Desire – Good or Bad?’ Although this article was written from secular perspectives, thankfully I do learn some beneficial lessons from it and I also could relate this article to the Word of God, the Bible. The writer went on to discuss a Greek philosopher, Plato, was taken on the problem of human’s desires. Plato used the figure of a charioteer pulled by two horses, one white, and one dark. This charioteer represents human soul and the white horse represents the part of our nature that is motivated by good and sensible desires and the dark horse represents our carnal and brutish desires. More often than not, it is the dark horse that pulls most strongly. Thus, he concluded, that our prudent long-term plans are thrown off-course by short-term carvings and impulses and, as we all know, these carnal carvings and impulses often led us into deep troubled water if they are left unchecked and uncontrolled.

The verses we just read above – Romans 7:18-19 tells us that indeed we have two ‘natures’ within us – one good and one bad. In these verses we learnt of Apostle Paul who lamented that for those good that he should do, he chose not to but for those evils that he should avoid, he kept doing them. He was not exempted from struggling between doing good and avoiding doing bad, we too, just like Apostle Paul, are be struggling very hard continuously to subdue the ‘dark horse’. The ‘dark horse’ within us seems to have greater horsepower than our seemingly weak ‘white horse’ as we are often pulled by the stronger ‘dark horse’ to the direction that we should not go to in the first place.

Like Apostle Paul, inside everyone of us, we are always struggling between doing good things and doing things that are not so good or bad or even doing evil things. If we depend on our efforts to against this ‘dark horse’ within us, as sure as the sun rises, we are going to fail in our endeavours to a point that we may just give up trying to do good and instead let the deeds of evils and wickedness become our way of life. This is the road that Satan wants us to go into. He had succeeded in the Garden of Eden and he managed to pull Adam and Eve away from God’s truth. Since, the fall of man six thousand years’ ago Satan continues in his relentless efforts to pull all human towards the dark side of our life. Sadly and tragically, he has succeeded with flying colours. I don’t think I need to go further than to say more than what a famous evangelist, the late Reverend Billy Graham, had once spoken: “If God doesn’t punish America, He’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.” Well, there are some fell that this statement sounds ‘blasphemous’ but I personally feel what the late Reverend Billy Graham said really reflects the current state of affairs, not just in America but throughout the globe. Indeed, we are very, very close to what Apostle Paul has told us in 2 Timothy 3:1-2 – 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.” We may not now be exactly ‘as in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah’ but it is not unreasonable to say we could be 90% – 95% close to the ‘days of Sodom and Gomorrah’ where the sins and wickedness of the people were so horrific that God had to destroy the cities with fire and brimstone leaving on Lot and his two daughters. The people during Noah’s days too faced the same apocalyptic judgments because their sins and wickedness, I believe, were not lesser that those ‘as in the days of Lot’. They were all destroyed by the huge flood leaving only Noah and his family members and those animals that were in Noah’s ark

Let’s examine further into the verses which we just read and we can quickly realise the truth of the matter is that no matter hard we tried doing good and how hard we tried to avoid doing evil things or things that are against the precepts of the Holy Spirit, our mind frequently travels to the side journey that tempts us with visions of earthly joy, happiness and enjoyment that human flesh is yielding so strongly for. When these visions continue to probe inside our mind, sooner or later, they will transform them into actual actions and let’s admit, many of these joy, happiness and enjoyment are done at the expense of someone else or at the expense of the order of nature.

How then could we remove or subdue our dark horse and let just the white horse pull our chariot to the place that God wants us to be in order the Name of Jesus can be glorified?

Thankfully and prayerfully, the Word of God has prescribed solutions. For instance, one of the ways to remove or subdue the dark horse within us is to sincerely believe in the counsel given by Apostle Paul: We need to walk in the Spirit, and we shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. (Galatians 5:16-17). At the same times we should augment our walk in the Spirit with prayer and fasting and stay away from the worldly desires of the flesh: immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and so on because those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21).

A very crucial lesson we can learn from Apostle Paul is that we need to listen to what the Spirit tells us by turning to the book of the Spirit, the Bible. We have each day to be filled by the Spirit and Jesus himself assures us that God, who dearly loves us, will “give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.” (Luke 11:13). Hence, we have to submissively lead by the Spirit of God and obey only the Spirit’s instructions as we need to stay in step with the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can help us become and be what the Lord wants us to be in all the coming years that are ahead of us. Remember, our Lord Jesus is coming very, very soon to bring the Church, His Bride, to meet in the air. We therefore must honour Him day and night to stay awake and be ready to meet Him.

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 INVITATION TO RECEIVE JESUS CHRIST AS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOUR

Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
Blessed are all those who wait for Him. (Isaiah 30:18)

If you are willing to accept God’s invitation to be His child, just pray this prayer right now because tomorrow is not promised. God is waiting for you.

Dear Heavenly Father
I admit that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I ask of You that You give me the power to repent and to turn away from my sin. I believe that Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins and He rose after three days. I confess my faith in Your Son Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no man can come to You, but by Your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Your gift of forgiveness from sin. Please accept me as Your child.

I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and my life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. I want to thank you for the blood of Jesus who has shed for me and by His blood I can now be redeemed and be reconciled to You.

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19 March 2023

Scripture Reading: Matthew 10:33 (KJV)

But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

MESSAGE

As we all are aware, there are many ‘combustible’ questions concerning certain Bible doctrines. These ‘combustible’ questions often could act as catalyst to potentially cause problems in Christian community that may threaten unity among church members or even church itself. It is not uncommon to hear that because of differences in interpreting certain Bible verses good friend can turn into enemy, churches are split, name-calling by among church leaders because they could not agree or even agree to disagree these questions. It often – either “I win” or “You lose”. I have heard of a real story of a well-known Bible teacher-cum-church pastor had to resign from an evangelical church that he was pastoring because he felt that churches should not practice child-baptism. However, the church that he was pastoring thought otherwise. In fact, child-baptism was (and I believer still is) widely practiced in that church as child-baptism is a one of the significant parts of its doctrinal beliefs. The matter escalated to a point that he was called to face a disciplinary tribunal because he refused to perform child-baptism. He then decided to resign.

Let me take the liberty to give some of these ‘combustible’ questions and I believe you can add many, many more:

In my message this week, I am not trying to address these ‘combustible’ questions and for one very good reason. I believe these questions should be discussed and/or debated among theologians. I want to admit, I am not a theologian. For that matter, I have never attended any bible college and I hold no diploma or degree in theology.

Well, prayerfully my personal confession will not turn away some readers and avoid my messages in this website because they may think that “After all he in not trained in theology!” But remember, most of Jesus’ disciples received no formal theological training and they simply followed Jesus when Jesus commanded them to “Follow me”. We can also note that there were quite a number of Jesus disciples who were were fishermen! They were ordinary men doing extra-ordinary work for Jesus. Indeed, this dozen or so disciples had indeed turned the world “downside-up”. Without them, we would not have the gospel. The Good News of Jesus would never be known and all of us will perish into eternality.

Another reason is that we must fully accept that the Bible is the sole and final authority. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us to give us discernment and to provide to us clear answers to on things that concern the Kingdom of God. All we need is to search deep into the Word of God and the Holy Spirit will guide us as we dive into the Word with prayer and fasting.

Having clarify myself, I like to address that my message this week is not to debate with you all on those ‘combustible’ question because I understand some Christians who read the verse Matthew 10:33 felt that once you have been through a baptism and publicly confessed your sins before men, you will be saved – forever. Rather, my message this week is to urge believers to boldly proclaim to the world that, we, as God’s children, should stand up and hold our heads up with confidence that Christ is our Lord and Saviour, and Jesus is the Way, Jesus is the Truth and Jesus is the life and no one comes to the Father but by Him (John 14:6). We should therefore take every conceivable opportunity to tell people about who Jesus is and that He is coming very soon to take His Bride, the Church to the Kingdom in heaven and invite them to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savour. We must not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps, the word ‘ashamed’ may sound too blatant or give a very unpleasant connotation for many of us. For new Christians, in particular, they can be quite shy when they first became Christian and perhaps tried to openly tell people they are now Christians. Let me give my personal testimony. When I just accepted Jesus about 40 years’ ago and as a young and new Christian, I seldom openly gave thanks when I had meals with non-Christian colleagues and friends. Before I got saved, I was somewhat an agnostic and I did participate worshipping of idoIs because my parents were idol worshippers. Like many children, you tend to follow your parents when it comes to religious belief. Hence, when I became a Christian, I felt quite shy to even let people know that “I am now a Christian”. I tried actually to hide my new found ‘religion’ in Christianity and always tried to avoid giving thanks when having meals. However, I acted like a hypocrite when I had meals with fellow church members as we often had our meals together after the church service. I also gave thanks before we ate our food as we took turn to give thanks to God during each meal. But I was very shy to openly to give thanks when I had meals with my non-Christian friends and colleagues. In retrospect and quite unknowningly, I had passively denied Christ before men. Giving thanks for the food in fact is a form of public confession before men and our Lord will also confess before His Father who is in heaven (Matthew 10:32) (Note: Thankfully and by the grace of God, both my parents later became Christians and they had given up idol worshipping.)

I am so grateful now as I am absolutely not ashamed to be a Christian let alone being shy. I am now putting much efforts to tell people whenever I see doors are open for me to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Given the messy and the fallen world that we are now witnessing, my urgent appeal to all the brothers and sisters-in-Christ is not to hide your identity that you (as well as me) are the citizens not of this world but we are citizens of God’s Kingdom. We are here in this world right now as strangers before our God and sojourners just like our fathers, and our days on the earth are like shadow, and the world we live now in is without hope (1 Chronicles 29:15). We must therefore tell people of the Blessed Hope that our Lord Jesus is coming to take us home very, very soon as we can read in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

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 INVITATION TO RECEIVE JESUS CHRIST AS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOUR

Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
Blessed are all those who wait for Him. (Isaiah 30:18)

If you are willing to accept God’s invitation to be His child, just pray this prayer right now because tomorrow is not promised. God is waiting for you.

Dear Heavenly Father
I admit that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I ask of You that You give me the power to repent and to turn away from my sin. I believe that Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins and He rose after three days. I confess my faith in Your Son Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no man can come to You, but by Your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Your gift of forgiveness from sin. Please accept me as Your child.

I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and my life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. I want to thank you for the blood of Jesus who has shed for me and by His blood I can now be redeemed and be reconciled to You.

I sincerely and faithfully pray all these in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!

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12 March 2023

Scripture Reading: John 14:1-3 (KJV)

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

MESSAGE

The verses we just read in John 14:1-3 are some of the most beautiful and comforting verses in the Bible. These verses speak about the promises that God has promised to His disciples. These promises made by Jesus were in response to Apostle Peter who asked Jesus where He was leaving to. Apostle Peter then asked Jesus whether he could follow Him not knowing that Jesus was going to be hung on the cross at Calvary. Apostle Peter didn’t seemingly want to be left alone without Jesus.  As we read through the verses and chapters that followed, it was very obvious why Jesus could not let His disciples followed Him. This was because Jesus, the only begotten Son of God was to be hung on the cross and this was the job that He and He alone can do in order to save all the sinners of the world. God sent His only begotten Son to die so that we shall not be perished is God’s ultimate plan reflecting His immense love for His children. (John 3:16)

God does not give empty promises. As we read through the scripture, we can see that God gave many promises in both the Old and the New Testaments. For examples, He promised the children of Israel a land where there would be milk and honey and He promised a Messiah to be born of a virgin to save all sinners. It may take a while or even a long time to fulfill but they were eventually fulfilled no matter how “ridiculous” the promises may be! And the “most ridiculous” in my opinion is: God became a human man! Thankfully, it is this “most ridiculous” promise that we are now able to look forward to be in heaven with our Creator forever. This promise of God became man was fulfilled 2,000 years’ ago by our Lord Jesus. There were countless times in the Old Testament that God promised His only begotten Son would be born to a virgin and and to dwell on earth. This promise was fulfilled to the minutest details two thousand years’ ago.

As in John 14:1-3, we have another, perhaps, the last promise before we are all taken up to meet Him in heaven and that is God promises that He is coming back to this world to bring us back to Him. This promise is that at the appointed time, true believers will be taken up to be with Him forever. It has been over 2,000 years and will His promise that He is coming will come to pass? The answer is a resounding “Yes!” As you all may be aware, in my previous postings, I have written several messages of faith, hope and love concerning the imminent return of our Lord Jesus. I wrote those messages because we are now very much in “the days of Noah” and in “the days of Lot”. Jesus often pointed to us that He will come back when we are “in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot.” We see today, indeed the world in not falling apart but the world today is falling in place for His return because we are now “in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot”. Just look around us, evil and wickedness is every where. And shouldn’t we be glad that He is coming soon when we are living now in such conditions? Sadly, many of us are not. Instead many of us are having troubled hearts and frankly they are all with valid reasons.

There are a lot of world events going on and they are not pretty, rather they are very ugly. These ugly events are the sources that cause us to have troubled hearts. Just only read about the geopolitical conflicts between Israel and Iran because it seems that Israel is going to bomb Iran to destroy Iran’s nuclear plants is not “if” but “when”, the conflict between U.S./Nato and China/Russia is heightening especially after the “Balloon Gate” incident, the Ukraine-Russia war is now in its second year with no end in sight for any peace to take place and conflicts between China and Taiwan and they will give many of us sleepless nights. When any one of this is materialized on at full-scale like when China started the invasion of Taiwan, all hell will break loose! It will likely cause a total collapse of the world economy resulting all our savings in the banks will become worthless. The value of our assets like shares and even real estates will be wiped out, international trade will come to a complete halt causing massive unemployment. There will be global food shortages resulting hyperinflation and severe famine all over the globe. State of emergency will likely be declared in many countries and the military will take over from the elected government. All our freedom will disappear and we must all obey the orders from the military rulers. Disobeying military orders could get you executed.

But then, one may ask: “We all know that we as Christians are not supposed to worry about things.” Honestly, that’s easier said than done. Heart-trouble is the commonest thing in the world since the day Adam and Eve were decieved by Lucifier. No one can keep it out. Heart-trouble can due partly from inward causes and partly from outward causes; partly from the body and partly from the mind; partly from what we love and partly from what we fear or hate. Our journey of life is full of trouble. Even the best of Christians have many bitter cups to drink between grace and glory. Even the holiest saints find the world a valley of tears and the smartest persons find walking in the shadow of death cannot be prevented. Even our Lord Jesus cannot keep away from the heart-trouble! He was so troubled before He went to the cross and this caused Him to pray: “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42) (Note: When Jesus prayed this prayer, He was fully human and this underscores that trouble-heart has not boundary. It can even happen to Jesus who is God and became man in order to carry not just our sins and obviously also our troubles! Hence, if you are praying for a trouble-free life, this is simply wishful. We need to pray instead for God’s strength when we are in trouble. (Psalm 46:1-3).

No where in the Bible has promised us that we will not have trouble. Quite the contrary, in John 16:33, Jesus has told us that in this world we will have trouble but we are told to take heart because He has overcome them. (Note: I want to add again that when Jesus said this He was saying as a man to underscore that even though He is God-Man is still face trouble). We thus need important antidotes to overcome our troubled hearts and these antidotes are faith and believe in the Lord Jesus. These are very important antidotes and they are sure spiritual medicine for us to overcome our trouble. Hence, we need greater faith in Christ Jesus and to believe more thoroughly that He is the only answer to our troubled-hearts because He, in human form, has overcome the world. This will put us at rest more unreservedly, lay hold of us more firmly, and let us lean back on Him more completely. Faith and believe are the prescriptions which our Master urges on the attention of all His disciples. The disciples had proved the reality of their faith by giving up everything for Christ’s sake. They followed Him unreservedly (although at certain point some did lose faith like Peter denied Him and many of His disciples fled leaving on Apostle John to witness His crucifixion).

Let’s us reflect again on the verses in John 14:1-3 and let’s claim His promises that He will come again to bring us to where He is now – and obviously He is now in His Father’s house in heaven.  It’s been 2,000 years’ since He made this promise and I am very confident that He is coming to bring us back to the mansion that He has prepared for us. We must at the same time be prepared too – a prepared mansion will only welcome a prepared owner! Hence, let us prepared ourselves to be received by Him and not to look at the world events with troubled heart. Let us look at the world events as the signs that pointing to us that He is coming back very soon. Let us look forward to Him to receive us. We are not going to Him. He is coming back to receive us! Remember, Jesus was a carpenter when He was on earth and thus He knew the kind of materials and the design we desire. It took God seven days to create the heavens and the earth and it is taking Jesus 2,000 years to prepare and build the mansions for us. Can you imagine how magnificent our mansions will be. They will be custom-made to suit all our desire. These mansions are not spiritual mansions but real mansions and their magnificence can only be expressed in heavenly term! The Bible does give us a glimpse of what heaven is like such the streets are made of gold, the heaven’s gates will be of great pearl but we have never been told what our mansions would be. This is because it cannot be expressed in human terms! So, let not our heart be troubled. Let’s keep looking upward because He is coming soon. You too must be prepared and may I humbly invite you to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour so that He too can receive you to the magnificent house that He has prepared for you.

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INVITATION TO RECEIVE JESUS CHRIST AS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOUR

Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
Blessed are all those who wait for Him. (Isaiah 30:18)

If you are willing to accept God’s invitation to be His child, just pray this prayer right now because tomorrow is not promised. God is waiting for you.

Dear Heavenly Father
I admit that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I ask of You that You give me the power to repent and to turn away from my sin. I believe that Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins and He rose after three days. I confess my faith in Your Son Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no man can come to You, but by Your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Your gift of forgiveness from sin. Please accept me as Your child.

I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and my life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. I want to thank you for the blood of Jesus who has shed for me and by His blood I can now be redeemed and be reconciled to You.

I sincerely and faithfully pray all these in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!

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5 March 2023

Scripture Reading: Matthew 24:37 (KJV)

But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

MESSAGE

When I first became a Christian, I couldn’t understand why Lord Jesus would frequently tell His disciples about “as in the days of Noah (and also “as in the days of Lot”) each time His disciples asked Him: Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the world? (Matthew 24:3b). The signs that Jesus referred to are: wars and rumours of wars, nation shall raise against nation (such as internal, ethnic or civil war within the country), and kingdom against kingdom (these are geopolitical wars among countries), there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in diver places (Matthew 24:7-8). My question to all of us is: Are we right now witnessing these signs? (Breaking news: When it comes to famine, we normally assume it only happens to countries like Somalia, Nigeria, Sudan and most part of Africa. But today, U.K. is suffering from severe food shortage so much so that supermarkets are limiting customers from buying common items like potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers. Each customer is allowed to buy only few of each item. This is simply unthinkable that this can happen in U.K.! You can watch this in this Youtube: https://youtu.be/0c4uNZKxG6M. We pray this will not happen in our country and let us claim God’s promise that He can supply all our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19).

I like to humbly take the liberty to outline the state of affairs during Noah’s day in my message below and, prayerfully, we can learn some godly lessons from what we are being warned by our Lord and Saviour, Jesus: “as the days of Noah were so shall coming of the Son of man be”. The lessons we learnt prayerfully would help us to achieve our godly motive to walk closer to our Lord and Saviour, to trust Him more and more and to be more like Christ Jesus while we wait for our Saviour to come.

Are you still in doubt that Jesus and only Jesus can save? You have to fully understand, tomorrow is not promised. Come to Jesus now so that you can escape the wrath of God which is going to come to this world very, very soon! This is how you need to do. All you need to do is to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour so that you can also be caught up to meet Him when He descend from heaven to take all the believers to be with Him forever (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)
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INVITATION TO RECEIVE JESUS CHRIST AS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOUR

Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
Blessed are all those who wait for Him. (Isaiah 30:18)

If you are willing to accept God’s invitation to be His child, just pray this prayer right now because tomorrow is not promised. God is waiting for you.

Dear Heavenly Father
I admit that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I ask of You that You give me the power to repent and to turn away from my sin. I believe that Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins and He rose after three days. I confess my faith in Your Son Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no man can come to You, but by Your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Your gift of forgiveness from sin. Please accept me as Your child.

I sincerely and faithfully pray all these in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!

I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and my life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. I want to thank you for the blood of Jesus who has shed for me and by His blood I can now be redeemed and be reconciled to You.

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We are going home soon! All signs are pointing to the imminent coming of our Lord and Saviour to meet us in the air!
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (KJV) – For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

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26 February 2023

Scripture Reading: Exodus 14:14 (KJV)

The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

MESSAGE

As we read the daily news from the international news media and also those that we can easily search from Google and Youtube, three topics will always surface up currently – the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, the conflicts between the NATO nations and China-Russia, and Russia-Ukraine war. Sadly, the news on the multiple earthquakes in Turkey and Syria that are still raving the two countries are not seriously discussed as it should be. Instead, the other two geopolitical conflicts are dominating the news. By all accounts, the world, especially the rich nations, should focus greater attention on the situations in Turkey and Syria and how to provide more assistance to elevate the people’s suffering. Instead, the news on the possibility of a large-scale or a full-blown war is now a hot topic in the news we can hear them. It has overtaken even the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the China’s ‘Balloon-gate’ has, in my opinion, blown out of proportion! Due to the ‘Balloon-gate’ the U.S. has suspended indefinitely their high-ranking visit to China that was supposed to take place in March. It was leaked that China’s high level officials including the President himself were preparing to ‘entertain’ the delegates and thus giving the world the much needed assurance that the relationship between the two countries is “not so bad” after all. This is now blasted away by the balloons!

When (and not “if) the World War Three is going to start? This is a million-dollar question in the lips of many people. I pray that WWIII will never start and prayerfully, all conflicts – U.S./NATO-China/Russia, Ukraine-Russian, Israel-Iran, China-Taiwan can be resolved amicably but I believe we all know this is a wishful thinking. In fact, many are expecting Russia could launch a nuclear attack on Ukraine at anytime as Russia, as many think, must “win” the war. At the same time many are expecting Israel is going to launch missiles to destroy Iran’s nuclear plant and China is going to attack Taiwan. There are too many wars and rumors of wars and we can hear them “Every hour on the hour.”

Frankly, we all have no control over all these. My message this week is not about the wars and rumors of wars as we can see and hear them every minute. . Exegetically-speaking, the geopolitical battles among all the nations: U.S.-Russian/China, Israel-Iran, China-Taiwan, Russian-Ukraine and so on are about the battles between God and Satan and we know very well that God will prevail and He will come to rule the world and all the evil inhabitants will be condemned in hell fire forever.

Hence, in this week’s message it is not about the current military conflicts and battles that we are hearing them every minute from the new . Rather, I am sharing with the readers about own battles and how God will fight for us our battles and hence our victory is assured when God is fighting the battles for us as we can read in the Bible. From cover to cover, when God is fighting the battle of us, our victory is already won even before it has begun.

Thankfully and by God’s grace, I came across a message on “God Will Fight Your Battles” which I like to share with all my dear readers here. The message is very inspiring to me and it sends a very strong message to me that I must “Hold my peace” regardless of my situations knowing that God will fight the battles for me. I pray that this will also encourage you that God too will fight for your battles no matter how big your battles are.

(Acknowledgement: I was trying to find the identity of the author so that I can give due credit to him or her. However, I couldn’t find the source of this message neither his nor her name. I pray that the writer can forgive me for sharing this message without his or her permission. Should there be any ‘inconsistency’ of the message and what the Bible taught, which I don’t believe there is any, I will, nonetheless take full responsibility of any ‘inconsistency’ since I have taken the liberty to post this message).

 Inspiring Message On “God will fight your battles”
Author – Unknown

That God will fight our battles mean we do not have to anguish, be anxious, or be discouraged when bad things happen in our lives. When it seemed a situation is hopeless or the matter at hand is too overwhelming, we may be tempted to doubt God. But Christians must remember that no problem is beyond the scope of God’s sovereign care for His children. He has promised to take care of us (Philippians 4:19), make good plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11), and love us beyond measure (Romans 8:37-30).

In Exodus 14:14 Moses tells the children of Israel, “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” At that moment, they were standing at the edge of the Red Sea, hemmed in by the sea before them and the Egyptian army behind. The Israelites are in a seemingly impossible situation, but it was a situation brought on by the Lord Himself. It was God who had hardened Pharaoh’s heart to pursue the fleeing salves (Exodus 14:4-8). Why would God do such a thing? The Bible gives some of the reasons: because God wanted to make it crystal clear to Egypt that He is LORD so that He got the glory over Pharaoh (Exodus 14:4). And because God wanted to teach Israel that He is their Deliverer (Exodus 6:6) and their Salvation (Exodus 14:13). They were incapable of escaping the situation on their own – they needed only to wait for God to move on their behalf (Psalm 27:14). The battle that appeared to be between the Egyptians and the Israelites was in reality between the Egyptians and the Lord (Exodus 14:4).

The lessons believers can learn from the Exodus account can be powerful and life-changing. When Christians trust God to fight their battles, it enables them to circumvent what often accompanies conflict, i.e., panic, fear, and hopelessness (Exodus 14:11-12). There are times when we can see absolutely no way around a problem, just like Israel when they were cornered. It’s quite probable not one of the Israelites ever imagined that the massive sea was going to split down the middle, providing their way of escape. When Christians believe God’s Word (2 Chronicles 20:17), they learn that no battle is too formidable or monumental for God to handle (Joshua 1:5).

Moses gives a review of some of Israel’s history in Deuteronomy 1. In his recap he reminds them of the importance of having courage and trusting God at the edge of the Promised Land. Forty years earlier, the Israelites had spied out the land and concluded that they were unable to go up against the Canaanites, who were too big and too strong (Number 13:31-33). Due to that generation’s lack of faith, they were not allowed to enter the Promised Land. Moses tells the new generation to avoid their fathers’ lack of trust: “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes” (Deuteronomy 1:9-30). As God’s people obeyed in faith, they would find triumph at every turn. “Victory rests with the LORD” (Proverbs 21:31).

Israel, like many Christians today, had forgotten the previous battles God had fought for them all along the way (see Deuteronomy 2:7). The Israelite spies had seen “giants” in the land (Numbers 13:33, NKJV), just like Christians today see “giant” obstacles, complications, and problems that seem too large to conquer. To let the “giants” steal our faith only leaves defeat and a lack of assurance in the God who is in control of every problem, in spite of its size (Romans 8:28).

God is in control, but that does not mean Christians get to avoid the battles – in fact, the Bible states the opposite (2 Timothy 3:12). “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3-4). In order for a believer to live a life of endurance, character, and hope, we must put on our armor (Ephesians 6:10-17) and trust the Deliverer. We “put no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3). Our confidence is in God, who will fight our battles and bring us safely home (Jude 1:24-25). “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God” (Psalm 20:7).

—————–End of Message: God Will Fight Your Battles ——————

Let’s Pray
[This prayer is based on Psalm 23]

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank You for being our good and wonderful Shepherd. We know that with You around us, we will never lack of anything because You will provide for us all of our physical, mental and spiritual needs.

Thank You Lord for leading me to lie down in green pastures and leading me to the fresh waters. The waters that You provide for us will quench our thirst and we will never be thirst again.

Thank You Lord for restoring our soul because we are cleansed by the redemptive blood of Your only begotten Son, Jesus.

Thank You Lord for leading us to the paths of righteousness so that Your Name can be glorified.

Thank You Lord that when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death in this sin-sick world of trials, of temptations and of life uncertainties that often come along our way, we will fear no evil for You are always with us.

Thank You Lord for comforting us with Your rod and Your staff and therefore we do not need to be fearful because You will fight for us all the battles with Your rod and Your staff and You will win all the our battles no matter big or difficult they are.

Thank You Lord for preparing a table for us so that we can dine with You in the presence of our enemies.

Thank You Lord for anointing our heads with Your holy oil that overflows over our whole body from our head to our toes.

Thank You for Your goodness, Your mercy, Your loving kindness and the peace that surpasses all our understanding and they will follow us all the days of our lives.

Thank You Lord Jesus for preparing for us the mansion that one day we will dwell in Your glorious mansion for ever.

We pray all these in the Mighty Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen!
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19 February 2023

Scripture Reading: John 16:33 & Matthew 24:21-22 (KJV)

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. (Matthew 24:21-22)

MESSAGE

Greetings to all readers of the Living Smyrna Church of Christ messages. I pray that my message this week can set straight the record that ‘tribulation” which we read in John 16:33 and the “great tribulation” which we read in Matthew 24:21 are completely different. And here are my reasons based on what I read from the Word of God.

Let’s be honest, there isn’t a human being, past or present, who had lived or who are still living in this planet who isn’t acquainted with troubles (or tribulations). Times of difficulty arrive unexpectedly, often remain indefinitely, and the sorrowful memories are always lingering on our mind no matter how hard we tried to forget. The best we could hope is that those sorrowful events of the past will never happen again. Sadly, often we are disappointed and I am speaking from my own experience.

It is no wonder why Jesus’s promise in John 16:33 is commonly used by preachers and Christian counsellors to remind us that our living Lord and Saviour is aware of the difficulties or tribulations that we are confronted with so frequently because He too had suffered them all. The life history of our Lord was not pretty. For that matter, was very “ugly” and extremely tragic. For examples, He was rejected by His own people – the Jews, He was betrayed by His own disciple, Judas Iscariot, for thirty silver coins, all His disciples abandoned Him at the time when He needed them most, the Roman governor, Pilate although had found Jesus innocent as He did not commit any crime, yet He was unjustly condemned to hang on the cross, He was abandoned by His Father when He was hung on the cross so much so that He cried out “My God, My God, Why hast thou foresaken Me?” Even though our Lord Jesus knew all along, even before they happened, yet He still gave us very comforting advice for us: “But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Our Saviour Jesus didn’t just say this an walk away. Instead, He told His disciples we will not be alone to face the tribulations because the Father will send the Comforter in His name to strengthen them and He will leave with the peace, the peace not as the world gave (John 14:26-27). We are so thankful to God that we can pray to the Holy Spirit for comfort and for strength in times of our trials and tribulations.

We all know it is not pretty to receive a pink-slip from the Human Resource Department and tells us that this is our last pay cheque and we don’t need to turn up for work tomorrow, or to receive a call from the hospital and inform us that the medical tests we did earlier shown signs of stage four cancer. These are real things that can happen to anyone and often in the most unsuspected manner or time when we feel everything is fine and said to ourselves: “I am doing great!”

I am a living example of an unsuspected trial. Due to poor business, I got a call from my supervisor who was stationed overseas and told me that my job had been made redundant. I was given two months’ notice period. Thankfully, I was not in debt and I could get by financially while I was searching for a new job. Even though, the feeling of being made redundant, be unemployed and having to wait and to ask myself when would my next job come was really a big ‘trial” or “tribulation”. I had never expected this and I had taken for granted I could work until I retired or until I resigned on my own accord. Never in my dream I got ‘sacked!’ But I am not alone. Everyone has to go through some sorts of trials and tribulations and of course we are all going through them in different situations. It is very difficult to “be of good cheer” when we are in one of these circumstances (and sometimes they come like production lines!)

Now, let’s examine the verses in Matthew 24:21-22 concerning the “great tribulation.” What Jesus was telling us is that there will be a terrible time during the period of great tribulation and this great tribulation is going to be far worse than anything the world has ever seen and this is going to be a one-off event and never to occur again. This great tribulation will happen before His return to this earth to take all believers to meet Him in the air. This great tribulation is going to be so terrible that unless God cut short the days no flesh will be saved. These apocalyptic events, among others, will be marked by an earthquake that will make all mountains (sorry Mt. Everest!) and every island (sorry Singapore!) disappeared (Revelation 16:20). Unlike what we just read in John 16:33 which Jesus told us to “be of good cheer” for those tribulations we are facing routinely but we don’t hear from our Saviour, Jesus said to us “be of good cheer” because the events during great tribulation is going to be very, very different as can we read them in Revelation 16:20 and also throughout the book of Revelation. It is quite clear that the two events are very different: (a) tribulations in John 16:33 (for examples: due to sickness, lost of job, lost our hard-earned savings because of scam, etc) that we routinely face and (b) the events of great tribulation referred by Jesus in Matthew 24:21-22, the details of these can be found in the book of Revelation. These are eschatological events that will never to be repeated. It is important that the great tribulation is the end-time God’s wrath to administered justice and to punish all unrepentant sinners. The great tribulation will only occur after all the believers have been caught up to meet our Lord in the air. Known as the rapture of the Church of Jesus Christ, this rapture event is going to shake the world beyond anyone could imagine. Followed by the rapture of the Church of Jesus Christ, all hell will break loose, so to speak. Those people left behind are the one who have missed the rapture and they have to go through the great tribulation. Would you like to be one of them. Take heed – this is not going to be pretty!

This brings my thought to the very sad earthquakes that happened in Turkey and Syria couple of weeks ago. Any person of a sound mind will never tell the people there “be of good cheer in this world we shall have tribulation.” To the people of Turkey and Syria, this is a great tribulation! This disaster is of such magnitude that the governments of both Turkey and Syria are quite helpless. Thankfully, there are many international relief organisations that are now actively pouring in the aids from rescue operations to food to temporary accommodations to medicine and so on. For us as individual, all we can do is to continue to uphold the people of Turkey and Syria in prayers and all these aids – food, medical, lodging and every conceivable supports – are delivered to them as fast as possible because the victims are fighting against time. Many of them are going without food and clean water for many days and have to endure the cold winter weather. Perhaps, the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria could give us a glimpse of what is like in a great tribulation as written in Revelation 16:20. Comparing to the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, this is going to be many, many times far worse. As we read further in the Book of Revelation, cosmological destruction of the earth is only one part. All people who refused to worship the Anti-Christ will be persecuted and prosecuted and those who refused to take the Mark of the Beast will not be able to buy and sell. There are only two options: ‘At best’ they will die of hunger and ‘at worse’ they will be killed for refusing to worship the Anti-Christ. [Note: I have written in my previous posts on the dire dangers of taking the Mark of Beast and worshipping of Anti-Christ. If you want to read them you can search for them in this website].

Thankfully, God has prescribed for you a perfect solution for us to escape the great tribulation. All you need to do is to accept Jesus as your Saviour so that you can also be caught up to meet Him when He descend from heaven to take all the believers to be with Him forever (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

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Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
Blessed are all those who wait for Him. (Isaiah 30:18)

If you are willing to accept God’s invitation to be His child, just pray this prayer right now because tomorrow is not promised. God is waiting for you.

Dear Heavenly Father
I admit that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I ask of You that You give me the power to repent and to turn away from my sin. I believe that Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins and He rose after three days. I confess my faith in Your Son Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no man can come to You, but by Your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Your gift of forgiveness from sin. Please accept me as Your child.

I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and my life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. I want to thank you for the blood of Jesus who has shed for me and by His blood I can now be redeemed and be reconciled to You.
I sincerely and faithfully pray all these in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!

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12 February 2023

Scripture Reading: Matthew 24:3-9 (KJV)

And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.

MESSAGE

The Bible verses Matthew 24:3-9 which we just read were the replies that Jesus gave to His disciples when they asked Him when would be the sign of His coming and of the end of the world. Besides Matthew 23:3-9, we can also read similar replies in the books of Mark 15:6-9 and Luke 12:6-9. I would like to summarise these signs and how and why they are relevant to the current world events which clearly point to us that we are very, very close to His coming. Thankfully, the appearance to our Lord Jesus will first appear to us in the air and we will be then taken up to meet Him (that is the rapture of the church will then occur) and seven years’ later after we have been taken up He will come down to subdue all satanic forces and to set up His kingdom on earth for one thousand years. This is the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus which is different from the Rapture of the Church who is His Bride.

Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war almost exactly one year ago, many countries especially those countries with nuclear capabilities are stepping up their military spending in order to better defend their countries as they are fearing that the Russia-Ukraine war will be escalated into major global conflict. This is very real and not unthinkable as China is also threatening the use military force to bring Taiwan back. These are some of the clear signs that countries around the world are all preparing for an all-out war. Whether they like it or not, countries have to choose to either fight alongside with the U.S. or fight along side with China and Russia. The world now is torn into two blocks – U.S.Nato block and China/Russia block.

As we have read, for the last 2 weeks, the military conflict arising from the shooting down of Chinese balloons by the U.S. is yet another area of a major conflict that will start a New Cold War between U.S and China. It is now a daily news that major nuclear-capable countries are threatening one another and they are showing very little or no sign of retreat or compromise. The big showdown is going to happen sooner than probably most of could expect and War World Three is not “if” but “when” will it happen. We must not also forget the on-going regional conflict in the Middle East. This Middle East conflict between Israel and its neighbours is dragging so long that it will mutate into ways that even the most experienced politicians could not foresee. To put it simply, an all-war world between Israel and its Arab neighbours can happen and will happen anytime. Iran is threatening to wipe Israel out of the world map and Israel is warning that it will destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities and has warned that it will never allow Iran to possess any nuclear weapon. A sad new is that the world is now hanging on a thread because these military conflicts are not piece-meal unlike the previous conflicts but they are all converging at all the same time of ‘nuclear’ proportion. The paper tiger, the United Nations is powerless to cool down the situation other than making some motherhood statements calling for restrain and no one is listening. This may perhaps have prompted the Doomsday Clock to move just 90 seconds to midnight indicating the time is ripe for a nuclear war at anytime. We all don’t need to google, just flip through our newspapers or just tune to CNN, Fox, BBC channels, we can read or listen to the news of wars and rumours of wars “every hour on the hour”.

“Today, the world stands on the brink of unprecedented famines. About 30 million people are experiencing alarming hunger, severe levels of food insecurity and malnutrition in north-eastern Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen” This statement was made by Oxfam, an international organisation focusing on the alleviation of global poverty on the food situation in just four countries. Yet, as many other countries like North Korea, Myanmar, Ethiopia and Kenya are also suffering from severe food shortage. The situation is going to get much worse this year and it will even spread to wealthy nations which just three years ago they have taken for granted that food shortage will never happened in their countries. But all these have now changed. Food and energy prices are sky rocketing in every country from the poorest to the richest. The catastrophic drought and severe flood of 2022 has destroyed million acres of farmland across the world and this will severely impact food production this year. Will we end up having to pay a day’s pay just to buy a loaf of bread as foretold by Apostle John in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 6:6)?

This is a very scary word and we don’t normally hear this word in the news even though disease like bubonic plague had spread in many countries in Africa had known to have killed more than 25 million people in the past. Instead, a much watered-down term pandemic is used. The term pestilence is used to mean a deadly and overwhelming disease that affects an entire community and this term is seldom used because it will create chaos in the society. However, as we look at Covid-19, it was (and it’s still is) affecting not just an entire community but the whole world, the correct term pestilence should be more relevant to better reflect the Covid-19 situation. From 2020 to the most part of 2022, the world came to a complete halt – many people died of Covid-19 infection, schools were closed, businesses were halted, unemployment was at all-time high, all international travels were frozen, and the list goes on. Sadly, this is not going to be the last pestilence. We are warned (and of all the people by Bill Gates and the President of the United States, Joe Biden) of a new pandemic (or rather pestilence) and they had sounded the alarm on the formality of more pandemic to come. Is the world heading for another meltdown that could be far greater and severe than Covid-19? I think we need to address this question to the two ‘prophets’ – Prophet Bill Gates and Prophet Joe Biden.

As noted by some geologists that there are many earthquakes occurred in the last decades. The latest earthquake in Syria and Turkey that resulted many thousands of death and injuries has sent a cold spine to many of us. This is especially so for those earthquake-vulnerable countries. It is very heart-wrenching to read of a report that a family of four comprising the husband, his wife and two children died in the quake. Many scientists are asking a very disturbing question: Why so many earthquakes occurred this decades?  

As we examine the list of signs on the wars, rumours of wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes, many people will tell you that these are not new and they have had always been. For example, the world has only experienced two weeks of peace immediately after World War Two and wars have been raging in many countries since then, famines and severe food shortages is extremely common in many African countries, plagues known to have raging communities and killed people by the millions had occurred many times and earthquakes are very common too. So, what is the difference?

The big difference is that such events occurred piece-meal in the past. Eschatologically-speaking, because we now see all these events are converging at the same time and with greater severity and intensity and on a global scale (rather than limiting to just a community or region) give us clear indications that the end is near as foretold by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. For example, before the World Health Organization has proclaimed that the world has achieved complete victory over Covid-19, severe famine and shortage of food and fuels has come alongside with the Covid-19 pandemic and the famine is so wide-spread that even people from wealthiest nations like the U.S. and many Western European countries are finding hard to live because the food and fuel are too expensive. While these are still going on with no sign of slowing down, militarily conflicts involving nuclear powers like Russia, China, U.S. France and Britain are escalating to the point that the Doomsday Clock is now at 90 seconds to midnight. Unlike in the past, today we don’t hear them coming to engage in any peace talk. Quite to the contrary, they are threatening one another and sending threatening messages that they are all war-ready and will go nuclear without hesitation. The dire consequence of the Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight has pointed to the world that World War Three could start at anytime and the use of nuclear bombs is not an option but a necessity in order to win the war. It must be emphasised that no one is going to gain from any war even conventional one let alone a nuclear war. It is obvious that the main beneficiary is the Evil One as he would like to see as many of God’s precious children died as possible and in the shortest time because he knew that his hour has come. Once he is subdued by our Lord and Savour, Jesus Christ, he would not be able to carry out his evil plan to destroy God’s creation. [Note some politicians and historians have even said that World War Three has already begun since the start of Russian-Ukraine War in February 2022.]

But do not be disturbed by what is happening as they are already foretold by our living Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ two thousand years’ ago because we will be brought to safety that only God Himself can provide. As we all know, when the earth shakes be it due to wars, famines, pestilences or earthquakes there is a dramatic sense that there is no place to hide nor to flee. In all disasters, the earth is the only thing that stands firm when these prophetic signs turned into real events that are going to ravaging the whole earth. But the big question is: Where and who do you turn to when the whole earth itself is unsafe? As pointed out above, the answer is obvious: Only God can provide you the safe refuge (Psalm 46:1-11)

We have to remind ourselves the events that are taking place today: wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes are all miniscule when compared to the real one that is yet to come as prophesised in the Book of Revelation. Well, I may sound politically-incorrect or even rude to say that what is happening today is just a dress rehearsal to warn us of the impending wrath of God that is to come sooner that you can expect. The real and final events when they occur will be many, many times in severity and intensity and God got to shorten those days otherwise no flesh will be saved (Matthew 24:22). For example, there will be earthquake that will make all the islands disappeared and all the mountains will be levelled (Revelation 16:20).

Thankfully, as born-again Christians we are prophetically told that because we have kept God’s word, His commandments, we will escape the wrath of God that will bring forth wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes (and many more; if God willing I will write about them in my later message) ravaging the world’s inhabitants because of their sinfulness and wickedness (Revelation 3:10).

Let us turn to God and to encourage one another for God Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and we will be Him forever. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

It is thus very important that we all must come to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. If you still hesitate, this is the time now that you must believe that two thousand years’ ago Lord Jesus Christ was born to a virgin, Mary, to save all sinners (like you and me), was crucified and rose again after three days. May I plead to you to please come to Him and acknowledge Him as your Lord and Saviour. He is waiting for you! God wants you to His children! This is the only answer – only God can remove you from what is to come and to escape His wrath.

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Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
Blessed are all those who wait for Him. (Isaiah 30:18)

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If you are willing to accept God’s invitation to be His child, just pray this prayer right now because tomorrow is not promised. God is waiting for you.

Dear Heavenly Father
I admit that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I ask of You that You give me the power to repent and to turn away from my sin. I believe that Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins and He rose after three days. I confess my faith in Your Son Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no man can come to You, but by Your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Your gift of forgiveness from sin. Please accept me as Your child.

I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and my life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. I want to thank you for the blood of Jesus who has shed for me and by His blood I can now be redeemed and be reconciled to You.
I sincerely and faithfully pray all these in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!

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5 February 2023

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 64:6 (KJV)

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

MESSAGE

As we dived deep into the Bible, often we are comforted by God’s holy word. At times when we are in distress and feel like giving up, we would go to seek comforting words from our Creator and inevitable we look for verses like: “I will never forsake you nor leave you” or “in the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”. These verses may sound simple but they have the power to change the way we look at our situation. God understand our situation and He is in control and we can always count on Him to help us to overcome our life challenges. Nothing happens to us by accident because all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting in His plans (Romans 8:28). Often when I faced difficult situations and felt a great sense of lost and hopelessness as some of them seem unbearable, I will try to recall comforting words that God will never leave us nor forsake. There are two verses from Isaiah would then jump up before my very eyes: “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ ”Behold, all those who were incensed against you shall be ashamed and disgraced; They shall be as nothing, And those who strive with you shall perish.” (Isaiah 41:10-11)

Praise be to God for His faithfulness.

On the other hand, as we explore further into the Bible, we too can read many scary and frightening verses depicting God’s disappointment with His children. As He is a holy, loving and merciful God, He is not going to close His eyes and pretending nothing happened. Instead, He has given very stern warnings and pleaded with us to put our ‘house in order’ or else we will face His wrath sooner or later. Each time when I read these ‘stern-warning’ verses, I would inevitably get cold sweat because they cut deep into my very flesh! At times, I started even to question my own salvation: Am I really saved? I am but a source of great disappointment to my Saviour after taking a hard look at myself of what I did. And I am not talking of those things I did years ago. I am talking about those things I did perhaps only even yesterday. I am talking to those things that perhaps I did just hours’ ago! They were indeed a great disappointment to my Saviour and I cannot hide them because the great clouds in the skies are God’s witnesses of what I did. (Hebrews 12:1).  

In additional to Isaiah 64:6 which we just read, I like to bring to us seven scary and frightening verses and if they don’t scare or frighten you, nothing will!

As you might already know that the verse Isaiah 64:6 we just read is taken from the Old Testament which was first written for the Jews approximately 2,300 years’ ago and hence this verse was quite specifically meant for the Jews and for good reasons. We also know that Prophet Isaiah’s most well-known prophecies (in my opinion) was his prophetic proclamation of the birth, the crucifixion and the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. In fact, most of his writings are prophetic in nature and many of them had already been fulfilled like the birth, the death and the resurrection of Lord Jesus. It must be noted that Prophet Isaiah also wrote many horrific situations that he had personally witnessed. For example, he observed that people there were calling evil good, and good evil as we can read in Isaiah 5:20 – Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (As a side note: I don’t think today we are no any difference! You can read them in the news, in the internet, watch them in the Youtube and perhaps you have personally witnessed yourselves horrific situations that we can only find in movies. Indeed, we are now living in the days of Noah, in the days of Lots and in the days of Isaiah, and this is not an understatement! I can recall a gospel message from Rev. Dr. Billy Graham, one of the world’s greatest and influential evangelists, and this was what he said in one of his evangelistic outreaches: If God doesn’t punish America, He’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.)

As I explored further deep into the word “righteousnesses” that is found in the above verse, I came to a realisation that this was referring to the people who were performing many religious practices and rites that Prophet Isaiah had witnessed and the people who performed these religious practices and rites thought that by performing these ritual practices they could stand before God and God would be very pleased for what they had done. Quite to the contrary, instead, Prophet Isaiah warned that these religious practices and rites could just be abomination to God as they were performed for the sake of seeking attention and to impress others rather than God and they have no intention to seek repentance for their evil and wicked deeds and strive to live holy lives and be pleasing to God. These practices and rites were but as filthy rags!

This gives us very important lesson as believers of Christ. Remember the very last word that Jesus cried out when He was hung on the cross before He gave up His spirit: It is finished (John 19:30). Transactionally-speaking between God and us, sinners, our Lord Jesus has fully paid all the debts of every sinner (including you and me) and there is nothing each of us need to do in order to be righteous before our Holy God. The debts of our sinfulness and wickedness from the biggest to the tiniest, of the past, the present and the future had already been fully paid by the blood of Jesus. All we need is just to obey His commandments. And, frankly, this is not easy because it involves our total being: our mind, our heart and our soul. It has nothing to do with performing any religious practices or rites. The rites of “doing this or doing that” is perhaps just to show our outward appearance of how religious or righteous but they are “as filthy rags” in the eyes of our holy and righteous God. This is not to imply that we, as believers, can’t be righteous. Our righteous come not from our work of any kind but by the blood of our resurrected Christ who has made us righteous in God’s sight and we are now made as clean and as white as snow as we are told by Prophet Isaiah (1:18) – “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are like scarlet. They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.

Referring to my seven scary and frightening verses (and there are many more if you care to search further into His Word), I like to humbly summarise what we can and should learn from these verses:

If we continue to sin and sin, a time will come when God will just give us up for He is not going to strive with us anymore (Genesis 6:3a). Put it plainly, God is going to tell us: “Go and do what you want. I don’t care.” Since the fall of Adam and Eve at the Garden of Eden, man continues to live in a state of lawlessness, and lawlessness is sin (1 John 3:4). Even to this day, we are still a people of lawlessness and we can see there are people doing inconceivable evil deeds that only Hollywood could conceive. Many people disregard the welfare and well-being of others so long they can profit from these deeds. This can best be described in Genesis 6:5: That every intent of the thoughts of our heart is only evil continually.

And God knows we always tried to conceal our evil deeds and our transgressions but no matter how hard we try, we will not be able to hide them from God and be mindful, those who tried to hide their transgressions will not proper, and I believe this is taken to be spiritually, mentally, materially and physically (Proverbs 28:13a). Hence, we must not hide our transgressions and instead we need to repent of our transgressions and our repentance must come from our heart (Luke 13:3). Repentance can never be done though outward appearance by doing religious practices and rituals and even good works as we are told in Matthew 7:21-23. In the judgment day you may tell our living God, I do this, I do that, I go around preaching the gospel, my church that I started has grown from 10 to 10,000 people, I attend church service on every sabbath day, I perform miracles and wonderful things, I cast our demons but our Lord and Saviour, Jesus, will tell you: Depart from me. You who practice lawlessness and in 1 John 3:4 we are warned that lawlessness is sin.

In my opinion, I think Matthew 7:21-23 is the most frightening verses in the whole Bible. Hence, we should avoid at all cost the practice of lawlessness and avoid doing evil deeds and sinful things in the sight of God because the wages of sin is death, both physically and spiritually (Romans 6:23a). Whether we like it or not, we have to account to God for all the things we do, all the words we spoke and all our thoughts (Roman 2:5) when we stand before our righteous God during the judgment day and we would be in dire danger of facing His wrath if we continue to practice lawlessness. But thanks to be our God. As true and born-again Christians, we will be righteous before our God all because the blood of Jesus has been made us righteous as our sins though are red like crimson, they are now as white as snow and they shall be as wool. Praise be to God. But please be warned: The blood of Jesus is not a license for us to continue to live in lawlessness! Remember, when Jesus preached to the world, His first message to the world was: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17). Till today, nothing have changed. Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus wants nothing from us because He has finished all the works on the cross that the Father has commanded Him to do – “Not my will, but yours be done (Luke 22:42)”. He is simply pleading us to repent and turn away from all our wicked ways!

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

I confess that You are my Lord and Saviour and I like to sincerely thank you for all the blessings you have given me. I bow down before you, to ask for forgiveness of my sins. Show me the way to repentance. Cleanse my body and my spirit and renew my mind each and every morning I woke up. Heal me the hurt that others had inflicted on me and also heal others whom I have inflicted the hurt on them. Lord, sometimes I don’t even know myself who I have hurt but I ask of You for the forgiveness. For those who have inflicted any hurt or wounds onto me, Lord I want to forgive them all.

Lord Jesus, cover all my friends, my relatives and my family with Your precious and holy blood. Lord bless and protect everyone who seeks You. With no exception, without You we are nothing. Every breath that we breathe is from You and only You can sustain our lives whether here on earth or when we have departed from the earth. I love You, Lord Jesus and I need You. Help me not to be ashamed of your Gospel and that I will tell people about You. More importantly, help me to repent daily and show me all my transgressions. Help me not to hide them. Again, without fail, no matter how hard I try, there is always something that I do every day that are not right in Your sight. Please Lord, help me not to grieve the Holy Spirit because of my follies. So, Lord, please point them to me and pray that You will help me to repent.

In the Mighty Name of Jesus we pray. Amen!

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My Dear Readers-in-Christ,
I am very encouraged to note that my messages are read by people from many countries. Thank you for your encouragement. This has provided me great motivation to continue writing weekly God’s message and post it here. I may just plead with you that if you think the messages that posted here have in some way encouraged you to get closer to our living Lord and Saviour, Jesus, please help to send the following the web-link to your friends and relatives:
http://livingsmyrnachurchofchrist.com
If, however, you find any messages that are not what exactly the Word of God is teaching, please provide me your feedback to me at the email address: kttanlscc@gmail.com. I am prepared to learn from all my beloved Readers, whether you are a believer or not. In fact, I am looking forward to your feedback because I want all my messages to biblically and doctrinally correct.
May God Bless everyone of you the reading of the messages. Amen!

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29 January 2023

Scripture Reading: Revelation 3:20 (KJV)

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

MESSAGE

As most Christians are aware the verse that we just read in Revelation 3:20 is commonly used in evangelism outreach to spread the Gospel of Good News to non-believers. However, many Christians, including myself, think that in reality, these words that were written by Jesus in a letter to the church of Laodicea is a stern warning to all believers (rather than to non-believers) especially for those who have fallen away or backslide from their faith. Specifically, our Lord Jesus’ words vividly depicted a scene that He was knocking at the door of the church of the Laodiceans pleading them to open the door for Him to have fellowship and communion with them. Many people who read this verse thought Jesus was knocking at a home of an unbeliever. This is a misinterpretation of the verse.

A little background of the church of Laodicea would, hopefully, give us the reason why our Lord Jesus wrote these words in His letter to the church of Laodicea. Laodicea was positioned in a heavily rich-resource area and because of the rich resources the people there were very wealthy and had very comfortable lives. They prided themselves on their abilities to provide for themselves and hence they arrogantly felt there was no need to depend on God for anything. They were fully self-sufficient in everything and nothing was impossible for them that they could not do, so they thought. For example, the people in Laodicea were so wealthy so much so that when an earthquake destroyed their city in 60 A.D. they refused help from the Roman Empire insisting to pay for the rebuild of the city themselves. The pride and arrogance of their wealth did not go unnoticed as we can read in verse 17 which said: “Because you (referring to the church members of Laodicea) say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’. As the verse continues, Jesus reminded them they were indeed wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. The people though seemed to be self-confidence and worshipping money and wealth as their ‘gods’ instead of worshipping the Creator of the Universe. They were, in the words of Jesus, had become lukewarm, neither cold nor hot and because they were neither hot nor cold, He would spew them out of His mouth. As we all know, hot and cold water are good and useful, but when it becomes lukewarm, it is good for nothing.

In the eyes of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus, the circumstances surrounding the church of the Laodiceans were so horrific to the point that Christ was appealing to them that they were in need for His fellowship and communion in order to put the church to where the church supposed to be: Holy and pleasing to God. We can infer that the fellowship among the Laodicean church members were just among themselves and Jesus was completely absent in the fellowship. Perhaps they were just making business deals, praising one another for all their worldly achievements and pursuits instead of worshipping God. Obviously, our Holy God would not want to be part of the fellowship in such situations. The love for Him at the church of the Laodiceans had grown cold due to their worldly pursuits and this had led Jesus pleading them to open the door and let Him come in! This also serves to remind us that Jesus too will chasten and rebuke us when we have lost our first love and want nothing to do with Him (Hebrews 12:5-6).

It is sad to note that in Matthew 18:20 it tells us: “For where two or three are gathered (for fellowship or for praying) in my name, I am there among them”. But yet, as we read in Revelation 3:20, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus was standing outside the church building knocking at the door. He was pleading them to open the door so that He could have fellowship and communion with them.

How was that possible, one may ask? Why Jesus was not inside the church which is supposed to house His believers, His Bride? We can come to just one conclusion and that is, inside the Laodicean church there was, at the very most, only one true believer because if there were two or more believers our Lord Jesus would be there. What a tragic situation! Lord Jesus was not inside the church! This brings us to a another very important lesson: Is our Lord and Savour, Jesus, in the church in which we are attending? Although we see many members attending the services “week in and week out”, are all the members really believers? Are they really His disciples? Are they really His Bride? We need to seriously think about this because Apostle John also warned us that if we do not abide in Him (behaving like the Laodiceans, self-sufficient, prideful) and refuse to draw the power from our Lord Jesus, we will be in danger of casting down like branches into the fire (John 15:1-8).

Let’s reminder ourselves that Revelation 3:20 is not referring to the case of Jesus pleading an unbeliever to come and to have fellowship with Him. Rather, it is about how we ourselves as His Bride and that if we are not careful and just solely focusing on worldly pursuit and ignoring who our Creator is, we could also become lukewarm and this will push the door of our heart of unrepentance out of Jesus and leaving Him standing outside the door of our unrepentant heart. We have become bankrupt, spiritually-speaking. Revelation 3:20 vividly painted a picture that Jesus is standing outside the door of a Christian’s heart, prayerfully not yours and not mine, who perhaps has gone neither hot nor cold. And our merciful and loving Lord and Saviour, Jesus, is pleading to us to open that door, the door of our heart for Him to come in so that He can have fellowship and communion with us. We must not let our self-sufficiency and our pride spilled over the church. This is more so for those who are in church leadership positions as they are accountable to God. As we can note one pidgin-style saying: “Monkey see, monkey do” and thus it is important that church leaders should avoid at all cost not to lead their sheep to go astray. Let’s remind ourselves that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. We need to abide in Him and He in us in order to bear much fruit. Without Him we are nothing (John 15:5).

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

We bow down before You to confess and to sincerely acknowledge that without You, we are nothing. You are our strength, our lives and our salvation. We surrender our all to You and we pray for You to guide us to live and to walk towards Your righteousness and holiness. We want to confess that You are the reason why we are still breathing and no matter how wealthy we are, how educated, how talented we are, every breath that we take is from You.

Lord Jesus, we know that time is running out and help us to spread Your Gospel of Good News to our friends and relatives. Help us not to be ashamed of Your Gospel. Like You, we too want all Your precious creation, the human kind to be with You into eternality and none should be lost.

In Your Mighty Name we pray. Amen!

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22 January 2023

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:50-53 & 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 (KJV)

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:50-53)

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)

MESSAGE

Greetings to all my Dear Readers-In-Christ. Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year (aka the Lunar New Year). This is a festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the Chinese calendar. This festival is also referred to as the Spring Festival and it marks the end of winter and the beginning of the season of spring. This Spring Festival is the most celebrated festive event in China and in countries where the people there are predominately Chinese like Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as well as Chinese people living outside China.

Longing for things that are new whether is a new car, a new house, a new job or a new born baby, we all welcomed each of them with great joy and with high expectation. For example, we pray that our new born babies are going to be healthy or our new job is going to give us better career opportunities. The Festival of Spring brings special meaning because it gives people great sense of peace, tranquility, joy and hope and these just come naturally as the season begins. It signifies a new beginning to a new and a better life. The old has passed away, so to speak.

For the message today, I like to extend a very blessed Lunar New Year to all of you and to pray that this New Year (and for all the years to come) will bring our heart’s desires to fruition:  the desires to have good health, free of sickness, have sufficient provision for our daily needs, have peace – emotionally, mentally and spiritually, and more importantly our desire to know our living Lord and Savour, Jesus more and more each day and to be more like Him. This new season of spring should also remind us that when we are in Christ, we are a new creation, the old things have passed away, and all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). Unlike seasonal changes from spring to summer to autumn to winter and back to spring, when Christ is in us, He is going to stay in us indefinitely. He will never leave us nor forsake us. This is one of the God’s promises that we can find them from cover to cover both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

I believe we are fully aware that a new season of spring typically preceded with preparations. It is very common that before Lunar New Year many people would embark on “spring cleaning” of homes and even offices. This practice of spring cleaning is still commonly practiced by many people of different cultural background around the world. This term “spring cleaning” is sometimes used metaphorically by people for any kind of heavy-duty cleaning to clear out old items and perhaps to replace them with new one like a new set of sofas, a new set of curtains or to put on a new coat of paint on their houses. During this period, hair salons and department stores are very busy. Ladies (and men too) would go for a new hair-cut or change to a new hairstyle to make them “look new”. Many would march to department stores to buy new clothes or shoes and to wear them during New Year. As this is an auspicious festive, everyone wants to look good and to have a fresh start to welcome the New Year. Not just adults, children love new things too. I remember when I was a very young child and I too was looking forward to have new clothes or a new pair of shoes. As my parents could afford to buy me new clothes or a new pair of shoes only during the Lunar New Year, they would allow me to wear them only from the first day of the New Year as they believed that wearing new clothes or new pair of shoes during this auspicious time would bring better luck and blessing for the coming year.

As we know, seasons come and go because they are strictly scheduled by our Creator. In the next three months after the season of Spring, it will be replaced with a new season, Summer. Everything will then goes back to “Business As Usual” so to speak. And when we look back of all the things we did – the spring cleaning, the new items we bought and so on, we will soon realise that there is no new thing under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). What we acquired in the beginning of the year – whether during the 1st January or during the Spring Festival started to turn old. Perhaps it’s time to replace them again!

In this New Year, I have very good news to share with you. As we just read in the scriptural verses above 1 Corinthians 15:50-53 and in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-19, they are telling us that a time will come we will have an “Everlasting Spring” and we don’t need to buy any new clothes or new shoes or go to a hair salon for a new hair cut as God Himself will transformed us from our present corrupt state into our original state when He first created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Our present corrupt bodies will be fully transformed into incorruptible and immortal bodies. These new transformed bodies are the only bodies acceptable by God for us to enter His Kingdom. No disease nor sickness of any kind can enter or inflict our new transformed bodies. But before we are transformed, we too need to prepare and to embark on our Everlasting Spring cleaning to prepare ourselves to meet our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Are we ready for this transformation? Are we ready to change from our current corrupt and mortal bodies to incorruptible and immortal bodies? Are we now doing our Everlasting Spring cleaning and to prepare ourselves to meet our Lord Jesus in the new season of Everlasting Spring? All our past that we encountered in this corrupt world in which we are living right now is going to pass away and never to return because soon we are going to live in the heavenly mansions that Jesus has prepared of us (John 14:2).

Let me humbly offer the following suggestions for us to prepare and be ready for His appearance and to take us to meet Him in the air:

Let us pray.

Dear Lord,

Thank you Lord for everything you have done for us. Help us to prepare for Your coming. Help us to await patiently that we will soon be changed from our present corruptible body to incorruptible and immortal body. Let us continue to prepare and be ready for Your coming. We Thank You Jesus and we want to honour You with the prayer that You have taught us to pray:

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.
Amen.

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15 January 2023

Scripture Reading: Revelation 13:16-17 (KJV)

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.

MESSAGE

Due to the increase in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from 7% to 8% from 1 January this year, the government two weeks’ ago disbursed to each household $ 300 as subsidies for the 1% GST increase. The money came at a right time because many of us can use the money to buy items to celebrate Chinese New Year. As you may already notice, this amount of $ 300 that was given to each household was in the form of digital money.

In my message today, I am writing to explain what is digital money (or digital currency) is and its relationship with the Mark of the Beast that is mentioned in Revelation 13:16-17. I want to emphasise that I am not against the use of technology of any sort or for any purpose. The primary motive of today’s message is, hopefully, to enlighten you on the current development of digital currency and the relationship with the Mark of the Beast, and why you should not take the Mark of the Beast. The second motive is to ask you to now accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour.

Perhaps, I am “jumping the gun” to mention that when the digital currency is fully developed, it will be in a form of implantable microchip that all people will be forced to take. This implantable microchip (or the Mark of the Beast), according to Revelation 13:16-17, will be injected into your right hand or your forehead and without this microchip your cannot buy or sell. (NOTE: The technology of implantable microchip is already in use in some European countries, and they are using this not just for business transactions but also for many other uses: for example, this microchip that link to other network could allow a user to start his car, open his office doors, making payments at supermarkets and many other financial and non-financial uses. In fact, the application is endless. (See: A vaccine passport on a microchip implant ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnuJgvQB7kU ). I have also posted a message that describes what is Programmable Digital Money in this website on 2 May 2022. You may scroll down to read the message.)

Is Singapore preparing the launch of digital currency? The answer is a resounding “Yes”. Our central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is actively testing and finalising this digital currency platform and I am not making this up. You can search the internet. All you need to do is just key in words like “Singapore digital currency”, “Central Bank Digital Currency” or “CBDC” and the following news headlines will pop up:

I believe that the Community Development Council (CDC) digital vouchers that we all just received is a trial run and give us a glimpse of what digital currency is. You will observe that in order to use these digital vouchers, you need to have numbers (your NRIC number, your telephone number), use of the vouchers can be restricted, for example, you cannot use to buy things like liquor, cigarettes, lottery tickets; there is an expiry date – you must use by 31 December 2023, you can only use in selected merchants, and so on. In some way, these vouchers are programmed with algorithm of what you can buy, what you cannot buy, which merchants you can use the vouchers to buy your items, when you must use them.

As you can read from the headlines, it is very obvious that MAS is actively developing the digital currency and I am very sure that there will be a lot of initiatives taken by MAS and the government to entice the general public to participate the use of digital currency. This is very likely to prepare the general public to eventually accept this digital currency platform when it is implemented to replace completely paper currency. On this I would like to point out that not just Singapore. Digital currency is now being developed by central banks across the globe and today there are over one hundred countries dong what our central bank, the MAS is doing. In the initial stage, this digital currency is decentralised and each country’s central bank will decide what is the best for their country. Overtime, as some Bible scholars predict that it will be centralised into one “Super Central Bank” which will give rise to One World Currency System that will be controlled by the Antichrist and to enforce the taking of the Mark of the Beast.

It is important to note that a full-blown digital currency (which comes in several names like the Central Bank Digital Currency, Programmable Digital Dollar, Programmable Digital Money, etc) will be able to do much more than just simple buying and selling. It can be programmed with complex algorithm to control both financial transactions and non-financial activities. The ultimate objective is to control all aspects of people’s lives. For example, you can be forced to comply the mandates or narratives issued by the authority and if you failed to comply their mandates or the narratives all they need to do is to just turn-off your digital account and you will not be able to do any transactions or activities. Furthermore, this digital system has the capabilities to track all your movements to the minutest details like what you buy, what you sell, what you eat, what is your weigh at any point in time, the level of your carbon footprint in the name of controlling climate change, where you go, how many times you visit cinemas, what is your monthly income, how much you saved a month, what is your monthly loan repayment amount, and so on. All your privacy and your freedom will be taken away. Everyone will allow only to have one digital account issued by the “Super Central Bank.” The details of this digital account will be encrypted into the implantable microchip and inject into your hand or forehead. Put it another way, it is like a tiny SIM card no bigger than a grain of rice and instead of inserting into your phone, it will be inserted into your hand or your forehead.

This brings me to the next question is: How did Apostle John get the inspiration to prophecise the need to have a number in order to buy or sell. What Apostle John mentioned clearly describes e-commerce and virtual banking that will lead to cashless economy? Are we not in the situation now. I think the answer is obvious. Apostle John was given several prophetic visions and this is one of them. People just 100 years’ ago would never able to imagine that you could buy or sell just by scanning a plastic card or just press few numbers on a hand-held device but when Apostle John who wrote Book of Revelation 2,000 years’ ago and yet he knew that a number would be needed during the period of Great Tribulation in order to buy and to sell. We can conclude that this is can only be made through God’s revelation to Apostle John.

It is time for you now accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and get prepared to meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Once all Christians are taken away or raptured and those who left behind will have to decide between a rock and a hard place and that is if you refused to take the Mark of the Beast (the implantable microchip) in your right hand or in your forehead, you will be killed and if you will to take the Mark of the Beast you would have effectively pledged your complete alliance to the Antichrist and you will lose your salvation for ever! (Revelation 14:9-11).

If you are willing to accept God’s invitation to be His child, just pray this prayer right now because tomorrow is not promised. God is waiting for you.

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Dear Heavenly Father

I admit that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I ask of You that You give me the power to repent and to turn away from my sin. I believe that Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins and He rose after three days. I confess my faith in Your Son Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no man can come to You, but by Your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Your gift of forgiveness from sin. Please accept me as Your child.
I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and my life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. I want to thank you for the blood of Jesus who has shed for me and by His blood I can now be redeemed and be reconciled to You.
I sincerely and faithfully pray all these in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!

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8 January 2023

Scripture Reading: Revelation 3:10 (KJV)

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

MESSAGE

We are now moving into the year 2023. As we all are aware, the last three years (2022, 2021 and 2020) proved to be extremely extraordinary and they were all for the wrong reasons. Globally, the whole world was rampaged by the coronavirus. To make matters worse, many countries were devastated by intense floods, drought, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, wild forest fires, wide-spread domestic violence of ethnic groups, high inflation and not forgetting Russian-Ukraine war that brought the price of petrol to all-time high. I believe many of us are indeed very fearful what will come tomorrow and our fear is not unfounded. To put it in psychological term, because of the near-apocalyptic events of the yesteryears of 2022, 2021 and 2020 many of us could be suffering from “chronophobia” which is defined as “the persistent and irrational fear of the future”. I am afraid I cannot totally agree that our fear is irrational. The fear that we are confronting now is both very real and rational because we know that history often repeats itself. Due to the sinful nature of human, it has the natural tendency to prevent us to learn from our past mistakes and take steps to correct them. Human history of atrocities recycled all over again and again and often from bad to worse! Perhaps, psychologists need to come out with another term to define “fear that is persistent and rational”. We are now indeed facing a rational fear – a fear that history is going to repeat and it is very likely to be even worse than the previous one. For example, when World War II ended, it was thought that this “mother of all wars” would bring everlasting peace to the world. It had never and it will never be! As a historical fact, the world since then had experienced only two weeks of ‘complete’ peace in the early years when World War II had just ended. Since then, wars have been rampaging throughout the world, non-stop. These wars are now more frequent and more destructive. Many people are now wondering when World War III is going to start. The question is: “WHEN” and not “IF”!

According to the Word of God, the worst is yet to come and we can read them in the book of Revelation which gives a lengthy account of what is to come before our Lord Jesus Christ return to this world. As I had mentioned in my last week message, the Bible has prophesized events that are going to be much more serious and destructive and it will be so great that unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved (Matthew 24:22). In fact, comparing the prophetic events which we can read in the book of Revelation to the near-apocalyptic events that we encountered over the previous three years, it was just a simple rehearsal and was meant for us to prepare ourselves and to wake us up that the only way to escape these devastations is to put our trust in our living Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. And thanks be to God, there is, indeed, a very good news of how we could do this. Our Lord Jesus Christ will be returning to this world very, very soon to take His church (that is the Body of Christ comprising all born-again Christians) to meet Him in the air. What I am referring to is known as the doctrine of pre-tribulation rapture of the believers. To put it simply, this doctrine tells us that Jesus will come a take all the believers to meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17) before the biggest and the most devastated events strike this world. Hence, we can take comfort because as truly born-again Christians, we will not be going through these events of great tribulation. This great tribulation is God’s wrath that will be poured out to all unbelievers who have missed the rapture of the church and also to the Jews who rejected Jesus as their Messiah.

If you doubt what I am telling you, please look closely at what our Lord Jesus has told us in Revelation 3:10-11 (NKJV) – “ Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial (that is the great tribulation) which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.”

From the verse we just read above, it is undoubtedly clear that the church will not go through the hour of trial (which is a reference to the “Great Tribulation – a seven-year period of intense distress and it is the subject of much of the book of Revelation). As you explore further into these verses in Revelation 3:10-11, we can also come to a conclusion that the hour of trial (or the great tribulation) is coming on the whole world, not on the church. The judgments unleashed during this seven-year period of the great tribulation will fall on “those who dwell on earth” – that is, on those whose home is the world, not heaven. Jesus by then had already taken all truly born-again Christians out of the world. Many Bible scholars who have done serious studies on the book of Revelation has come to a convincing conclusion that “those who dwell on earth” during the period of the great tribulation period are the unbelievers who were left behind after the rapture and also those Jews who have rejected our Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah. The rapture of the church will kick start the most extraordinary evangelistic event the world has ever known. Many who are left behind will wake up and realize why only Christians disappeared from the earth and unless they too accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah, as their Lord and Saviour, they will face eternal damnation and they will be confined in hell throughout eternality. (Note: I know what I am saying here is insensitive, politically-incorrect and offensive but this is what God’s truth is all about. Truth always hurt and it can hurt deeply. For those who are hurt by what I mentioned, I like to sincerely extend my apologies.)

Sadly, it will not be easy for anyone to be converted to be a Christian during the seven-year period of great tribulation. The world during this seven-year period of great tribulation will be ruled by the Antichrist and together with the beast who will rise up out from the sea (Revelation 13:1) their primary calling is to do the will of their father, Satan. They will do everything possible to stop people from accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour and to stop people from worshipping Jesus as their God. Among other things, people will be forced to worship the beast instead of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Those who refused to worship the beast will be killed (Revelation 13:15). Together with the Antichrist, they will force all people to pledge their allegiance to them by requiring people to take the Mark of the Beast and without the Mark of the Beast they cannot buy or sell (Revelation 13:17). Put it another way, people will be killed if they refused to worship the beast or they will die of hunger if they refused to take the Mark of Beast as they would not be able to buy or sell.

It is thus very important you must come to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour right now. You must now believe that two thousand years’ ago Lord Jesus Christ was born to a virgin, Mary, to save all sinners (like you and me), was crucified and rose again after three days. May I plead that you please come to Him. He is waiting for you! God wants you to His children!

Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
Blessed are all those who wait for Him. (Isaiah 30:18)

If you are willing to accept God’s invitation to be His child, just pray this prayer right now because tomorrow is not promised. God is waiting for you.

Dear Heavenly Father

I admit that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I ask of You that You give me the power to repent and to turn away from my sin. I believe that Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins and He rose after three days. I confess my faith in Your Son Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no man can come to You, but by Your Son Jesus Christ. I accept Your gift of forgiveness from sin. Please accept me as Your child.
I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and my life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. I want to thank you for the blood of Jesus who has shed for me and by His blood I can now be redeemed and be reconciled to You.
I sincerely and faithfully pray all these in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!

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1 January 2023

Scripture Reading: Lamentations 3:22-23 (KJV)

It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

MESSAGE

Greetings to all my Readers-in-Christ. Today is the First Day of the Year of Our Lord Jesus Two Thousand Two Hundred and Twenty-Three (AD 1st January 2023). May the good Lord bless you all with special blessings from His Heavenly Throne of Grace.

I want to thank you all for your encouragement by your reading of the messages posted here. I am very pleased to note that the messages are read by Christian brothers and sisters from several countries and it is my sincere prayer that you can help to send the link to your friends and relatives for them to read as well. It is my sincere hope that the messages can reach to all four corners of the earth. As you may already notice, most of the messages are relevant to the current world events that I tried to connect them to the end-time events as foretold in the scriptures. More importantly, I pray that the messages can help all of us to watch and to prepare to meet our Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus is coming very, very soon to bring us back to His heavenly home. What a blessed hope we have! All glory to God!

As we all are aware, the last three years 2022, 2021 and 2020 were exceptionally abnormal in almost every inconceivable way that no one could have imagined! And we all know that it was due mainly to the coronavirus that rampaged the whole world. Since the discovery of this nasty virus sometimes in late 2019 the world was turned upside down. Before this plague struck, we were in a state of constant interaction with our friends, colleagues and relatives be it in restaurants, cinemas, recreation parks, factories, shopping malls, schools, churches, or at sporting and festive events but very unexpectedly all our interactions came to a complete halt. We became a people in either self-imposed or under forced house arrest and leaving home to do even simple chores like buying food for our family could run the risk of getting a heavy fine or even jail when we are caught without proper authorisation or without valid reasons. It was not just our city state. It permeated throughout the whole world. No country was spared from this invisible enemy. Sadly, it is still not completely settled as we read about the situation in China today. It is estimated that China is experiencing 1 million Covid infections and 5,000 deaths every day and we are warned that there is now a threat of new ‘Chinese’ coronarius variants that are more transmissible and deadly. I am personally not very convinced with the news and I am reading this news with a pinch of salt. I pray that I am right.

Our life that we took a lot of things for granted like going to places wherever and whenever we like, meeting people whom ever we like, inviting as many guests to our house as we like and oh, yes, exercise as much freedom as we like. Everything has now been changed. We have to face the reality that the pre-covid freedom we enjoyed can be in great jeopardy at any moment because it simply may not be there tomorrow.

We are now living in a changed world and all for the worst because we do not know what holds tomorrow. The only question is whether that change is short-term, long-term, or going to be permanent. I don’t want to repeat like broken records the details of those near-apocalyptic events of the yesteryears as many of us would like to forget what we all had been through – lockdowns, forced vaccination of clinically untested vaccines, job losses, unexpected death of the loved ones due to the nasty virus, mandatory wearing of masks, routine covid-antigen testings, voluntary and forced closure of businesses, voluntary and forced confinement at home and so on. During those three years – 2020, 2021 and 2022 – we found ourselves stuck in a loop of endless terrible headlines and bad news and many of us were suffering from Covid news fatigue. I believe all of us would just like to simply forget about them and to move forward with our lives.

But can we? This is the one million-dollar question that no one can answer. Nevertheless, we must acknowledge one plain truth and that is we all just have to accept uncertainties and extreme chaos of biblical proportion can occur at any moment and in the most unsuspected manner. Hence, we have to be prepared head-on as they come along because the worst is yet to come as prophesized in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament!  

On this New Year’s Day, I like to extend a message of comfort to the readers here that although the Bible has prophesized that the worst is yet to come, thankfully, the Word of God also provides blessed hope for those who place their trust in our Creator. Thankfully, the very fact that you are reading this message indicates you are still living well and you are one of the blessed children of God spared from the life-tsunami of the yesteryears of 2022, 2021 and 2020. All glory to God. So, let’s continue to pray that our omnipotent God will continue to spare all of us and our family members and that He will fully protect us regardless of what the future may hold. We must continue to seek God, to place our complete trust in Him and to claim His promise that He will renew His compassions every morning. Let us fully acknowledge of His goodness; His faithfulness and that His mercy endured forever (Psalm 107:1 and Lamentations 3:22-23). Our Lord is great and greatly to be praised and He is be feared above all gods (1 Chronicles 16:25).

In this New Year message, I also like to share a love letter from God and it is my prayer that this love letter will encourage and inspire all of us to fully trust and rely upon Him for His care even when the circumstances surrounding us may look utterly bleak and hopeless. For those who are yet to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, it is my sincere prayer that this Letter of Love from God will inspire you to accept Him as your Lord and Saviour right away because tomorrow is not promised.

A LETTER OF LOVE FROM GOD TO YOU
(Please note that I am not the original author of this Letter; I like to thank and to give full credit to the original author. This Letter of Love has inspired me in a very personal way to continue to live a life to please Him, to trust Him, to fear Him, to pray and to praise to Him always.)

MY CHILD

You may not know me, but I know everything about you. (Psalm 139:1)
I know when you sit down and when you rise up. (Psalm 139:2)
I am familiar with all your ways. (Psalm 139:3)
Even the very hairs on your head are numbered. (Matthew 10:29-31)
For you were made in my image. (Genesis 1:27)
In me you live and move and have your being. (Acts 17:28)
For you are my offspring. (Acts 17:28)
I knew you even before you were conceived. (Jeremiah 1:4-5)
I chose you when I planned creation. (Ephesians 1:4)
You were not a mistake, for all your days are written in my book. (Psalm 139:15-16)
I determined the exact time of your birth and where you would live. (Acts 17:26)
You are fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 139:14)
I knit you together in your mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13)
And brought you forth on the day you were born. (Psalm 71:6)
I have been misrepresented by those who don’t know me. (John 8:41-44)
I am not distant and angry, but am the complete expression of love. (1 John 4:16)
And it is my desire to lavish my love on you. (1 John 3:1)
Simply because you are my child and I am your Father. (1 John 3:1)
I offer you more than your earthly father ever could. (Matthew 7:11)
For I am the perfect father. (Matthew 5:48)
Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand. (James 1:17)
For I am your provider and I meet all your needs. (Matthew 6:31-33)
My plan for your future has always been filled with hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)
Because I love you with an everlasting love. (Jeremiah 31:3)
My thoughts toward you are countless as the sand on the seashore. (Psalm 139:17-18)
And I rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)
I will never stop doing good to you. (Jeremiah 32:40)
For you are my treasured possession. (Exodus 19:5)
I desire to establish you with all my heart and all my soul. (Jeremiah 32:41)
And I want to show you great and marvellous things. (Jeremiah 33:3)
If you seek me with all your heart, you will find me. (Deuteronomy 4:29)
Delight in me and I will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)
For it is I who gave you those desires. (Philippians 2:13)
I am able to do more for you than you could possibly imagine. (Matthew 19.26);(Ephesians 3:20)
For I am your greatest encourager. (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17)
I am also the Father who comforts you in all your troubles. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
When you are brokenhearted, I am close to you. (Psalm 34:18)
As a shepherd carries a lamb, I have carried you close to my heart. (Isaiah 40:11)
One day I will wipe away every tear from your eyes. (Revelation 21:3-4)
And I’ll take away all the pain you have suffered on this earth. (Revelation 21:3-4)
I am your Father, and I love you even as I love my son, Jesus.  (John 17:23)
For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed. (John 17:26)
He is the exact representation of my being. (Hebrews 1:3)
He came to demonstrate that I am for you, not against you. (Romans 8:31)
And to tell you that I am not counting your sins. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)
Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)
His death was the ultimate expression of my love for you. (1 John 4:10)
I gave up everything I loved that I might gain your love. (Romans 8:31-32)
If you receive the gift of my son Jesus, you receive me. (1 John 2:23)
And nothing will ever separate you from my love again. (Romans 8:38-39)
Come home and I’ll throw the biggest party heaven has ever seen. (Luke 15:7)
I have always been Father, and will always be Father. (Ephesians 3:14-15)
My question is … Will you be my child? (John 1:12-13)
I am waiting for you. (Genesis 3:9); (Luke 15:11-32)
Love, Your Dad.
Almighty God

If you are willing to accept God’s invitation to be His child, just pray this prayer. God is waiting for you.

Dear Heavenly Father

I admit I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I ask of You that You give me the power to repent and to turn away from my sin. I believe that Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ died for my sins and He rose after three days. I confess my faith in Your Son Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no man can come to You, but by Your Son Jesus. I accept Your gift of forgiveness from sin. Please accept me as Your child.

I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. I want to thank you for the blood of Jesus who has shed for me and by His blood I can now be redeemed and be reconciled to You.
I pray all these in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!

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25 December 2022

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 9:6 (KJV)

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

MESSAGE

Blessed Christmas to all the Readers-in-Christ! Time flies and we are exactly one year nearer to our Lord Jesus then we were at the last Christmas. The birth of Jesus is celebrated all over the world even by non-Christians. It is an irony that 25 December is also a public holiday in quite a number Muslim countries (including several countries from the Middle East) where many professing Christians were severely persecuted and some even got executed because of their faith in Jesus Christ. These persecutions and executions of Christians are routinely occurred in many Muslim countries.

The birth of Christ has, indeed, turned the world upside down (or downside up – depending how you want to look at it). Even the calendar used globally is divided into two distinct periods – B.C. (or Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini which is a Latin phrase meaning “In the year of our Lord Jesus”). Hence, today is 25th December in the Year of Our Lord Jesus Two Thousand Two Hundred and Twenty-Two or A.D. 25 December 2022. This is a testimony that the Birth of Christ has indeed divided the world into two halves: Between those who accepted Jesus as their Saviour and those who rejected Jesus their Saviours; Between those who called evil good and good evil, and those who called good good and evil evil. Thankfully, we belonged to those who called “good good and evil evil” all because we are the children of God and have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.

The birth of our Lord Jesus was not a surprising event. It was foretold in the Book of Isaiah and also in several other books of the Old Testament several hundreds of years before He was born. Among the events foretold of His first coming were: Jesus would be born to a virgin, the exact name of the city He would be born, He would be rejected as a Messiah by His very own elect, the Jews, the precise manner how He would suffer while He was on earth, the precise manner how He would die on the cross (when at the time of this prediction, execution by using the cross not even known to have existed) and the prediction that He would be resurrected three days after His death. We praise God because the resurrection of Jesus indeed culminated God’s final victory over death, good over evil, total defeat of the Evil One and more importantly that we too will be resurrected and to be with Him forever.

Anyone can make predictions or can make prophecies but whether how they are fulfilled will make all the difference. If one were to conceive just ten specific prophecies about a person in the future, whom one would never meet, just what’s the likelihood that this person will fulfil all these ten prophecies in exact manner that were so prophesied? There are critics who claimed that the prophetic events of Jesus were planned hundreds of years ago and were later choreographed into actual events hundred years later! But they failed to understand that just the events of the Christ’s birth, of His life, of His death and of His resurrection would require to be meticulously “arranged” such as How does one “arrange” to be born in a specific city in which their parents don’t actually live? How does one “arrange” their own death and specifically by crucifixion which at the time of prediction death by crucifixion was not even existed? How does one “arrange” to have their executioners gamble for His clothing? How does one “arrange” to be betrayed in advance by His close friend? Perhaps it may be possible for someone to fake two or three ‘prophetic’ events and choregraphed at later date to seemingly have fulfilled the prophecies, but it would be totally impossible for any one person to arrange and to precisely fulfil or choregraph all of just ten or even five of these events.

The prophecies that fulfilled by Jesus were not five, ten, twenty, thirty or fifty. According to many Bible scholars, in total, Jesus had fulfilled over 250 prophecies! It defiled the science of probability. To prove this, a professor at Westmont College has calculated what is the probability of one man fulfilling just eight major prophecies made concerning our Messiah, Lord Jesus. He calculated the probability and conservatively estimated that the chance of one man fulfilling just eight of the Messianic prophecies predicted in the Old Testament was one in 10 to the power of 17 – that is 1 over 1 followed by 17 zeros! To illustrate how large the number 10 to the power 17 is, the professor gave this illustration that one has to take 10 to power of 17 (or 100,000,000,000,000,000) silver dollars and lay them on the face of state of Texas (which is approximately 695,000 square metres). These billions upon billions of silver dollars will cover all of the state of Texas two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up the one silver dollar that has the special mark on it. What chance would he have of getting the right one? The chance is obvious – that is 1 over 10 to the power 17. This works out that the chance to pick out that marked silver dollar is 0.00000000000000001. This is the probability to just fulfil eight Messianic prophecies and Jesus had fulfilled over 250 prophecies that were prophesised by the Old Testament prophets!

We want to thank God that God indeed had meticulously planned and executed the prophetic events for His only Son to fulfil all the 250 prophecies, and the very first prophetic event fulfilled was the birth of His only Son on “Christmas Day.” Many of us know that 25th December is not the actual day when Jesus was born but thankfully we can set aside this date as a date of blessed hope that the first coming of Jesus will soon be followed by His second appearance to take us home. In Jesus very own word that we can read in John 14:1- 3: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

The question is: How then our Lord Jesus going to take us to be with Him when He comes again? The answer to this question can be found in the messages written by Apostle Paul and I like to first share a message found in 1 Corinthians 15:51-54 – “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

Let us look earnestly to our Jesus appearance to bring us back to Him by claiming prophetic message as we read above and also another one which we can read in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 – “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus

Thank you for this day of Christmas. This may not be the actual day of Your birth but we all know that You indeed came and died for the sin of all the human race. Lord help us to continue to remember You and to make every day a “Christmas Day”, a day of remembrance, a day of atonement, a day will not pass by without us acknowledging that You are our Saviour and our Lord.

Lord Jesus, we pray that as the year 2022 is coming to an end and a New Year 2023 will start in a week’s time, we ask that You continue to bless us especially the children who are proceeding to their next level of studies. Help them to prepare their school terms and help the parents to be their “guarding angels” to encourage them and to give them all the necessary support as they proceed to the next level of their education. We all know that it is impossible to do all these by our own efforts and hence we ask that You send the Holy Spirit and Your angels to help us to educate, to teach and to discipline our children and remind ourselves that all that we do must be done in accordance to Your will. Help us not to harbour any envy, jealously, covetousness and continue to pursuit holiness and righteous living. Thank Lord for always standing besides us because we know that You will never leave us nor foresake us.

In Your Mighty Name we pray. Amen!

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INVITATION TO ACCEPT JESUS AS YOUR SAVIOUR

If you feel led and want to accept Jesus as your Saviour, just pray this sincerely with your heart. Accepting Jesus as your Saviour is as easy as ABC.

A – Admit: Admit to God that you are a sinner. Repent, turning away from your sin.
B – Believe: Believe that Jesus Christ is God’s only begotten Son, He died and rose after the third day.
C – Confess: Confess your faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, and He is the way, the truth, and the life and no man comes to the Father, but by Him, and accept God’s gift of forgiveness from sin.

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18 December 2022

Scripture Reading: Genesis 18:32 (KJV)

And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.

MESSAGE

One of the most famous (or infamous) historical Bible records is the history of Sodom and Gomorrah. It depicts an important piece of human history that the depravity of man will be finally punished – sooner or later. It clearly depicts that God just cannot close His eyes on sin and His judgment will come whether you like it or not. We may plead for His mercy and oh, yes, He will listen but within strict limit. Beyond this limit, we will all have to face the consequences and the worst consequence is the wrath of God.

As we read further into this piece of history we will soon realise that, among others, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah had committed five grievous sins against God. They were: homosexuality, the practice of this was the order of the day, widespread gangs seeking young men to rape, the poor and the needy were ignored, people were partying like there “is no tomorrow” and the people there were living like there was no God.

When Jesus was asked by His disciples what are the signs of His coming and His reply was always unequivocal by pointing them to the days of Noah and the days of Lot. The big question that is confronting us right now is: Are we also now living like in the days of Noah and Lot? Are we now seeing the signs of Jesus coming? In the days of Noah, people refused to Noah’s preaching of righteousness and they were mocking Noah for building the huge boat in the middle of the desert. And in the days of Lot, people were living in extreme sexual perversion.

The history of Sodom and Gomorrah is something we all seem to very scare and pray that this history of God’s wrath will not be repeated – or at least not in our nation. However, for me as a born-again Christian, this is quite to the contrary because unless Lot and his family left Sodom, God would not rain sulfur and brimstone from the skies to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. As the history goes, God is prepared to withhold His wrath for the sake of just ten righteous men. But, alas, there were only three and these were too few for God to withhold His wrath. Another consoling point is that God poured out His wrath after Lot and his family were removed away from the city of Sodom. God had to send angels and to tell Lot that he and his family must leave the city and escape to another city Zoar. We do not know the actual population of Sodom and Gomorrah but many Bible scholars believed there were few hundred thousand and yet Abraham could not even find ten righteous men. If only Abraham could find ten righteous men, God would have spared the cities from the destruction. Tragically, Abraham could only find three – Lot himself and his two daughters.

This is a great lesson for us to take note as a nation. As mentioned above, we don’t know the actual population of the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah but perhaps there were few hundred thousand and even with such population Abraham could not find ten righteous men. How about our beloved country? We now have a population of over seven million. If God were to ask for fifty or one hundred righteous men (or women) are we able to show to God who they are and will God in His sight consider them as righteous? Can we ourselves be counted as one of them? I don’t know about you but I would like to exclude myself – count me out! How about you? Can you honestly say: Yes! I can be counted as one of them.

As we pondered over our beloved country just over the last 3 years, I think we should thank and praise God that our beloved country has not encountered severe calamities like other countries which we can read or watch them in the internet. These calamities are earthquakes of 5 Richter scale or higher occurring in several countries, floods of unprecedented proportion across all continents, frequent volcanic eruptions, intense heat of over 40 degrees Centigrade (or over 100 degrees Fahrenheit), uncontrollable wild forest fires, severe drought in many countries destroying  thousands upon thousands of farmland and I believe you may also have your list to add. They are occurring all over the globe and all at the same period.

Our God is a merciful God and He is willing to listen to the plea of the righteous men and women to spare their land from calamities even they may represent only a small number of the general population as we can read from the history of Sodom and Gomorrah. In this history, Abraham, the father of many nations who was loved by God for being godly, faithful, obedient and righteous and thus God was willing to listen to his plea to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah from destruction provided he could find ten righteous men (down from the fifty that initially demanded by God). Abraham, however, couldn’t even find ten but only three – his nephew, Lot and Lot’s two daughters.

As a nation, we have never had struck with major calamities. Even our so-called ‘severe flood’ that occurred now and then because of heavy rainfall, they were just too insignificant by comparison to those that we knew about. We are so blessed as a nation and I want to boldly say that we have men and women of God who governed our country since our nation became an independent nation some 60 years’ ago.  I am very proud of our first-generation leaders such as Mr. Lee KY, Dr. Goh KS, Dr. Toh CC, Mr. Lim KS, Mr. Chua SC, Mr. S. Rajaratnam, Mr. Ong PB and several more. They were paid pittance but they willingly sacrificed for the nation. If any of them were caught for taking bribes, they were need to face the full force of the law. In the process, these first-generation leaders had left a very rich and godly legacy of the importance of clean and corrupt-free government. They had worked tirelessly and had significantly succeeded in eliminating organized crimes that were rampant when they just assumed power, taking care of the people’s welfare by providing good housing, education, credible healthcare system, bringing in foreign investors to create jobs for the people, promoting wholesome living and so on. We are indeed very blessed that they have successfully instituted the very tenets of what good government is all about. Again, I want to boldly say that when God looked at our beloved nation He must have remembered what He told Abraham: Just produce ten righteous men and I will not pour out my wrath on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. I believe, God too has so far spare our beloved nation from His wrath because of these few righteous first-generation and also their successors who too followed their godly footsteps.

I want to cautiously admit with a heavy heart. What would God think of our nation now? Prayerfully, the people that are governing this nation of ours are as righteous and godly as those of the first-generation leaders. Is the repeal of Section 377A going to be a final draw for God to conclude that this nation of our is now going to a slippery road towards Sodom and Gomorrah? Does the repeal of Section 377A also implied that we have stolen and perverted the rainbow covenant that God has established with Noah? Are we now living in the days of Lot? Are we going to see banners and flags peppered with rainbow colours displaying at the shopping malls, lampposts, schools, commercial buildings? These rainbow flags and banners are now used as symbols of the gay pride, of the victory of LGBT movement, of perverting God’s creation that clearly condemns homosexuality. Are we going to surrender obediently to legislate the recognition of same-sex marriage should the LGBT community later demanded? Are we treating God’s moral laws like moving goal-post to cater for the whims and fancies of wicked people? Remember, the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses are crafted in stone-tablet and are now sealed in the Ark of Covenant. Have we forgotten what Jesus has said in Matthew 24:35? – “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” We must remind ourselves that treating God’s laws like moving goal-post is going to effectively remove God’s patience out of His holy equation of mercy and grace. I am taking a courage to give the audacity of the warning that at the rate of the changing moral compass of our nation, God is not going to continue to withhold His wrath which can come in a very unsuspected manner. We must pray that this changing of moral compass will not cross God’s red line and we must continue to pray that our national leaders stop treating God’s laws like moving goal-post! In Matthew 24:36-39, Jesus said: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

May I humbly invite you to please come and accept Jesus as your Saviour because you do not know the day or the hour that Jesus will come to take us home as we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

You must get into the ark by accepting Jesus as your Saviour so as to escape the wrath of God that will only be poured out to those who still have not accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. The wrath of God during the Great Tribulation will only come when the believers are removed from this world and to be with Jesus in heaven. Remember what the angel told Lot that unless he and his family left the city of Sodom and flee to the city of Zoar, he cannot do anything to cause fire and brimstone from the heaven to punish the wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Thankfully, not the angelic hosts but Jesus himself will come and remove us from this wicked world so that we can meet Him in the air as we had just read in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.

May I just remind you that to be in the ark you need to be a child of God by accepting Jesus as your Savour and it’s as simple as ABC:

A – Admit: Admit to God that you are a sinner. Repent, turning away from your sin.
B – Believe: Believe that Jesus Christ is God’s only begotten Son, He died and rose after the third day.
C – Confess: Confess your faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, and He is the way, the truth, and the life and no man comes to the Father, but by Him, and accept God’s gift of forgiveness from sin.

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank you for dying on the cross for me. Your death has brought eternal life to countless sinners and I want to confess I am one of these sinners. Thank you Jesus for Your redeeming blood of love and mercy. I know I don’t deserve it by You do it because You love me and also all Your precious children so much. In the Mighty Name of Jesus we thank you and we praise You. Amen.

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11 December 2022

Scripture Reading: 2 Peter 3:3-4 (KJV); Jude 1:18 (KJV)

2 Peter 3:3-4 – Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

Jude 1:18 – How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.

MESSAGE

In my last week message, I have taken a bold step in posting a very controversial message relating to the “Repeal of Section 377A”. This repeal of Section 377A that was eventually voted in favour by the Singapore Parliament has effectively made sex between two consenting male adults not illegal (or legal, depend how you want to interpret it). As we read the news, it has correctly and factually pointed out that Section 377A was a decades-old law. Indeed, this piece of legislation was very, very old as it was enacted when Singapore was under the British rule. So, the question now is: Why over these decades everyone could accept this law as legally and morally sound but why now so much “hue and cry” not just by the LBGT community but also by many people demanding to repeal this piece of legislation. The cry seems to be too loud for the Members of Parliament (MPs) to bear to the point that 90% of the MPs have obediently surrendered to the will of the minority. (Actually, I am quite confused myself which is the correct expression should be used: minority or majority.)

For record purposes, the date 29 November 2022 is the day we must always remember that as a nation it too is prepared to pervert Noah’s rainbow covenant of God’s promise that He will not destroy the earth the same way He did in Noah’s time. The flags and the banners peppered with the rainbow colours also known as the pride flag, is a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pride and LGBT social movements. But remember while God has promised not to destroy the earth by flood, the earth will be destroyed by fire during the last days as we are told in Malachi 4:1 – “For behold, the day is coming, Burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,” Says the LORD of hosts, “That will leave them neither root nor branch.

I want to admit. I am a person least qualified to write on topics or subjects concerning holy and righteous living because we are told in Isaiah 64:6 that all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. Admittedly, I am one of these filthy rags! Let’s be honest. We all have skeletons in our closet. Outwardly, many of us as Christians may seem to be living like godly people but inwardly we often failed in our pursuit of godly holiness and His commandments (2 Timothy 3:2-5) and live like there is no God. Again, I want to confess that I failed time and again to please my Saviour, Lord Jesus. I cried often to God for forgiveness but sadly my old sinful nature kept popping up now and then to a point that I felt that I am not progressing well in living a life pleasing to God. If I were to pile up all my sins that I committed, they could literally reach up to heaven! By the grace and mercy of God, I am forgiven because of the precious blood of Jesus that He has so willingly shed for me (and you) at the Calvary Cross two thousand years ago. Praise be to the Son of God, Jesus! But take heed. The death of Jesus and His resurrection is not a license for us to live in unrepented lifestyle. When Jesus first preached His very first sermon, He preached “Repentance” as we can read in Matthew 4:17- Repent: for the kingdom of hand, and also as in Mark 1:15 – The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel. Exegetically-speaking, Jesus is putting repentance above all else.

I like to emphasize that the message this week is not so much about human righteousness. Rather, I am writing this message to share with all my dear readers-in-Christ of what is happening today in this perverted world that is awaiting for God’s final judgment. The primary message is to seriously warn all readers-in-Christ here that we are indeed living in the last days. Jesus is coming very soon and the door of salvation is going to close soon. Time is running out. Remember, when Noah, his family and the animals went into the ark, our merciful God did not immediately send the flood. Instead, He still gave the people another seven days to repent but no one repented neither any one bothered to get into the ark. After seven days, the floodwaters came on the earth (Genesis 7:10) and all the inhabitants were perished except Noah and those with him in the ark. (Genesis 7:21-23)

Let me repeat. Many of my previous messages posted here were concerning the end-time events that we are witnessing today. These events are now converging both in multitude and at global scale of apocalyptic proportions all at the same time. This is extra-ordinary. They are clearly the warning signs that Jesus is coming very, very soon. Let me boldly list these events of eschatological significance which are not merely emerging but many of them are already happening right before our eyes and many of them are escalating at the speed of light. Let me try to list them as comprehensive as I possibly could. They are:

As we can read the above, we must acknowledge that they are already prophesied in the Bible particularly in the books of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and Revelation many thousand years ago. We are truly living in the last days because the convergence of the above events are totally extra-ordinary in the history of mankind. Please take this as a serious warning: Jesus is coming very, very soon to bring His Bride to meet Him in the air as we can read in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 – Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

We know that You are coming very soon, sooner than many of us could realise. The world is full of wickedness and there is no lack of unsaved people who continued to reject You as their Saviour. We pray that You can help us to be Your instrument to spread the Good News and Your imminent coming to bring us to meet You in the air.

Lord Jesus, for those who are reading the message here, by the power of the Holy Spirit, inspire them to send this message to all their friends and relatives. As You have told us in Peter 3:9 that You are patient with us and not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

We thank you Jesus for Your patient because You are a merciful God. But Lord Jesus, help us to take full cognizant that time is short; we are running out of time and we know You are coming soon to take us home. We pray that as many as possible can escape Your wrath that is to come before the period Great Tribulation began.

Jesus, we love You. Please help us.

In Your Mighty Name we pray. Amen!
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4 December 2022

Scripture Reading: Genesis 9:11-13 (KJV)

And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

2 Peter 3:3-4 – Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

Jude 1:18 – How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.

PLEASE SHARE THIS MESSAGE WITH YOUR RELATIVES AND FRIENDS

Noah’s flood is a well-known historical account of a global flood that God poured His wrath to destroy all the living creatures on earth leaving only eight inhabitants alive – Noah, his wife, their three sons and their three daughters-in-law and together with the animals that Noah brought to his Ark. Even non-Christians have heard of this historical account and it is taught in almost every Christian Sunday Bible school. This historical account of Noah’s flood is recorded in Chapter 7 of the Book of Genesis.

My message this week is not so much about Noah’s flood. Rather, it is about a covenant that God has set with Noah, all his descendants (including you and me) and every creature that Noah’s brought to the ark immediately after this global flood. Suffice to just add that this great flood was God’s wrath upon the people in Noah’s days because, with the exception of Noah’s family, the people were living in unrepented lives of extreme debauchery and wickedness. After the flood had subsided, God set up a rainbow covenant with Noah and every creature that He will not destroy the earth by flood. This rainbow covenant is extra-ordinary and unique when we compared with other God’s covenants that He later established with His people. In this rainbow covenant, God promises Noah that He will not destroy the earth with water and there is nothing that Noah was required to do unlike other covenants that God has established, such as:

This rainbow as a cosmic symbol that God established is an absolute property that belongs to God and He and only He is the True Owner. But what the rainbow covenant that God has set is now stolen and perverted. I believe many of us have seen the rainbow banners and flags that are now flying all over the globe by the LGBT community and their supporters. It can even be seen in some government buildings. These rainbow banners and flags are the striking expression to immorally define the secular celebration of ‘gay pride’ movement which is permeated across the globe. This gay pride movement has succeeded in stealing and perverting God’s holy covenant that He has established with Noah. When we look in the sky we can often see rainbow appearing at the sky and it reminds us of God’s covenant that He will not destroy the earth with a flood. We thank and praise for His patient determination to extend salvation to a sinful humanity. Remember, Noah took more than one hundred years to build the ark and while building the ark, he the preached righteousness of God, day and night, to the people but no one listen to him. We must also be reminded that God is not going to sit and do nothing while we continue to live in extreme debauchery and wickedness!

As we can now see around the globe, these seven rainbow colours painted on banners and flags are now used as symbol depicted by the LGBT community and their supporters of destructive sexuality – homosexuality, same-sex marriage, acceptance of gays and lesbians as church priests, transgenderism that is telling people there are more than two genders – male or female. The waving of the rainbow banners of “pride” over perverted lifestyle choice is transparently sinful and wicked and is a direct and wicked confrontation with God’s laws. God has the sovereign right to dictate the attitudes of our heart because He created us in His image. God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). Christians are now living in unprecedented days of debauchery and wickedness since the days of Noah and the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. The world is celebrating what God condemns and the world is condemning what God celebrates. Our call as Bible-believing Christians in these upside-down days is to turn it all right-side up: Condemning what God condemns and celebrating what God celebrates.

Coming back to our beloved country. Just few days ago, on Tuesday, 29 November a news headline appeared in our local newspaper: “Parliament on Tuesday voted to repeal a decades-old law criminalising gay sex.” It was reported that 93 Members of Parliament (MP) or 90% of the MPs voted in favour of the move. As MPs represent people, hence by crude extrapolation, 90% of the people also have agreed to decrimalise same-sex! The LGBT community has indeed won big time – so to speak but thankfully we still have not seen them waving of the rainbow flags and banners to express their “pride” of victory. Perhaps not yet!

So what shall we do as individual Bible-believing Christians in this fallen world?

May I humbly offer my suggestions. We need to fill the gaps of what many churches have left vacant. Our Christian responsibility in a confused culture is not to whine, complain, rant, worry, or run. Our responsibility is to stand on the truth of the Word of God and on the grace of Jesus himself. We are to work so that all that has been corrupted is to be restored, to labour so that all that has been lost would be found, and to strive to clarify every instance of sexual confusion. This may be a wishful thinking but we have to try. Prayerfully, this can slow down to something that is even more scary that is to come like legalizing same-sex marriage in our beloved country and so on. We just need to be God’s witnesses as this is exactly what Jesus has in mind when He calls us to be His witnesses throughout the world (Acts 1:8). We want just to be His witnesses. We want to tell people that time is running out. We want to tell people that Jesus is coming very, very soon. We want to tell people: GET READY FOR HIS RETURN! RAPTURE OF THE CHUCH OF CHRIST CAN HAPPEN ANYTIME!

More importantly, we want to tell people going to the seven years of Great Tribulation is not a child-play. You may end up beheaded for your faith during this period of Great Tribulation. During the Great Tribulation it will be very difficult for you to live as Christians because the most hated people during this Great Tribulation period (and also now) are the Jews and the Christians. Christians during the Great Tribulation period are those people who have missed the rapture. The Antichrist will be given all the power by Satan to do everything possible to persecute and prosecute the Jews and the newly converted Christians as they are the arch-enemies of Satan. You will be forced to take the mark of the beast and without the mark of the beast you cannot buy and sell. Once you have taken the mark of the beast, you are doomed. Is this true? As I have said before in the blog here, never just accept what you read from the internet especially when it comes to God’s word and God’s message. The best source is to check them yourself is to go to the Bible, the only inspired Word of God. Read Revelation 13:15-17; 14:9-10 and 16:2. These verses give serious warnings of the dire consequences to the people when they take the mark of the beast and I like to summarise these dangers as follows:

 (Note: Please note this is just a wild speculation which may or may not be the case. However, time will tell. While I strongly believe that the mRNA Covid vaccine is not the mark of the beast, I do believe what some Bible scholars said. The mRNA Covid vaccine is a precursor for the final development of the mark of the beast to be implemented world-wide. They will be implanted, by force, to all the people during the Great Tribulation period. It is an open secret that mRNA is a gene therapy and it is not really a vaccine in traditional pharmaceutical sense. mRNA technology is developing very fast – in fact some said that it is already here – that is wicked globalists who are relentlessly involved in transhumanism are now experimenting microchips that have the abilities to penetrate into our God-given DNA and alter God-given genetic code of life. These microchips can be programmed to target specific area or areas to change our God-given DNA code and made human less human. For example, it can be targeted to make people to surrender their God-given free-will so that those who took the mark of the beast can only obey strictly what the Antichrist tells them to do. A word of caution: I am just a freelance gospel writer and I am not trained in science or medicine so what I have written here, please read the message with an open mind. You must check this out yourself.)

(Note: For your convenience, I have reproduced applicable these verses from the Book of Revelation (NJKV)
Revelation 13:15-17 – He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Revelation 14:9-10 – Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
Revelation 16:2 – So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.)

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

We thank and praise You for your redeeming love. You were hung on the Cross all because You love us so much. Your precious blood that You had shed for us cleanses all our sins and unrigheousness and without the shedding of the blood there will be no redemption.

Lord Jesus, please help those who read this message and give them the wisdom to search Your Truth because the truth will set them free.

In Your Mighty Name I pray. Amen!

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27 November 2022

Scripture Reading: Philippians 2:5-8 (KJV)

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

MESSAGE

We all are aware that even today the performing religious rites through animal sacrifices (or even human sacrifices) is still practiced widely by almost every culture around the world. The practice of animal sacrifices has been around since the beginning of human history. Depending on each culture, typically domestic animals are used to sacrifice to the gods and/or to the dead ancestors. They are usually goat, sheep, chicken, duck, pig or cow. Certain religious rites demand the animals to be slaughtered in strict compliance with their religious rules. These slaughtered animals would display at the altars and they are symbolic acts of thanksgiving, appeasement to their gods or their dead ancestors, to ask for good health and fertility, or to just simply appease their gods or their dead ancestors, or to ask for spiritual protection and other material wealth.

In the Old Testament that there was a lot of blood shed on the Jewish altars so much so that some people would call the Old Testament a ‘bloody religion’. Yes, indeed it is. This too were the religious rites found in the Jewish religious tradition and the blood of the goats and sheep that shed on the Jewish altars was for sins and that the animal blood was symbolic of life that was leaving the animal that was only made good when Christ laid down His life upon the Cross.

Moving forward years later, the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, God’s only begotten Son, Jesus had made all the Jewish religious sacrifices we observed in the Old Testament made them good and acceptable to God. The shedding of blood of animals performed by the Jewish religious rites was purely symbolic of that was to come in Jesus Christ because Christ’s death was planned before the foundation of the world. God could look forward and see you and me as law breakers and sinners in need of a Saviour and He was offering His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to die on the Cross as our substitute acceptable to God, the Father.

In the New Testament, God’s plan for the death of Jesus had been fully accomplished at the Calvary Cross where Christ was hung and bled to death. He shed every drop of His blood for all the sinners of the world and without the shedding of the Blood of the Lamb there is no forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22). Jesus, the Lamb of God who became Man, sinless and without spot or wrinkle, unblemished and His death is fully accepted by the Heavenly Father as the perfect and ultimate blood sacrifice for all sinners, once and for all. Thus, the death of the Son of God, Jesus has now rendered all forms of sacrifices completely unnecessary and useless. The death of Jesus on the Calvary Cross is final as it has fully reconciled mankind with our Creator, God the Father, provided we are willing to accept this gift of redemption. As we read in John 19:30 “IT IS FINISHED”. These three words that Lord Jesus cried out in His very final hour before He gave up His spirit tells us that we don’t need to “do this” or to “do that” anymore because everything needed to be done has already been done in perfect satisfaction to the God, the Father by the Son of God, Jesus: IT IS FINISHED!

The sacrifice that our Lord Jesus willingly carried out is truly far beyond human comprehension. First, Jesus, as the Son of God but He was willing to give up His heavenly glory and made Himself even a little lower than the angels so that He could be made a scapegoat to take away our sins, past, present and future. Second, He took all our suffering of death while on earth and tasted death for all sinners (Hebrews 2:9). He knew exactly those things that we are going through in our lives because, remember, He was made flesh like you and me and He dwelt among us (John 1:14). No human flesh can escape trials, troubles and temptations and Jesus was no exception. He too went through many trials, troubles and temptations but He had overcome them all. Thirdly, at the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus knew he has already finished all the works which the Heavenly Father has given to Him to do and He chose to humble Himself to carry all the works given to Him by God, the Father and He became obedient even to the death on the cross (Philippians 2:8). When He had finished all the works that God, the Father had given Him, He knew it was time for Him to face death (John 17:4; Matthew 26:39). These events of Jesus praying at the Garden of Gethsemane and preparing Himself to walk to the Cross to be crucified for our sins can be found in all the four books of the gospel: Matthew 26:36-56; Mark 14:32-50; Luke 22:39-53; John 18:1-12).

The death of Jesus was the very beginning of our blessed hope because death could not hold Him as He resurrected three days later. This resurrection of Jesus is a clear message to us that He has defeated man’s greatest enemy – death – once and for all.

After His resurrection, Jesus continued to be on earth for forty days. During these forty days hundreds of people including all His disciples saw Him. They witnessed that there were nail holes in His hands and He even asked one of His disciplines, Thomas, to put his finger into the side of His body to examine the wounds pierced by the Roman guards (John 20:27). This is in fact one of the reasons Jesus stayed on earth for 40 days after His resurrection instead of ascending immediately into heaven so as to demonstrate to His apostles that He was indeed alive. After witnessing Jesus was alive, the lives of all the apostles were changed – literally from cowards to heroes. Other than Apostle John who was banished to the Island of Patmos where he wrote the Book of Revelation and he later died of old age, all the other apostles were killed because of their faith in Christ Jesus. They were persecuted and prosecuted by the Romans. Most of them were killed in horrific situations but they willingly accepted it because they believed Jesus is truly the Son of God and He has risen from the dead. This is the greatest miracle of all human history: Jesus Christ was alive right before the eyes of the apostles when they thought He was already dead. During those 40 days, He appeared to various groups of disciples and followers, proving beyond any doubt that He had been raised from the dead by the power of God. This prompted the Apostle Paul wrote two decades later that Jesus appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom were still living at the time Apostle Paul wrote this testimony (1 Corinthians 15:6).

Before Jesus was ascended to heaven, He commanded His disciples to go to preach the good news to all nations and to every creature (Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:47). Let us too obey this commandment and use whatever resources that are available to us and together as a body of Christ preach the good news to the unsaved and to share the blessed hope that He is preparing a mansion for each of us and He will come again personally to bring us to Him as we read in John 14:2-3 – In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

In these verses, the pronoun “you” are used five times. Are you one of the “you” that Jesus is referring to? If you are not, today, you can be one of the “you“. It’s very simple. Accept Jesus is the only begotten Son of God and He died for your sins and accept Him as as your Saviour; confess your sins; asking Him to forgive you for all the sins you have committed; acknowledge that the blood of Jesus is bled for you and that the blood has the redeeming power to reconcile you to God, the Heavenly Father.

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank you for Your precious blood that You have so willingly shed for us. Without the shedding of Your blood, there shall be no forgiveness. Lord, we are now made righteous all because of Your blood. There is nothing we can do to make us righteous because the righteousness of man is as filthy rags as we are told in Isaiah 64:6 – But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Dear Lord, thank you for comforted scripture by Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 1:18): Though our sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, the shall be as wool.

We thank you, Jesus as this can only be accomplished because of Your shed blood. Thank you Lord Jesus for loving us so much. Let us realize that it was not the nails that hang You on the Cross. It was LOVE that hang You on the Cross because the nails that hang you have no match to your supreme power. You were hang on the cross all because of your LOVE for the world.

Again, Jesus, we thank you.

In Your Mighty Name we pray. Amen!

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20 November 2022

Scripture Reading: Genesis 1:26-27 (KJV)

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

MESSAGE

As Bible-believing Christians, we are all familiar with the creation account as written in the of Book of Genesis 1:1-27. This is an historical creation account that God created the heavens and the earth and all things around them – living and non-living. We can also realise that at the point of His creation, God separated His creation into two distinct types: He separated the darkness from light; He separated the waters above from the waters below; He separated the dry land from the water below; He separated the day from the night. No one can dispute this gospel truth, not even the most sceptical atheist scientists.

However, God’s truth is now under serious siege when you tell people that God created mankind and separated into two distinct types: Male and Female. Many people especially supporters of LGBT are now questioning this historical creation account. It is very frightening that top global politicians and government leaders, scientists and educators especially those from the western countries are telling you that whether you are a ‘male’ or a ‘female’ it is a matter of your belief system, your perception. This gives rise to a whole new global cultural revolution of transgenderism which is taking place, not just in the western world but across the globe. Yet, many people are still not fully aware of it. (Note: “transgenderism” simply means a state of condition in which a person’s sexual identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional ideas of male or female gender.) Prayerfully, you are not and will not be a victim or casualty of this new cultural revolution of transgenderism that is now relentlessly led by the western world to deceive the world and hence put God’s truth under siege.

Interesting to also take cognisant why this only applies to mankind and not to the animal kingdom at large? No one would dispute that in the animal kingdom for example we all accept that peacocks are male and peahens are female, and dogs are male and bitches are female. Is it just because peacocks, peahens, dogs, bitches could not think or could not perceive and just because man could think so the conventional ideas of male or female should conform unambiguously and exclusively to the animal kingdom and not mankind? The gender of peacocks, peahens, dogs, bitches are strictly binary, either male or female and no one is going to dispute that. Think about this carefully as it will allow us to come to a very safe conclusion that this cultural revolution of transgenderism is truly satanic and the one behind this cultural movement is, of course, none other than Satan himself. He will never give up to upsurge God’s truth. He will relentlessly pervert and deceive the world and put God’s truth under siege.

Remember, Satan is the master of lies, everything he says and he does is opposite to what God is telling us and what God is doing. Satan has perfected this skill of lying having practiced it for over six thousand years. In Genesis 3:5 when Satan told Eve “For God knows that in the day you eat of fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.” Since that day when Eve was deceived together with her beloved husband, Adam, when they ate of that fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the whole creation fell and Satan assumed his control over all God’s creation. We need however to come to God’s Word and it is very clear that we are told in John 8:32 – And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free – free from the bondage of sin; free from satanic deception. We must stick to God’s truth at all cost. Do not continue to be deceived by the evil one. We must not compromise God’s truth. The satanic movement of this cultural revolution of transgenderism is one of the many deceptive arsenals that Satan has launched against all God’s people, you and me! Satan knew his days are numbered and he will try and try very hard to send delusions and deceptions and his motive is only but one: to deceive us into believing that there is no God, and if there is one, you too can be one of the gods ; deceiving us into believing that there is no hell and there is no heaven and that Jesus is not the Son of God.

My message this week is to make you aware that this cultural revolution of transgenderism (and some would call this global cultural wars but for this message I will use the term “cultural revolution.”) is super extra-ordinary because it does not involve the military or the police. This cultural revolution is about hijacking the way of life that God has sacredly instituted exclusively for mankind only as we read in Genesis that He created mankind in His own image – that is to be holy because God is holy (1 Peter 1:16). This sacred institution of marriage that God established is strictly between a man and a woman.

In many western countries, this cultural revolution of transgenderism is in full swing and anyone who opposed to this cultural revolution and spoke the truth that God created mankind and separated them into ‘male’ and ‘female’ and marriage is only between a man and a woman will be in dire danger of being labelled as bigot, imbecile, intolerant and racist. Very soon, I believe, many western countries will pass legislation to criminalise those who spoke against transgenderism and to criminalise people who evangelise to others that humans are created in the image of God and there are only two genders: you are either a male and a female at birth and the definition of marriage is between a male and a female. If this legislation is passed here, I for sure will be one to be criminalised and perhaps ended in prison! By God’s grace, I am not a citizen of the western countries and I think I am safe – for now!

But why the binary gender identity of male and female is such an abomination to this sinful world now is simply beyond my comprehension and the comprehension of many Bible-believing Christians when it is a medical and scientific fact that we are born either male or female. We are all aware that when we were born the doctors who delivered us from our mother’s womb would write on our birth certificates that we were either ‘Male’ or ‘Female’ based on our genitalia. This is simple binary distinction of male or female whom the doctors certified and wrote our on our birth certificates will be permanent imprinted. You may by deed poll change your name but you cannot change your gender identity from ‘male’ to ‘female’ or vice versa and request the court to re-certify according to your wish. And this has been the position of all countries’ legal system relating to birth registration – once a male always a male; once a female always a female. Sadly, this changing or rather has already allowed in some western countries.

Many western countries are now relentlessly trying to indoctrinate young children and teens that although they were born into as one gender biologically either male or female, they can identify as the other gender if they so wish. This evil transgenderism agenda that tells children and teens whether they are “male” or “female” is a matter of perception, a matter of choice and is not to be determined at birth. It has nothing to do with biology, so they tell our kids. This is giving many parents nightmare because it has caused much confusions and many young children who are now asking questions like “Who am I” or “What am I” and “Can I change my gender”. It was reported in the mass media that there were instances where teens were changed from ‘male’ to ‘female’ or vice versa and some without parental consent. Schools just sent these teens who had innocently agreed to the School Board to hospitals to perform sex-changing treatments or even surgical operations in some cases. In a 2012 CBS News told of a growing number of teens and even younger children who ‘think’ they were born the wrong sex and got the support from parents and asked doctors to give them sex-changing treatments. And this was ten years’ ago! Can you imagine the situation now? Is the world going insane? We can safely come to the conclusion this cultural revolution movement is satanic and the one behind this is none other than, of course, Satan himself. We are indeed fighting not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heaven places (Ephesians 6:12)

As Bible-believing Christians we must share God’s truth. However, many churches are in very difficult situation because some ministers don’t really want to speak up. They are not prepared to defend God’s truth especially on topics like lesbian, gay bi-sexual and transgender (collective known as LGBT), same-sex marriage, allowing gay people or lesbians to assume church leadership like pastors or Sunday School teachers to a point that they even passively twisted and distorted the messages in order not to offend the LGBT community. Some churches will just simply ignore this cultural revolution of transgenderism completely. But remember this: Silence means consent.

But why churches are playing such a low key or keeping silence on this important topic of cultural revolution of transgenderism,, LGBT and same-sex marriage? Like me try to offer my reasons (and these are also the reasons from some Bible-believing churches). Churches don’t preach such sermons in order not to offend the congregation and government authority and hence many so-called pastors twisted and distorted the Word of God to appear as if they were from the genuine men of God when it was in fact not. If we are not careful, we may end up falling prey and may unconsciously became a victim of this cultural revolution of transgenderism. Everyone knows, truth hurts and it can hurt very deeply. To keep the congregation happy (and perhaps to ensure constant supply of financial resources from tithes and offerings) it is better not to preach the true message of God and what can be more effective than to passively twist and distort God’s truth and hopefully congregation can accept this ‘neutral’ message that their churches are neither agree nor disagree to this cultural revolution of transgenderism. In other words, if their works are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, our Living God, Lord Jesus will vomit out of His mouth (Revelation 3:15-17).

Let’s pray that our church ministers here are truly men and women of God and they must be prepared to stand up and to speak up God’s truth that the cultural revolution of transgenderism is satanic. We are all created in the image of God; male and female He created us; marriage is only between a male and a female.

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father,

We want to acknowledge that the world has indeed gone insane! We need Your help to put things in right perspective in accordance with Your laws and Your commandments. We are now in a situation where the laws of the land is replacing Your Laws and Your Commandments.

Dear Lord Jesus, we pray that you can give the church ministers great courage to speak the truth and to uphold Your Laws and Your Commandments and never allow the laws of the Land to take precedent over what You have written in Your Holy Word, the Bible.

In the Mighty Name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

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13 November 2022

Scripture Reading: Genesis 1:1 (KJV)

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

MESSAGE

One of the most controversial verses in the Bible is the very first verse in Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. I would even go further to say that this in fact is the most controversial verse among the science community. Genesis 1:1 tells us that it was God created the universe but many scientists refused to accept this. Well-known atheist scientist like Professor Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist and a professor at the Oxford University is a strong believer of Darwin theory of evolution. In this theory it postulates that living organisms evolved from a tiny living cell which changes in its characteristics over millions of years and progresses into much more complex organism. As the complexity increases over this incomprehensible time period of millions of years, this tiny living organism finally developed into very complex living creatures like you and me and all other living creatures around us. It is interesting that this theory of evolution never covers or postulates how non-living organism evolved into living organism. The question on how “a rock turned into a frog” is never answered. This is one the biggest unsolved questions and no scientist can offer any explanation other than offering a flimsy ‘explanation that given time everything can be turned into anything!’ As far as possible, they try to avoid this question when it is being asked.

On the other hand, we have world renown scientist and mathematician Professor John Lennox who is a Professor of Mathematics at University of Cambridge strongly thinks otherwise. He subscribes strongly to the believe that God created the universe and everything around it. He fully subscribes to what is recorded in Genesis 1.1 – In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

This very first verse of the Bible in the Book of Genesis is a litmus test of our faith in creation in general and our Christian faith in particular. If you cannot accept or pass by this verse – Genesis 1:1 – and have serious doubt, you are putting not just the Book of Genesis, but the whole Bible in doubt and hence your Christian faith. The Word of God, the Bible, is the living Word of God and all that is written centered on God’s truth that He is the Creator of the Universe and all the things around them, both living and non-living. There is nothing is new because God has already created everything.

Please note that the message this week is not to debate about the subject – creation versus evolution – but rather to send you a message that human beings are indeed created by God and for one and one purpose only and that is: For His Glory. We are told in the Bible we are the children of God and joint-heirs with Christ. We share in His suffering in order that we may also share in His glory as we read in Romans 8:16-17 – The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Joint-heirs of the begotten Son of Jesus is bestowed to only His priced creation – man kind who are created in His own image – male and female He created them (Genesis 1:27). Even the angelic hosts, the angels, are not included. Joint-heirs are exclusively for us and us only. What a mighty God we have! Praise be to God for His love and His priceless inheritance that has no set limit!

Think of all what “joint heirs” means. This simply means that everything that God owns belongs to us as well because we belong to Him. Our eternal inheritance as joint-heirs or co-heirs with Christ is the result of the amazing grace of God. That trillion of stars and planets with their spectacular beauty and awe that God created are waiting for us to explore. While science today has failed even to send a rocket to land on a planet beyond Mars, we will be able to explore the universe far, far beyond our solar system very soon when Christ meets us in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; 1 Corinthians 15:51-54). The beauty of the universe, all its stars and all its planets knew no limit and no human mind can now comprehend its awesome beauty. When we are fully redeemed and when we started to explore the true wonder of God’s creation then we will come to perfect realization that the heavens indeed declare His glory and the firmament shows His handiwork (Psalm 19:1).

How then do we need to do to share His glory and be joint-heirs of His begotten Son, Jesus? This is very simple. It is possible for us to share His glory and God’s inheritance with His only begotten Son, Jesus when we are fully redeemed. And the grace and mercy of redemption is possible when you just accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God, died on the Cross and resurrected after three days and accept Lord Jesus as Your Saviour. The blood of Jesus that He bled on the Cross has absolute cleansing power to remove our sins – past, present and future – so that we can be reconciled to God, the Father and to dwell with Him forever (John 3:16).

In John 14:2-3 Jesus said – “In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am that you may be also.”

Do you know where Jesus is now? He is in heaven seated down at the right hand of God and making intercession for us (Mark 16:19; Romans 8:34). In John 14:2-3 which we just read we are told that He will come again to bring us to “where?” Heaven, of course. And for what purpose? To share with Him the inheritance of the Father. This is a blessed hope bestowed to all born-again Christians. Let’s wait patiently and continue to live our life pleasing to our God and never to do anything foolish to grieve the Holy Spirit because our redemption is drawn near. He can come at any time. Let us all be prepared to meet Him and to be the joint-heirs of the begotten Son of God, Christ Jesus.

Let’s Pray

Dear Heavenly Father,

I thank you You for the Your inheritance that I can co-share with Your Son, Jesus. While I am waiting to enjoy Your splendid inheritance, Father help me to share this good news to people to all four corners of the earth, in particular, the precious blood of Your Son, Jesus that He bled for all of us at the Calvary Cross. Through His blood, sinners are able to fully reconcile with You and to enjoy the immense beauty of the heavens You have created. More importantly, Father, we will be able to have fellowship with You, Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit throughout eternality.

Right now, Father, remind me that I am indeed a great sinner and ask for Your forgiveness. Help me and strengthen me that I will not do anything foolish to grieve the Holy Spirit. Like what Prophet Isaiah has so humbly declared: For I am a man of unclean lips (Isaiah 6:5), I too want to humbly declare myself to You, Father, that I am no different from Prophet Isaiah! Indeed, not just my lips, but also my hands, my heart and my mind. They are all unclean as they often do foolish things, speak foolishly and have harboured unwholesome and sinful thoughts that are truly not pleasing to You and hence grieve the Holy Spirit. But thank you, Father, by the blood of Jesus, my sins are washed away and You have now transformed me to be as white as snow. Help me to repent daily and not to repeat the sinful things whether by actions, by deeds or by thoughts.

In the Mighty Name of the Father, the Son, Jesus and Holy Spirit, I pray. Amen.

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WHO WE ARE?

Living Smyrna Church of Christ (LSCC) is an independent house-church located in the western part of Singapore. The main objective of LSCC is to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ as part of the Great Commission which our Lord Jesus has commanded all His followers to go and make disciples of all nations. (John 3:16 and Mathew 28:18-20)

Please note that LSCC does not accept gifts nor donations in any form as LSCC strongly believes by faith that Lord Christ Jesus will provide all the necessary resources for this mission of Great Commission. LSCC, however, prays that you can help to share this website with your friends and relatives and prays that the messages and all the information posted here will encourage all readers-in-Christ to get closer to our God, Christ Jesus. More importantly, it is the sincere prayer of LSCC that the messages posted here will prepare born-again Christians to meet our living Saviour, Lord Jesus when He appears in the air to take us to be with Him.
(1 Thessalonians 4:17-18)

STATEMENT OF FAITH

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LSCC takes no credit of the messages posted here as some parts of the messages were copied or extracted from other godly authors. LSCC, however, takes full responsibilities if the view expressed here are offensive, or in your view, not in accordance with the Word of God, the Bible. LSCC welcomes all feedback, comments and covets your holy counsel and will take every effort to humbly learn, correct and edit the messages where necessary in order to reflect God’s absolute truth as LSCC strongly believes in sharing only the absolute truth of God’s Word because His Truth shall make us free (John 8:32).

Any comments and suggestions will be appreciated. You can send them to:
kttanlscc@gmail.com
livingsmyrnachurchofchrist@yahoo.com

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PLEASE SHARE THE MESSAGES WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND RELATIVES

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6 November 2022

Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (KJV)

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

MESSAGE

My message this week is to share with you the conditions and the characteristics of the world in the last days as told by the apostles of Jesus Christ, in particular by Apostle Paul. These prophetic words are not about the things that are going to take place in the future of our times. Rather they are the things we are all very familiar with as they are happening everywhere right now. Indeed, we have no trouble recognizing them because we are all in the midst of such conditions. Right now, we are living in perilous times; times that are very hard to bear. Let’s examine some of these conditions and the characteristics in which we are living in as prophesised by Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 two thousand years ago but is happening right before our eyes.

Paul began these lists of characteristics with “lovers of self”. This is because all the other characteristics that followed find its source in this particular description – “love of self” which has permeated the whole society from magazines to cell phones when we can see so many people are taking selfie to tell people how wonderful they are, how good or great they look; they want to be loved (and rather than to love); they want to be admired; they want to boast about their look; they want to tell people, “Hey, I am now at such and such a place vacationing”. It’s all I, me and mine. It’s all being getting ourselves boastful and be proud of who we are. The moral and social collapse of the family, of the nation and of the world is largely due to “love of self” and it is with deep regret that the world has evolved (or rather devolved) to the point that we always want to “self-love”. “Self-love” is all we need in order to survive and thrive in the present loveless world. “Self-love” is now a key for the “survival for the fittest” element that human must acquire in order to thrive and to succeed. Nothing is now more important than ‘self-love’.

This is no wonder our Lord Jesus has spoken many times that we need to watch and to be ready because He will come back very unexpectedly to take us to meet Him in the air. We have to be careful, to be ready and be watchful in order that we do not become victims of ‘self-love’. Let’s examine some of these warnings that spoken by Jesus himself:

Examining these verses spoken by Jesus together with the prophetic words of events (2 Timothy 3:1-5) although spoken two thousand years ago but they are now permeating throughout the whole world today, we can come to an exegetic understanding that we have to do exactly the opposite what the world is doing in order to save us from eternal damnation. Hence, we must not be lovers of ourselves neither be lovers of money nor lovers of pleasure; we must not be boasters neither should we be proud and haughty perceiving ourselves to be the best of the best and there is no close second; we are to obey our parents and be thankful to our Heavenly Father in all circumstances; we are to live a holy life and be loving and kind especially to those who are poor and those who are in the need; we are not to bear false witness and we are to be truthful in our speech; we must not call evil good, and good evil; we are to be as meek as a lamb and not be arrogant; we are to exercise self-control in order not to fall into sinful temptations; above all, we are not to use any blasphemous words such as taking the name of God in vain; we are to love our God with all our heart and our soul and with all our mind; and we are to take heed of Apostle Paul’s warning: Avoid and do not associate with those people who constantly failed to observe the warnings in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 we read above. It is important that we don’t just turn away from such people but we ourselves must continue to live a repented life of not committing those things and that others will not turn away from us for our rebellious behaviour towards our God. We must be the light of the world and to shine in this time of utter darkness. As the world gets darker, the light of God will shine even brighter as we can read in Isaiah 60:1-2: Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the Lord will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you.

We are now living in the darkest times in the human history that the world has ever known. We are indeed living in a godless and satanic age. Even non-believers can acknowledge this as we often heard people saying to one another: What kind of the world are we living in today!” We can read from the news that many country leaders especially those from the superpowers. These superpowers are threatening one another like sanctioning of trade to artificially create food shortage, sending warship to block sea-route to create economy hardship to other countries, threatening the use of nuclear bombs, leading in cybercrimes to steal sensitive information and using the stolen information to cause havoc, creating regional groupings similar to what secret societies are doing in order to control certain territories and to extort and bring other countries into submission to their evil agenda, and so on. This reminds me of a Chinese idiom: 上梁不正下梁歪. It simply means that when the leader is wicked, unrighteous and behaved like thugs, you don’t expect his followers to be righteous and behaviour like god-fearing people. Looking at what countries’ leaders are doing and we can safely come to a conclusion that many of them have indeed lost their moral rights to govern. The list of characteristics that we read in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 apply to the country leaders inasmuch as they apply to individual people like you and me. Let’s be honest. Every one of us is guilty of displaying these unholy characteristics in one form or another, perhaps on a daily basis. It is thus important that we continue to seek God’s help by our earnest prayer so that our Lord Jesus can strengthen us to overcome our weakness and not to conform to this sinful and wicked world but be transformed by renewing of our mind than we will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2). Doing what Apostle Paul warning us in 1 Timothy 3:1-5 is blatantly rebellious towards our holy God. We must do exactly the opposite in order to please our Heavenly Father. Let us all take head, be watchful, get ready because our redemption is drawn near. Jesus is coming and He is coming very soon!

Let’s pray.

Dear Lord Jesus,

We come before You to pray and to ask of You to give us the strengths for us avoid conforming to this godless and sinful world we are now living in. Lord we ask of You to help us to transform our mind to be more like You and to live a godly life so as to be pleasing to You more and more each day. Help us to be a living sacrifice for Your Namesake. We pray earnestly that we will stand firm and not to do anything that will grieve the Holy Spirit. We pray right now, for those who are in need of comfort, comfort them, those who are in need for medical help due to sickness, heal them, those who are in need for spiritual awakening, send Your Holy Spirit to stay with them always. We thank you and we praise you for Your redeeming love and sacrifice and for Your precious blood that You have shed for us on the Calvary Cross. Please help us to stay watch and be ready in season and out of season. Amen.

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30 October 2022

Scripture Reading: John 16:33 and Matthew 24:21-22 (KJV)

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. (Matthew 24:21-22)

MESSAGE

In my message last week, I wrote about life challenges. Our own past experiences tell us that without any exception, we all encounter these life challenges on a continual basis and our Lord Jesus called these life challenges “mountains”. I believe right now many of us may be feeling the heat of life difficulties and wish they could just disappear soonest. I am one of them and pray that this mountain of mine can be removed right away. Besides the mountains that are giving us life stresses, affecting our mental and physical well-being, it can also hinder our spiritual growth as we may question why God is still not answering our prayer to move our mountain. Don’t give up! We just need to pray always and Lord Jesus will command the evil one to release the mountains from his hands and we will then able to taste the peace that our Lord Jesus has always intended for us. Remember the story of Job. Satan must get permission from God if he wants to do any harm to him and Satan has no option but to obey God’s command. God commanded Satan not to take away Job’s life although he can inflict him with other afflictions. We know in the end, God restored everything back to Job. We thus must endure as God’s hand is always upon us in good times and in bad time.

There are many expressions of this term – mountain – but all point to just one theme: In life we shall have tribulation (or trouble). Even Jesus himself had gone through life tribulation when He was on earth but be of good cheer, he had overcome them all as we can read in John 16:33. The life tribulations indeed come one after another with no end in sight and Jesus himself was not spared from them either. Our own past experiences can testify that before we could really get by one, another one would just come out from nowhere. Before we knew it, it is already right at our door steps. They come like production lines producing not physical goods but troubles.

It is interesting to note that the terms “tribulation” and “trouble” are used quite interchangeably. Some versions like KJV and NKJV use the term “tribulation” whereas versions like NIV and International Standard Version use the term “trouble” and yet there are other versions use terms like “trials and sorrows”. But none of them have used the “great trouble” because to Jesus all our recurring life challenges are “trivial” (unlike the events of the great tribulation which is going to be an one-off event that will bring unspeakable calamities unknown to the world until this time of great tribulation). In Matthew 24:21-22, I discovered that most ‘popular’ versions of the Bible use the term “great tribulation” as do in KJV and NKJV versions. It clearly followed that the term ‘great tribulation’ as spoken by our Lord Jesus simply distinguishes the biblical significance between “tribulation (aka trouble)” and “great tribulation.”

Let me offer my perspectives on the biblical significant differences between these two terms and I pray that the message here can provide clarifications between these two terms: tribulation (aka trouble) and great tribulation. As you might already know that the term “great tribulation” is first used by none other than our Lord Jesus himself in his Olivet Discourse which we can read in Matthew 24:21. This great tribulation that Jesus referred to will be so destructive to all living creatures that unless God shortened this period of great tribulation no flesh will be saved. Many theologians believe that this great tribulation relates to a 7-year period when the earth will experience unprecedented and unspeakable apocalyptic events. This 7-year period of great tribulation will end when Lord Jesus return to rule the earth as King of kings and Lord of lords. As you can realise, great tribulation is an one-off event whereas tribulation (or trouble) is the recurring life challenges we all faced every day. So, what is so important that we need to know about “great tribulation” that Jesus is referring? Indeed, it is extremely important because it concerns our eternal destiny.

Before I proceed, I want to mention that this message is not to frighten your nor to scare you, neither it is meant to discourage you nor to hinder your spiritual growth. Rather, it is the opposite as it brings blessed hope to all truly born-again Christians. Among others, this bless hope consists of (a) we will be caught up – raptured – to meet our Lord Jesus in the air; and (b) we will not go through this 7-year period of great tribulation as we will be raptured before the start of the great tribulation. These are the prophetic words and I pray you can check them out yourself. Don’t believe what you read or hear – including the message here. The only source of God’s truth can only be from the Word of God, the Bible. We must, however, remember that all prophecies in the Bible when read in the right context will produce faith and hope to the believing Christians. Prophetic words are meant to strengthen and not weaken our faith especially those relating to end-time. They are the most important teaching that point to the glorious day when we will eternally dwell with our Creator. God has said very presciently this in the Book of Revelation 3:10 – “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial (that is the great tribulation) which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.” Many theologians who studied the Book of Revelation can testify to us that the Book of Revelation relates to end-time and it follows that “the hour of temptation (KJV)” as written in Revelation 3:10 is referred to the temptation associated with the 7-year period of great tribulation. In other words, the “hour of temptation (or trial) ” that we read in Revelation 3:10 is synonymous with “great tribulation.

Although the events of the great tribulations are prophesised in several books in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, but the Book of Revelation provides the most complete and vivid descriptions of these apocalyptic events that will come to the world. They can be found from Revelation chapters 6 to 16. The intensities and the severities of apocalyptic events given in the Book of Revelation from chapter 6 to chapter 16 read like Hollywood movies. These events which progress in intensities and severities will include catastrophic events like great global famine, extreme violent super-volcanoes and earthquakes with intensity perhaps higher than 10 Richter scale will occur in many parts of the whole world and will flatten mountains and move islands (Note: Until now the highest seismic records of the intensity of earthquakes have never been higher than10 Richter scale), stars falling from the skies which could be giant asteroids or even nuclear explosions due to nuclear war, world-wide plague that will be many, many times more severe than Covid-19, acres upon acres of farmland will be consumed by locusts affecting global food supply chain resulting in extreme food shortage around the world so much so that you need a day’s wage to buy just a loaf of bread, rivers and springs of water turned into blood. But that’s not all. In Revelation 13, a beast will arise and demand to be worship as god. This is because the beast will be able to provide solutions to calm and solve the world’s problem that no world leader nor any human being could (other than the beast himself), and hence people are convinced that he is ‘god’. He will control the entire planet, and goes to war against the believers (whom I believe are the repented Jews who had rejected Jesus as their Saviour and also those non-Jews who are being converted to Christianity during the period of great tribulation. They are those left behind after the rapture when true believers are already taken up to meet Jesus in the air. This beast which resembles a lamb (that is false Christ) is given authority and power by the dragon (aka Satan). He will exercise his satanic authority and power and cause great and miraculous signs to deceive and convince people that he is god. There will be another beast, also known as false prophet and forces all to receive the Mark of the Beast on their right hand or forehead and declaring that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark. (Note: I have posted several messages on One World Government, One World Religion and One World Economy. The Mark of the Beast could perhaps be in a form of Programmable Digital Dollar/Currency which is a subset of One World Economy will forcefully implemented and those who refused to take will be beheaded. You may want to search for these messages here if you are interested to know more about these topics.)

These are scary thoughts! And, indeed, yes! They are but only when you are not a child of God. The good news is that you have a way to escape and that is, if you are not already a child of God it’s time to accept Lord Jesus as your Saviour right now believing the blood that He shed on the Calvary Cross can save you and that He is the only true God of the Universe. As a child of God who obeyed God’s commandments to live a holy and righteous life you will be spared from this hour of great tribulation – Revelation 3:10.

Let’s pray

Dear Lord,

We love You and we are in need of Your help. At times we don’t even know how to pray but Lord Jesus you know the things of our need even before we ask. All we can do now is to say: Jesus we love You, we thank you for all the mercy and love You have so richly endowed to us. No words can express our gratitude. Help us to always worship You in spirit and in truth. Help us to preserver and to continue to pursue our righteous living to please You more and more each day.

In the Might Name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

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23 October 2022

Scripture Reading: Matthew 17:20-21 and Mark 10:27 (KJV)

And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. (Matthew 17:20-21)

And Jesus looking upon them saith, with men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible. (Mark 10:27)

MESSAGE

Without any exception, everyone of us encounter life challenges on a continual basis. Jesus called these life challenges or anything that blocked our physical, mental or spiritual growth “mountains’. Although many of our life challenges (or mountains) are quite unpredictable but there are just as many of them predictable. For example, it is a predictable time when most parents with school-going children are encountering ‘school examination mountain’ because their children are taking important examinations like PSLE, O-Level or A-Level during this period from October to November each year. Thankfully, we have responsible parents who are very concerned about their children’s education. Just go to any shopping mall with tuition centres, you will see dozens of parents brought their children to the tuition centres. As these examinations are crucial that could determine which schools the children would later go or which university courses they can later be enrolled to and hence most parents are not leaving anything to chance. They put every effort to help them such as bringing their children to tuition centre, checking their school work, taking leave to coach them, getting personal tutor to teach them and so on. You might think that this is a ‘small mountain’ or parents are making a mountain out of a molehill and parents should not be too worried. Well, this is easier said than done because I am one of the parents who are very worried about my child’s year-end examination. It is indeed a huge mountain especially when you have only one child and would feel the whole world is falling apart when examinations results are not too good. Thankfully, the mountain (or the molehill) will be removed very soon when it comes to later part of November and prayerfully all children can do well in their examinations.

However, in life the real mountain of life we are facing is far bigger than just worrying children’s education and I am no exception. I am now encountering a mountain that is giving me sleepless nights. I tried to fast and pray as frequently as possible and I am very pleased that God has so far ‘partially’ answered my prayer and I know that in His good time He will answer my prayer by completely remove this mountain that is standing right in front of me. I pray hard, day and night that Jesus will remove this mountain as soon as possible and I know He will. There are two very encouraging promises that we must not forget: (a) In God’s eyes, there is no such thing as a mountain that He could not see because if He can create the tiniest thing like an atom, nothing is too small for Him; Jesus can see everything and He knows even the number of hairs we have; and (b) if He can be raised from the dead, nothing is impossible to Him to the one who believed; He commanded us to say to this mountain, “Move from here to there, and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20).

We must note that mountain refers to in Matthew 17:20 is not literal physical mountain but life challenges and difficulties we encountered frequently. Unfortunately, due to the burden we are now carrying, it may seem too heavy for us to carry alone. At times when we prayed to God to remove our mountain that is hindering our spiritual growth we could be at a loss for words. Even Jesus disciples also find it is difficult to pray as we can read one of them asked Him: Lord, teach us to pray. (Luke 11:1). Waiting for deliverance or removing life problems may be a wishful thinking for some especially after a prolonged period of praying to our Lord for deliverance. We may often feel discouraged because our circumstances still have not changed for the better even with our most earnest prayer. As we keep repeating the same words again and again, day after day, night after night to a point we could loathe the sound of our own voice. We may come to a point that we are suffering from ‘praying-fatigue.’ But never give up! And to this real moment, all we can is to just say: I love You, Jesus. Please Help. These may just be only six simple words, but we must believe that it is as good and as effective as praying lengthy prayer because remember what Jesus told us: I know your the things you need even before you ask (Matthew 6:8). These six words if spoken sincerely out of our heart is our calls on heaven that our heart is full of love for Him and we are now in need of help. In all our real moments that we seemingly have encountered immovable mountains, our calls on heaven will lift our eyes to our Heavenly Father who loves us so dearly that He sent His only begotten Son to die for us. The birth, the death and the resurrection of our living Son of God have collectively and effectively lifted our face to see Him in our darkest moment and lifted our voice to call out to Him for help when no other person seem to care. We must claim His promise that He is ever ready to respond to our need when we call Him: I love You, Jesus. Please help.

We must acknowledge that we are living in a generation that is dark. We are living in world that is no better or even worse than in the days of Noah or in the days of Lot. We are living in a time when evil is becoming (or has become) good, and good is becoming (or has become) evil, and people are ungrateful and lawlessness is the order of the day. It is thus obvious we are going to encounter life challenges in these dark hours. Admittedly, sometimes these mountains were due to our own faults and sometimes they came out of nowhere. For example, our routine medical screening may turn out to be something very unexpected when we received a medical report that indicated there are cancer cells in our lungs or liver. The world will seem to be collapsing upon reading this report and most us would inevitably start to ask friends for advice and to recommend the best cancer doctor. How many of us will go to the Lord first and cry before Him for help? Often many will seek man first and if everything fails, then they will come to God. I must admit I used to be one of the faithless culprits.

Let us learn to reverse the order when calling for help. We must go to God first. Our God is every ready to listen to us. Our daily labour of loving Him, of trusting Him, of praising Him, of serving Him, of doing His will, will never go in vain. God keeps a record of all our activities especially our thoughts and our heart’s desires. We must continuously delight in Him and when we do just that He will give us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4). Jesus is here to hear our cry no matter how soft our cry is and how tiny our mountain is. Humble ourselves before our Lord Jesus. Only He and He alone can deliver us from our life problems and challenges we face. To God, nothing is impossible! Let’s look up for His coming to deliver us to be with Him as we can read in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 – For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

Pass me not Jesus. Be with me always. Please hear my humble cry when I am calling: Jesus help! Let me seat at Your throne of mercy so that I can find a sweet relief. Help me Jesus to trust You and heal all my short-comings. Jesus, help me to remove all the mountains of my life, the present and the future but in Your perfect time. In the Mighty Name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

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16 October 2022

Scripture Reading: Exodus 20:12 & John 19:26-27 (KJV)

Exodus 20: 12 – Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

John 19:26-27 – When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.

MESSAGE

As born-again Christians, we are familiar with the Ten Commandments but we may not be able to recite them in strict order from the First to the Tenth. Nonetheless we know “the Do’s and Don’ts” of the commandments like the 1st Commandment which warns us not to have other Gods and the 10th Commandment that tells us not to covet our neighour’s house and our neighour’s wife.

Another of the ‘Don’ts” which we are familiar with is that we should not kill which is the 6th Commandment. Yet, as we continue to read in the Book of Genesis, we soon discovered that the first recorded murder in the Bible was between two brothers when Cain killed his brother, Abel (Genesis 4:8). They were sons of Adam and Eve, the very First Family created by God in the Garden of Eden.

Just imagine that if a murder could occur right inside the First Family of God, it can be inferred that lawlessness outside this First Family of God must be worst then we could ever imagine. We can safely conclude that immediately after the fall of man, the whole society must be in the state of anarchy with unimaginable wickedness. This is no wonder we read in Genesis 6:5 that “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

It is therefore unsurprising that to date from January 2022 to August 2022 just in the U.S. alone there were hundreds of indiscriminate shooting and dozens of them were of mass-shootings defined as shootings resulted 10 people either injured or killed. Often we heard that these perpetrators after taking the lives of innocent people ended their horrendous shooting spree by killing their own family members and finally turned the gun onto themselves or fatally killed by the police. These shootings are still counting by the day and is going to be worse and worse. Hence, in the U.S. it seems that indiscriminate shooting of innocent people is now the new normal and many people are just wondering whether they could be back home to see their loved ones when they left to do their shopping at the malls or just simply walking or exercising in parks.

Moving closer to our home, thankfully we have not encountered such horrendous crimes and prayerfully this will not happen to our country. But this is not so to our neighbor which we heard from the news few days ago of a mass-shooting in a childcare centre in Thailand. The shooting resulted in more than 35 dead, many were children. We pray that this was just an isolated case and it will never happen again.

Besides violent crimes that are now run rampant everywhere, domestic violence is equally a major concern especially for families with young children. In the message this week, I would like to share my thought on a ‘domestic violence’ – violence against our parents and I don’t really mean physical violence but emotional and psychological violence that some elderly parents have to endure with.

As we all know, honouring our mother and father is one of the most important basic duties of children. It is so crucial that God has divinely revealed and crafted as one of the Ten Commandments on the table of stones to Moses (Exodus 24:12). In the 5th Commandment God has commanded us to honour our mother and father. Traditionally, our country is closely associated with Asian culture and value and honouring our mother and father is culturally so entrenched in our society that it would be unthinkable for anyone not to take care of their parents. It has never been a serious issue or concern in the past as the children of elderly parents were willingly supporting and taking care of by their children. Sadly, not until the 1990s. Elderly parents in the 1990 started to seek help from government as well as from non-government voluntary organisations that provide voluntary social services to the needy. One of main grievances was that their children refused to provide them financial assistance and other support. These were vulnerable elderly parents and many have some form of infirmities. The situation became a frequent talking point so much so that Members of Parliament had to go to the parliament to air their concerns. They called for legislations to ensure aged parents who are unable to provide for themselves could turn to the court and obtain court order to require children to provide to them basic support. After due considerations by a parliamentary committee specially setup to deliberate on this issue, a legislation which is known as the Maintenance of Parents Act was enacted and came into effect on 1 June 1996. Under this law, it provides legal avenue for any parent who are above 60 years of age and who is unable to maintain himself or herself adequately may apply to the court for an order that one or more of the person’s children to pay for his or her maintenance. Some may view this as a battle won by the elderly – in legal sense – but this indeed reflects serious societal flaw of gross failure of good conscience since basic tenet of looking after one’s own parents would need to be intervened by court rather than by good conscience that God has given to all His beloved children.

Thankfully, we don’t often hear parents took children to court. This could be due to parents who would rather suffer in silence than to shame their children by going to the court to ask for maintenance. We must remind ourselves that suffering in silence only brings pain and misery.

Admittedly, it is also quite difficult for court officials to make a fair decision regarding family matters. There is a Chinese saying: “清官难断家务事” which can literary be translated to: “It is difficult for a righteous and fair court official to intervene family dispute.” This really gives us an idea that family dispute is very difficult to resolve and that even a righteous and fair judge would find it difficult to make a fair decision. Hence honouring (or dishonouring) parents boils down to one’s conscience and the heart of the children. As children, we must remember that there are two most important persons on earth we have to remember and honour them – the one that will purposely lose everything for our sake so that we can win – that’s our father and the one that will always with us when we are in pain – that is our mother.

I want to admit that it is with a heavy heart that I wrote this message regarding obeying God’s 5th Commandment (Exodus 20:12): “Thou shall honour thy father and thy mother.” This is because I want to admit that I had a fair share of not honouring my parents at times. I should have always honour the way I should when they were alive. I have failed quite miserably on this! As parent myself, I can now understand their sacrifices that I would not have really understood before I became a parent myself. I want to write this message as a form of my deep regret (but alas! – It’s too late!). We thus need to honour them when they are alive and not when they are not more with us and feel regret. It’s too late!

In John 19:26-27, it was recorded at the site of crucifixion, Jesus entrusted His mother to Apostle John to take care of His mother, Mary. This truly illustrates to us Jesus who is the Son of God even obey this commandment to honour His mother. Worried that His mother would be left uncared for, Jesus asked His disciple, Apostle John, to take care of His mother and Apostle obeyed and took Jesus’s mother to his home to care for her. If Jesus, the Son of God worried about the well-being of His mother, isn’t it more so that we should honour our parents no lesser than the Son of God, Jesus? If Apostle John was so willing to take care of Jesus’ mother, Mary, although she was not her own mother, how much more we need to honour and take care of our parents? We must also be convicted one day we too might need the same care and attention. Aging is a process that everyone of us as to go through and as we aged we are going to experience infirmities in one form or another. We need to be taken care of by others too.

This is too real and we have to be prepared to face any uncertainty. For example, quite sadly, one of my beloved friends whom I have known him for about 40 years has sent me a message just yesterday that he got stroke and is recovering in a hospital. We do not know why this has happened to him as, in spite of his age of over 70, he is still serving in a church as pastor. We may think we are in the best of our health now but we never know what holds tomorrow; not even the next hour.

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord,

I am very sad to hear my elderly dear friend of 40 years who is still serving as a pastor in a church has stroke and is recovering in hospital. We do not know why this happens to him even though he is a very faithful servant of yours. But we trust God that as a Miracle Healer, You will extend Your hands to heal him. I like this morning to dedicate this pray that Jesus may you have mercy upon this dear brother and heal him completely. In the Mighty Name of Jesus I pray. Amen!

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9 October 2022

Scripture Reading: Judges 21:25 (KJV)

In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

MESSAGE

Often when we read about news that really bother us like frequent mass-shooting; children are being ‘educated’ to pervert God’s truth as they are told you can call yourself anything you like that effectively promotes neutrality of gender and resulting some young school boys and girls confused about their gender identities; a U.S. supreme court judge nominee doesn’t even know how to define what a woman is and so on, we lamented quite unjustifiably that these only happened in the western or developed countries like the U.S., Britain, France or Germany. While it is true that western countries and the U.S. have reached to a point of no return as headlines like these appeared too often in their news media: “Violent, unprovoked attacks have New Yorkers on edge”; “There is something profoundly wrong”, we need to be fair that countries outside the U.S. or the western countries are also regressing to a point of no return but perhaps at a slower pace.

It is true that we read the news of the mass-shooting mostly or seemingly occurred in the U.S. and other horrible news that will cause severe collapse of the society in the western countries largely because the news from CNN, Fox News, BBC are widely accessible. We must take cognizant that there were also mass-shooting in other countries as well as news that will bring discomfort to the society. For example, some of these killings were not by the criminals but by the leaders of the countries, often to eliminate their opponents. We don’t hear much of them because their news are not as widely accessible as those from the western countries. For example, same-sex marriage is now being illegalized in many countries in Asia and no one seems to be bother with this. It has become a new normal. In fact, mass-wedding of same-sex marriage is now a celebrated event in some countries. Marriage between a male and a female is over – so to speak.

It was very sad indeed to hear from the news that just couple days ago when that a mass-shooting happened in a childcare centre in Thailand leaving more than 35 dead, mostly children. Just imagine the parents of those children and I think no words can express their sorrow. Many are wondering will this copycat shooting that we read so much in the media like CNN, Fox News and BBC is now being ‘copied’ by some irresponsible people to shoot and kill unprovoked victims. Pray this will not happen in our country.

Mass-shooting indeed is a very horrific crimes because victims are usually provoked, innocent people and unknown to the killers. As we read the news or go to Youtube, we can see video clips that displayed activities that we just couldn’t really understand what is going on. Indeed something is profoundly wrong in the world today as a headline in a U.S. media has rightly pointed out. As we can read or watch from Youtube, homosexual activities (including same-sex marriage) are now being celebrated, cybercrimes have gone rampant, world leaders who are supposed to be role models are threatening one another with nuclear weapons, killing of politicians run rampant mainly to claim control of the government or to continue to be in power and this occurred especially during election season, corruptions at high places are now the norms and when it comes to election people are literally electing their leaders among the devils and the list goes on.

As we read the Book of Judges, we are told that before the first king of Israel was anointed, the Isrealite tribes had formed a loose and informal confederation. Essentially, no central authority existed but in times of crisis, the people would have been led by ad hoc chieftains, known as judges. Spiritually-speaking, God was (and it is also today) their King but they rejected Him even to this day. Instead, the judges would administer the judiciary and some of judges themselves were just as corrupt. So, instead of turning to God as their King, they asked for earthly king. King Saul then became the first king of Israel. Whether King Saul or King David was indeed the first anointed King of Israel we will leave this for the Bible scholars to figure out but this is not really important to me. The most important point here we need to take notice of is like the Israelites, many people too don’t want our Creator to be their King. Instead, people prefer earthly king and on a personal level many of us want to be god ourselves just like what we read in the Book of Genesis 3:5 when the serpent told Eve:  For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Since that day when we were deceived that we can be like god, human beings have customized their world view to suit our worldly desires and lifestyle as if we are god ourselves and in the process we fell into what Judges 21:25 has rightly described where we were then and where we are now: “Every one of us is doing what is right in our own eyes”. In fact, since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, man is doing what is right in our own eyes even to this day and many of us behave like god and act like god leading us to a state of lawlessness as we can read in 2 Timothy 3:2-4: 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.

In this regard, let me try to put this plainly: We are now living in a society without restraints. The hearts of people have not changed. We always look into the lens of “me, myself, I”. People still want to do what they want, when they want and how they want disregard what others think and what others feel. They strive to find ways to get around the laws, around ethics, around morality and to justify what they do. They try to justify and justify even though they know these activities are wrong. People would justify their actions and we often heard people would say: After all everyone is doing.

Unlike other western countries, we are fortunate that churches have not fallen into the same pattern as mentioned in Judges 21:25. But not so for other countries, especially the western countries. Many in the church have also fallen into the same pattern as the Israelites. They want to do whatever they want to do with no regard to God and His commands. It is common to see open sin accepted and even promoted inside a church. People do not care about what God wants or desires. Some do this out of ignorance of God’s commands, while many do it ignoring God’s commands. Some even go to the extent to say that the Bible is outdated and is now irrelevant but remember these words from our Lord Jesus: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. (Mark 13:31).

In the U.S. God has been completely kicked out – in the government – displaying the Ten Commandments is not allowed in all government buildings, in the judiciary, in public places, in public schools, in offices. Praying in public school is not allowed and praying in public is a crime and you can be arrested! So is preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is now an “occupation hazard” for anyone who try to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in public because people can either turn violent and beat you up or you can be arrested by police.

The world we are living today has gotten to a place where it is now believed that we do not need God’s intervention. Thankfully, we as children of God still believe that we need a leader to guide us correctly and to point us to walk to the right path. And that leader is none other than our King Jesus who will guide us in good times and in times of crisis. While it is tough and at times we felt it is quite impossible to do what is right in the eyes of our King, we are however, assured by the Word of God in 1 Peter 3:12 – “For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.”

Let us remember this important God’s instruction of truth: To do what is right in the eyes of God is just one prayer away! We must pray to ask God to give us strengths, to do only what is right in His eyes, to remember the scripture verses in 2 Timothy 3:2-4 we just read and to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God which is our true and proper worship. (Romans 12:1)

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

We pray today that we want to thank God that we know Jesus as our Savior and King; that we will know what God wants of us; that we will not live as the world does; that we will be led by the Holy Spirit; and that we will serve God with all of our lives. Lord Jesus, create in us a great faith that in times of uncertainty especially when we try to walk the way you want to walk and when we want to do only those things that are right your eyes that all these can be done with just one prayer away. Lord we seek Your help for strength and wisdom. Help us to count our blessings and help us to thank and praise You always. We pray all these in the Mighty Name of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. Amen!

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2 October 2022

Scripture Reading: Revelation 14:9-11 (KJV)

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

MESSAGE

As we are all aware, when the Covid-19 was first detected in December 2019 and soon after, governments from all over the world mandated Covid-19 vaccination which initially seemed to be an holy grail to save the world from a pandemic. I was one of those who praised the scientific community to have ‘developed’ the vaccines – the Covid-19 mRNA vaccines – in double quick time. Historically, it took 6 to 8 years at least to develop and approved a vaccine but in the case of Covid-19 mRNA vaccine, the first one took less than 24 months to ‘develop!’ Very, very few people have heard about what the biological term “mRNA” and what it meant let alone understand how it could help to prevent the spread of Covid-19 or eliminate the pandemic. I believe you know that the rests are history but moving fast forward, many Christians then started to ask this question: Is Covid-19 vaccination “the Mark of the Beast” as mentioned in Revelation 14:9? One of the reasons why this question was being asked was the way the vaccine manufacturers and governments all over the world were pushing and mandating the vaccination and soon the mandate to enforce the vaccination was infamously associated with labels like: No vaccination no jobs; No vaccination no school; No vaccination no shopping; No vaccination no dine-in; No vaccination no church service, and new labels came to the news one after another like a fast moving train with all intent and purpose to get people vaccinated at all cost. To make matter worse, people were being punished very heavily for failing to wear masks which was thought to be able to control the spread of Covid. But, it is now questioned by many medical experts of its effectiveness, and worst that wearing of masks is doing more harm than good, so they claimed.

As we just read the scripture verses 14:9-11, we are warned that those who took the mark of the beast will be tormented with fire and brimstone and they will have no rest day nor night. This warning from the Word of God is very frightening and scary and the questioning whether Covid-19 vaccination or even any other marks forced upon us by authority will inevitable draw us to a state of panic. Hence, the question that was being asked whether Covid-19 vaccination is a mark of the beast is not unreasonable.

I want to put things in perspective that I am not against vaccination of any sort because this is a very personal choice but I want to admit that I have personally refused to take the vaccination. The reason that I am not taking the vaccination has nothing to do with the “mark of the beast.” I refuse to take the vaccination after serious considerations as I did quite substantial reading on what mRNA technology is all about. Furthermore, I am very mystified by why manufacturers (and governments) are pushing so hard to get people vaccinated with the vaccines although these vaccines were (and I believe still are) not fully clinically tested. When we are injected with drugs that are not fully clinically tested we are being used as guinea pigs for clinical experimentation. That’s is my very reason for not taking the vaccination because they were experimental drugs and they were approved for emergency use by the U.S. government. Furthermore, manufacturers are fully protected by law from any lawsuit in the events of vaccine injuries. In plain language, take the vaccines at your own risk and there will be no recourse whatsoever.

I want to make it clear that your opinions or reasons for taking or not taking Covid vaccination may be quite different from mine and I fully respect your opinion. For those who opted for the vaccination, I sincerely prayed that these vaccines really worked for you. There are now hundreds of such mRNA Covid vaccines available in pharmaceutical stores and many countries now know how to manufacture these vaccines. And for myself, I too pray that opting out is my best choice and nothing serious will happen to me when I got infected with the Covid-19 virus. I trust my Creator who has given me the natural immunity and I have faith strong enough that this God-given natural immunity can fight against the virus – not just Covid-19 but others illnesses like the common-cold as well. (Note: I am an elderly man and I am over 65 years of old. Indeed, I got infected with Covid-19 in March this year. Although I was not vaccinated but by the grace of God, my symptoms were very mild like coughing coupled with low-grade temperature at around 37.8 to 38 degree C. I went for a PCR test and it was confirmed that I had contracted with Covid-19 virus. I recovered about a week later with no medication. I then received a notification from MOH that I am exempted from vaccination for six months. I thank God that I recovered from Covid in about a week! My Covid vaccination exemption status, unfortunately, just expired in September. As I understand, due to my infection, I should have now developed natural immunity against Covid virus. I pray this is indeed the case. Thank God for His mercy.)

Again, I want to emphasize, the main message of this week is not to tell you whether you should take or you should not take the Covid vaccination. Rather my message is to tell you that, in my most humble opinion, Covid-19 vaccination is not the mark of the beast. Our rejection or acceptance of Covid-19 vaccines should be based on medical ground rather than from the biblical approach that because it is the mark of the beast we should reject the vaccination.

Another objective for this message is to warn all those who might have left behind after the raptured when all born-again Christians are taken up to meet the Lord in the air regarding the mark of the beast. The warning: YOU MUST NOT TAKE THE MARK OF THE BEAST when you are left behind. How then do you discern the true nature of the mark of the beast versus what is not. My suggestion is this. Common-sense dictates that the mark of the beast can only be forced onto people to take it when the identity of the “Beast” is revealed. At this moment, we still do not really know the identity of who the beast is. It therefore follows: How then could there be the ‘mark of the beast’ when we don’t even know who the beast is!

As the world is approaching and approaching fast to the One World Government, One World Religion, One World Economic System (aka One World Currency) as mentioned in the Bible, the identity of the “Beast” will be revealed to the world very soon. It is generally believed that the identity of the beast will be revealed when all born-again Christians are raptured to be with Jesus in the air as we can read in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 – “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them – referring to those who died earlier – in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

We must note that when the rapture takes place, millions of people will just disappear all around the world and this will cause the world to be in absolute chaos. This will then be the time for the beast to appear and he will provide all the answers to the chaotic world of unprecedented scale that no government leader can fix and bring the world to “business as per normal”. Literally, everything will come to a complete halt when millions of believers just disappeared. It will then be the perfect time for the beast to appear as he would have all the answers to the disappearance of the masses. He will have the capabilities to revive and bring the world back to “business as per normal.” His answer to the disappearance of the masses is going to be so convincing that many who left behind after the rapture will worship him as god! This will be the time the mark of the beast will be implemented – by force, of course.

Another question about the mark of the beast is: Is this going to be a physical mark or just a spiritual mark. There are differences in its interpretation among Bible readers whether the mark of the beast is a physical mark or just spiritual mark that, by definition, spiritual mark will not be visible to human eyes as it will not be on the flesh but will be “within inside our spirit”. I like, however, to express my interpretations which are also the opinions or views of many other Bible scholars and that is the mark of the beast will be a physical mark that it will be visible to those who have taken the mark. The mark will divide all the people around the world into two distinct groups: Those with the mark and those without the mark. (Note: I am not in any way a Bible scholar but I have very strong interest on eschatology which, among other subjects, deals with topics like the End of the Church Age, the Rapture of the Church of Jesus Christ, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the raise and the fall of False Prophets, Antichrists, the Beast, the Mark of the Beast, Final Judgment of the Wicked. The reason for me to have such strong interest on eschatology is very simple: Time is running out. Jesus is going to appear very soon and we must all be ready to be caught up with Him in the air! Especially for Christians, we must pray very hard and ask Jesus to help us to live our lives acceptable to Him so that we will not be left behind to go through the Great Tribulation.)

This brings us to the next question which is also often raised regarding the mark of the beast is: If it is a physical mark, would it be just a tattoo that we often see on people’s bodies as we walk along the streets or do our shopping at the malls, or would it be a specially-programmed digital microchip that would be embedded under the hand or the forehead. My response to this question is quite clear based on the scriptural verses. It is going to be a physical mark like a microchip the size of a grain of rice which we can found in all mobile-phones and iPads and will be force to implant into our hand or forehead. We are also told in the Bible that those who took the mark of the beast will be inflicted with a foul and grievous sore (Revelation 16:2) which clearly implied that the mark of the beast is a physical mark and not a spiritual mark. Those who refuse to take the mark of the beast or to worship the beast will be killed.

As this is a contentious topic but I sincerely believe it is important that we need to share our own interpretation as the Holy Spirit leads us. It is vitally important to understand and take serious considerations of the differences in opinion, and prayerfully, the Lord will lead us to the correct Biblical interpretation. In studying the mark of the beast, we must not be afraid that our message can offend people. We must pray hard and when we speak or write about this topic on the mark of the beast, it must be guided the Holy Spirit and pray that He will help us to write the messages accordingly to His percept of truth and not to our own because the God’s truth will set us free. Although this is not a popular subject and churches are not very actively preaching this topic, I like to take a bold step to share my thoughts after studying into this subject with much prayer and guidance from the Holy Spirit. I have come to the conclusion that the mark of the beast is a physical mark.

After diving in depth into the scriptures concerning the mark of the beast – physical or spiritual, I can safely come to the view that the mark of the beast is a physical mark that will incorporate with the state-of-the-art microchip technology. This technology will have the ability to control all the aspects of our lives. In addition to control our financial and economic affair ‘that no one can buy or sell unless they had the mark (Revelation 13:17)”, it will incorporate with man-made DNA that will interfere with or alter our God-given DNA hence transforming “human to be less human”. It will give rise to a whole new technology known as transhumanism and this is openly discussed in the World Economic Forum. This microchip with man-made DNA has the capacity to hack human DNA just like those people who wrote computer virus programs that hacked into our computer system rendering our system useless or use the virus programs to steal our personal data like bank account number, social security account number, addresses and so on. Once our data is in the hands of these cyber-terrorists they could literally cause great damage. We may wake up one morning and find all the monies in our bank account disappeared into the thin air. It has happened to many unsuspecting people who have lost all their life-savings. I don’t think I need to go further than to just to say that these made-man DNA when injected into our bodies will have the ability to hack our God-given DNA and alter human to be less human. Those people whose hands or foreheads are implanted with this microchips will be transformed into part-human and part-machine! Arising from this, a new scientific technology of transhumanism will be implemented with full force by the beast so that he can control everyone and in all aspects of their activities. Through this process of transhumanism it will destroy God’s most precious creation, the human race which God has created us to be in His own image. Transhumanism will transform people not just human into part-human and part-machine, it will have the ability to make those who have the mark to only accept Satan as their creator instead of the God of the Bible. Those who have become ‘transhuman’ will be, by implication, pledging absolute allegiance to Satan and they can have the will or the ability to accept only Satan as their god. They will not be able to exercise their ability to accept Jesus as their Saviour. In other words, they have lost their free will that God has given to His precious creation – the human race – at the Garden of Eden. When those people whose free will is hacked and replaced with the will forcefully acted upon them, they will only accept Satan as their god. They will never able to understand the Gospel of Jesus (John 3:16) “That for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

As we read the verses above taken from the Book of Revelation – “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name” – it clearly mentioned that those who have taken the mark will be forever lost. Thus the message here to you is a very serious one: DO NOT THAT THE MARK OF THE BEAST under any circumstances! Hence, the best way to avoid taking the mark of the beast is to come to Jesus right now so that when Jesus appears to rapture His children you can be counted as one of them and you would not need to face the dire consequences of deciding whether to take the mark or not. If you still refuse to come to Jesus right now and you will be left behind to decide whether to take the mark of the beast or not. If you refuse to take the mark, you will not be able to buy or sell and if you chose to take the mark, you would have pledged complete allegiance to the Devil. Once you have taken the mark of the beast, God’s free will given to you will have no effect because it will be hacked by the mark of the beast. Put it another way, you have surrendered your free will to Satan.

It’s now or never! Come to Jesus right now as time is running out! This is the only way to get out from the beast system of governance.

(Note: For your information, among others, I believe the mark of the beast will be in a form of micro-chip that will be programmed to control your banking transaction plus all your personal activities. It will also give raise to what now is openly known as Programmable Digital Money (or Currency). If you want more information on this, you can google this in the internet. Alternatively, I have written several messages in the blog here regarding Programmable Digital Money.

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank you for giving me the courage to share this contentious and offensive message to the world. I come to claim Your promise that the truth will set us free. I like to commit myself to speak nothing but the truth and to obey Your commandment to preach to the world according to Your will that all should be saved and none to be perished and that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Help me Lord to continue this ministry of spreading the news that You are coming very soon and help all of us to get ready to meet You.

In the Mighty Name of Jesus I pray. Amen!                                                                                                                                                                         

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25 September 2022

Scripture Reading: John 19:38-40 (KJV)

And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.

MESSAGE

For the past two weeks the world has witnessed one of the most celebrated and choreographed events and that was the funeral service of Queen Elizabeth the Second. It was reported that between 2 million to 3 million people had been to watch the funeral procession when the news of her death was first broadcasted. Although most of these great multitude of people who paid their last respect to the Queen were mainly from the United Kingdom, many of them in fact had travelled from other parts of the world as far as America, Australia and New Zealand. Admittedly, she deserved this great honour having had on the throne for seventy years performing her duties as the Queen of Britain and as Head of the Commonwealth with flying colours. She was loved by many people, including by the enemies of her country.

Interestingly, we seem to have a mind-set that when a king, a queen or an emperor died their funeral services were as elaborate as that of Queen Elizabeth. History has shown this was not always the case. For example, in China they were funerals of emperors shrouded in great mystery, notably, the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Although Emperor Qin Shi Huang died in 210 BC, nobody knew where his tomb was until it was accidentally discovered in 1974, almost 2,200 years after he had died. We can therefore deduce from here that, if any, only a handful of people were at his funeral or burial service otherwise the news of his tomb’s location would have been discovered much earlier. Another good example is the tomb of Genghis Khan, a Mongolian emperor who later conquered almost all of China and became its emperor. He died in 1227 and for almost 800 years still no one know the precise location his tomb even to this day. By the same deduction, his funeral and burial service must have been shrouded in mystery. According to some historians who speculated that the tombs of some emperors were kept in secret because they were fearful of grave robbers to go and steal the imperial treasures that buried with the emperors. Another theory was because specific decreed by the emperors that their tombs were to be kept in absolute secrecy perhaps due to political, cultural, religious or superstitious reasons. It was believed that those who took part in the construction the tombs were ordered by the emperors to be buried alive in the tombs so that the locations of the tombs can be kept secret indefinitely. (Note: The discovery of the tomb of the first emperor of China was a historical find of the century and even now, almost 50 years after the discovery, several of the tomb’s compartments still remain unopened by Chinese archaeologists).

This brings me to the above scriptural verses (John 19:38-40) which we just read. Although only three verses, they described the funeral and burial service of our Lord Jesus in quite vivid details. These verses provided concise but clear manner that set out the burial scene of our Lord Jesus which can be summarised as follows:

Our Lord had indeed left this world virtually with nothing, completely empty-handed, not even the very last piece of garment He worn. The garment that He worn while He was still hanging on the cross was taken by the soldiers and divided among them (John 19:23) and the burial cloth that used to wrap His body belonged to Joseph of Arimathasea. Our Lord Jesus possessed and owned absolutely nothing while He was on earth! He has one and only one mission – He came so that all sinners can be reconciled to the Father. Praise be to God!

When comparing the funeral and burial service of our Lord Jesus and Queen Elizabeth the Second, we can see how elaborate the coffin of Queen Elizabeth on the one hand and the simple burial service of our Lord Jesus. It took eight well-built soldiers to carry the Royal Coffin but the body of Jesus was taken down by only one person, Joseph of Arimathaea and assisted by Nicodemus for our Lord’s burial.

Furthermore, we don’t know exactly how the body of Queen Elizabeth was dressed but an educated guess would tell us that she must have been dressed with the finest linen. Her coffin was specially made to keep out moisture and preserve the body for longer and prevent smells and toxins from her body to escape. It must have taken much efforts and money to build this custom-made royal coffin. By comparison, there was no coffin for our Lord and I believe this was by divine design because the Heavenly Father who sent His only begotten Son to die knew that He will be resurrected and nothing could hold the resurrected body of our Lord. Hence, putting the body of Jesus in a coffin would be counterintuitive. We know that the tomb of Jesus was empty as He rose up three days later. It was the empty tomb of Jesus that gives us the blessed hope that death cannot also contain us because our risen Lord has defeated human’s the greatest enemy and that is death! (Note: There are scientific proved that the burial cloth of Jesus that was discovered many hundred years’ ago which is now popularly known as The Shroud of Turin is indeed the actual cloth used to wrap our Lord Jesus. You can google if you want to know more of The Shroud of Turin to find out some very amazing facts which were scientifically verified that the authenticity of The Shroud of Turin was truly the actual burial cloth that wrapped the body of Jesus.)

As we had just witnessed the funeral service of Queen Elizabeth few days ago, and at the final moment when her casket entered the hall for the closing service before it was lowered to the vault that reserved for kings and queens and their princes and princesses, we could see that everything from the the military uniforms worn by the new king, King Charles III, the princes, the princesses, the soldiers, the priests who delivered the funeral message, the elaborate hearse, just about everything were meticulously planned and choreographed. Besides the great multitude of people attending the funeral possession, millions of people around the world were watching the service over the television at the same time. One of the greatest attractions was her Crown that was decorated with the famous Kohinoor diamond weighing105 carats. I believe kings and queens of other nations must be very envious about it. By comparison, a woven crown of thorns was placed on the head of our Lord Jesus during the events leading up to His crucifixion. This crown of thorns was one of the instruments of Passion, employed by the Jews and the Romans both to cause Him pain and to mock His claim of authority as “King of the Jews.” Imagine the excruciating pain that Lord Jesus had to endure when those thorns were pinned onto His head. He had to wear this for many hours and had to walk all the way to the Calvary Cross with this crown that pinned on His head. Along the journey to Calvary, He was mocked, spitted at and He was whipped with flagellum attached with sharp hooks and iron balls. This flagellum was designed by the Romans to inflict maximum pain to condemned criminals. As we can also read from the scriptures, the two men who crucified together with Jesus were not wearing any ‘crown.’ The crown of thorns worn by our Saviour was made to humiliate our Lord to the extreme! To add injury to the insult, Pilate had prepared and fastened a writing and put on the cross and it read: JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. (John 19:19).

What we can see here is a complete contrast of two funerals – one attributed to a queen and the other attributed to the Son of God, the Creator of the Universe. As we compared the two, we can come to a realization how much our Lord loves us, how much He had bond us through His death. He knew all along this would happen even before the creation, before we were born yet He willingly came to this world to be crucified, to wear the crown of thorns and to be humiliated that even the worst criminals were not subjected to!

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank You for loving us so much! Help us not to take for granted for all the wonderful things you have done for us. Even though we keep repeating things that are not pleasing to You, yet You never giving up on us.

The death and the funeral service of Queen Elizabeth the Second has taught us a great lesson: If You as the Son of God was so prepared to be humiliated compared to the ‘glory’ that had been given to an earthly queen, how much more we need to humble ourselves and to be more like You! Lord, help us to be more like You each day.

Hence, Lord help us to humble ourselves and to look up to the Cavalry Cross, the crown of thorns that the Roman soldiers had forced on Your head, the broken body of Yours because of the scorching and whipping, the shedding of every drop of Your precious blood in order to redeem us from eternal destruction and help us not to forget that in Your final hours of suffering and tortured You still cried out to the Heavenly Father to forgive those people who had mocked and scorched You. Your cry to the Father “Father, forgive for they know not what they do” tells us Your bonding of love for all the sinners cannot be described in human term. At the same time, help us not to take for granted that we can still continue to sin and sin even though You are prepared to forgive us again and again. Help us to always remember that the very first time You preached to the world with these words: “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

In the Mighty Name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

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18 September 2022

Scripture Reading: Matthew 7:21-23 (KJV)

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

MESSAGE

Many of us as born-again Christians are very familiar with many comforting verses that we can find them in the Bible such as John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, whosoever believed in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life; Matthew 7:7 – Ask, and it will be given; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; 1 John 1:19 – If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness; Psalm 23:4 – Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me; Revelation 21:4 – And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.

Like most Christians, I too like to read comforting words from the Gospel of Jesus Christ because it is the power of God and it comforts us especially in the time of trial and life challenges. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the very power of God that saves men from His holy wrath against our sins. When given in full, it sets people free from captivity to sin and death, breaks people free from a pointless and purposeless worldly pursuit, and allows for a powerful Christian life that exhibits the authority and likeness of Christ. For this we want to thank and praise our living God, Lord Jesus because they are only made possible for us only through Him and Him alone.

Often we search and search for verses of God’s promises and we erroneously take it for granted that God is always with us regardless of what we do so long we have signed a 3-inch x 6-inch gospel card and “confess our sins and acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God”. Just a reminder – the altar-call that we had responded in an evangelistic meeting or a “3 x 6” gospel card we have attested one or ten years’ ago is not a licence for us to go to the world and behave like the pagans or, worst, behave like we have never knew who our God is yet expect God to just close His eyes! Never! God never close His eyes but keep watching the true believers who are His temple which was bought with a price. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). In Hebrew 12:1-2, we read: “We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” This verse clearly indicates to us that God is always looking at us and ‘His eyes are as big as all the clouds in the sky put together.’

The influence of social media today to ensnare us with worldly pursuit has numbed us to the point that we find everything we hear and read is but normal. It is totally impossible to control the information flow from the internet. Nevertheless, let’s be honest. Some information are good. In fact, social media we have today is like fire – it can be destructive and it can be also constructive, especially to young children who are still developing in all aspects of their lives. It all depends what you search and how you use and apply the information.

When it comes to the subject on religion in general and Christianity in particular, all you need is just googled from your mobile-phone, iPad or PC and you will find many sermons preaching the Word of God. When we listen or read these messages, we need to be discerning as it is well-known that there are preachers do not really preach the message of the true Gospel. They have watered the Gospel down to a point that these preaches are mouth-piece and Agents for Satan. They preached about things that the degenerated hearts already want. At the same time they don’t preach what the degenerated hearts really reject like holiness, godly virtue, kindness because it would be politically-incorrect because they just want to make their members happy and politically-incorrect message will chase away members. One way to make their congregation happy is to water down the Gospel to the point that the message is not from God but rather from the world, or worse from the Evil One. Seldom these preachers preached about hell, sin, humility, brokenness, penitence, godly virtue, worship, sacrifice, selfishness. Instead, they centered their messages on health, wealth and worldly success which are material, temporal and can perish suddenly with no warning. These are what the degenerated hearts like to hear – wealth, health and worldly achievements more than anything else. However, take heed. The story in the Book of Job is a great testimony with regard to this topic – our heath and our wealth can be vanished in a “twinkling of any eye” so to speak. We have to be discerning to what we hear from the pulpit because watered down gospel will lead to condemnation as it provide a platform to the degenerated hearts with only all the good news like God’s forgiveness but discard God’s warning on the impending judgment and His wrath that is to come. The final effect of watered-down gospel masks the true nature of God – God forgive but because He is God, He has to judge the world and all (including Christians) must face His judgement. Thankfully, the penalty of death because of sin is imputed and already assumed by Christ at the Calvary Cross and so we will not need to face eternal condemnation.

Many Christians today make the wrong assumption that they’re saved simply because they are so loved by God no matter what they do, God will never forsake them. Is this true? While it’s true that salvation is made available through God’s loving act of giving up His one and only Son for our sakes, we need to realise that we have an important part to play in that: Receiving His gift of salvation in Christ means turning away from sin and coming under the Lordship of Christ. We do that by faith. The Cross of Christ is God’s power to those who are being saved. As such, we must not water it down. Only the full power of the pure Gospel can save us, and watered-down crosses will never do.

Comforting Bible verses are effective to bring hope to the believers. Hence, every one of us likes to read Psalm 23 because is so comforting and I can safely say that this is one of the most commonly quoted verses by Christian counsellors to those who are facing trials and life challenges. In fact, I think you can find Christian posters with this Psalm sold in almost every Christian bookstore. Just go to any Christian bookstore, you will also find them selling posters with Bible verses like: John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, who shall ever believe in Him will not die but have everlasting life; Psalm 23:1 – The Lord Is My Shepherd; Psalm 37:4 – Delight Yourself In The Lord and He Will Give You The Desires In Your Heart; Matthew 28:20 – I Am With You Always.

This brings me to an interesting observation. I am yet to see one poster selling in bookstores with this message: Matthew 7:23 –” I Never Knew You; Depart From Me You Evil Doer.” Nor have I seen a poster with this message: Matthew 4:17 – “Repent, For The Kingdom Is At Hand”.

If you were to give one of these posters as birthday gift to your friend who is celebrating his or her birthday, I guaranteed you, this would be your last birthday party invitation from your friend!

A true Gospel message is all about repentance, godly virtue, sacrifice, about heaven and certainly about hell. Instead, watered-down gospel repackaged the true Gospel of Jesus Christ in order to attract people to their ‘church’. Sadly, many of these people who lack the knowledge of the true Gospel were hookwinked because they were promised that they would become healthy and wealthy if they keep giving more and more to the ‘church.” In the process they were scammed and were victims by giving their hard earned monies to the ‘church’ or rather their so-called ‘anointed pastors’. It is not uncommon to see how these water-down gospel preachers have enriched themselves, owning big houses, private jets, luxury cars, traveling on first-class air-tickets, big fat bank account all acquired quite literally by stealing the hard-earned monies from the ‘church’ members.

In concluding today’s message, I like to summarise the following ways how to discern and distinguish between watered-down sermons from these so-called ‘anointed-pastors” and sermons from the true Church of Jesus Christ:

My dear brothers and sisters-in-Christ, we are now very, very close to the rapture and we need to take full knowledge that time is not our side. Rapture can take place at any time and in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet sound the true-believers who are still alive will be changed into incorruptible body and we will be caught up in the clouds and to meet the Lord in the air. (1 Corinthians 15:52-53; 1 Thessalonians 4:17). There is only one place for the true Gospel – The Bible. Anything from man (including all the messages posted in the blog here) has to be read with utmost discernment which we can only get from the Holy Spirit. Do not trust every word you read or hear whether it is from the internet, TV stations, Youtube, newspapers, secular magazines, Christian journals and so on. Only the Word of God, the Bible can provide the true Good News of Jesus Christ.

Let’s us pray

Dear Lord,

The time has come and we are anxiously waiting for You to return and to meet You in the air. Lord, I know, Lord, You aware this because You are all-knowing that the wickedness and evilness that we are witnessing now are indeed worse than those in Noah and Lot’s day.

Thank you, Lord and please help us to share Your Gospel – the true Gospel of Yours – to those who still have not come to know You. We pray that this message can reach out to many people and the message can be a message of hope for them. More importantly, we covet the Holy Spirit to help us to discern and distinguish the true message of Yours and those watered-down messages from the Agents of Satan. Jesus, please help!

In the Mighty Name of Lord Jesus we pray. Amen!

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11 September 2022

Scripture Reading: Philippians 2:10-11 (KJV)

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Message

Just few days ago, television stations all over the world were interrupted and they were immediately followed by news telecasting that Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving monarch, aged 96 has died, after reigning for 70 years.

Indeed, this is a very sad news especially for the people of Britain who, in spite of her very old age, would like to see her beloved Queen lived longer. To a certain extent for the people of the Commonwealth countries of the past and the present which traditionally have had the great honour of Elizabeth the Second as their Head of the State, they too feel sad for her demise. I remember that in my childhood days all the classrooms in my school hang a copy of her portrait as our country was then a member of the Commonwealth until 1959 when our country became Internal self-government which, by constitution, required our nation to have its own head of state.

Many of us today do not really know much about Queen Elizabeth II in some intimate manners unlike the British, yet just as many are are aware of her immense popularity around the globe. She is loved by everyone – even by the enemies of her country. Given the tributes that were paid by the world leaders as well as the general public across the world, I can confidently say that to live a life with such good reputation is extraordinary. There is not an iota of word that discredits her reputation. If anything can go by, every word spoken by the ordinary citizens to all government leaders around the world has only but praises about the Queen. If I were to list those words of praises given by just the world leaders alone, I would be running out of space here to contain them! By illustration, India which was governed by Britain for many years and it was liberated from Britain in 1948. The liberation was not totally violent-free yet the President of India has announced a day of mourning for the death of the Queen. It has prepared to put aside the past grievances because they loved this Queen even though it has to struggled very hard for many years for its liberation and achieved eventual independence in 1948. This is how well-loved she is!

Well, quite unlike her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, who had some controversies surrounding her life during her sixty-three years of reign. Among these controversies were such things like she was short-tempered, never found much pleasure in motherhood, somewhat disgusted at children, even her own children, enjoyed partying, and interfered government administration too much. For the last ‘controversy’, let’s be fair to her, kings and queens before Queen Elizabeth II era was unlike today. The position of the queen (and now king) of Britain today is of ceremonial in nature whereas in the past they wielded great administrative and executive power. This reminds me of a quote by an English historian, Lord Aston in a letter to Bishop Mandel Creighton about how historians should judge the abuse of power by past rulers, especially popes, and the quote goes like this: “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  This truly reflects the sinfulness and wickedness of human race, and I must add, not only just the pope or country leaders! It could be you or it could be me. One of the best ways to test the true character of a person is to give him great power and great wealth because he will never be the same – for better or for worse! (Note: I speak more about this in one of my messages, if God willing).

To the British people, 8th of September 2022 marked the “Death of the Queen”. This is the day will be remembered not only by the British but also by the people living today and for many years to come. Britain is indeed very fortunate and very blessed to have her as their Queen. Sadly, she has departed from this world forever and prayerfully, she will continue to remain in the hearts of the people – both the British and the non-British, and at the very least her good name be always remembered: Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Britain. Her death also reminds me of a Chinese Proverb: 豹死留皮人死留名 which can literary be translated to: “When a leopard dies, he leaves his skin. When a man dies, he leaves his name.” QE II has left her well-deserved good name which I have uncannily ‘awarded’ her the title: “The Most Beloved World’s First Lady!”

The death of QE II has also reminded me of “the day my God died.” Since the death of our Dear Lord Jesus two thousand years’ ago, yet His name is always remembered by Christians and non-Christians. The Georgian Calendar which was introduced about 440 years’ ago and is still used in almost all part of the world, has labelled this calendar into two periods: Before Christ and After Christ. (Note: The world could not stand keep calling this as the name Chirst is indicated and thus rejected these labels. Since 2020 the labels were revised to “Before Common Era” or BCE and “After Common Era” or ACE). Glory to God – the name of Christ will never be blotted out no matter what! Though BCE and ACE are now the nomenclatures, very often people are still preferred to use the terms “Before Christ” and “After Christ”.

As we can see, after two thousand years since Jesus was born, books upon books have been written about this Man called Jesus Christ than any other books. There is no close second! Hundreds if not thousands of the books about Jesus, His birth, His death, His resurrection, His walk on earth, His work, and more importantly His teachings and sermons are still being written every year today and there is no end in sight. His greatest claim, in my most honest biblical opinion, is when He said to His disciples: I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me (John 14:6). This is a statement that no other religious leaders had ever dared to claim – not even Mohammad; not even Buddha, not even Lord Krishna.

Jesus has been a ‘popular’ and ‘unpopular’ figure since the time He was born and remains so tile these days. A quick search on the internet will give you a vast array of opinions and points of view about Jesus. When it comes to Jesus, the opinions and views expressed are almost without end. Some people (like me and prayerfully you too) see Him as God, Creator of the universe, others say He was simply a good teacher, and still others deny that He ever existed. Whatever names, opinions or points of view given to our Saviour, there is one fact we cannot deny – His name will live forever as long as the earth continue to exist. To the Christians, the Name of Jesus is a Mighty Tower! He has left His name, and His name gives hope to the hopeless. The Name of Jesus gives not just hope in this world but hope into eternality provided we truly belief that the Name of Jesus can save us from eternal destruction as we read in Romans 10:13: For whosoever call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

But are all opinions about Jesus are just that? We must therefore search for the truth and it is only in the Scripture that we find objective insight into the truth about Jesus – who He is, what He did, how He did it, and so forth. The reliability of the Scripture which has stood the test of time, and its testimonies about Jesus continue to be at the centre of all Christian faith, in particular the death and resurrection of Jesus. As born again believers, we know the Scripture speaks only the truth, and it reveals to us God’s truth about us (and honestly, everything about us is not pretty, in fact very ugly (Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:23)), about our universe which reveals handiwork of our Creator, Lord Jesus (Psalm 19:1), and about His immense and unyielding love for His children by dying on the cross for all sinners (John 3:16). We must remind ourselves that one of the reasons so many professing Christians are carried away into false doctrines (such as we can become god, there is more than one ways to heaven, we are all good people, etc) is because they do not know what the Scripture says. The nature, attributes and the truth about Jesus can only be obtained from one and only one source – the inspired scripture which is the Holy Bible that God has written for His children.

Unlike earthly figures, Jesus was born two thousand years ago not to come and seek ‘popularity.’ He did not come to this world to be popular. Quite the contrary, Jesus, the God-incarnate, came to this world to be a curse for us and to die willingly for our sins so that we can live. He didn’t have to! But He did it because all in the name of “I love you too much!” Through His death, we are able to be reconciled to our Creator. This is very reason for Him to be born as a human and to die so “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10-11). The Name of Jesus will never be known to us without Him being born as a human on earth.

While we are all waiting for our Dear Lord to return, in the meantime, let’s us continue to uphold the people of Britain especially members of the royal family that the death of their beloved Queen is a beacon of light shines to show the world that Britain was indeed truly blessed with the “Most Beloved World’s First Lady.”

A great lesson for us too. If we have to leave this world there is nothing could stop it as life and death is in the hand of our Creator, Lord Jesus. There is however one thing we can do which is totally within our control and this is also recorded in the Bible: A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold (Proverbs 22:1); it is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth (Ecclesiastes 7:1).

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

We come before You to ask for your help us that we can mourn sincerely with the people of Britain for the death of their Queen, Elizabeth the Second. Although she was no more our head of state, but our country has benefitted a lot from the Britain. Through its governance, we were inherited free education, decent judiciary, good healthcare system, creditable police force and most importantly educating our children up to the 1950s with proper English education system. Lord, help us to be grateful and not to take these for granted. Britain has indeed given this country a basic but extremely essential foundation for subsequent governments to build and to become one of the more admired countries in the world today. And all these are the result of Your loving grace. Help us to be grateful, Lord Jesus.

The death of the Queen truly reminds us of Your sacrifice for all the sinners. Dear Lord, we know that from the very beginning to the end, You are already in existence because You are the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega. But Lord, You chose to born to be human and to willingly die for us, not that You have to but You had willingly chosen to in order to give us eternal life. We thank you for giving us the blessed hope that one day we will dwell with You forever.

Thank you Lord for Your unyielding love. In the Mighty Name of Yours we pray. Amen!

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4 September 2022

Scripture Reading: Genesis 18:32 / Proverbs 29:2 (KJV)

Genesis 18:32 – And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.

Proverbs 29:2 – When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

Message

The story (or rather the history) of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah can be found in chapter 19 of the Book of Genesis. As we read this story, we discovered that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was preceded by God’s demand that if Abraham could find just ten righteous men, God would spare the two cities from the destruction. As the story continued, Abraham could only find three.

One great lesson of this story is that destruction came only after Lot and his two daughters had left the cities. So long they were inside the cities, God would withhold His judgments upon these two cities. We must take note that while our God is merciful and is prepared to withhold His judgment, this is only true provided we are sincere in our repentance and turn away of our wicked ways. If the people are unrepented and living in constant wickedness calling evil good, and good evil, they are going to face the same fate just like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.

We can actually connect this episode we just read above to the imminent rapture or the catching up of the Church of Jesus Christ. From the story of Sodom and Gomorrah we can safely conclude that it is only after all truly-born again Christians who are redeemed by the blood of Jesus will be caught up with the Lord in heaven then the Great Tribulation would begin. We can further conclude that God will not allow His beloved children to go through the severe punishments during this 7-year of Great Tribulation which is going to be so severe that God got to cut the period short otherwise no flesh would have been saved (Matthew 24:22). It is very comforting that as children of God, like Lot and his two daughters, we are not going to suffer those severe punishments during the Great Tribulation as we will be raptured to part-take the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in heaven. The Great Tribulation is meant for the wicked people who refused to accept the precious blood of Jesus to redeem themselves from their wickedness and sin. It is only through the blood of Jesus we are made righteous in the sight of our Creator.

According to Bible scholars, the most prevalent sin in Sodom and Gomorrah was homosexuality when men were engaging in sexual relations with other men and boys. Sodom is where we get the term “sodomy and sodomites” named after this widespread sin of the town and the medical term for the venereal disease gonorrhoea perhaps come from the city name of Gomorrah.

Although Abraham tried to intercede and attempted to ask God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah from destruction, he failed because he could not find ten righteous men which God had demanded. God indeed had compromised His initial demand of fifty men. We do not know exactly the population size of these two cities at that time. Perhaps there were hundreds of thousands or few million living in these two cities. Let’s assume few hundred thousand yet Abraham could not find ten righteous men. He could only, however, find three and they were his nephew Lot and Lot’s own two daughters. Interesting to note that God was not demanding any specific people nor God was interested in their social or political status. God simply asked for righteous men regardless whether they were of noble family or whether they were rich or poor and yet Abraham could not find them, but only three.

Let’s ask ourselves, if God today is going to destroy our country and is willing to spare our country from destruction provided there are fifty righteous men living among us, an important question to ask is: Can we really find fifty righteous men in our city? Given that we now have over seven million people living in the country, it shouldn’t be an issue. So we thought! Will you and I can be the one whom God is willing to count as one of these righteous men? For me, my answer is very simple. Certainly not me! God will reject me outright because I am too wicked and sinful (and perhaps shameful) to be counted as one of the righteous men! How about you? How confident are you that you think God can accept you as one of the righteous men? Will we end up with just only three or even none?

This bring me to the next verse we just read: When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn (Proverbs 29:2). Thankfully, over the last 57 years, our country had been governed by good leaders even to this day when we compared to other countries. We are what we are because of our past and present country leaders. In spite of the fact that we have virtually zero natural resources and we need to import almost everything. Even though our drinking water need to be imported, we are one of the most prosperous, safest and united countries in this globe. Many countries all over the world admire us and wish their countries could be like ours! If this is not miracle; if this is not by the grace of God; and if you think this comes by accident, then something is very, very wrong with you. For me personally, my worry and concern for this beloved country of ours is: Can we continue to have good leaders? Can we continue to sustain the moral standard and the rule of law that has been justly administered in our court of law during the last 57 years. Although there were couple of ‘black-sheep’ in the past, by and large, our country leaders always put the people first rather than their personal interest and bank account unlike corrupt leaders of many countries that we can read in the news. These corrupt high ranking officials disregard the welfare of their people and can only enrich themselves by stealing and looting from their national treasurers. The stolen monies were then use to build palaces, luxury villas, to acquire top quality jewelries, ultra-expensive sports cars and provide expensive gifts to beautiful models in order to obtain gratification from these models to satisfy the desires of their flesh. The countries might be rich with all kind of natural resources but their people are living like beggars. In one country which has plenty of natural resources yet their people have to search food from the land-fields. (Note: I am not making this up. You can just google and you will find video clips of people searching for food in land-fields. Every morning many people were all waiting for garbage trucks to unload wastes and once the wastes were unloaded into the land-fields, they would start to search for the discarded items which include leftover or expired food discarded by some wealthy people! Some were so hungry that they just eat the food on the spot they thought was still edible to eat. You won’t believe what you see!).

As Christians, we need to pray that our national leaders can live their life pleasing to our Saviour and obeying His commandments when governing this nation. In 1 John 5:2-4, we are told that the commandments God required of us to keep are not burdensome. By keeping His commandments, we can overcome the world. This applies to the society and the nation as well as to individual people like you and me when we keep God’s commandments.

Sadly even some of the simpliest commandments that God requires us to keep can sometimes be very contentious and could potentially divide nations. Remember what Jesus said: Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. (Matthew 12:25).

By illustrations, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, God has commanded His children with this simple commandment: Stay away from the sexual sin of homosexual. As we read in the above passage the people of Sodom and Gomorrah refused to obey this simple commandment and the cities were completely destroyed by fire and sulphur because of this heinous sin of homosexuality. From the beginning of recorded human history, almost every country of every denomination from communist country to democratic country, from every religious faith – Muslim, Hindu, Buddhism, Christianity, etc. sex between men has never been tolerated. Such act is commonly classified as unnatural sex and even for a country like us, the punish is ten years of imprisonment if they are caught practicing homosexuality. Today, we are told that the government is prepared to repeal Section 377A which will decriminalize sex between two men. But do we know anything about Section 377B? This Section 377B prescribed punishment for up to ten years of imprisonment for people who caught practicing unnatural sex (which defines as sex between men and sex with animals). It is puzzling that for such strict law that punishes offenders up to ten years, why there isn’t there a need to have a more serious discussions or debates like forming a Select Committee to hear the arguments from people of all walks of life before a final decision to repeal or not to repeal, to enforce or not to enforce Section 377A. Prayerfully, we are not falling into this idiom saying that “If you can’t beat them, join them.” Once this has become the approach to guide our nation-building, it’s going to open up a can of worms and we will most probably going down into the slippery road of destruction.

I pray that the message today will inspire Christian brothers and sisters that we must continue to pray to God that our country can continue to be endowed with godly leaders that they will not be too compromising especially when it comes to transforming our nation into what our God has commanded and intended – a godly nation. Let’s hope that this is not just a dream but a reality.

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

We come before You to thank you for the peace and unity that You have bestowed to this country. We are all blessed by You for giving us good government that the people can rejoice. We know this is a very difficult time to govern during the last days when we are all waiting for Your return. We know that Satan is running out of time and he is trying to upset the very creation of Yours. The Evil One is taking not effort, showing no mercy and do as much harm to the people, to Your creation as much as he could possibly do. One of his greatest weapons of this Evil One is to pervert everything You have made. Lord Jesus, we trust You and by Your power, we can conqueror and bring this message of yours to non-believers and to accept and acknowledge that You are the Saviour. For Your beloved children of God, we pray Lord You give them the strength and speak to them through this message that they need to pray very fervently to spare this country from severe destruction. In the meantime, we, your beloved children are waiting earnestly for Your return to bring us up to part-take the Marriage Super of the Lamb in heaven.

In the Mighty Name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

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Sermon – 28 August 2022

Scripture Reading: Matthew 7:17 / Proverbs 22:6 (KJV)

Matthew 7:17 – Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
Proverbs 22:6 – Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Message

In this week message, I would like to share with you a message which was written for Sunday school children. Though this message was written for Sunday school children, I believe adults can learn some good lessons from this message too:

Sunday School Message:

An important question that we frequently ask ourselves is: What is sin and are we all taking sin seriously?

Actually, the word “sin” is very easy to define when you define it in relations to what the Bible tells us. It simply means doing something that failed to meet the mark of God and hence displeases our living God, Lord Jesus. This is no difference from our parents. When we misbehave, our parents feel sad or even angry at us too. Depend on the seriousness of our misbehavior, our parents may punish or even cane us!

As we look at ourselves, we know there are bad habits we need get rid of just like in a garden if the gardener doesn’t get rid of the weeds, very will soon the weeds will consume much of the nutrients from the soil depriving good plants from consuming the nutrients. Once the nutrients are consumed by the weeds, these good plants around the weeds will not be able to grow healthily. Hence, in order for the good plants to thrive, gardeners have to remove weeds regularly and it is not easy to remove weeds. Unfortunately, weeds can grow without any help or efforts. They just simply grow and grow as weeds thrive on neglect. It is thus important for the gardeners to stop weeds from spreading if they wants their good plants to grow.

A good analogy to this is that mentally and spiritually we have “weeds” inside us and unless we take an effort to remove these weeds inside us we too will not grow spiritually and mentally or even physically. The weeds inside us comprise things like thinking how to hurt people, thinking how to steal from other people for those things we cannot afford to buy, doing things in secret like hoping our friends failed their examination, belittle or made fun of others just to make ourselves happy, disobedience to people who have authority over us like our parents, teachers and those elderly people, destroying intentionally to our environment such as not disposing of our unwanted items in a proper manner. I believe there are many more you can list them. When we keep doing all these things whether consciously or unconsciously, it is like weeds consuming all the good part of us and very soon we will be destroyed – spiritually, mentally and even to our physical body. In a worst scenario, we will end up with being caught by others or even by the police – for example – when we cultivate a bad habit of stealing it is a matter of time that we will be caught and put into prison. Unless we take conscious efforts to remove our bad behaviors, these bad behaviors are like weeds which will grow and grow! Just like weeds in a garden, weeds within us also thrive in neglect and hence we need to pay close attention to remove them without delay. We must always pray to God to help us to start off on the right path so that when we are old, we will not turn away from the right path (Proverbs 22:6).

End of Sunday School Message

Although the message above was written for Sunday school children, it is as relevant to us as adults as it is to the children. As adults, we need too to get rid of all the weeds within us and is never too late as the saying goes: Is better to be late than never!

When Jesus first preach to the world, His very first message was about “Repentence” as we read in Matthew 4:17 when He preached: Turn away from your sins! The kingdom of heaven has come near.

Repentance or turning away from sin is a very serious Bible teaching so much so that Lord Jesus places this as His utmost important teaching and He repeated this in Luke 3:3: There he preached that people should be baptized and turn away from their sins.

Repentence is a very important condition that God demands of us in order for sins to be forgiven. A person’s salvation could be put in jeopardy or even in danger of being taken away if he or she continued to live in unrepented life. A key lesson is that to wipeout the weeds within us we must repent and turn away from all our evil ways. This is not an one-off effort. We have to continuously and consciously turn away from all our wicked ways. Just like a gardener, he has to work very hard to remove the weeds from his garden and we, too, need to work very hard to remove those weeds within us by continually turning away from our sinful ways. It’s all boiled down to mental attitude – always think about doing good to others and never let those unwholesome thoughts lingering in our mind. Remove these unwholesome and wicked thoughts is like removing weeds out from our mental garden. It is not easy but with God’s help nothing is impossible so long we put sincere efforts and pray to God for His strength and we will be victorious in removing our weeds.

We must be reminded that removing weeds is not just a personal matter for each individual. In every country, there are laws legislated and the primary intent of these laws is largely to remove ‘weeds’ out from the society so that people can live in unity and peacefully. However, these human weeds are everywhere. People of great influence and authority are, unfortunately, can be our most dangerous weeds. These people of influence and authority are now calling evil good and good evil just like what we read in Isaiah 5:20: Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

No matter how strict a country law is, criminals will always still be around to kill, to cheat and to steal. Sadly, many senior government officials today (and even in ancient times) are societal weeds themselves. These few elites comprising senior government officials and their inner circle members have great influence over people with authority especially over the military, the police and the judiciary. As a result they acquired huge indirect power to bully, to extort, to kill, to unjustly take away people’s assets such as farmlands and to influence the judiciary to rule unjustly favouring only the rich and the powerful.

Ironically, government officials are the one whom people should rely on them in times of need but sometimes they do exactly the opposite such as intentionally creating crisis for their people in order to enrich themselves. It was reported in China that one senior government official had accepted so much of the corrupt wealth that when the police went to his house, the police got a rude shock as they saw the kind of wealth this corrupt official had. Virtually, the house was like a bank vault! They could find money and treasure hiding in every corner of the house. The house was full of the ill-gotten money and treasure comprising gold and silver ingots, very high quality jewelries and banknotes. Many millions dollar worth of money currencies were found to have kept even in refrigerators because the corrupt official simply run out of space in his house to store them. In fact, police were unable count the money on site even with the help of banknote counting machines which they brought with them so much so that the police had to estimate the amount by weighing the banknotes! More than ten military trucks were needed to take away those ill-gotten wealth! I believe you can google this and you will be shocked to see the number of military trucks there to confiscate these ill-gotten wealth.

Are we living in the last days when corruption is so widespread that we all are now immune to the news of what is really happening around us. Societal weeds are all around us and the tragedy is that there are very few good ‘gardeners’ willing to remove these societal weeds. We can’t blame them. Trying to wipeout these weeds of deceits requires heavy sacrifice and many good people are unwilling to take up the responsibility leaving these weeds to just grow and grow incessantly. For obvious reasons, those good officials who tried to remove the weeds were sometimes found dead, or jailed for crimes that they had never committed and some of time have to run for their lives by escaping to other countries to seek asylum because they have offended corrupt high ranking officials.

Let’s admit, we are all fighting a losing battle. As one saying goes like this: If you can’t beat them, join them. Over the last couple of weeks there was a discussion of our government’s intention to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code which currently made sex between two men a crime – on paper! The police have already taken the position that it will not enforce this law. Giving this as the legal position of the police, the government has already openly announced that it will repeal the law. To be more precise, this law will be removed out from the Penal Code. Perhaps in the next couple of months or even just weeks, our Parliament will start the process to repeal this legislation to remove this piece of legislation from the Penal Code and this in effect will decriminalize sex between two men. The question, from the legal language – by removing Section 377A will this become ‘legal’ or ‘not illegal’ for two men to have sex. Let’s leave this to the legal expert to decide what is the best legal terminology to use. To me, it doesn’t matter!

It is interesting to note that when we trace back to this piece of legislation to criminalize sex between two men, this legislation was incorporated into our Penal Code when the Penal Code was enacted in 1984. However, the law to criminalize sex between men was already part of Singapore legislations in 1939 when we were under the British rule. For almost 85 years, no one has protested and it had never been brought up for discussion. It would be a shame if anyone were to have brought this up for deliberation let alone trying to get it removed from the legislation. So the question now is: For almost 85 years since the law was legislated, why people now comprising individual as well as interest groups and institutions are crying out aloud to remove this piece of legislation and to decriminalize sex between two men? And they are not ashamed of it. In fact, they are all very proud because they thought they are now winning the battle!

I can guess and I am quite confident to mention that this an important fulfilling of end-time prophecy that the whole earth will be witnessing evilness and lawlessness of unprecedented scale. Legalizing homosexual has gone global and to be fair to Singapore, we are “late”. Perhaps the government may feel that it’s better to be late than never. Perhaps the pressure are building up and the government simply go by the saying: If you can’t beat them, join them!

We need to come right now to seek Jesus as time is not on our side – Jesus is returning to take us home – the Rapture of the Church of Jesus Christ – and unless we truly repent, we may miss this once-a-life-time event of the universe. When you are left behind after all the truly-born again Christians are removed from this earth to be with our Lord Jesus in heaven, you are going to be left behind and you are going into the period of Great Tribulation! This is not a joke! Is real!

(Note: I have written several messages in the post here concerning the Rapture of the Church of Jesus Christ, the Second Coming of Jesus and the Great Tribulation. You may want to scroll down to read them.)

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

We come before You to ask of You to give us the strength to do good, to behave well and to help others whenever we can. Let us sincerely cry out to You and said: Jesus help me to repent and to remove all the weeds that are within us. We want to do things to please You. We know You are coming very soon to take us to Your heavenly kingdom and thus help us to share Your gospel of good news to others so that they can be saved by Your precious blood.
We pray all these in the Mighty Name of Jesus. Amen.

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Sermon – 21 August 2022

Scripture Reading: Matthew 24:22 / Revelation 6:5-6 (KJV)

Matthew 24:7 – For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Revelation 6:5-6 – And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

MESSAGE

Thankfully and by the grace of God, our country is not facing any severe environmental calamities which are currently ravaging in every part of the continents from America to Asia. Intense heatwaves, severe flooding, drought, hurricane, tornadoes, hailstones the size of golf balls, earthquakes, uncontrollable wild forest fires, lakes and rivers are drying up are now the order of the day. Here are some examples: England is facing a heatwave with temperature to over 40 Celsius (or more than 100 degree Fahrenheit). England is very well-known for its weather. Even during summer, temperature seldom exceeds 25 degree Celsius. In my early days and due to my work, I travelled to England very frequently and I really enjoyed my weekends because all I need was just walk around the beautiful English parks and enjoy its cool weather. But now you can even fry eggs on the streets in London! In U.S. many important rivers in the American West is drying up. The Colorado River is the lifeblood for the south-west, supplying over 40 million of Americans with water and generating hydro-electric power plants is drying to a dangerously low level. The lakes that depend on these rivers to supply the water are closed to “dead pool” levels, the point at which water stops flowing downstream from the dams with have huge implication to hydro-electric plants. In China, many provinces are facing severe flooding destroying dams and causing huge flooding to homes and farmlands. In India, it was reported that the temperature has reached 50 degree Celsius! Japan and South Korea are not spared too with the severe flood! In continental Europe there are many uncontrollable wild forest fires raging homes and farmlands. In Australia, almost the whole state of New South Wales was nearly destroyed by floods in July. African and South American are also facing extreme weather very similar to those described above.

Many of us might not be aware that canned-food that we bought from the supermarkets now are manufactured from last year 2021 harvests and the live-stocks. Due to the extreme environmental crisis this year that are causing severe destructions of thousands acres of farmland and countless lost of live-stocks like cows, sheep and all kinds of poultry, it is estimated that in 2023 there will be 40% to 50% reduction of the agricultural harvests ranging from barley to wheat to potatoes to tomatoes to corns compared to 2022. To further compound the problem, the cost of fertilisers are skyrocketing due largely to the war in Ukraine and many farmers across the globe just have to give up planting in 2022 because the high cost of fertilisers will drive up the price of the produce which farmers will find hard to sell. Hence, in 2023, there will be serious shortage of food as manufacturers will find it very hard to buy raw produce to support their productions and this will drive up the prices of food. As we are warned in Revelation 5:6 – “a measure of wheat for a penny, and a three measures of barley for a penny” is widely interpreted by theologians that it will need to take a day’s wages in order to buy food just to feed your family for only one day. If this is not what food shortage, inflation or famine is, then nothing can explain what famine or inflation is!

The following headlines which appeared in the mass media that you can easily find in the internet are just tip of an iceberg of how precarious our earth is now:


The key to this message is to help all believers to prepare for the return of our Lord Jesus. To the unbelievers, the world is falling apart when they look at the environment crisis of this magnitude. However, for us as born-again Christians, the events are indeed putting in place for the return of our Lord Jesus to take us home. We must be prepared and we are urged to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to our God which is our reasonable service. We are further urged not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by renewing of our mind, that will prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:1-2).

In the heart of the book of Revelation, John watches as the Lamb opens the first of seven seals. This is a very dark period of human history – the darkest ever. The breaking of the first seal sets in motion a period of time known as the Great Tribulation. This timeframe, also mentioned in the book of Daniel, is the moment when the Antichrist will arrive and great destruction will be ushered in on a global scale – famine, war, economic calamity, persecution, lawlesness.

Why would God share these details with us? Far from being afraid, Jesus said in Luke 21:28 ”When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” 

In fact, the world has not really seen anything compared to what is to come in spite of the events we are witnessing now. The events in the Great Tribulation will be many times more severe so much so God has to cut short the period otherwise no life would have been saved but for the sake of some believers who acknowledge the Jesus is their Saviour, those days will be cut short. (Matthew 24:22)

As we are drawn closer and closer to the return of our Lord Jesus, we may even become more thrilled in making every minute of our lives count to prepare for that great day that we will be taken up for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Note: If you want to read more about the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, you may go to my 14 August posting below).

Let’s Pray|
Dear Lord Jesus,

I praise You, God, for Your grace and mercy, Your patience and love. Thank You that Your perfect love drives out fear even though we are now living in a period of unprecedented severe environmental crisis. Help us Lord to continue to put pur trust in You and You only. We thank you for Your promise of deliverance. Help me share this precious with those You put in my path. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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Sermon – 14 August 2022

Scripture Reading: Revelation 19:7-10 (KJV)

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

MESSAGE

Note: May I suggest before you read today’s message you watch the video “The Galilean wedding traditions & how it applies to the bride of Christ, specifically, the Rapture of the Church of Jesus Christ”
Please click here to watch:
https://youtu.be/qrDjOAHWYW0

Every year on 9 August Singapore celebrates its National Day. Fifty-seven years’ ago, Singapore became a fully independent country and had just celebrated its 57th National Day. By comparison, Singapore is a very young country unlike countries like Britain, China or India which have thousand years of history. By God’s grace, we are what we are today where people can live in peace, unity and harmony. This is due to our good, effective and clean government over the last 57 years since our independence. We pray God will continue to bless us with righteous national leaders. In the Bible we are told in Proverbs 29:2 – “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rules, the people groan.” Nothing can depart from this biblical truth. Just google for world news and you will find countless news of corruptions and injustices committed by people in high positions that are permeated in many countries and as a result their people are groaning. This is exactly what the Bible has told us in Proverbs 29:2. We therefore need to pray vehemently that our country continues to govern by righteous men and women of God.

Like Singapore, many countries have also set a date specifically dedicated to celebrate their historical milestones. These could be in the form of being liberated from foreign occupation, or change of government because the previous corrupt government was kicked out and a new one installed. For example, we now see the people of Sri Lanka has toppled its government because the people who ruled the country misappropriated the nation’s treasury and bankrupted the country and a new government will be formed. Prayerfully the leadership of Sri Lanka’s new government consists of righteous men and women of God. In India it celebrates its independence from the United Kingdom annually on August 15 when India was liberated from British rule and became an independent country in 1947, and in China, it celebrates annually on 1 October when the Chinese Communist Party proclaimed China the People’s Republic of China in 1949 after it had ended decades of civil war as well as wars with foreign occupation.

Many people rejoice during national day celebration and perhaps for obvious reason – it’s a holiday and young working adults and students are looking forward to this day. However, not all people can fully rejoice as it brings memories of distraught. This is especially the case for those who were adults when the national holiday was first declared because it reminds them of the high price the people had to pay for the historical milestone. Many of the adults who witnessed the first national day declaration would remember the sufferings they had to go through during the tumultuous period. Thankfully, it finally ended with the proclamation of an historic milestones and people could now enjoy freedom and peace. For example, people who born during the period of turmoil would remember that family members or close friends were captured and tortured to death, their own daughter or daughters of their relatives or friends were raped or their personal assets and properties were unjustifiably confiscated that literally turning them from millionaires to beggars overnight! I was not born when Singapore was colonised by the Japanese but my parents had shared with me the tumultuous time that they had to endure during the Japanese occupation. By the grace of God, both my parents were unharmed and managed to escape from the Japanese atrocities. Living conditions then were very tough. Everyone, especially young girls and young men were living in constant fear. They were the targets of the Japanese soldiers and the people of Singapore (as well as Malaya) were living in trembling fear. They were not sure whether they would be dead or alive tomorrow! Thankfully, Japanese occupation lasted relatively short period of only three years and eight months compared to some other countries that took decades to end their tormented years of foreign occupation or gross injustices and corruptions that caused the people to groan incessantly.

As we are the children of God, we are told to forgive our enemies but honestly I just couldn’t forget what my parents had told me. When we see the war news over TV or Youtube like what we are now witnessing in Ukraine and the Middle East, we can now understand better what our parents or grand-parents had gone through during the Japanese occupation.

Sadly, corruptions at high places, gross injustices and wars are not going to go away any sooner. On the contrary, they are going to be intensified as we can read from the pages of the Bible because people continue to live in sin since the fall of man. In 2 Timothy 3:1-4 we read: 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!

Thankfully, I have an extremely wonderful news to tell you! Everything on earth that we are witnessing now is a foreshadow of what is to come. We, the children of God, are chosen as the Bride of Jesus Christ, and we are meant to dwell with Him for eternity. The Father’s house in the Galilean wedding that you can watch on the Youtube https://youtu.be/qrDjOAHWYW0 is the perfect picture of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The Groom gathers His Bride, brings her to the Father’s house for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Married forever. This video of Galilean wedding mirrored closely the event that Jesus, the Bridegroom will return to bring His Bride (that is the Church) to the heavenly home that He has prepared for His Bride (John 14:2-4).

As we are in the last days it is therefore very important to understand what lies ahead is not going to be pretty. The “last days” I am referring to here is not so much about wars, rumours of wars, apocalyptic cosmic destructions of the earth that turns everything to ash or anything to do with the events of the Great Tribulation like taking the mark of the beast before you can buy or sell, hyperinflation that you need one day’s wages in order to buy just for your daily meal and so on. What I am referring here is that the end of Church Age will culminate upon all believers are invited to attend the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in heaven and be presented to our Lord Jesus as His Bride. Doctrinally-speaking, this is the rapture of the Church of Jesus Christ and it is the blessed hope. Just like in a Jewish wedding, we must therefore be prepared at all times because Jesus, our Bridegroom is coming at any time to bring His Bride to the mansion that He has prepared for us. This will occur at the time when we are least expected. We are, therefore, commanded by Lord Jesus to keep watch (Matthew 25:13).

The national holidays around the world are specifically made to celebrate historical milestones of the countries and may perhaps this year may be the last time for the countries because of the on-going conflict and uncertainty of international politics. Remember, tomorrow is not guarantee as the world is heading towards chaos that may be the precursor to world war. It is very disheartening to hear that countries with nuclear bombs are threatening and warning one another that they are prepared to use them should war broke out. Such warnings by the nations which have the nuclear bombs are unprecedented. Once the nuke is used on a global scale, it will literally blow up the earth into pieces. The question is not “if” but “when” will this happen as the use of nuclear bombs is now a reality. Thankfully, for the born-again Christians, we will not be here when nuclear war begins because Jesus will gather us to be with Him and we will be invited and delivered to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in Kingdom of God. It will be the time that commensurate the timeless celebration of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb! Our Lord Jesus will be our Bridegroom and we will be His Bride, for ever!

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

We want to thank you that You have preserved our country to be what it is today that we can live in peace, unity and harmony with our fellow citizens. We like also to thank you for sending us righteous men and women governing our city-state. Unless we are ruled by the righteous, people will groan and suffer.

Lord Jesus, we pray for Your hasten return so that we can participate in the Marriage Supper that the Father has prepared. We ask Lord that You help us to share and to warn others that when You return, on that day, You will set up the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. Hence, they must come to You right now because tomorrow is not promised. We pray that they can come to confess their sins and acknowledge that You are the Christ without delay.

In Jesus Name we pray. Amen.

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Sermon – 7 August 2022

Scripture Reading: Proverbs 26:20-23 (KJV)

Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth. As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife. The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly. Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross.

MESSAGE

Adding fuel to fire is a common expression used on someone who intentionally attempts to cause dispute and strife of others through their malicious words. It is used as an analogy to a person who ignites negative and hostile relationship between two or more persons. Sadly, often the people that this evil person trying to intentionally ignite more negative and hostile relationship is usually also their acquaintance. Put it blatantly, this person who put fuel to the fire to create more fire often enjoys watching people “fighting and quarrelling”. He or she is an evil spectator love watching live or real (vs reel) movie of discord. The greater the fiery the quarrel and the fight the more he or she would enjoy watching. Of course, the opposite of this is a peace-maker who will consciously try to console the disputing parties by pouring “water (instead of fuel) to the fire”. As we know, water is one of the greatest enemies of fire and pouring water to fire will put out the fire and cool the surrounding. Sadly, peace-makers do not come by easily but still there are few we can find them among our circle of friends – thanks be to God and God will bless these peacemakers as they shall be called the children of God (Matthew 5:9). On the other in the Book of Proverbs we just read that one of the six things that God hate is a person who has a lying tongue, a heart that devises wicked plans and one who sows discord among people (Proverbs 6:-16-19). In fact, adding fuel to the fire in order to further destroy the already-fragile relationship of the disputing persons is synonymous with someone with lying lips who sows discords among people. They are also known as talebearers.

In this fallen world that we are living, sowing discord (aka adding fuel to the fire) is a principle works in any setting – whether in school, in work place, in social network, in church or even at home. In school, students are supposed to be trusted friends but sometimes they sow discords to create friction with one another. In the work place and I don’t think I need to say much about this especially for working adults. I would not be surprised that you might now be in the middle of such situation and wondering how to get out of it. Perhaps, you might have just carelessly mumbled a few ‘not so kind words’ about one of colleagues or it might just be due to a slip of your tongue. Unfortunately, this was over-heard by one of your talebearer colleagues who took this as opportunity to sow discords with the one whom you had ‘bad-mouthed’. You regretted for being so careless but, alas, too late as the matter might have escalated to a point that could cause you great miseries. Prayerfully, if you had been in this situation before you should learn your mistake and be more careful in your daily conversations. Admittedly, I was in one of these situations before! I learnt a hard truth of who are the friends you can actually trust and learnt to be more discerning in our conversations. This is just an illustration and it can happen anywhere and in any setting – even at home when family members may sow discords to create tense relationship in the family.

Over the last couple of weeks, the news of the visit by the Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the United States House of Representatives to Taiwan dominated the headlines all over the globe’s mass media. Constitutionally, the speaker of the House is second in the United States presidential line of succession, after the vice president. Hence, her view and her action has sent very strong connotation to the policies of the United States, especially in foreign relations. As we all know, almost all countries have acknowledged that there is only One China and that is the People’s Republic of China (PRC). With the exception of few handful countries, most countries around the world have established full diplomatic ties with China (or PRC) and accept that China represents all the Chinese in China and in Taiwan. These countries also accept that Taiwan is a province of China and the principle of One China is key to political stability in East Asia. Dismantling this understanding and acceptance of One China is a formula for potential military conflict and who knows this better than the U.S.! This attempt to dismantle of One China policy can be done by words and/or by deeds. The visit of the House speaker, Pelosi was a blatant action to both words and deeds perhaps with a hidden agenda to dispel that the One China policy is not what the U.S. can accept and, I believe this is what China thought to be the case based on the furious reactions of the government of China. To doubt the One China policy is a recipe for destabilising East Asia. When One China policy is not universally accepted by the world, especially when it is not accepted by the super-powers and the rich nations of the west, all hell will break loose. Although U.S. still openly maintains the One China policy as their political commitment but action speaks loudly than voice – so to speak. The visit of Pelosi to Taiwan may have sent a different signal to China and to the world at large.

(Please note: I am not a political writer. I am just stating political facts which you can check easily from google. I am not pro-China neither am I pro-Taiwan; also I am not anti-China neither am I anti-Taiwan. But I am anti-talebearers. I am a servant of Jesus Christ and I pray that my messages in the post here will inspire you to get closer to our Lord Jesus who is returning to this earth very soon. My sincere apologies to the Chinese people of China and of Taiwan if you have found some of the messages here offensive. For your information, I am a Chinese myself. My father was born in China and my mother a Taiwanese and she was born in Singapore. I love both China and Taiwan and I had visited both countries several times. Both my parents are with the Lord now. Praise God!)

As mentioned, the visit by the speaker, Nancy Pelosi dominated news coverage all over the world over the last few weeks but all for the wrong reasons. We read headlines like these: Nancy Pelosi begins controversial visit to Taiwan amid tension with China; Nancy Pelosi ‘shot herself in foot’ with Taiwan visit; China to ‘punish’ and ‘isolate’ Taiwan for Nancy Pelosi visit; Nancy Pelosi meets Taiwan’s president in her visit condemned by China; China’s military response after Pelosi’s Taiwan visit; China’s military launches air and sea exercises near Taiwan amid Pelosi’s visit.

And there are many more of such headlines in the news and some of them seem to incite more tension thus adding more fuels to the fire of the already tense China, Taiwan and the U.S. relationship even before the news of the visit. Indeed, the visit by the speaker is really unwarranted which both the U.S. President and the U.S. Army Chief had admitted and had advised Nancy Pelosi that it was not the right time to visit Taiwan. The last time that a U.S. house speaker visited Taiwan was 25 years ago! So, why the visit now after 25 years when the conflict between China, Taiwan and U.S. is at the highest since the cold war? Furthermore, why the visit when we are all now threatened with the possibility of Third World War since the war in Ukraine started and also when the on-going military conflict in the Middle East is now intensifying? Is just doesn’t make any sense other than the visit is to intentionally create chaos in East Asia! U.S. knew very well that Taiwan has no choice but to welcome the speaker with red-carpet as part of the diplomatic protocol! And the U.S. certainly knew China cannot accept a red-carpet welcome of the house speaker.

As we continue to watch the news and pray for our understanding and discernment, we can very quickly come to one conclusion – U.S. is playing and toying with fire, quite literally and intentionally, to destabilize the already poor China and Taiwan relationship. Perhaps, the real intent is to create a regional war in the Far East and with the war in Ukraine and the intensifying of armed conflict in the Middle East it will very likely signify the start of the Third World War if and when China really went ahead to attack Taiwan. Thankfully, as part of China’s hostility, it did not aim its military missiles directly at mainland Taiwan and instead did (and still doing) live firing around the sea of Taiwan. I believe, the last thing China want now is to have war as it is now facing heavy flooding in several provinces, the on-going Covid pandemic, fragile banking system, mass housing problems created by property developers and threats of economic recession, among others. For the time being, I believe the people of the Far East can sleep quite peacefully in spite of the tension of China, U.S. and Taiwan. Thankfully, many countries took a neutral stand and manage not to add any more fuel to the fire. Even in the U.S., some senate members were quite unhappy with the speaker’s visit to Taiwan – whether this is just staged or not we don’t know but let’s give them the benefit of the doubt that there are indeed good people in the U.S. high places who really want peace and stability. Praise be to God. We need however to also remind ourselves what the China had warned the U.S. – Those who play with fire will perish by it! This warning can also be a warning to us: Don’t play with fire; God hates talebears.

Let us all put our heart, mind and soul and pray that the current tension between China and Taiwan can be defused and pray that some good souls can come to be peacemakers can help to reduce the tension of China and Taiwan. This perhaps may be a wishful thinking but our God is God of Peace and all-powerful and nothing is impossible to Him. As we read that wars and rumours of wars is one of a very significant apocalyptic events that will happen before the imminent return of our Lord Jesus and catch us up to His Kingdom, we pray that many will come to acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God and that His precious blood will save us from all our sins and lead us to everlasting life. (John 3:16)

As we all can see, the world is now set for Jesus to return because wickedness and evils are everywhere. We must continue to stay awake and be watchful all the times and one of the most effective ways to do this is to pray always, to read often God’s word and to be thankful always to God in whatever circumstances we are in. We must fully acknowledge that the word of God will give us the knowledge of peace and wisdom and will teach us to know what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad, what is pleasing to God and what God hates. As we know that the age of the Church is coming to an end, let’s us live in expectation like Jesus could return today. The worst thing that could happen to anyone of us is when Jesus return to take us up is when we are caught doing things that are not pleasing to Him. And it would really be tragic when we meet Lord Jesus and he said to us: Depart from me, you evil doers! (Luke 13:27)

Let’s Pray

Dear Father God

Help us to be peace-makers as we are Your children (Matthew 5:9) and we like to thank and praise for Your love and mercies. Lord Jesus lifts our eyes always to remember Your kindness and know that our real help comes from You alone and only You are worthy of our praise. Lord Jesus, we acknowledge that You are the Maker of the heavens and the earth. We are now heading towards the end of the church age and while we are earnestly waiting for You to return, help us not to be fearful but to be endowed with the spirit of courage to make You the centre of our lives. Help us not to be disturbed or stressed by what we hear, by what we see and by what we read from the news just because it brought to us all but the bad news. The world is not falling apart. Quite to the contrary, the world is now falling into place for You to return! Lord Jesus, help us to share Your gospel of Good News to the unbelievers. This is the only News we need! Dear Lord, give us the strength – mentally, spiritually and physically – so that we can continue to carry out Your Great Commission of spreading Your Good News to the whole world.

In the Mighty Name of Jesus we pray. Amen!

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May I suggest before you read further to the messages in the post here, it would be good if you could view this Youtube
https://youtu.be/QuL3wlodJC8
This Youtube was a presentation given by Dr. Yuval Noah Harari who is the Chief Advisor at World Economic Forum. In particular, please note that he is telling the world that human beings are now hackable animals just like a computer! The topic of his presentation is:
Transhumanism and Eliminating Free Will

As we all know, Free Will is the most prized gift given by God to human so that we can exercise all our choices at will and be responsible for all our actions. Taking away free will will make us robots. This is what the New World Order (aka One World Government) attempts to do: “Do what we tell you. Worship what you are allowed to worship – only Satan and reject Jesus as your Lord and Saviou!“
Quite to the contrary. Unless we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, believing that Jesus died for our sins, admit that we are sinners and that the blood of Jesus is the only source to redeem us to the Father, we will perished into eternality!
John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

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Sermon – 31 July 2022

Scripture Reading: Romans 3:23 & 6:23 (KJV)

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23); For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23).

MESSAGE

Death is a very frightening word. None of us want to consciously think about it because somehow we normally relate this word to be synonymous with someone who had deliberating and incurable diseases like when someone got cancer, heart-attack, brain-stroke or other serious illnesses. Hence, we all assume death would not happen to us and neither will we be inflicted with one of these deliberating and incurable diseases – at least not in the near future. Many of us pretend that we can go living forever but we need to honestly take cognisant that we are all born to die one day. This may sound quite offensive to many people but this is just the plain truth – death is inevitable! No one can escape death. Sadly, not even God Himself! As we read in the Book of Mark 15:37 –  we read that the Son of God, Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up His spirit. He literally died but we all know the Son of God died in order to give us the gift of eternal life (John 3:16; Romans 6:23b). But who killed Jesus? It was not the Roman soldiers, it was not the Jews, it was not King Herod, it was not the high priest Caiaphas and it was not Judas Iscariot. Jesus was killed by you and me because of our sins!

If man is created in the image of God, why he (and also God!) has to die? Why do people have to struggle with so many problems? Why do people have so much trouble getting along with each others? Why do people never seem to satisfy what they have already had and wanted more and more? Why are there so many wars? Why are people so selfish and care only for themselves? These and many similar questions of conscience tell us there is something wrong, very wrong with man. Hence, the next question is: Who are responsible for all these and how all these started? Thankfully, we can find the answers in the Holy Book, the Bible.

The first big question many have is: Why death is necessary? Philosophers and scientists may come up with many reasons but the most honest answer we can find is in the Bible verses which we just read: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; for the wages of sin is death.

The word “die” first appeared in the Bible in Genesis 2:17 when God warned Adam and Eve not to eat from the fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil for the day they eat they shall surely die. Tragically, they disobeyed the warning. The death of Adam and Eve was not just physically but also emotionally and spiritually. Both Adam and his wife Eve were so emotionally dislodged after they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil that they felt ashamed when they were naked even though they were husband and wife. No one was around them except God who created them and they were still so ashamed of their nakedness that they hid themselves from the presence of God among the trees of the garden. The death of Adam and Eve and all their descendants (which include you and me) is but a deserving destiny because sin has become the prime source of human’s desire. Sin in strict biblical sense is an immoral act against the Holy God and is a serious transgression of the divine law which causes us to continuously act against the will of God. From this disobedience of just one restriction laid down by God not to eat of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, man became less than he was created to be. Before the fall, man desired to know and follow God. Afterward, man’s attitudes were hostile towards God (Romans 8:5-8) and man started to commit all kinds of wickedness.

As we can read in Genesis 6:5, God saw that the wickedness of man was great and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually. Our mind is pre-occupied with evil thoughts continually and God knew all about it. As we read the Bible just into the first few chapters of the book of Genesis, we will soon discover that all kinds of human perversions started to take place. To survive, we need to kill animals for food. In fact, man need to kill and destroy in order to survive. The first recorded murder was committed when the second son of Adam who killed his brother out of jealousy (Genesis 4:8); unrighteous behaviour started to infiltrate to the whole society and people in Noah’s time ignored the preaching of Noah who was called the preacher of righteousness even though Noah kept preaching about the need for righteous living for hundred and twenty years (2 Peter 2:5); sexual immorality was widespread as we read the history of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:20; Genesis 19:5); relationship among people eroded to the point that betraying one another has now become the order of the day and now we don’t know who we can trust. Man always wanted to be gods and also started to worship idols that man himself created (Exodus 32:1-8) instead of worshipping the Creator, the One True God. When God saw all these, God regretted that He had made man on earth, and His heart was deeply troubled and grieved (Genesis 6:5-6). Very sadly, in order to put every back to what God has originally intended – that is a perfect, sinless and holy environment so that sinless man that God created could dwell with Him forever – God himself has to pay His life for the sin of man by becoming man himself to die on the cross. The death of God on the cross at Calvary reverses what Adam and Eve had done and perverted the God’s original creation. Through the death of Jesus, we are now able to be redeemed to the Kingdom of God. However, this is only possible if we are willing to confess our sins, to believe that Jesus, the Son of God died and rose again on the third day, to accept the atoning blood of God’s only Son and to repent of all our sins. We must believe what is written in the Bible, John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in Him should never perish but have everlasting life.

As we are now marching towards the end of the Church Age, I like to continue to emphasize that our Creator is sparing no effort to bring His crown creation – that is human race – to His Kingdom. We are living in the most exciting period of humanity – the period that our Lord Jesus has promised to return to bring us back to His Kingdom. We must continue to be alert to the nearness of the rapture of the Church. We are told by our Lord Jesus himself (John 14:2-5): In my Father’s house are many questions if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Although the wrath of God against sin and idolatry will intensify and expand as we approach towards the return of Christ and His Second Coming, no truly born again Christian will be the object of it. We will be preserved and we will be eternally safe and secured. God has sealed all His children with the Holy Spirit and no amount of suffering or hardship can separate us from the love of God in Christ. Amid all the argumentation over the rapture of the Church of Jesus may we never lose sight of the imminence of the return of our Lord Jesus (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18). Lord Jesus could return anytime. It could be the next hour; it could be the next day. We don’t know but we know He is coming back very, very soon! This is our blessed hope!

There is a complete global paradigm shift right now and we are already told and warned time and again the Great Reset (aka One World Government) that is so evident and prevalent with the abounding lawlessness is paving the way for the lawless one, the Antichrist, to rule the earth. I don’t own a crystal ball to tell you the exact day of the rapture but the Bible is crystal clear on the convergence of end time apocalyptic signs of chaos, the rapture of the Church of Jesus Christ will occur before the 7-year great tribulation takes place when the lawless one, the Antichrist will take complete control of this earth once the Church is removed out of this earth (2 Thessalonians 2:6). We must be alert and see the foreshadowing of these endtime apocalyptic signs of chaos that are happening right before our very eyes then look up and lift up our heads because our redemption draws near! (Luke 21:28). These are very comforting words which will bring positive feeling that we have blessed hope in Christ Jesus and it completely negates our ill feelings of the word “Death” because death is sorrowed up in victory when our Lord Jesus rose up from the grave (1 Corinthians 15:51-57). Thanks be to God we now have the victory and the marvellous gift of God of eternal life for the salvation of our souls through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

You are indeed my good Shepherd. Lord Jesus thank you for making me to lie down in green pastures and give me the lead me to drink Your living water of life. Help me Lord. Give me the strength to repent daily and to walk in the never-ending path of righteousness for your namesake. Thank you Lord for the blessed hope that very soon we will be able to dwell in Your house forever.

Help me Lord to spread your good news to those who still do not know You. Give me the courage not to be ashamed of your good news gospel, your birth, suffering, death, resurrection, your ascension to heaven and now sitting at the right hand of the Father. Lord, give me the courage to share all these with other people that they might come to know and accept You as their Saviour.

MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL THE READING OF THE MESSAGE.

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JOHN 3:16
FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE.

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Please note that Living Smyrna Church of Christ (LSCC) do not accept gifts or donations in any form as LSCC strongly believes by faith that Christ Jesus will provide all the necessary resources for this mission of Great Commission. It is our prayer that the messages posted here can bring you closer to our Lord Jesus and get ourselves ready to meet Him.

May God Bless You All the Reading of the Messages

All comments are welcome! You can send your comments to:
kttanlscc@gmail.com
livingmyrnachurchofchrist@yahoo.com

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Sermon – 31 July 2022

Scripture Reading: Romans 3:23 & 6:23 (KJV)

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23); For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23).

MESSAGE

Death is a very frightening word. None of us want to consciously think about it because somehow we normally relate this word to be synonymous with someone who had deliberating and incurable diseases like when someone got cancer, heart-attack, brain-stroke or other serious illnesses. Hence, we all assume death would not happen to us and neither will we be inflicted with one of these deliberating and incurable diseases – at least not in the near future. Many of us pretend that we can go living forever but we need to honestly take cognisant that we are all born to die one day. This may sound quite offensive to many people but this is just the plain truth – death is inevitable! No one can escape death. Sadly, not even God Himself! As we read in the Book of Mark 15:37 –  we read that the Son of God, Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up His spirit. He literally died but we all know the Son of God died in order to give us the gift of eternal life (John 3:16; Romans 6:23b). But who killed Jesus? It was not the Roman soldiers, it was not the Jews, it was not King Herod, it was not the high priest Caiaphas and it was not Judas Iscariot. Jesus was killed by you and me because of our sins!

If man is created in the image of God, why he (and also God!) has to die? Why do people have to struggle with so many problems? Why do people have so much trouble getting along with each others? Why do people never seem to satisfy what they have already had and wanted more and more? Why are there so many wars? Why are people so selfish and care only for themselves? These and many similar questions of conscience tell us there is something wrong, very wrong with man. Hence, the next question is: Who are responsible for all these and how all these started? Thankfully, we can find the answers in the Holy Book, the Bible.

The first big question many have is: Why death is necessary? Philosophers and scientists may come up with many reasons but the most honest answer we can find is in the Bible verses which we just read: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; for the wages of sin is death.

The word “die” first appeared in the Bible in Genesis 2:17 when God warned Adam and Eve not to eat from the fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil for the day they eat they shall surely die. Tragically, they disobeyed the warning. The death of Adam and Eve was not just physically but also emotionally and spiritually. Both Adam and his wife Eve were so emotionally dislodged after they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil that they felt ashamed when they were naked even though they were husband and wife. No one was around them except God who created them and they were still so ashamed of their nakedness that they hid themselves from the presence of God among the trees of the garden. The death of Adam and Eve and all their descendants (which include you and me) is but a deserving destiny because sin has become the prime source of human’s desire. Sin in strict biblical sense is an immoral act against the Holy God and is a serious transgression of the divine law which causes us to continuously act against the will of God. From this disobedience of just one restriction laid down by God not to eat of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, man became less than he was created to be. Before the fall, man desired to know and follow God. Afterward, man’s attitudes were hostile towards God (Romans 8:5-8) and man started to commit all kinds of wickedness.

As we can read in Genesis 6:5, God saw that the wickedness of man was great and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually. Our mind is pre-occupied with evil thoughts continually and God knew all about it.  As we read the Bible just into the first few chapters of the book of Genesis, we will soon discover that all kinds of human perversions started to take place. To survive, we need to kill animals for food. In fact, man need to kill and destroy in order to survive. The first recorded murder was committed when the second son of Adam killed his brother out of jealousy (Genesis 4:8); unrighteous behaviour started to infiltrate to the whole society and people in Noah’s time ignored the preaching of Noah who was called the preacher of righteousness even though Noah kept preaching about the need for righteous living for hundred and twenty years (2 Peter 2:5); sexual immorality was widespread as we read the history of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:20; Genesis 19:5); relationship among people eroded to the point that betraying one another has now become the order of the day and now we don’t know who we can trust. Man always wanted to be gods and also started to worship idols that man himself created (Exodus 32:1-8) instead of worshipping the Creator, the One True God. When God saw all these, God regretted that He had made man on earth, and His heart was deeply troubled and grieved (Genesis 6:5-6). Very sadly, in order to put every back to what God has originally intended – that is a perfect, sinless and holy environment so that sinless man that God created could dwell with the Him forever – God himself has to pay His life for the sin of man by becoming man himself to die on the cross. The death of God on the cross at Calvary reverses what Adam and Eve had done and perverted the God’s original creation. Through the death of Jesus, we are now able to be redeemed to the Kingdom of God. However, this is only possible if we are willing to confess our sins, to believe that Jesus, the Son of God died and rose again on the third day, to accept the atoning blood of God’s only Son and to repent of all our sins. We must believe what is written in the Bible, John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in Him should never perish but have everlasting life.

As we are now marching towards the end of the Church Age, I like to continue to emphasize that our Creator is sparing no effort to bring His crown creation – that is human race – to His Kingdom. We are living in the most exciting period of humanity – the period that our Lord Jesus has promised to return to bring us back to His Kingdom. We must continue to be alert to the nearness of the rapture of the Church. We are told by our Lord Jesus himself (John 14:2-5): In my Father’s house are many questions if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will taken you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Although the wrath of God against sin and idolatry will intensify and expand as we approach towards the return of Christ and His Second Coming, no truly born again Christian will be the object of it. We will be preserved and we will be eternally safe and secured. God has sealed all His children with the Holy Spirit and no amount of suffering or hardship can separate us from the love of God in Christ. Amid all the argumentation over the rapture of the Church of Jesus may we never lose sight of the imminence of the return of our Lord Jesus (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18). Lord Jesus could return anytime. It could be the next hour; it could be the next day. We don’t know but we know He is coming back very, very soon! This is our blessed hope!

There is a complete global paradigm shift right now and we are already told and warned time and again the Great Reset (aka One World Government) that is so evident and prevalent with the abounding lawlessness is paving the way for the lawless one, the Antichrist, look to rule the earth. I don’t own a crystal ball to tell you the exact day of the rapture but the Bible is crystal clear on the convergence of end time apocalyptic signs of chaos, the rapture of the Church of Jesus Christ will occur before the 7-year great tribulation takes place when the lawless one, the Antichrist will take complete control of this earth once the Church is removed out of this earth (2 Thessalonians 2:6). We must be alert and see the foreshadowing of these endtime apocalyptic signs of chaos that are happening right before our very eyes then look up and lift up our heads because our redemption draws near! (Luke 21:28). These are very comforting words which will bring positive feeling that we have blessed hope in Christ Jesus and it completely negates our ill feelings of the word “Death” because death is sorrowed up in victory when our Lord Jesus rose up from the grave (1 Corinthians 15:51-57). Thanks be to God we now have the victory and the marvellous gift of God of eternal life for the salvation of our souls through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

You are indeed my good Shepherd. Lord Jesus thank you for making me to lie down in green pastures and give me the lead me to drink Your living water of life. Help me Lord. Give me the strength to repent daily and to walk in the never-ending path of righteousness for your namesake. Thank you Lord for the blessed hope that very soon we will be able to dwell in Your house forever.

Help me Lord to spread your good news to those who still do not know You. Give me the courage not to be ashamed of your good news gospel, your birth, suffering, death, resurrection, your ascension to heaven and now sitting at the right hand of the Father. Lord, give me the courage to share all these with other people that they might come to know and accept You as their Saviour.

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Sermon – 24 July 2022

Scripture Reading: Psalm 118:8 (KJV)

It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.

MESSAGE

As we are all aware, we are now living in one of the most confusing periods of human history – perhaps the most confusing, if I may say. When the first case of Covid-19 infection was discovered in December 2019, the world was initially told that it was spread by bats in Wuhan wet markets in China. Weeks later political leaders and scientific community around the world started to blame China because Wuhan wet markets were selling bats as part of the local food delicacies. So they thought.

The story then quickly changed by the weeks. Not too soon, fingers started to point at U.S. that the virus was man-made bio-weapon. We were later told that U.S. had indeed funded Wuhan Lab research programme to create man-made viruses for military purpose. Whether Covid virus is one of them is still not clear. No one, just no one can confidently tell us what is the real story behind the Covid-19 virus. Was this a man-made virus or was it transmitted by eating bats?  This is a one million dollar question that no one has the answer yet. While we are still wondering the ‘origin’ of the Covid-19 virus and the source of the viral transmission from human to human remains unclear, we are now confronting with the tens of Covid-19 variants as well as latest scare of monkeypox virus which is spreading quite badly in some countries. Will there be another forced mass vaccination of some sort or locked down? Worst, will there be some more directives from influential institutions like WHO or America CDC to mandate compulsory mass vaccination? Will these influential institutions trying to do all they can to destabilize the world by creating fear in order to achieve their evil motives like using this so-called pandemic to bring about the Great Reset (aka One World Government)? Your guest is as good (or as bad) as mine!

We also know that not soon after Covid-19 was spreading like wild fire, major pharmaceutical companies came out with vaccines in double quick time. Typically, for a vaccine to be effect, it normally takes an average of 6 to 8 years to develop, Covid-19 vaccines, however, took less than two years to develop by-passing many clinical trials that are normally required in a typical vaccine development. We know even for HIV vaccine, there is still no effective vaccine after over 40 years of medical research. How then could the Covid-19 vaccines be produced in less than 24 months. Well, these big pharmaceutical companies started to cook up their scientific claims that the Covid vaccines were developed by using a new bio-technology known as mRNA. (And I was wondering why didn’t they use the same technology for the HIV virus?) So, gone were the days that a vaccine needs to take 6 to 8 years to develop. Now vaccines could be produced in less than 2 years or perhaps within few months with this new mRNA technology! But doctors and medical community seemed to ignore the plain truth that the vaccine is approved only for emergency use and the manufacturers are protected by law from any lawsuits in the event the vaccines cause injuries. This is unprecedented and now the pharmaceutical companies which manufactured these vaccines are laughing all the way to the bank!

I don’t think I need to go further than to just say that we are just simply confused (and frustrated) – confuse whether these Covid vaccines are really effective or even safe, confuse whether these big pharmaceutical companies are really taking the advantage of Covid pandemic as money generating machine at the expense of human lives, confuse whether some governments are involved in some hidden agenda to depopulate the world because conspiracy theory tends to indicate that very influential top politicians felt that the world’s resources cannot sustain the current level of population and hence have to be depopulated to a managing level. We are confused whether reports provided by both the government and the pharmaceutical companies regarding the efficacy and the safety of the vaccines are the true state of the affair. We are confused whether Covid vaccines are actually used as a mean to cause mass death of people as part of the depopulation agenda, and so on. We just don’t know what to believe and who we can trust; who is telling the truth and who is not!

Thankfully, Covid-19 has taught us one great biblical lesson: We just can’t trust anyone to tell us anything! We can only get the truth from the word of God as we read in John 8:31-32 when Jesus told his disciples to abide in His word and His word will set them free. That’s a wonderful promise that we all must take it seriously, especially when we feel the need for some sort of healing – whether difficulty in illness, injury, financial hardship, a troubled relationship, or anything else. We can now be assured that reading the word of God, the Bible, will lead us to absolute truth. What we need now is nothing but the truth! And that we can only get from the word of God, the Bible.

Pestilence is a very scary event and history has shown that it can kill millions of people. When we examine the books of the Bible, we will notice that pestilence (among others such as lawlessness, great falling away of the faith of believers, gross immorality, etc) is one of the end-time events that must happen before the appearance of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. (Note: As you might be aware, I have posted here quite a few end-time messages which include the Rapture of the Church (that is we will be caught up to meet our Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17) and the second coming of Jesus to start His one thousand reign on this earth (Matthew 24:31; Revelation 19:11-12; 20:4-5). You might want to scroll further down to read these messages.)

My message today is to encourage readers how we as born-again Christians need to continue to live confidently and assuredly that we can fully trust our Holy God (Psalms 118:8). To the unbelievers, the world is now falling apart. But to all born-again Christians, all the events that are happening now is a resounding fulfilment of the prophecies for the appearance of our Lord Jesus. Hence, we should not be perturbed by all these events. Quite the contrary, these end-time events that we are witnessing now are putting in place for our Lord Jesus to appear and to catch us up to meet Him in the air.

While we are waiting for His appearance, let’s admit we are living in a very uncertain world and any uncertainty will cause us to be fearful. We must, however, remind ourselves not to be fearful. There are hundreds of verses in the Bible that tell us “Fear not for I am with you”. All we need is to cry out to God, and God will hear us when we cry out to Him (Psalms 54:2). God is our Helper in all our needs. Let us also dedicate this message of prayer to cry out to our Living God, Lord Jesus in season and out of season because the current world situations really demand us to fully trust Him. He will bring good tithings and holy blessings to everyone of us who trust in Him.

Let’s us pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

Help me:

In every need. Let me come to you with a humble trust saying,
Jesus help me.
In all my doubts, perplexities and temptations,
Jesus help me.
In hours of loneliness, weariness and trials,
Jesus help me.
In failure of my plans and hopes, in disappointments, troubles and sorrows, Jesus help me.
When other fail me and Your grace alone can assist me,
Jesus help me.
When I throw myself on Your tender love, as my Lord and Saviour,
Jesus help me.
When my heart is cast down by failure at seeing no good coming from my efforts, Jesus help me. When I am ill and my head and hands cannot work, and I am lonely,
Jesus help me.
Always, always, in spite of weariness, falls and shortcomings of every kind, Jesus help me and never forsake me
Almighty Lord, before You I come with my faith, begging You for comfort in my difficulties. Do not forsake me, My Lord. Open Your doors, that Your Almighty Arms will open and close as You design to give that tranquility that I so desire.
Oh my God! Receive my supplication from a wounded heart that is always fighting for me with your divine power. Never let me scramble for want of help.
Almighty Lord, assist me to find shelter in Your celestial bounty forever.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I seek Your Help. Amen

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Sermon – 17 July 2022

Scripture Reading: 2 Peter 3:3-4 (KJV)

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

MESSAGE

I believe some of you all might have heard of this slogan: The Great Reset. This is the slogan that was used during the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) held in June 2020. The WEF was founded by Prof. Klaus Schwab who is currently the Executive Chairman. At the forum this was what he said: “The pandemic represents a rare but narrow opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world”. What he said is that the current system of governance by individual country’s elected politicians is not working. We need a global government. The pandemic is now the best opportunity to bring about the Great Reset. It has to be done right now.

The ‘pandemic’ that he spoke about is the Covid-19 when the world trickled a total and unprecedented global panic. The rest is history as we all know – the compulsory wearing of masks, people were locked down, factories couldn’t function and the list goes on. His message is not so much of Covid virus. Rather, he was telling the world to prepare for a Great Reset which will herald a system of global government (aka One World Government) and the Covid-19 is the best opportunity to convince the world that we need to move to One World Government in order to control any global crisis.

I am writing this message to let you all know that every effort is now taken by the WHO and WEF to bring about the Great Reset and why we should be very concerned.

Thankfully, I have read quite a bit on these topics both from Christian sources and secular sources. This global Great Reset is a precursor to herald for the Anti-Christ to come and to take full control of the world by enforcing individual country’s government to submit its authority to this One World Government. Many people believe that WEF is the main catalyst to the formation of this One World Government.

Notably, among other agenda, this One World Government will implement the mark of beast which is likely to be in the form of injectable micro-chip. The mark of the beast, as we can read in Revelation 13:16-17 that unless you take this mark of the beast, you will not be able to participate in all financial activities. (I have written several messages on the “mark of the beast” in my blog here. You can scroll down if you like to find out more about the “mark of the beast.)


The technology to produce this injectable micro-chip is already here. Hence, implementing this can be at any moment. This injectable micro-chip will be made compulsory and those who refused to take this mark of the beast (or the injectable micro-chip) will be killed (Revelation 13:15-17). This micro-chip is a very powerful digital tool for the One World Government to control our finances as well as all aspects of our lives. For examples, when this micro-chip is implanted into our hand (or forehead) and you will just need to scan your hand (or forehead) when you check-out from grocery stores and the amount will be deducted from your digital currency account; also depending on your traveling needs, your money which may be programmed in such a way that you can only pump up to 250 litres of petrol per month. Once this limit is reached, you will not allow to buy anymore petrol. You will have to request for a new allocation and your travelling patterns are captured in the digital chip will let them determine how much petrol you will be allocated; your paper currency will be totally eliminated. All transactions will go digital and deposited in a central bank. The government will have full control of your money. The purchasing power of your $100 and my $ 100 are not the same. It can be programmed for you to buy certain things which will be different from one person to another. For example, unless you have very young children, you might not be able to use the money to buy milk powder. These are just examples of what this micro-chip is capable of doing. All your hard-currency will be converted into programable money which may restrict or allow you from buying only certain things, depending on your family needs.

Thankfully, we can escape all this before this mark of the beast system (aka injectable micro-chip) is implemented. In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 we are told that Jesus will return to catch us up to meet Him the air. Once all believers are taken up to meet Jesus, it will be the end of the Church Age. The implanting of the mark of beast (aka micro-chop) will only happen after the Church is taken up (raptured) to meet our Lord Jesus. After this rapture, all hell will break loose. The Anti-Christ who will receive the authority from Satan will start to implement this mark of beast. Those who are not raptured to meet our Lord Jesus will be left behind and they will have only two choices – to take the mark of beast (aka micro-chip) or refuse to take and be killed by the Anti-Christ. This is because taking the mark of the beast will signify that you have accepted the Anti-Christ as your god and to worship the Anti-Christ. Those who refused to take the mark of the beast will be beheaded! But be warned, if anyone have taken the mark of the beast, he or she will not be accepted into the Kingdom of God! Please, in the event you are left behind, DO NOT TAKE THE MARK OF THE BEAST!

As we look into the world events today, we are closer that the Church Age is coming to an end very soon when all believers are raptured and taken out of this world. This will be time when the Church is completely removed out of this world.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, please take this as a serious warning! As we read the scripture in 2 Peter 3:3-4, Apostle Peter already anticipated that in the last days there will be many scoffers and said where is the coming of the Lord and many continue to live with no expectation that Jesus is coming. Do not scoffer or make fun of this warning.

Let us all get ready to meet Living God, Jesus. We need to live a repented life, to turn away from our sin, to thank Him, to praise Him daily and to do our part to share the Good News of Jesus with others. More importantly, pray that we can escape from the wrath of God that is coming very soon and we are taken out of this world.

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank you for carrying me in good and in bad times. I know You are always with me and I am safe in Your Mighty Hand at all the times. You are the God of Miracles, God of the Healer and a very faithful and loving God that I can fully trust. I truly like to confess my sin and ask for Your forgiveness. Help me Lord to live according to your will, please forgive me for all the sins that I have committed – the past, the present and those that I may commit. Help me to repent and not to commit anymore sins. Lord, I know You are always with me regardless of my situation. I know we are all living in a world full of corruptions, wickedness and injustices but Lord I want to thank You that You will give me the strength to race forward. I want to thank you for the blessed hope of meeting You very soon.  Help me not to lose sight of Your imminent return to take up to be with You.

In the Mighty Name of Jesus, I pray. Amen

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10 July 2022
Scripture Reading: Luke 17:34-36 (KJV)

I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

MESSAGE

Just three days’ ago, many of us were astonished when news broke out that former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, was shot with critical gun wounds and many people were trying to piece together what was happening. Japan may be not be near to some of us, but for this to happen in Japan is unheard of because Japan pride itself to be one of the safest countries in the world, if not the safest. Unlike America, private ownership of guns in Japan is near impossible. I don’t think we have heard of any gun robbery in Japan! So, how did the assailant get hold his deadly weapon. Preliminary investigation indicated the assailant had a home-made gun.

Later in the same day, news broke that Mr. Abe could not survive the gun shot. Political leaders around the world started pouring in their condolences. India in fact has announced a day of mourning as the Prime Minister of India held very high regard to the late Shinzo Abe for his leadership.

Regardless of the reasons, violent should not and must not be tolerated. No one should take the law in their own hands. But, alas! This is just a utopian ideology that society can be violent-free and disagreements can be resolved peacefully through proper channels. It is very sad and tragic for us to hear that the rich are bullying the poor, the powerful are bullying the helpless, and the list can go on. Indeed, the world is now on edge of total collapse due to corruption at high places, gross injustices, terrorism, catastrophes, economic and financial turmoil, food and energy turmoil, religious turmoil, social turmoil, environmental turmoil, wars and rumours of wars. The Middle East is a hot bed for possible nuclear war when terrorists could get hold one of the nuclear bombs. The war between Russian and Ukraine is a potential flash point for another world war which could see the use of nuclear bombs. All hell will break loose in the far East and perhaps the whole world when China invades Taiwan and when U.S. and Nato are involved in the military conflict. This is a high possibility as China’s top leadership has been given frequent warnings it does not rule out the use of military force to unite Taiwan.

If you read the Bible you know that these have been foretold several thousands of years ago. In particular, the books of Ezekiel, Daniel and Revelation have prophesied them – global calamities of every conceivable kind from political, economic, social to cosmic enviroments – will happen. Such events are clear signs that our Lord Jesus will come to intervene and put an end to this in-sicked world and to begin His righteous rule of a new earth.

There will be two very important events that are also prophesied in the Bible of how the world would be ended. These two events will affect all our lives more than anything else in the recorded history of mankind. They are:

However, it must be noted that once the Church is removed, the seven years of great tribulation will start and those who are not raptured will have to go through this seven years of great tribulation. (I have written quite a few messages in the post here concerning the great tribulation and if you want to read them, please scroll further down).

In the verses we read in Luke 17:34-36, Lord Jesus told His disciples that only those who are true believers will be caught up to meet Him in the air and those who rejected Him will be left behind to face the wrath of God (aka the great tribulation). This will be the period when Satan unleashes his power in full force and he will try every conceivable attempt to stop all those left behind who rejected Jesus earlier to accept Lord Jesus as their Messiah and to worship Jesus as their God. It will be the time of untold miseries! Prayerfully, you will not be here and be raptured to be with our Lord Jesus.

When you have missed the rapture and left behind, you have two and only two choices – one, acknowledge and to worship the Antichrist (which is Satan’s presentative on earth) by taking the mark of the beast, or two, reject the taking the mark of the beast but accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. If you chose, to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and refuse to take the mark of the beast and worship the beast you will be killed! (Revelation 13:15-17).

What is the “mark of the beast?” Well, I am not speculating but accordingly to some people including scientists, the mark of the beast is a injectable micro-chips which not only allowed you do all the essential financial transactions, like buying and selling, the micro-chips will have the capabilities to control your bank accounts and to track all your activities. Depending on how you behaviour, the micro-chips can be turned on or turned off depends on whether you complied or failed to comply with the narratives of the few elite cult leaders. Once your implanted micro-chip is turned off, for example, your bank account will be completely frozen and you cannot buy or sell (Revelation 13:17). This is one of the many ways that the micro-chips can do to you and there are many more ways that can be used to control all aspects of your lives. But the most scary part, according to some scientists, is that the micro-chips will have man-made modified DNA incorporated into them so as to alter your genetic makeup when injected into your bodies. In other words, the micro-chips will have the capabilities to hack your DNA (perhaps using the man-made modified DNA as the tool to hack and alter human DNA). Dr. Yuval Noah Harari, the Chief Advisor to the World Economic Forum (WEF), has openly said: Human beings are now hackable animals. Together with WHO and United Nations, this unholy trinity comprising World Economic Forum, World Health Organisation and the United Nations are controlled by few elite cults (notably Executive, Klaus Schwab, , his cronies including Yuval Noah Harari and several multi-billionaires businessmen) are going to herald the New World Order (aka One World Government) and to in implement these injectable micro-chips (aka the mark of the beast). Once you are injected with the micro-chips which have the capabilities to hijack you and eliminate your free-will to choose who is going to be your god or God. You will only be left with one choice – that is to only accept Antichrist as your god. THIS IS A STERN REMINDER: SHOULD YOU BE LEFT BEHIND, NEVER, NEVER TAKE THE MARK OF THE BEAST (THE INJECTABLE MICRO-CHIPS)! Once you have taken, you will be destined for eternal destruction because you are Satan worshipper. (Revelation 14:9-10)

(Please note that I am not making this up when I mentioned that human beings are now hackable animals and the free-will will be eliminated. You may want to google for Yuval Noah Harari, World Economic Forum and you can listen to his presentation. Of course, whether the micro-chips will be incorporated with man-made modified DNA is a matter of speculation. (https://youtu.be/QuL3wlodJC8 for presentation by Dr. Yuval Noah Harari).

I therefore urge all readers here, especially Christians to take a very serious view that our Lord Jesus is coming very soon to rapture us to meet Him in the air. This is not a matter for you to mock or scoffer because when you started to mock or scoffer on our Lord Jesus’s return to rapture us and live like the days of Noah or the days of Lots, you may be left behind. Remember, Satan hates Christians and you will be the target for him to torture. Furthermore, Satan’s main motive since he was cast out from heaven is to bring with him as many of God’s children to eternal destruction as he possibly could. For the non-Christians, I sincerely pray that you can come to accept Jesus as your Saviour in three simple steps:

As we read the news of Late Shinzo Abe, we must realise that tomorrow is not guaranteed. Right now is the time to come to Jesus. We do not know what will happen to us tomorrow or even the next hour! Where will you when you leave this earth? Please think about this! Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. No man come to the Father but by Him. (John 14:6)

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

We like to thank and praise You for giving us the blessed hope of meeting You and to be with You forever. Please give us the discerning spirit to know that time is running out. We see evil everywhere. We see turmoil and cruelty of all inconceivable kinds are converging by the hours. We just simply cannot keep up with the news. As You have told us that when we see all these things, our redemption draws near. We ask You help us to prepare, to live our lives pleasing and acceptable to You.

Thank you, Lord Jesus. We praise You in the Your Mighty Name of Yeshua. Amen!

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3 July 2022

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 12:1-3 (KJV)

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint of your minds.

MESSAGE

As I read Hebrews 12:1a (NKJV): “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by the great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us” it reminds me of a Chinese idiom ”人在做天在看” and a literal interpretation could simply mean: “Whatever we do heaven is watching whether we are doing good deeds or bad deeds.” As we ponder further this Chinese idiom and the Bible verse Hebrews 12:1a we can note that their meanings are quite similar: Be careful! Whatever we do, heaven is watching and heaven will be our witness to all those deeds that we do on earth – both the good one and the bad one.

The great cloud of witnesses which we just read in Hebrews 12:1a, we are not told exactly of their identities but we know the clouds appeared all over our heads wherever we go. Their identities may be obscured but they are there to stand as witnesses before our God on the judgment day. As we look up into the skies we will notice several of their characteristics. Clouds never stayed still. They are always moving, sometimes slow, sometimes fast and their shape never stayed the same. They seem to be always looking at us. The changing of the shape of the clouds seems trying to tell us or teach us something important in order for us to improve our relationship with God.

As we understand that in the court of justice in every country, what does a witness says is more important and his or her identities. If a witness can convince the judge what is being said and proved to be ‘nothing but the truth’ his or her identity is the least not important. The judge will believe regardless of the identity.

In Hebrews 12:1, it simply said it’s “great a cloud of witnesses” and we don’t know of their exact identities or their names. We know, however, clouds are created by God. We must therefore assume this great cloud of witnesses are created by God to watch over us and to be the witnesses when we stand on the judgment day. This is perhaps the only single most important divine assignment that God has assigned these clouds to do and that is to document everything we do so that on judgment day they will testify as divine witnesses for God. They are to stand as witnesses whether we put our very effort to run the race, to complete the race and to fight a good fight (2 Timothy 4:7). We can be very sure that that they will say “nothing but the truth” before our Creator who will judge the living and the dead. (2 Timothy 4:1;1 Peter 4:5). This is good news for those who follow Christ and of course bad news for those who rejected Him (Matthew 25:46). Are we are running the race and could prove beyond any reasonable doubt that we could pass with flying colours when we stand before our Creator? Can we truly said in front of these cloud of witnesses that “Yes. Jesus was always the centre of my life.” Can we truly said in front of these cloud of witnesses that “Yes. I had never asked for more than what God had already me.” Or were we be just staring at the cloud of witnesses and found ourselves dumbfounded when we were being asked to answer such questions? Remembers, the cloud of witnesses have no rest day and take no breakfast, lunch nor dinner, not even tea-break. They would see everything we did and they would hear every word we uttered! Nothing could escape their eyes and their ears.

When I think of the judgment day, it can be very scary. What would my answers be to these cloud of witnesses? Will they say you had not lived like Jesus and He was never the centre of your life? Will they say you have never praised Him enough to show your gratefulness? Will they say you have not prayed enough and when you prayed you always asked for material things? Will they say your character was not genuine, you look good from the outside but inside you have the heart of a viper? How were they described us: as humble or as proud man? Will they say you never lifted up a single finger when people needed your help?” Will they say you only prayed when were you were in trouble? Will they say you always wanted more and more no matter how much you were given? Will they say you always wanted others to forgive you but you always harbored unforgiveness and hatred against others? Will they say your heart was never filled with gratitude for all the things that God had blessed you? Will they say my eyes were filled with greed and envy? Were they said you were full of arrogance and pride? Will they say you always put other people down? Will they say you always discouraged others no matter how much others had tried? Will they say what you did in private were very unpleasing to God? Will they say what you did in public was only for show? Will they say you were a cheat and a hypocrite? Will they say your walk with Christ was non-existence? Will they say you have never open and read the word of God and meditate on it?   

These are very scary questions and I have no answers to them! Our actions, our decisions, our thoughts do really matter. The cloud of witnesses are watching us day and night, in season and out of season. We thus need to guard our mind against our negative and unholy seeds of thoughts, against envy, jealousy and guard our eyes, our ears, our mouth against anything unholy. I pray that the Holy Spirit will give each and everyone of us strength to fight the good fight. Above all, I pray that God’s grace is upon our life.

The mere thought of standing before these cloud of witnesses to testify me before our Holy God can give me sleepless nights. As Christians, we often look like disciples or would like to look like disciples of Jesus. Look can be as far as it goes but it can go without substance. On the outside, we may look like Christ but on the inside our hearts are far away from the Lord. This is a very scary thought as we can read in Matthew 7:21, 23 – Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of God. Then I will say to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers. And we also read in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 – “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!” I am scared, very scared because will the cloud of witnesses proclaim to our Divine Judge that I was indeed one of these people!

The big question is: Are we living in the last days? Many church pastors who are very concerned about the end-times will undoubtedly say “Yes, we are now living in the last days and we must all prepare for the appearance of our Saviour.” I personally subscribed to this without any reservation. We are right now at the epic centre of what Prophet Isaiah has said: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight!” (Isaiah 5:20-21). Nothing can depart what Prophet Isaiah has prophesied even though these written over 2,700 years’ ago. The moral standard of the world can now best be explained as follows:

·      Then we permit evil.

·      Then we legalize evil.

·      Then we promote evil.

·      Then we celebrate evil.
·      Then we persecute or even prosecute those who call evil evil.

Dear Readers, regardless of whether you a believer or not a believer, tomorrow is not promised. We all need to come to our Living Saviour, Lord Jesus right away to ask Him to forgive our sins. Time is running out! We are all running at the last leg of the race and Lord Jesus is coming very, very soon. As one end-time preacher has commented: We are not in the last days. We are indeed in the last day of the last days! We are just few seconds away before Jesus’ return to this earth!  It is very important that we need to persist to live pleasing to God. Please do not take this lightly. Our Lord Jesus is coming. Remember what the Bible says: “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sowed, that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7). Remember that when Noah, the preacher of righteousness took virtually all his times to just do two things – building the Ark as commanded by God (Genesis 6:14) and preaching righteous living to the people but no one believed him (2 Peter 2:5). Thankfully, he did not waste his time in building the Ark which saved him and his family from the catastrophic floods. Sadly, his preaching of righteousness was totally in vain because people just ignored him and continue to live like nothing would happen. In fact, the people around him mocked at him for building the huge boat right in the desert. No one had ever seen rain let alone was told a catastrophic flood would come, so they thought. I don’t think I need to go further because the story (or rather the history) of Noah and the flood is well-known to many people as we can read in the Book of Genesis.

Likewise, we must not let our Saviour Jesus died in vain on the cross. Every drop of His blood that He shed for us is precious without which we cannot be redeemed and be reconciled to God. He is going to deliver His promise and to come and catch us up to be with Him forever and ever! (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). May I appeal to you and to humbly to say that this is not a message of hopelessness. Quite to the contrary, this is a message of comfort as we know that our next eternal destination is to be with our Lord Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 4:18). The is our Blessed Hope.

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus

Help me to live my life so that I can provide to You satisfactory answers to the questions when ask by Your divine witnesses. We know it is difficult but help me. Let me come to You with a humble and trusting heart saying: Lord Jesus, I confess my sins and I ask for Your forgiveness. Help me also to forgive others and not to harbour any hatred for whatever things people had done to me. Help me to be grateful to You and to people around me who have given me help and encouragement. In all my doubts, perplexities and temptations, Jesus help me that I can only find comfort with You and to search You to help me to do all the things that are pleasing to You and to do the right decisions.

Dear Lord Jesus, I know You are always with me and You will never forsake me when my heart is cast down by failure at seeing no good coming from my efforts. Almighty Lord Jesus, I come before with my faith, begging You for comfort, guidance and counsel during the time of trials. Above all, help me to be grateful to You and always express my deep sense of gratitude for all the things You allow in life. Help me to fully understand that all things can only happen to me with Your permission (Job 1:12). As we read in Isaiah 43:19 and 1 Corinthians 10:13 we know Lord Jesus You will always make a way for me when there is no other way. In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I seek Your Help. Amen

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LIVING SMYRNA CHURCH OF CHRIST

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OR
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Living Smyrna Church of Christ (LSCC) is an independent house-church located in the western part of Singapore. The main objective of LSCC is to spread the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as part of the Great Commission which our Lord Jesus has commanded all His followers to go and make disciples of all nations.
(Mathew 16-20).

Please note that LSCC do not accept gifts or donations in any form as LSCC strongly believes by faith that Christ Jesus will provide all the necessary resources for this mission of Great Commission. LSCC pray that the messages and all the information posted here will encourage all brothers and sisters to get closer to our God, Christ Jesus. More importantly, it is the sincere prayer of LSCC that the messages posted here will prepare you to meet our Living Saviour, Lord Jesus when He appears in the air to take us to be with Him.
1 Thessalonians 4:17-18

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STATEMENT OF FAITH

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MISSION

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LSCC takes no credit of the messages posted here as some parts of the messages were copied or extracted from other authors. LSCC, however, takes full responsibilities if the view expressed in the messages are offensive, or in your view, not in accordance with the Word of God, the Bible. LSCC welcome all feedback, comments and covet your holy counsel and will take every effort to learn, correct and edit the message, if necessary, in order to reflect God’s truth as LSCC strongly believes in sharing only the absolute truth of God’s Word because the truth shall make us free. (John 8:32)

If you so wish, you are encouraged to send your feedback to:
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3 July 2022
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 12:1-3 (KJV)

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint of your minds.

MESSAGE

As I read Hebrews 12:1a (NKJV): “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by the great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us” it reminds me of a Chinese idiom ”人在做天在看” and a literal interpretation could simply mean: “Whatever we do heaven is watching whether we are doing good deeds or bad deeds.” As we ponder further this Chinese idiom and the Bible verse Hebrews 12:1a we can note that their meanings are quite similar: Be careful! Whatever we do, heaven is watching and heaven will be our witness to all those deeds that we do on earth – both the good one and the bad one.

The great cloud of witnesses which we just read in Hebrews 12:1, we are not told exactly of their identities but we know the clouds appeared all over our heads wherever we go. Their identities may be obscured but they are there to stand as witnesses before our God on the judgment day. As we look up into the skies we will notice several of their characteristics. Clouds never stayed still. They are always moving, sometimes slow, sometimes fast and their shape never stayed the same. They seem to always following and looking at us. The changing of the shape seems to tell us they are trying to teach or correct us on something that is important in order for us to improve our relationships with God.

As we understand that in the court of justice in every country, what does a witness says is more important then his or her identities. If a witness can convince the judge what is being said and proved to be ‘Nothing but the truth’ his or her identity is the least not important. The judge will believe regardless of the identity.

In Hebrews 12:1, it simply said it’s “great a cloud of witnesses” and we don’t know their exact identities or their names. We know, however, clouds are created by God. We must therefore assume this great cloud of witnesses are created by God to watch over us and to be the witnesses when we stand on the judgment day. This is perhaps the only single most important divine assignment that God has assigned to these clouds to do and that is to document everything we do so that on judgment day they will testify as divine witnesses for God. They are to stand as witnesses whether we put our very effort to run the race of living righteous and holy lives, to complete this race and to fight a good fight even though we are very likely to encounter difficulties (2 Timothy 4:7). We can be very sure that that they will say “Nothing but the truth” before our Creator who will judge the living and the dead. (2 Timothy 4:1;1 Peter 4:5). This is good news for those who follow Christ and of course bad news for those who rejected Him (Matthew 25:46). Are we are running our race to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that we are indeed sincerely running to win a prize from our Heavenly Father? Can we truly said in front of these cloud of witnesses that “Yes. Jesus was always the centre of my life.” Can we truly said in front of these cloud of witnesses that “Yes. I had never asked for more than what God had already given to me.” Or were we be just staring at the cloud of witnesses and found ourselves dumbfounded when we were being asked to answer such questions? Remembers, the cloud of witnesses have no rest day and take no breakfast, lunch nor dinner, not even tea-break. They would see everything we did and they would hear every word we uttered! Nothing could escape their eyes and their ears.

When I think of the judgment day, it can be very scary. What would my answers be to these cloud of witnesses? Will they say you had not lived like Jesus and He was never the centre of your life? Will they say you have never praised Him enough to show your gratefulness? Will they say you have not prayed enough and when you prayed you always asked for material things? Will they say your character was not genuine, you look good from the outside but inside you have the heart of a viper? Will they describe me as humble or proud man? Will they say you never lifted up a single finger when people needed your help?” Will they say you only prayed when were you were in trouble? Will they say you always wanted more and more no matter how much you were given? Will they say you always wanted others to forgive you but you always harbored unforgiveness and hatred against others? Will they say your heart was never filled with gratitude for all the things that God had blessed you? Will they say my eyes were filled with greed and envy? Were they said you were full of arrogance and pride? Will they say you always put other people down? Will they say you always discouraged others no matter how hard others had tried? Will they say what you did in private were very unpleasing to God? Will they say what you did in public was only for show? Will they say you were a cheat and a hypocrite? Will they say your walk with Christ was non-existence? Will they say you have never open and read the word of God and meditate on it?   

These are very scary questions and I have no satisfactory answers all of them! Our actions, our decisions, our thoughts do really matter. The cloud of witnesses are watching us day and night, in season and out of season. We thus need to guard our mind against our negative and unholy seeds of thoughts, against envy, jealousy and guard our eyes, our ears, our mouth against anything unholy. I pray that the Holy Spirit will give each and everyone of us strength to fight the good fight. Above all, I pray that God’s grace is upon our life.

The mere thought of standing before these cloud of witnesses to testify me before our Holy God can give me sleepless nights. As Christians, we often look like disciples or would like to look like disciples of Jesus. Look can be as far as it goes but it can go without substance. On the outside, we may look like Christ but on the inside our hearts are far away from the Lord. This is a very scary thought as we can read in Matthew 7:21, 23 – Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of God. Then I will say to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers. And we also read in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 – “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!” I am scared, very scared because will the cloud of witnesses proclaim to our Divine Judge that I was indeed one of these people!

The big question is: Are we living in the last days? Many church pastors who are very concerned about the end-times will undoubtedly say “Yes, we are now living in the last days and we must all prepare for the appearance of our Saviour.” I personally subscribed to this without any reservation. We are right now at the epic centre of what Prophet Isaiah has said: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight!” (Isaiah 5:20-21). Nothing can depart from what Prophet Isaiah has prophesied even though these were written over 2,700 years’ ago. The moral standard of the world can now best be explained as follows:

And these are happening in many western countries! You are not allowed to call women women but people with ovaries! If you call a woman a woman you may be prosecuted. I wonder what men should be called! What a world we are living?

Dear Readers, regardless of whether you a believer or not a believer, tomorrow is not promised. We all need to come to our Living Saviour, Lord Jesus right away to ask Him to forgive our sins. Time is running out! We are all running at the last leg of the race and Lord Jesus is coming very, very soon. As one end-time preacher has commented: “We are not in the last days. We are indeed in the last day of the last days!” If I may add, we indeed are just few seconds away before Jesus’ return to this earth!  It is very important that we need to persist to live pleasing to God. Please do not take this lightly. Our Lord Jesus is coming. Remember what the Bible says: “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sowed, that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7). Remember that when Noah, the preacher of righteousness took virtually all his times to just do two things – building the Ark as commanded by God (Genesis 6:14) and preaching righteous living to the people but no one believed him (2 Peter 2:5). Thankfully, he did not waste his time in building the Ark which saved him and his family from the catastrophic floods. Sadly, his preaching of righteousness was totally in vain because people just ignored him and continue to live like nothing would happen. In fact, the people around him mocked at him for building the huge boat right in the desert. No one had ever seen rain let alone was told a catastrophic flood would come, so they thought. I don’t think I need to go further because the story (or rather the history) of Noah and the flood is well-known to many people as we can read in the Book of Genesis.

Likewise, we must not let our Saviour Jesus died in vain on the cross. Every drop of His blood that He shed for us is precious without which we cannot be redeemed and be reconciled to God. He is going to deliver His promise and to come and catch us up to be with Him forever and ever! (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). May I appeal to you and to humbly to say that this is not a message of hopelessness. Quite to the contrary, this is a message of hope and comfort as we know that our next eternal destination is to be with our Lord Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 4:18). The is our Blessed Hope that God has promised to us. Praise God!

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus

Help me to live my life so that I can provide to You satisfactory answers to the questions when asked by Your divine witnesses. We know it is difficult but help me. Let me come to You with a humble and trusting heart saying: Lord Jesus, I confess my sins and I ask for Your forgiveness. Help me also to forgive others and not to harbour any hatred for whatever things people had done to me. Help me to be grateful to You and to people around me who have given me help and encouragement. In all my doubts, perplexities and temptations, Jesus help me that I can only find comfort with You and to search You to help me to do all the things that are pleasing to You and to do the right decisions.

Dear Lord Jesus, I know You are always with me and You will never forsake me when my heart is cast down by failure at seeing no good coming from my efforts. Almighty Lord Jesus, I come before with my faith, begging You for comfort, guidance and counsel during the time of trials. Above all, help me to be grateful to You and always express my deep sense of gratitude for all the things You allow in life. Help me to fully understand that all things can only happen to me with Your permission (Job 1:12). As we read in Isaiah 43:19 and 1 Corinthians 10:13 we know Lord Jesus You will always make a way for me when there is no other way. In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I seek Your Help. Amen

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26 June 2022
Scripture Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18 (KJV)

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

MESSAGE

In 1 Thessalonians 4:17 which we just read is one of the most debated scriptures within the church community and I am very puzzled why should this verse cause so much disagreements among church leaders even school children can easily understand the meaning of the message of this scripture verse that Apostle Paul was conveying to us. A simple reading of the verse would give us a clear message that God will come down at an appointed time from heaven and will catch up all the believers – both the dead and those who are still alive – to be with Him in the air. This catching up of the believers referred to as the Rapture of the Church has caused disagreements within the church to the point that it is in a dire danger of dividing the church.

Those of us who believe in the rapture have been called everything from a conspiracy theorist to a rapture-nut looking aimlessly (and hopelessly) to the skies for the appearing of the Blessed Hope of the return of Jesus. I am absolutely sure that a day will come when the trumpet sound of Jesus’ return sounded and catch up all the believers to meet Him in the air then it will put to a final end to any disagreement once and for all! Thankfully, we are going to hear this trumpet sound very soon as the world is now perfectly set for our Lord’s imminent return to remove His Church out of this world. The scripture verse we just read: “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them (that is those who already died) in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air” paints a picture worth a thousand words because this will tighten the grip on the lives of many people who are wondering what on earth is going on and asking the question: Is the world is fallen apart?” Quite to the contrary, for believers who are strong in their faith, the world is not falling apart. Rather it is now putting in place for our Lord Jesus to deliver His promise to remove His Church out of this world as He has promised when He told his disciples: In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. (John 14:2-3)

As we look at the current events we can easily relate that these chaotic events are happening everywhere are converging for the rapture to take place. This prophetic convergence of world’s chaotic events is happening not on a daily, weekly nor monthly basis but it is converging on an hourly basis. These are the signs indicating to us that we are closer than ever before for Lord Jesus to return. The prophetic convergence of the world events is sending to us very urgent message that we are running the last leg of the race towards the Blessed Hope that Jesus Christ will come at any moment to take His Church to be with Him. This convergence of the world events is like a desert mirage that depicts the signs of the great tribulation awaiting to scorch the earth but not until the Church is removed from the world. The wait for our oasis which is the rapture of the Church will bring us to meet our Lord in the air is going to take place very soon. It is no wonder why we often find ourselves sympathetically overwhelmed by the love of our friends and relatives to see why they are still living like in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot when we see people are just living like nothing would happen. It is my sincere prayer that we all can come and view through a divine telescope that we are indeed in the last days of the church age. I don’t really mean that our beloved friends and relatives are living in wickedness or gross sinfulness like the people in Noah and in Lot’s days. What I mean is that many people are living like our lives will be back to normal of the pre-Covid of 2019. It’s a dream we all would like to have – back to normal – but, alas, this is not going to happen. The Covid-era that started in 2020 is heralding a completely new world and a global organisation, the World Economic Forum (WEF), is very open about it. The few elite leaders (and many people would prefer to call them “ the few cult leaders”) of the World Economic Forum (WEF) comprising mainly kings, presidents and prime ministers of major countries and the super-rich business billionaires has started their evil agenda of “Covid-19 Great Reset”. This Covid-19 Great Reset is nothing more than to operationalise all available digital tools (like implementing digital currency to control global economy; micro-chipping to track people of our every movement including but not limiting to what we buy, what we sell, what we eat, where we go; issuing of health/medical mandates enforcing compulsory ‘vaccination’ (or rather gene therapy), punishing people who refused to take in this gene therapy (which is simply controversial and dangerous). The effect of the health/medical mandates is to control the world population by creating fear into people that unless you take this ‘vaccination’ you are going to lose your job, you cannot go to attend classes, you are going to be very sick and many more. This is just a beginning. The WEF together with the World Health Organisation (WHO) are now quite shamefully assuming the self-appointed leadership of a world government and they will escalate with full force into something beyond our wildest imagination. Their ultimate goal of the Covid-19 Great Reset is put in place tools that will allow these few elite cult leaders to exercise absolute control of the population to ensure all their demands must be strictly complied with no matter what the demands are! In fact, the work of the Covid-19 Great Reset (which is an internationally political vehicle used as a cover for the formation of One World Government) is already at an advanced stage. Christians who have dived deep into the Book of Revelation are not surprised by all these because the “person” behind the Great Reset is the Evil One, Satan. This is Satan’s final all-out war to gain absolute control of the earth. From the very beginning when Satan was cast out of heaven after he had successfully deceived and tempted Adam and Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil at the Garden of Eden, he is working day and night, 24/7, 365 days to deceive God’s children. Let’s be honest to ourselves, the world is a place full of evil since Adam and Eve had disobeyed God to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. It is time now for God’s to fully intervene by ending the church age – that is remove His Church out of this world – because as believers of Jesus we are told that God has not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:9). The removal of the Church will fulfill this prophetic message that, we as God’s children, will escape the wrath.

Thankfully, the precious blood of Jesus that He shed for us on the Cross of Calvary cleansed us from all our sins and unrighteousness and while waiting for our Lord Jesus to return, we can now live holy, just, pure, and blameless life in obedience to God’s commandments. At the same time, we must remind ourselves that we are to live as sojourners or pilgrims of this world. Hence, we do not conform to this fallen world (Romans 12:1-2) neither do we “fit in” among those who are worldly (I Peter 4:1-5).  Sure, there are a lot of reasons for us to find ourselves vexed as we are still living in this sin-sick world (but not of the world) (John 15:19). We thus need to equip ourselves with the word of God that gives us peace, comfort and the Blessed Hope of His imminent return.

When our Lord Jesus was asked by His disciples when He would come again, our Lord Jesus would always point to the days of Noah and the days of Lot. In fact, we are now living in the same (or even worst) evil situations compared to that of Noah and Lot’s days! These remind us that during Noah’s day, God sent a catastrophic flood that destroyed all the earth’s inhabitants, except Noah, his family and those animals that God had commanded Noah to bring to the Ark, because the people rejected Noah’s preaching of righteous living and refused Noah’s warning that there would be a catastrophic flood. Likewise, in Lot’s days God sent fire and brimstones to Sodom and Gomorrah and turning the cities of Sodom or Gomorrah into ashes except Lot and his two daughters whom God had found them to be righteous. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were living in great sins and extreme wickedness so much so that the word “sodomy” is etymologically associated with gross perversion of sexual activities and the sexual disease of gonorrhoea is also etymologically associated with the name Gomorrah.

We can now see many countries are inundated with floods of unprecedented scale and earthquakes in many places. Take heed, this is a stern warning for us to truly repent so that we can be caught up with the Lord before the next prophetic cosmic and geologic events start that will result in extreme destruction of the earth. The next prophetic events will bring much sufferings to all the inhabitants such as the destructions of the earth by fire (very likely giant asteroids falling from the skies that will cause huge inferno across the globe), great earthquakes in diverse places which will result in global tsunami, much of the forests will be burnt up, countless crops will be destroyed by locusts, many rivers will turn into blood and so on. It will be a terrible time of untold suffering, worse than any other from the beginning of the world and there will never be anything like it again and the suffering is so great that God has to cut it short otherwise no one would survive (Matthew 24: 21-22).

So, what can we all do about this? Nothing! Absolutely nothing because the prophetic clock of God’s wrath is ticking fast! So, please realise that tomorrow is not promised. Rapture of the Church could take place at any moment. Today, right now is the time for each of us to turn to our Saviour in order to escape the wrath of God because God did not appoint us to His wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:9); for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son whosoever believed in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).

Let’s us pray.

Dear Heavenly Father,

We come before You to ask of you to forgive us our sins. We believe You are the resurrected Christ and through Your resurrection, You have conquered the greatest of all human enemy – Death.

We acknowledge and thank you for Your love by sending Your only Son, Jesus to die for us on the cross and took away our sins. We pledge to repent and to walk in accordance with Your will. We know that the prophetic clock of Your wrath is ticking fast and we urgently ask of You to spare us from the Great Tribulation by including us as your children in Your Church when You come to take us to meet You in the air.

Lord Jesus, help us to repent daily and help us to be well-equipped with Your holy words as we continue to be vexed by life challenges that we face each day. Your holy words always bring comfort to us and we truly want to thank and praise You for Your holy words.

In Your Mighty Name we pray. Amen!

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19 June 2022
Scripture Reading: Psalm 90:10 (KJV)

The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

MESSAGE


According to the World Health Organisation, the average global life expectancy in 2019 was about 73. It is amazing that this level of life expectancy is very close what was recorded in the Bible many hundred years’ ago! Most scientists estimate that the average life expectancy just one thousand years’ was less than 40 years. So, how did Moses know that the world population’s life expectancy would be around 70 to 80 towards the close of the church age (and we are now at the end of the church age)? Common-sense dictates that Moses who wrote this must have been led by the Holy Spirit because God is omniscient and He knows everything including how long we can live at any point in time.

Is this ‘bad’ news?” Certainly not! On the contrary, for many of us as Christians we should take comfort that we don’t need to live to few hundred years like many ancient people that we are told in the Book of Genesis. In this Book we are told that people lived to many hundreds of years. For example, Methuselah died at age 969, the longest person ever lived as recorded in the Book of Genesis, Jared died at age 962, Noah lived to 950, Adam 930 as well as many people who lived to several hundred years old. Before the Noah’s flood, it was very common for people to live to few hundred years.

Can you imagine you can go on living for another 250 years? And assuming that you can still stay healthy and continue working, would you really like to live that long? Think again! Do you seriously want to continue to do what you are now doing for another 200 years? Regardless of what job or occupation you are engaged in, it’s too common to hear from people that it will be their most wonderful day if they could just retire right away. Without exception, everyone of us is looking forward to retirement. Life is too stressful (and meaningless as we read in Psalm 90:10) on earth and almost every one of us is praying hard that we could just simply retire right away. But will retirement solve our problems? Will getting another big promotion will solve our career problems? When our children grown up, will this take away all our family problems? When our investments have doubled or even quadrupled will this solved all our financial problems? Obviously, these will not solve our life problems no matter what circumstances we are in. Quite to the contrary, we will face other life problems and challenges when we have grown up children, when we got our dreamt promotion, when our investments had doubled or quadrupled. We may be happier when some of these events materialised but usually for a short while, and we are back again the where we started – questioning the meaning of life.

As we all know, the longer we are on this earth, the more life challenges we are going to face and often they came with greater intensity and in a very unexpectedly manner. Even today when we are living in a relatively peaceful country, we are all still struggling for a ‘better’ life which no one can give a single and convincing explanation of what constitutes ‘better’ life. We may be the fortunate minority to live in a relatively peaceful country compared to many other countries. For this, we want to thank and praise God but we must not take it for granted that it will be the same for many years to come. And let’s face it, many of us are questioning the “meaning of life” when we encountered unexpected life tsunami. Our life will be totally devastated when a phone call from our doctor informed us that we have a stage four cancer and the chances of surviving is very slim, or a police visit and tell us that one of our children got into a very serious accident, or our boss called us into his office and told us that today is our last day of our work, and we still have young school-going children and also have a housing mortgage to pay, or we have just lost all our savings when we are about to retire because the company that we invested our money in has gone bankrupt, and this list can go on. Many of these situations can happen to us in a very unexpected way! I am sure some of us may have already encountered situations like these in one form or another but prayerfully we can pray to our living God for His mercies and that He will pull us through. Nonetheless, when we face situations like these, the question on “the meaning of life” will vociferously pop up – what is happening to my life? How could this happen to me?

The questions as well as the answers to “the “meaning of “life” can be found in the word of God, the Bible. King Solomon the wisest men who ever lived (and he is also considered by some as one of the most foolish having married 700 wives and 300 concubines!) and with all his riches he too had also questioned the meaning of life as we can read what he wrote in the Book of Ecclesiastes 1:1-10:

The Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem says: Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever. The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, And hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes toward the south, And turns around to the north; The wind whirls about continually, And comes again on its circuit. All the rivers run into the sea, Yet the sea is not full; To the place from which the rivers come, There they return again. All things are full of labor; Man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, “See, this is new”? It has already been in ancient times before us.

In plain language, we can summarise from these verses that from the very day we were born our life can simply be described as follows: We wake up, we eat, we got educated, we got a good job, we go to work, we get married, we have family and we grow old. This is the cycle that everyone will have to go through and it will bring us to our final destination, and that is – death which no one can escape. Regardless of who we are, this is just simply everyone has to go through and the longer we live, the longer we will have to go through our seemingly never-ending cycle of catching up our daily activities – eat, sleep, work and back to the same cycle. Thankfully, as children of God, we don’t need to go through this for the next 250 years! If we are in our 40s, we just need to go through this for perhaps another 30 to 40 years and prayerfully our body is still healthy for us to endure our life struggle. Sadly, many people who retired in their 50s or 60s are finding it hard to barely survive, let alone to live a meaningful life. These may be due to sickness, finance, relationship and a host of other difficulties.

As children of God, we will be able to live much, much longer than the oldest man has ever lived, but not in this corrupt world. Thankfully, we are now a stranger and pilgrims on this earth and as we all know our days on earth are as a shadow and without hope. (1 Chronicles 29:15). As we continue to dive more deeply into the word of God, the Bible, we will soon discover that God has a wonderful plan for all of us when we have ended our earthly pilgrimage. Our next destination – and a permanent one – will be the heavenly destination which Jesus has promised to take us to as recorded in John 14:1-3: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

These are the very words from Jesus himself, and He will deliver His promise. He never fails. Eschatologically-speaking, for true-believers of Jesus Christ, our life on this earth is going to end one day and we will proceed to the journey of eternal life. We will all be changed into an incorruptible bodies that are going to last forever as we can read In 1 Corinthians 15:51-55:  Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

Similarly, Apostle Paul has again given this message to comfort us that after we have completed our earthly pilgrimage our next journey will be the everlasting life that our Creator has promised to us: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

As we can just read in 1 Corinthian 15:51-55 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, what Apostle Paul was referring to is that Jesus will come to catch (or rapture) us up to meet Him in the cloud and to bring us to our heavenly home that He has prepared for us. It is very comforting that Jesus is coming personally to receive us. He is not sending His angels to receive us. What a glorious and blessed hope we have!

Let us get ready and get prepared to meet our Lord. You may say: Oh, yes. I have said a sinner’s prayer 5 years’ or 10 years’ ago and now I am saved. Really? Is this sufficient to achieve salvation? We must also continuously doing all we can to build closer relationship with our Living God, Jesus. These are: our daily repentance – confess our sins and sincerely turn away from all our evil ways. This is not a choice but a commandment from God; daily reading of the word of God to get to know God more each day in order to understand His will; spread the Good News of the Birth of Jesus, his Trial, his Death on the Calvary Cross and his Resurrection, and thanking and praising Jesus always for His redeeming blood that He has shed for us on the cross at Calvary. It is only through the blood of Jesus that we are redeemed so that we can spend our stress-free life in heaven with our God forever and ever! (John 3:16).  

As we can read in the news or watch on the TV, the world events are all heading towards a total chaos of biblical proportion – politically, socially, morally, economically, geologically, cosmically, just about anything and everything. What we are seeing now – pestilence, floods, wildfires, volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, food shortage, high inflation, wars, rumours of wars, riots in many countries, sexual perversion, immorality, gross corruption in high places, formation of one world government, formation of one world religion, formation of one global economy coupled with the implementation of programmable digital currency, mandatory vaccination (or rather forced gene therapy) and so on are only a tiny glimpse compare to those apocalyptic catastrophes that are coming to this earth once the church is removed (or raptured) out of this world. For those who left behind, they will see more catastrophic global tsunami events which will inflict untold suffering to human on earth! For those Christians who are familiar with the Book of Revelation I am sure you all know what I am referring to. This will be the seven-year period of Great Tribulation. Time is running out. We all must get ready to meet Jesus by our daily repentance, and continue to spread the Good News of Jesus. Jesus is coming very soon! Repent and be saved! (Matthew 3:2; Mark 1:15). It is my sincere hope that we all can come to acknowledge Jesus as our Saviour and that we can be spared from the Great Tribulation that is going to come very soon!

Let’s us pray.

Dear Lord Jesus,

We come before You to ask for Your forgiveness and help us that we repent of all our sins daily. We ask that You will come soon to deliver us from this corrupt world. Sadly, there are now many scoffers just like those in Noah’s day. Those scoffers whom Noah had reached out to them refused to listen to live a righteous life but still continue to live a life of debauchery. They scoffed at Noah’s for building the huge Ark in the middle of the desert. Lord, this also reminds us of Your message in 2 Peter 3:3 – 4 that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”

Dear Lord, we know that we are now living in the last days because we are witnessing the present-day global chaos that are very, very similar to what You have told us in 2 Timothy 3:2-4 that in the last days “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!”

Lord, it is thus very important that You send only right people to us so that we can have holy communion and fellowship with the people You sent to us. Help us to tell people that we are living in the last days and You are coming very soon. In the Mighty Name of Jesus we pray. Amen!

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12 June 2022
Scripture Reading: Revelation 1:3 (KJV)

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

MESSAGE

As a Christian for over 40 years, it is interesting (and quite puzzling) for me to realise why the Book of Revelation is not preached as often as it should be in the church pulpit. Unlike the four Books of the Gospel: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that collectively known as the Good News they are frequently used in church worship services. We like, therefore, to thank and praise God for these four Books of the Gospel which God has given to us this unquestionable biblical truth of how we all can be reconciled to our Creator. Another interesting point I have noted is that even fervent Christians who are called to evangelise and share the Good News to unbelievers used primarily Good News of Jesus (and rightly so) but very, very rarely shared the prophetic words that are written in the Book of Revelation. Needless to say that the messages in four Books of the Gospel are the most powerful messages that have changed the life of many sinners including myself. It has stood the test of time! All glory to Your Name, Lord Jesus.

As a Christian for over 40 years, I can testify that I have seldom heard about the preaching on the Book of Revelation. Those preachers who are very concerned about the end of the church age which is the main prophetic message written in the Book of Revelation who often preached these prophetic words written in the Book of Revelation are the minority. They too find it hard to understand why this prophetic message is not frequently preached by their fellow preachers even though this is the only book in the Bible that God has promised to bless those who read it (Revelation 1:3). Sadly, the messages in the Book of Revelation are also seldom read to the congregation.   

I do not know exactly why these prophetic messages concerning the end of the church age as written in the Book of Revelation are not being preached or shared as often as it should be but let me give my personal reasons having researching into this topic for quite sometimes.

First, when people open the Book of Revelation and begin to read, they are likely to become frightened and perhaps confused because most of the messages, unlike the four gospels, are apocalyptic message that will lead to terrifying and horrifying destruction of the world and its inhabitants. For example, Revelation 6:13 tells us events like great earthquakes and stars (most probably asteroids) falling from the skies with destructive powers unknown to mankind and in Revelation chapter 9 it tells us that that there will be great intense cosmic chaos that will burn up one-third of the earth, one-third of the river will turn into blood and the drinking water will become bitter and poisonous, locusts coming up out of the bottomless pit with destructive power comparable to that of scorpions to torment people. And in Revelation 13:16-17 it tells us that unless you take the mark of the beast you will not be able to buy and sell and there will be hyper-inflation that caused the prices of essential items like food to be very expensive (Revelation 6:6). Due to the combination of these events billions of people are going die. So, what is your chance of survival when two-third of the population are going to die resulting from these events? These are frightening and terrifying pictures and reading the prophetic messages as written in the Book of Revelation can be the thing of nightmares for many of them.

Another reason is that many people have said it is very difficult to understand because the messages are symbolic in many aspects but I have to disagree. It is not difficult to understand but rather it is difficult to accept as the prophetic messages in most chapters of this Book tell us all but terrifying and horrifying news. Many simply cannot accept it but they failed to understand that this Book was written two thousand years ago. Even though this was written two thousand years ago but the pictures as depicted in this Book are telling us in advance that towards the end of the Church Age (and we are now at!) there will be wars that will use weapons with destructive power that of nuclear bombs (which today we read that Russia is now threatening Ukraine and the world that it does not rule out the use of nuclear bombs); a digital economy that requires the use of numbers to buy and sell (which today we all know this as virtual banking that we all are now so dependent upon), the prices of basic essentials are going to be very expensive (which we are already experiencing hyper-inflation of petrol and many food items), the rise of one world government (which we now hear very often the the term New World Order from world leaders at the World Economic Forum),one world religion (which we now see Pope Francis trying to gather all religious to prepare for the one world religion). Anyone will find it very uncomfortable to read such things especially when these are from most popular book the world has ever printed – The Bible where hundreds of prophecies have come to pass with pin-point accuracy like the birth, the trial, the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus, the establishment of Jewish nation Israel in May 1948, severe shortage of food causing world-wide famine and many more. For example, just read Revelation 6:6 and it will send cold chill into our spine because it is really happening right now in many parts of the world! In this message, it tells us that towards the end of the church age many will need one day’s wages just to buy enough food to feed our family for only one day! Imagine a loaf of bread cost $ 10 and your daily wage is also around $10 dollar!

And, Oh yes! This is very bad and terrifying news that you would only expect to see in movie. But these are terrifying only when you are non-believers of Jesus Christ and refuse to accept His gift of salvation. For believers, they should not be afraid. This is because the messages in the Book of Revelation are God’s end-time restoration plan to bring about a new Earth devoid of all sins and sicknesses. It will be a place of perfect peace. Who then are the inhabitants of this new Earth? Answer: All truly born-again Christians who have accepted His gift of salvation and acknowledge that Jesus is the Saviour.

It is God’s redemptive plan for Christians who are truly born-again will first be taken out of the earth (or raptured). Those terrifying events as described in chapter 9 will only occur after the Church of Jesus Christ is raptured out of this earth. This doctrine of the rapture is clearly given in apostle Paul’s epistle in 1 Thessalonian 4:15-17: “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep (that is those who already died). For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up (that is raptured) together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

Praise God! We like to thank and praise God because we will be spared from those apocalyptic events described in the Book of Revelation, in particular chapter 9. Just like in Noah’s day when it was only until Noah’s family entered into the Ark then the flood came. Also in Lot’s day when it was until Lot and his two daughters had left the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, God then started to send sulfur and fire to destroy the two cities where all sinful and unrepented sinners were turned into ashes. Similarly, the apocalyptic events at the close of the Church Age that we read in the Book of Revelation will start to pour out to this earth only after God has removed His Church (that is all the true believers of Christ) out of this world as we can read in 2 Thessalonians 2:6-8: “And now you know what is restraining, that he (that is antichrist) may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He (that is the Holy Spirit) who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless (that is the anti-christ) will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.”

In the above message of 2 Thessalonians 2:6-8, apostle tells us that once the Restrainer (that is the Holy Spirit and the Church of Jesus Christ) is completely taken out of this world all hell will break loose, so to speak. This is because without the presence of the Retrainer, the antichrist which receives the authority and power from Evil One will be able to advance his satanic plan to bring untold suffering to those who are left behind, namely the unbelievers. Sadly to say that even ‘Christians’ who either don’t believe in the rapture and scoffered at when they were told about the impending appearance of our Lord and Saviour to rapture the Church will also be subject to the wrath because they are like the people in Noah’s day refused to believe that God will come and deliver them from the flood. Even though the people during Noah’s time had witnessed Noah building the huge Ark, they were indifferent. They continued to live a life of wickedness (Genesis 6:5-8) but Noah as a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5) and also lived a righteous life and God found grace in His eyes. The flood finally came and destroyed all the inhabitants except Noah, his family and those animals that God had commanded Noah to bring to the Ark.

Concerning the rapture of the Church, take heed, if you missed this event, you are going to miss it forever because it will not be repeated. Once the Church is removed from this world, the antichrist will be revealed (2 Thessalonians 2:6-8) and he will begin to operationalise his evil plan to torture the inhabitants who are left behind in full strength and full force. This will be the period known as the Great Tribulation. During this period of Great Tribulation which is expected to last seven years, the antichrist with the power and authority given to him by the Evil One will control, rule and torture God’s most precious creation – human – at will. No one can stop him. This is Satan’s ultimate goal to torture human and to bring them to eternal destruction. The only way for all of us to escape from this Great Tribulation is for Jesus to come and catch us up to be with Him. Unless you are also a member of the Body of Christ (that is the Church), you will be left behind to go through the Great Tribulation. You can read all the Great Tribulation events in greater details in the Book of Revelation. But don’t be afraid. In fact, God has promised to bless those who read the prophecy written in this Book. The greatest blessing after you have read and understand this prophetic book, I believe, is that you will come and acknowledge Jesus is your Saviour and live a life with full expectation from His coming to rapture you out of this world. The Book of Revelation initially may seem to be horrifying and terrifying but it ends with a very important message of God’s everlasting love for His people. It is truly a message of redemption and reconciliation to God. It is never meant to frighten or scare you. I now know why God has categorically told us that all who read the prophetic words in the Book of Revelation will be blessed!

I like to conclude this message by sharing with you the following Bible verses found in 2 Peter 3:1 – 7: Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”

I plead with you all that the doctrine of rapture this is very real. I plead with you all that do not mock or scoffer what I have told you! Jesus is coming very, very soon! May God bless you the reading of the Book of Revelation!

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank you, for giving us so much. Even though we know that when we piled up our sins that we have committed they can reach as high up into the heaven! Yet, Lord Jesus, You have already laid out the plan for us to reconcile us to You even before we were born. We want to say, THANK YOU with all our hearts. Often, we have taken for granted that since the fall of Adam and Eve, You are taking every minute of Your time for the last six thousand years to bring us back to You. You have put in a complete redemptive plan for us to reconcile with You. We know Jesus that the time is now ripe for You to take us to be with You before the start of the Great Tribulation. Help us to wait patiently for You and while we are waiting, help us to live our lives holy and acceptable to You. Help us to go to your word, the Bible and read them as often as the time permits. Help us to pray always, thanking and praising You.

In the Mighty Name of Jesus we pray. Amen!

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5 June 2022 – Scripture Reading: Mark 4:35-40 / Psalm 55:15 (KJV)

Mark 4:35-40 – And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?

Psalm 55:17 – Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.

MESSAGE

Over the last three years almost everyone is facing unprecedented life challenges largely due to a new virus – corona virus, notoriously known also as Covid-19 virus. Initially we were assured that the transmission was from bats to human and was very unlikely that the virus could be transmitted from human to human. Those who worn masks to prevent transmission of the virus were ridiculed even by senior government officials! But not too long later, we were told a completely different story. The virus was discovered to be very infectious and can be transmitted from human to human. All hell broke loose!  So to speak. Government across the world mandated that wearing of face masks and is compulsory. Those who failed to wear the face masks were fined quite heavily and repeated offenders could be jailed.

The story started to develop from bad to worst and we were (and still are) unable to really know who is telling the true or who is not. But we all know that hardly six months into the Covid-19, it later became the worst global pandemic the world has ever seen for the last hundred years. The virus is still spreading quite uncontrollably in other countries.

The situation became more dire when the “vaccine” that was supposed to prevent the infection was mandated. Unless we take this highly questionable mRNA vaccine (which many scientists said is more of gene therapy than a vaccine), our daily life will be severely disrupted. For example, we could lose our jobs, we could not go to do our shopping or marketing, college students who were not vaccinated were not allowed to attend classes, we were not allowed to visit our sick relatives in hospitals when they were admitted to hospitals (even though they might be our parents or children), we could not have any visitors to our home – not even our parents, we were not allowed to eat in food-courts and many, many other restrictions placed on the people. Quite literally, for those refused to take the vaccination, they were all like under “house-arrest!”

This Covid-19 storm caught everyone one of us by surprise and no one could expect that such a storm could happen on such a global scale. Was (or rather is) this a conspiracy theory and is it a pre-cursor for something bigger to come? Is this a global conspiracy by governments as part of their plan to control the people? Many thought that this Covid-19 storm is just a rehearsal for the world’s elite few to form a One World Government. I think your guess is as good as mine. But let’s not speculate further except for one thing we are very certain about. As we are told in the Bible, towards the end of the church age our days will be like Noah and Lot’s days (Matthew 24:37-39; Luke 17:28) and we would be facing huge storms that could wipe out all unrepented sinners just like the flood in Noah’s day and the fire and brimstone poured out from the sky as in Lot’s day destroying all the wicked inhabitants in Sodom and Gomorrah.

As born-again Christians, we have the Good News from the Word of God, the Bible. There were many times that God provided protection for His people from natural storms. While we still seek shelter from physical storms today, we can look to scripture for encouraging words during the storms of our life regardless of the nature of the storms. Times of grief and despair can be represented by storms as moments to endure and our endurance will not be in vain because Jesus has promised to come and take us up to be with Him (John 14:3).

In the Book of Mark 4:35-40, it provides us the wisdom and guidance to get through the storms of our lives and follow the path of God through the times of trial, of great storm. In this message here, we can see even when Jesus was just sleeping next to the disciples they were not spared from storm. We can indeed learn a lot about Jesus, about ourselves, and about the storms we face in life.

In this “Storm Theology” when a crisis comes into our life, we undoubtedly raised two questions: Is God a good God or a bad God for allowing it to happen? For many of us as believers, we may start to pray and cry out to God but we often don’t seem to hear anything from God. Is God sleeping just like what the disciples thought Lord Jesus was sleeping when the sea water coming to the boat was about to sink the boat. (Mark 4:35-40). Like the disciples, we often don’t seem to see that our God as caring when we are facing our storm of life.

One thing to really learn about storms in life in these verses is that is has the ability to bring to the surface what’s really inside of us. Storms will reveal to us whether we live by fear or by faith. Storms will reveal to us if our heart is full of trust or doubt. The way we react to God during a storm reveals the truth about ourselves, whether we want it to or not.

There are six lessons we can learn from the verses we just read – Mark 4: 35-40:

Number one, storms are test.

Storms are unique to each of us and sadly sometimes it due to no fault of us.
It is during the storms of life we discover who or what we really believe. Storms have a way of revealing the truth about us. After all, the hearing of God’s Word is intended to produce faith (Romans 10:17) and faith must always be tested. It is not enough for us merely to learn a lesson or be able to repeat a teaching. We must also be able to apply that lesson by faith, and that is one reason why God allows for trials, difficulties, and storms to come into our lives. Storms are the tests and opportunities to demonstrate our trust in God.

Number two, storms can happen suddenly.

This fierce and violent storm happen suddenly. That’s the way life is. One moment you are doing fine and the next the bottom falls out. One phone call and we find ourself in the middle of storm. One doctor’s visit or one conversation and we could in a storm. God does not try to trick us with this. He is not trying to hide something. God is upfront and honest about the storms of life.

Number three, storms can cause us to doubt God.

In verse 38 which we just read, it says, Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a pillow. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Master, don’t you care that we’re going to perish?” There is a fierce and violent storm occurring. The sea is being shaken. The hurricane like winds are blowing the boat all directions, the waves are crashing over into the boat, the boat is filling up with water, the disciples (who are experienced fishermen and know the sea) are yelling do this and do that. They are in a panic. They are thinking they are about to die. And where is Jesus? He is “sleeping at the back of the boat on a pillow.” We often too felt that God is not responding to our trials or just don’t care. This is absolutely not true as we can read below.

Number four, storms can teach you about God.

In verse 39 it says, When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Peace, be still.” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. This is an incredible picture of the incarnation of God, where we see both aspects of Jesus. We see the humanity of Jesus – as He was totally exhausted and He needed rest like all human – and we see the deity of Jesus – He can calm the storm by His spoken word: Peace, be still. Jesus has displayed His omnipotence and power over the nature as the Creator of all things (Colossians 1:16).

Number five, storms can teach us about ourself.

In verse 40 it says, Jesus asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” A fierce storm comes out of nowhere during the night. Jesus was sleeping from exhaustion. The waves start crashing up against the boat. The sea starts pouring in the boat. The disciples have lost control. They begin to fear. They can’t believe Jesus is still asleep through this so they go to Him shouting at him to wake Him up and when He awakens they say, “Master, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” Jesus immediately rebukes the wind and waves. They obey, the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Jesus then turns and says, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

Our concern about drowning in difficult challenges is actually normal and reasonable. But Jesus rebuked them not so much about their reaction to the storm, but their reaction to Jesus in the storm. They called Jesus “Master” and not Lord impliedly questioning the Lordship of Jesus and Jesus that might not be able to help them as the circumstances they were facing required the help from God (and not from a teacher or master). Instead, they should have asked: Lord, can you help us?  So when Jesus has calmed the waves, He has truly demonstrated His Lordship.

Number six, storms will stretch your faith. 

In verse 41 says, The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!” Up to this point, the disciples knew Jesus was special and unique with divine power and authority. Again, many of us are no different from the disciples. We want to see results – tangible results and we want the results fast. Unless we see the results, we may not be convinced that Jesus can help or answer our prayer.

Let’s Pray

Lord Jesus,

We come to your Throne of Grace to seek Your help. We pray that:

When crisis comes into our life, we undoubtedly started to pray and cry out to You, O God but we often don’t seem to hear anything from You. Often, we feel like You are sleeping and You are not concerned with our cry just like what the disciples thought that You were sleeping when the sea water crashing in was about to sink the boat. Lord Jesus, help us to have great faith in You no matter the nature of storms we are facing. Lord Jesus, help us to always be prepared and to pray to You each day, and not to wait for the storms to hit us. Help us to practice sincerely and faithfully and to dedicate to You, our Holy God the following prayer as frequently as time permits us:

Dear Lord Jesus,

I come to your Throne of Grace to seek Your help. I pray that:

In every need, remind me come to You first and with a humble heart crying out,
Jesus, help me.

In all my doubts, perplexities and temptations,
Jesus, help me.

In hours of loneliness, weariness and trials,
Jesus, help me.

In failure of my plans and hopes, in disappointments, troubles and sorrows, Jesus, help me.

When other fail me and Your grace alone can assist me,
Jesus, help me.

When I throw myself on Your tender love, as my Lord and Saviour,
Jesus, help me.

When my heart is cast down by failure at seeing no good coming from my efforts or from the efforts of others, Jesus help me.

When I am ill and my head and hands cannot work, and I am lonely,
Jesus, help me.

Always, always, in spite of weariness, falls and shortcomings of every kind, Jesus help me and never forsake me.

Almighty Lord, I come with my faith, begging You for comfort in all my difficulties small or big. Do not forsake me, My Lord. Open Your doors and Your Almighty Arms and give that tranquility and great calmness that You so desire to give me.

Almighty Lord, assist me to find shelter in Your celestial bounty forever. Only Your holy shelter could provide me all the safety that I need.

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I seek Your Help. Amen!

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28 May 2022
Scripture Reading: Exodus 20:7 (KJV)

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

MESSAGE

It is important to know that our name does define who we are. When our friends call us name that is not our actual name and perhaps just to make fun of our name we can feel upset or even angry. And rightly so because our name is very personal to us and there is no better way to express the importance of a person’s name than a quote from a Chinese Proverb: When a leopard dies he leaves a skin; a man dies, he leaves his name (aka reputation).

Furthermore, our name is given by our parents and no one has the right to call us any other name. Anyone would be upset or even angry when other people called his name just to make fun of him. Besides people, names given to things also defined or said something about them. For example, when we go to a library, often borrow books that are written by the names of the author that we like them or choose certain titles that we were told they are very good. When we go shopping, we often have an idea of what brand we are looking for. For example, when you bring your children to buy their school stationeries like pencil-case, water-bottle or a school-bag they will be delighted to look for name (or brand) that they like. They feel very happy when they are given a pencil-case or a bottle-water with brand like SMiggle. This is because the name SMiggle reflects that the quality of the pencil-case or water-bottle. Because of the brand, their prices are usually more expensive than those that are not so well-known. In fact, it is an offence to make a pencil-case and paste the label “SMiggle” and put in a store to sell. This is because the label “SMiggle” is already owned by the someone and only that owner has the exclusive right to use it on their products. Hence, names are really important because they defined who we are or what they are. Just by mentioning certain names, it may stir some emotional reactions – for better or for worst.

In the Ten Commandments that God has given to us through Moses is extremely crucial, scripturally-speaking, because they established for us essential rules which we all must live by. By obeying the Ten Commandments, we are drawn closer to God. A very effective way to completely keep us out of trouble is to faithfully obey the Ten Commandments, and if only everyone obeys the Ten Commandments, we don’t need policeman to keep us safe. Almost every country, Christian and non-Christian countries, the Ten Commandments are the cornerstone in which the laws are made. For example, one of The Commandments is “You shall not kill” (Exodus 20:13) and it is well-understood that every country has laws against murder. Similarly, every country has laws against stealing because in Exodus 20:15 says “You shall not steal.”

For us as Christians, we are seriously told not to misuse the name of God and this Commandment is enshrined in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:7a – Do not misuse the name of the LORD, your God). To show our love to God we are required to honour and obey Him and one of the ways to do this is to obey God’s Commandment by not misusing His name. Every conscious attempt must be made that in our everyday speech, our prayer and in our daily living we must respect and honour God’s name. Whenever we use God’s name, we should do so with utmost respect and reverence. We must not make promises by invoking the name of God unless we have every intention to deliver our promises. We must not speak abusively of things or people that God has created such as using the words like “Gosh,” “Oh My God” or acquire a habit of calling the name of Jesus for no reason. By so doing we are dishonouring His name.

As God wants first to be in people’s lives, He also wants people to honour Him appropriately. Hence, whenever we pray, we always start with an appropriate salutation like “Dear Lord Jesus”, or “our Heavenly Father”. It is important to know that if we address our God foolishly or not appropriately, we are openly sinning against our Living God. As written in the Bible, “The name of the LORD is like a strong tower. Godly people run to it and are safe” (Proverbs 18:10). Let us strive with all our efforts to keep this Commandment of not misusing God’s name and to only use God’s name with utmost respect. Before we call out the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus, we must remind ourselves that we do it with utmost respect and reverence. We must also remember that in addition to this Commandment of not misusing God’s name, all other the Ten Commandments given by God must also be obeyed to the fullest extent. These Ten Commandments can be found in Exodus 20:3-17:

Let us pray:

Dear Lord Jesus,

I come before you to ask you to forgive me if I had misused Your Name previously. Your Name is a Mighty Tower and there is no other name greater than Yours. I pray Lord Jesus that I will sincerely and consciously try not to misuse Your Name from now on. Help me Jesus to be aware that Your Name is holy and sacred and I must only use Your Name with utmost respect and reverence.

In Your Mighty Name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

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22 May 2022
Scripture Reading: Psalm 46:10 (KJV)

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

MESSAGE

Nasty and unpleasant physical noises can be very irritating and distracting especially when we are in the midst of doing our work or engaging in a serious conversation. As we all know that when our house is located next to a construction site and the noises that generated by this construction site next to us can be deafening. We just wish that the construction can be completed as soon as possible. It is a medical fact that prolonged exposure to physical noise above certain level or decibel can cause damage to ear-drums and over time this may affect our sense of hearing.

However, there are certain ‘noises’ that are not quite like the physical noises from the construction sites. These noises are not the audible sonic blast like the one we heard from construction sites. The deafening effect of these non-sonic noises can be equally damaging to us, metaphorically speaking. What I am referring to here is that we often heard of noises whispering us to do this or to do because everyone is doing it. For example, people may whisper to us to send our children to this tuition centre or that tuition centre because the tuition centre can guarantee outstanding school performance, or to buy this or to buy because these items are cheap, better than others, etc. Some items are just meant for us to keep up with the Joneses to ensure we are not losing out to others. Concurrently, we are bombarded with similar noises generated by attractive commercials in the internet, TV, newspaper, etc. These commercials are trying to entice us to spend our money on items that often we have not thought of them buying them until we saw the commercial. I must admit. I am a victim quite a few times buying things that just ended in garbage bins the very minute I received them! They are useless and the quality and specifications are not according to what they advertised. While I am writing this, I pray that I will continue to be wise and not to fall into victim to these noises and to buy things that are absolutely necessary.

Our dependent our mobile-phones, tablets, personal computers which almost all of us glued to them like super-glue are given manufacturers unlimited opportunities to reach their products right into our door-step. For example, when watching Youtube we are intermittently interrupted with advertisements so much so that Youtube allows viewers to subscribe to a paid-service to turnoff the broadcast of advertisements. These marketing promotions that we received so often from Youtube, TVs and newspaper are not really deafening to us physically but they have very negative mental and spiritual effects on us as these noises will take our focus away from God because it will distract us from the things that are really matter to us – our constant pursuit of Christian living – instead of spending our time pursuing the things of the world. Quite often, we may also end up spending a lot of times exchanging messages with our friends on these marketing gimmicks to help us to decide which one to buy, and so on. In a worst scenario we may end up incurring huge credit card debts. This is not unreal. “Buy first, pay later” is now a common marketing tactic used by credit-card companies. These credit-card companies are making a lot of money by charging service charges, financial charges and interest on overdue accounts. Now you can even take a vacation and pay later only after you have come back from your vacation! In fact, the use of credit card to purchase things or services has the same effect – “buy first and pay later.” Many people fall into the scheme and have to seek financial counsel of how to pay of their debts. Once we are in this situation, it is very difficult to be still.

In Matthew 6:33, Jesus tells us to put God’s kingdom first rather than seeking material things and to live righteously. These are the two conditions if we want God to take care all of our needs. This is because Jesus knows that there is a strong tendency for us to stay away from what actually God wants of us – that is seeking God’s kingdom by spending more time in doing things that are pleasing to our God. Impliedly, the verse in Matthew 6:33 warns us that worldly noises can separate us from God’s truth if we are not careful. It is hard to be on a silent mode away from unwanted noises that tempted us to acquire material things and just let God rules our heart, mind and soul for His glory. Instead of spending time to read the Bible and pray, we often just simply spent a lot of time google for non-essential stuff like watching TV drama, attending ‘Get Rich Quick Seminar”, how to improve your look, etc.

In Psalm 46:10 which we just read, it advises us to be still so that we can truly know who God is and what God wants from us. It is a spiritual discipline to take our eyes away from worldly pursuit by worshipping our one true God as often as our time permits. Godly pursuit towards God is a pre-requisite in order to have the peace of God that surpasses all understanding as it will also guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippines 4:6). Thus, in order for the Holy Spirit to fill us, we must first be empty ourselves from the worldly pursuit. As fallen human, we have limited physical and mental space and hence we must give plenty of space for the Holy Spirit in its place. There is no escape to this reality – noises whether physical, audible or inaudible are always around us. Just like a full cup filled with the earthly liquor has no room for the wine of God, so our mind that fill with all the worldly thoughts will not have space for God to occupy. The modus operandi of the stillness is to empty as much of our earthly liquor as possible so that there is room for God to fill us from the table of God’s love that is set before us. Let Jesus speaks to us and let us open our ears to hear of His words because the Word of God is a lamp to our feet, and a light which will guide us to His righteous path (Psalm 119:105-106). It is a blessing that we all get drunk and filled by the spirit of God instead of earthly wine. (Ephesians 5:18).

 Let’s Us Pray

Dear Heavenly Father,

We thank You for this day that You have kept us save and give us abundant life. We will continue to trust you.

This day and many days to come, we need Your help to continuously calm by Your spirit. We submit fully to what You have told us: Be still and know that You are God and to seek first the kingdom of His righteousness. Lord, admittedly, this would not come naturally and we pray that You can give us the desire and the discipline to seek Your kingdom and Your righteousness on a daily basis. We know it is not an easy task to close our eyes or ears to shut off from these noises that can be a stumbling block to pursue Your Holiness, we therefore ask of You to send to us Your Holy Spirit to help us to made this as our daily modus operandi. Nothing is impossible with You.

We pray all these in the Mighty Name of Jesus. Amen!

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15 May 2022
Matthew 27:46 (KJV)

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
 

MESSAGE

Jesus came to the earth as a lamb and to take our harsh and brutal punishment. In His final hours when He was hung on the cross, Jesus cried out: My God, my God, why has thou forsaken Me (Matt. 26:46). This cry is a fulfillment of Psalm 22:1, one of many parallels between that psalm and the specific events of the crucifixion. It is certain that this is God’s divine plan of the work of His only begotten Son. It is certain that He was innocent – holy, harmless, undefiled, and obedient. God’s love towards Jesus can be heard loud and clear during Jesus’ baptizing by John the Baptist when the Spirit of God descending like a dove and a voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matt. 3:16-17).

It must be noted that the cry of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 26:46 does not in any way diminish His deity. Jesus does not cease being God before, during, or after this. Jesus’ cry does not divide His human nature from His divine person or destroy the Trinity. Nor does it detach Him from the Holy Spirit. Both the Father and Son knew from all eternity that Jesus would become the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. There is no other alternative way and this is the one and only way in which the Son of God must go through in order to reconcile all sinners to God the Father so that sinners shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Many people who read Matthew 26:46 were puzzled why Jesus called His Father, ‘God.’ In fact, this is the only time we read in the Bible that Jesus called His Father, ‘God’. Jesus has all the time called the heavenly God as Father. For example: when Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, Jesus addresses God as “Our Father in heaven (Matt. 6:9); in John 10:30, He said: I and my Father are one; in Luke 23:34 when He was crucified on the cross He expressed great sorrows towards the soldiers who pierced Him and He prayed: Father forgive them; for they do not know what they do; in John 14:2-3, Jesus comforted his disciples with this promise: In my Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to be with me, that where I am, you may also be with me.”

So, why did Jesus call the Father “God?” in His final hours before He gave up His spirit? Here are three possible explanations:

First, when Jesus was crucified on the cross and when God looked down and saw His Son bearing the sin of the world, He didn’t see His Son. Instead, God the Father saw all the sins that Jesus was bearing. And in that awful moment, the Father turned away. Not in anger at His Son. No. Not even a single moment. He loved His Son as much at that moment as He ever had. God the Father is always well pleased with His Son (Mark 1:11).

When God the Father turned away from Jesus, He turned away in sorrow and in deepest pain when He saw what sin had done so much so that He has to sacrifice His only begotten Son. He turned away in complete revulsion at the ugliness of sin. When God, the Father did that, Jesus was alone. Completely forsaken. Abandoned. Deserted. Disowned. It was through this that the Son of God, Jesus, make complete identification with the sinners. Jesus became a curse for us. He died in our place. All our sins were laid on him. It was for that reason – and only for that reason – that God the Father forsook His beloved Son. That was the lowest point of Jesus’ life when He was forsaken by God the Father.
 
Second, Jesus isn’t merely God. He is truly God and truly man. He is the God-man. As the God-man, He is a perfect man, who worships, honours, obeys and prays to God the Father. In fact, the incarnate Son is dependent on the Father (John 5:30). How could the Son be dependent if He is God? The apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives us a glimpse into the Son’s humiliation (Phil,2-6-8): Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross and also by His obedience, Jesus has fulfilled God’s Commandment: Honour your father and mother (Exodus 20:12).

Third, the Father and the Son have different roles within the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. There is equality in nature, but subordination in their personal roles. For instance, the Son submits to the Father, but not vice versa. Therefore, when God the Son calls God the Father “my God,” in the incarnation, the Son sets aside His independent authority and heavenly glory. Instead, He humbled Himself by taking on a human nature. God the Son, Jesus is affirming relationally as subordinate role without denying His full deity.

Christianity is the only religion (and I can’t think of another religion) that God came all the way from heaven to search man. From the very beginning since man sinned against God, God has always been trying to seek His prize creation – that is human being. In Genesis, when Adam and Eve hid themselves because they were ashamed that they had disobeyed God but God was still searching for them and God called out “Where are you?” Adam answered “I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” (Genesis 3:9-10). Ever since the fall of man, like Adam, man has been hiding away from God but God never gave up. God is always searching for man to save them and to reconcile to Him so much so that God was willing to give His only begotten Son, Jesus (John 3:16)

Are you still hiding away from God? God is calling you and is knocking at your door – Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me. (Revelation 3:20)

Let’s Pray

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for sending Your only begotten Son to die for us. Please remove all out doubts that You will stand with us no matter what our situation is. Help us to thank you each day and to praise You for your unyielding love even though we continue to do many things that are not in accordance with Your will. Although we continue to sin all the time, Lord Jesus, You still keep searching for us. Lord Jesus, give me the courage to tell those who are still hiding from You of your wonderful works. I thank you for all the marvelous works You’ve done on my behalf by taking the brutal and harsh punishments on the cross.

Lord, please continue to keep us strong – physically, mentally and spiritually so that we can continue to pursue the work to evangelize to other because time is running out. We know You are coming very soon. We want to make sure that we can put in every effort to tell people about Your sacrificial love so that Your sacrifice for us will not in vain.

In the Mighty Name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

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8 May 2022
Scripture Reading: Psalms 86:5-7 (KJV)

For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me.

MESSAGE

In many motivation seminars we often heard instructors encouraging the participants with these words: “The sky is the limit” and “The world is your oyster.” These two motivational statements are meant to encourage participants to excel. The key lesson is that there is nothing prevent us from achieving the impossible and the opportunities to excel are endless. For personal development, these are statements can be very effective to encourage participants to keep pressing on to achieve what is important to them. These can be their career, their hobbies, their relationship which may require restoration.

However, we must admit that while “the sky is the limit; the world is our oyster”, we all have limitations of what we can do. For example, for occupational safety reason, it is strongly recommended that the maximum weight men should lift should not be more than 25 kg although a trained weight lifter can carry much heavier weight. Still, then there is a limit how much we can lift or carry even for a world-class weight lifter. In the Guinness Book of Records, it was reported that a weight lifter has broken World Records of lifting 2,840 kg. Whatever his achievement, it is clear to us that there is a limit on human weight lifting ability – at 2,840 kg.

We can learn an important lesson here: We need to be humble and admit that we as human has limitation. For example, we can’t fly like eagles neither can we swim like dolphins. But how about the non-physical aspects of our well-being like our emotion, our creativity, our ability to handle stress?

Thankfully, the Bible has a lot to teach us on how to rely on God’s strength instead to be self-reliant to conquer our trial, pain, disappointment and hardships that we encounter almost on a daily basis. The Holy Scripture makes it clear that God actually wants us to always be reliant on Him because God helps those who cannot help themselves (versus what we are mistakenly told: God helps those who help themselves!) Scripture also shows us that when we are weak, we need to cry out to God for help. And the best part? God actually listens, and He actually helps. When our knee is down to God, He stands up for you and when God stands up for you no one can stand against you! God’s help is only just a prayer away! All we need is to go down with our knee!

I like to share a list of five powerful prayer of help which we can use during our quiet time or when we are confronting hardships that we felt we can barely able to handle.

1. A Prayer For God’s Help in a Time of Trouble

“Father,

You let Your Son die a brutal death on the Cross, paying the penalty for our sins, and through his resurrection, You’ve given us eternal life and access to Your glory. Oh Lord, thank You! In every situation in our lives, may we remember that You are sovereign over all. May every trial we go through in this life bring us closer to You. Our prayer today is for our enemies, our conspirators, and our foes. We are all imperfect, and You love us all equally. Help us to leave justice at Your feet, seeking peace and the Spirit’s sensitivity before lifting the gate on our emotions.

Dear Lord Jesus, bless our minds to run to You for solutions to problems that put our backs up against walls. When we are in trouble, help us to remember the cross and to remember that You and only You have done this impossible – Christ conquered death. We’re not promised this world will be easy or fair, but You guarantee Your presence and Your love. Grant us the courage to stick to Your standards. You are good, all the time. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”
 
2. The Psalms Prayer of H.E.L.P

H. “Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.” (Psalm 27:7)
E. “Establish my footsteps by Your word, And let no iniquity have dominion over me.” (Psalm 119:133)
L. “Let, Your merciful kindness be for my comfort, According to Your word to Your servant.”  (Psalm 119:76)
P.  “Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust.” (Psalm 16:1)

3. The Prayer for the Help that Comforts

“Dear God, some days I feel too hard. I’m hurting, struggling, fighting fear and worry at every turn. But in the midst of it all, you haven’t left me to fend for myself. Forgive me for doubting You are always with me. Forgive me for thinking you’ve forgotten me. Forgive me for believing that I somehow know there is a better way. You are fully trustworthy. You are all-powerful. You are able. You are Lord over every situation no matter how difficult it may seem. You are Healer and will never waste the grief I carry today. Anything is possible with You. I pray not only for my own grief but also for those who grieve today. I ask for Your comfort to surround those who weep. I pray for the peace of Your presence to cover our minds and thoughts, as you remind us, the enemy can never steal us out of Your hands. Amen.”

4. Psalm 86:1-3

Bow down Your ear, O Lord, hear me;
For I am poor and needy.
Preserve my life, for I am holy;
You are my God;
Save Your servant who trusts in You!
Be merciful to me, O Lord,
For I cry to You all day long

5. A Prayer for Help During Illness

“Dear Jesus, Divine Physician and Healer of the Sick, I turn to You in this time of when we have physical, mental or emotional discomfort. Dearest Comforter of the troubled, alleviate our worry and sorrow with Your gentle love and grant us the grace and strength to accept this burden. We place our worries in Your hands. We ask that You restore Your servant to health again. Above all, grant us the grace to acknowledge Your Will, even when we don’t understand it. Amen.”

Let’s us pray

Merciful God,

Help us to be steadfast in our faith in You that You are always with us and Your will never forsake us. Help us not to doubt of Your promise that when we call upon your name, You will answer us. We pray that this day we will take up our cross and follow You. Holy Spirit, we pray that this day You will fill us with Yourself and cause Your fruit to ripen our life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. In Your Mighty Name of Jesus we pray.

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Prophetic Message – The Signs of End Times
2 May 2022

Programmable Digital Money
[One World Economy]
THE MARK OF THE BEAST IS COMING VERY SOON!

REVELATION 13:16-18b – And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark on their right hand, or in their foreheads: and no man might buy or sell, save that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. ……… For it is the number of a man; and his number is 666.

I want to begin and say that I am NOT a prophet. I will never be one. I write this because of my great love for the people and to fulfil God’s command to tell the world about redeeming love of God towards sinners like you and me. Waste no time! Jesus is coming back to remove the Body of Christ, that is, the Church. Once the Church is removed from the earth, all hell will break loose and those who are left behind will face the full wrath of God. If you think that the world is now evil, you have not seen anything! Wait until the Church is removed from this earth and when Satan takes full control of the earth, you will know what evilness and lawlessness really is.

In 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7, we are told that when the Restrainer, that is the Holy Spirit and the Church, has departed from the earth, Satan will have full and absolute control of the earth. He can do anything and everything he likes and no one can stop him! (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 – And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is taken out of the way.)

Here is my message and I will continue to share with you end times messages as often as the Holy Spirit leads me. Bless you all the reading of this message.

The Book of Revelation is not a very ‘popular’ book in the Bible. One of the reasons, I think, is that, unlike the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John which bring good news that a Savour is born and He will save sinners from eternal destruction. The Book of Revelation is quite the opposite. Many chapters are concerning the end times and they are all but bad news. For example, in Revelation 6:6 we read: “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages” and this signifying a hyper-infliction that many people will need to work a whole day just to be able to pay for their food due to hyper-inflation. Can you imagine a loaf of bread cost $ 15 when the daily wages of a worker may be only $ 20! And in Revelation 13:16-17 we read: “He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” In fact, this is my message here which expounding on these verses. After reading this message, you can then decide for yourself whether this is good or bad news.

As you can see, anyone who reads Revelation 13:16-17 would easily come to some kind of a conclusion that this is about transacting money using electronic means and like all electronic fund transfer, a number is required in order to complete the fund transfer. Indeed, we are right in this business transaction platform in many ways. Just ask yourself, when was the last time you wrote a cheque to make payment? I believe many people can’t even remember when was the last time they wrote a cheque. Almost all our business transactions are done electronically from paying our taxi fare to buying a computer. All we need is our phone number, credit-card number or bank account number. We are in a ‘number-driven’ payment system for virtually most of our buying or selling which will open the door to a cashless economy.

It must be noted that apostle John wrote this 2000 thousand years’ ago when paper was not even invented. How did he get the inspiration to write about this which is clearly about e-commerce, internet banking or even cashless economy? I think the answer is obvious. Apostle John was given several visions and this is one of them. People just 100 hundred years’ ago would never able to imagine that you can buy and sell just by scanning a plastic card or just press few numbers on a hand-held device let alone for apostle John who lived 2000 years’ ago to write about the need to use numbers to do your buying and selling. Our Heavenly Father must have revealed this knowledge to apostle John.

Let’s examine this is in greater details. Instead of using our credit card, internet banking or our PDA to make payment, a new technology of using an implantable microchip that will be encoded with all our personal information will be implanted into our hand or forehand. This implantable microchip will allow user to buy or sell. All we need to do is just to scan our hand to a scanner and the transaction is done.

The technology of implantable microchip is already here and some European countries are already using this not just business transactions but in many other ways. This microchip could even allow user to start his car, open his office doors that are linked to the system and of course to buying and selling things. In fact, the application is endless. (See: A vaccine passport on a microchip implant ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnuJgvQB7kU )

This microchip technology is a harbinger of what is to come before the end of the age when Jesus will come and take us to His Kingdom. It will be developed with applications that many of us could never imagine in our wildest dream. It is going to be used to create a special digital money (or currency) known as “Programmable Digital Money (PDM).” I am sure many of us have not heard of PDM as all mass media have self-censored this news for wherever reasons known only to themselves. Let me share with you what this Programmable Digital Money (PDM) is all about and if you are interested, you can actually find out more by searching the internet.

So what is Programmable Digital Money (PDM)?
After years of using credit cards like VISA, MasterCard and also internet banking, we are getting use to the digital transactions and many of us dream that this system could further be improved. Our dream is going to come true very, very soon and all for the wrong reasons. This new payment system known as Programmable Digital Money (PDM) is going to be so perfect that governments around the world is going to love it. Unfortunately, this system will be an accursed tool to the people as the government will be able to exercise absolute control on all the aspects of people’s activities which are not just restricted to buying and selling.

PDM is money that is going to be digitised with in-built rules and that comes with constraints for the users. With these rules, money could also be programmed to have an expiration date or be restricted for buying certain goods or services. In a worst scenario, a user’s right to use this digitised money can be revoked if they failed to comply with, say, government policies, by just pressing a button at the ‘Control Centre” which will be controlled the government – let me underscore this – not by your bank! It will be controlled by the government!

Where are we at now with regard to PDM?
Could it be possible that the rise and popularity of cryptocurrency is a vivid foreshadow, precursor and forerunner of the end time Bible fulfillment of cashless state-controlled “666” totalitarian society as mentioned in the Book of Revelation? The answer is a resounding “Yes” – very much so and it has far more implications to the society than just transforming the economy into cashless. It is much more than just to use for business transactions or replacing paper currency. It is meant to achieve complete control of all spectrum of our personal activities – from what we must eat to how or what we must think! Furthermore, the PDM has ability to remove ALL our privacy and MUCH, MUCH MORE. The main objective is not to make your life easier but to satisfy a totalitarian regime that wants to have absolute control over its citizens. Quite to the contrary, your life and my life will be in absolute quandaries once this system is fully implemented and when all the people are implanted with this microchip. In the end, this implantable device will not just hold our money but all our digital identity, health data, spending habits, etc. It will in turn include all the information about me, about you. It will double up as a surveillance system that connects to a super-computer controlled by the government. As your passport, air-tickets and travel itineraries are captured electronically, they know all your travel plans to the most minute details! All activities will be done electronically and data will be captured in this super-computer. This is just an example of the power of this system. The word ‘privacy’ will soon be dropped out from the dictionary.

The system is now at an advanced stage of its development. It was reported that in 2021 a well-known credit card company has filed a patent for a digital U.S. Dollar to replace the current paper currency (or fiat dollar). (Note: The term “fiat” is Latin, and it is used in money circles to refer to the central bank-printed currencies such as the U.S. dollar, Japanese Yen, Chinese Yuan or Singapore dollar that are not backed by gold or anything else. Hence, it can be “declared” into non-existence making using them not legal and replace with PDM. This can be easily done when lawmakers, legislature or parliament just passed a law to replace this fiat money with digital money.)

So, what’s the difference? We are already in the e-commerce platform?
Well, you might say, VISA and the bank transfer using internet are already handling ‘digital’ dollars? So, what is the difference? Oh no. Not even close. This new PDM is a kind of computer software that will put existing paper dollars completely out of circulation. The new digital dollars will be programmable – hence the term Programmable Digital Dollar (PDM). For example, if some of these programmable digital dollars are put into your account from, say, a welfare organisation, they can be programmed such that these digit dollars can only be used for designated purposes like buying toilet papers, tissues or certain medicines. This is not limited to the digital dollars from a welfare organisation that sent the digital dollars to you. Even your own money (or digital dollars) can be programmed for you to buy only certain things and prohibit you to buy other items. Moreover, these digital dollars can be programmed to downgrade or upgrade your digital dollar and effectively affect the purchasing power of your money. Your one hundred dollar might worth more (or less) than my one hundred dollar. For instance, before you are allowed to use the digital dollars, you may be asked a question like: Do you support abortion law? Your digital dollars will be upgraded or downgraded (that is worth more or worth less) depending on your answer. In other words, you can also be rewarded or punished depending on whether your answer ‘danced’ in accordance to the government’s policies. Sound ridiculous! Yes! It is and is going to happen. It is not “if” but “when” will it be implemented. The main objective of this system is to allow the government to take full control of the people’s life and this is absolutely evil and perverted and we know evil and perversion always go hand in hand. It has the potential for the government of the day to be in power indefinitely! That’s why all governments will love this and they can’t wait to implement it.

Is this science fiction?
The answer is a resounding NO! There are hints and there are real evidences that the PDM is indeed in an advanced stage of its development but the mainstream media is keeping silent and have self-censored this news. This is because many of these mainstream media are part of the evil group and want to ensure this is finally implemented in a way that the general public will be caught by surprise. As we can expect, at the start of the implementation, there will be a lot freebies and ‘carrots’ given to the citizens to ensure united and undivided support of the PDM by the people. Eventually, the true colours of the government will reveal the real intent of the PDM – to give the government absolute control over its citizens so that they can be in power indefinitely.

The implementation of the PDM is going to be a child-play because the experience and knowledge that countries acquired over the last 30 months arising from the Covid-19 vaccine mandate is going to be very valuable for them to strategically and operationally plan the implementation of PDM. The main objective of PDM is going to be far beyond contact-tracing like the TraceTogether Apps. PDM is a computer software and is used in conjunction with a very advance microchip miniaturized to the size of a grain of rice. It is implantable into the hand or forehead to control all aspects our activities. This is unquestionable that once this is implemented, we know the mark of the beast has arrived in full swing.

So how or what can we do about this?  
Nothing. Absolutely nothing! The only way is not to be in this system. But, how? You have asked a very good question and you are going to hear a very good news how you can avoid this microchip implant. If you think I am suggesting to hold mass protest or sign petitions to government, you are completely wrong! In any event, none of these will help. It is a done deal and we just have to wait for the government to implement the system.

In fact (and thankfully), all this must happen in order for the Bible scriptures to be fulfilled. This is in line with Bible prophecy that as the end times approach, there will be a one world government, one world economy (or currency) and one world religion and under the control of “the beast”. All these must take place before the Second Coming of Jesus (which is not the same as the Rapture when Jesus will come in the sky to remove His Church. Doctrinally, this is known as Pre-Tribulation Rapture which I strongly believe in.)

And who is behind all this? It is obvious. The answer is in the Bible and we just need to turn to the pages of the Bible. As we can read in the Book of Revelation, this is the ultimate system Satan has been planning for a long time and he is not going to wait any longer. He knows that he is running out of time as he will be thrown into the eternal lake of fire very soon! Hence, he must get this implemented in the quickest possible manner. Satan’s motivation is for as many people to receive the mark of the beast as possible before Jesus come to rapture His Church. By taking of the implantable microchip (aka mark of the beast), you are have surrendered your soul to Satan and that’s why he is very anxious to have as many people taking the mark as possible.

Thankfully, Jesus will come and rapture all true Christians to His Kingdom before the mark of the beast is implemented. Unfortunately, there will be days when many people including those ‘Christians’ who are not raptured and will be left behind to face the quandary of whether to take the mark or not. If they refused to take the microchip implant they will either die of hunger or be killed. Sadly, these are Christians (and even non-Christians) who are now scoffing and mocking when they are told about the imminent return of Jesus to remove His Church to heaven. Once Jesus came and removed the Church from the earth, it will be too late and they will need to pay a dear price for scoffing and mocking on the rapture message. Remember, this is what the people in Noah’s time did. They mocked at Noah when Noah warned them of the imminent flood and they were all drown except Noah’s and his family.

Taking of the microchip is compulsory and we can read in Revelation 15:13: “The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.” The taking of the microchip implant is not just allowed you to buy and sell but is pledging allegiance to Satan. By taking the microchip implant, you acknowledge Satan to be your god and you have rejected Jesus Christ as your Saviour. You now have only two choices: to take the mark of the beast (microchip implant) and lost your salvation forever, or refuse to take the mark and be martyred by the beast. Your choice of the latter will make you a tribulation saint in the eyes of God and you will be able to spend eternality with God in heaven. But, be warned. This is not going to be easy! Believe Jesus and be saved now!

Let us band together, and pray especially for those Christians who are scoffing and mocking on the coming of Jesus to rapture His Church and to those who still have not accepted Jesus as their Saviour. Time is running out and Jesus is coming to take His Church away from this earth. Please don’t be scoffers and mockers because to be persecuted during the great tribulation will carry very high risk of you pledging allegiance to Satan and to lose your eternal life. Take no chance. For those non-believers, this is the time now for you to accept Jesus and you can do this in four simple steps:

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LIVING SYMRNA CHURCH OF CHRIST

1 May 2022
Scripture Reading: Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

MESSAGE

A very blessed holiday to all my dear brothers and sisters-in-Christ. Indeed, we are very blessed because when we are in Christ we are gifted with the Holy Spirit, enabling us to bear fruit. When you read the list of the fruit in Galatians 5:22-23 you will quickly discover that they seem to be quite self-explanatory with commonly used words like love, joy, peace and so on which we can find them in the English dictionaries. However, when you examine in more details and read in conjunction with other texts in the Bible, they provide us crucial doctrinal teaching of these seemingly nine simple words. In fact, they are the fundamental building blocks of Christian virtues.

In today’s message, I would like to share how we can cultivate, grow and bring the fruit of the Spirit to maturity. I must admit I am struggling very hard to achieve this myself and find it very challenging to live by these virtues. I may want to add that the fruit of the Spirit is not a simple moral teaching which moral society teaches. It’s not just nine ways to live a better life. It is not just a call to live an upright, good, moral life. It is much more than this when you read in conjunction with other biblical texts.

The fruit of the Spirit was written by apostle Paul to the Christians in Galatia and he summed up nine visible attributes of a true Christian life. If you checked other versions of the Bible such as KJV, New KJV, ESV, RSV, NIV, you will notice that the word ‘fruit’ is singular and not plural. In other words, the ‘fruit’ is used as collective noun. They are not individual ‘fruits’ which we can cherry pick only those that we like. The fruit of the Spirit is one ninefold fruit. Either you have them all or none at all. One of our foremost objectives as children of God is to produce this one ninefold fruit of the Spirit so that we can be transformed to be in God’s image. It is only through Christ living in us that we are able to display the fruit of the Spirit in our daily living. Unless the Holy Spirit helps us, it is futile to do this by our own efforts. Hence, this demands our constant close relationship with Jesus. This is possible only if we spend time with Him through prayer, reading of His Word, put into practice what God is tell us through His Word and continuously reflecting on it whether we are in conformity to His image. The fruit of the Spirit is an effective checklist for us to check whether we are in conformity to these Christian virtues.

Although the words seem to be quite self-explanatory at first glance, I would like to share with you the biblical meanings and definitions surrounding them. They have much deeper doctrinal significance than what some moral societies are teaching.

Love:
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16). Through Jesus Christ, our greatest goal is to do all things in love. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

Joy:
 “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter 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).

Peace: 
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understand will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7),

Patience/Longsuffering:
We are “strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that we may have great endurance and patience and longsuffering with joyfulness” (Colossians 1:11). “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2). “Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality” (Romans 12:12-13).

Kindness:
We should often attempt to speak kind words to people particularly to people who are worried because “worry makes the heart heavy. But a kind word cheers it up” (Proverbs 12:25).  We should live “in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left” (2 Corinthians 6:6-7).  

Goodness:
“Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness, and the work of faith with power” (2 Thessalonians 1:11). “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5:9).

Faithfulness:
“O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name; for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvellous things; things planned long ago” (Isaiah 25:1). “I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:16-17).

Gentleness:
“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.” (Galatians 6:1). “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” (Ephesians 4:2).

Self-control:
“Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city” (Proverbs 16:32). “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love” (2 Peter 1:5-7). As we are all endow with the Holy Spirit to decide to do only what is right in the sight of God we should be able to accomplish with His help: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

Let us pray.

Dear Lord,

We pray that this day You will fill us with Yourself and cause Your fruit to ripen our life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. As you have warned that “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all (James 2:10). We understand, Dear Lord, that we are to keep all Your commandments and breaking one is sufficient to make us guilty of breaking all Your commandments. Likewise, Lord, help us to live a Spirit-fruit filled life to all this one ninefold spiritual fruit because if we have failed in producing just one, we have failed to produce all the others. We pray. It is imperative that conforming to Your image should be our foremost purpose of our living and what better way to do this than to live our lives than to journey towards becoming a Christian who has the mind of Christ and able to produce all the fruit of the Spirit.

In the Mighty Name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

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A BLESSED EASTER SUNDAY

24 April 2022
Scripture Reading: Mark 13:35-37 (KJV)

Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

Message

What time is it? And where are we now in relations to the Biblical timescale of our Lord’s return to take us home?

The responses that you get from people for asking these questions are going to be very different. If you asked the people in Ukraine now, everyone will tell you this is the worst times of their life. And if you asked people from Africa where famine, drought, corruptions and organized crimes run rampage, the answer is not going to be any different – It’s a terrible time! And if you ask people who read about Bible prophecy, most of them will tell you that we are approaching the end of our church age. Indeed, we are because there are many books in the Bible such as the books of Daniel, Matthew and Revelation can tell you that we are indeed at the end of the church age because of world events we are witnessing and these events were already foretold in the Bible many thousand years’ ago.

It is quite obvious that when you are facing the devastation of wars, famine, drought, corruptions, wide-spread of crimes and lawlessness the answer to these questions can be summarised in just these few words: “It’s a terrible time!”

After two years of global covid-19 turmoil and before this covid-19 situation could hardly under control, a new turmoil has started. This new turmoil is the result of war between Russia and Ukraine. There is great anxiety not only for the people in Russia and Ukraine but people all around the world because this war affects everyone. Some said the worst is yet to come because should Russia decide to use its nuclear device on Ukraine the world would just wake up and witness the start of World War III!

Even though World War III is still not here (and prayerfully this will not happen!) we are still facing the darkest times since World War II came to an end on May 1948 when many thought that this “Mother of all wars” will bring long-lasting peace to the world. Sadly, we are all wrong! In fact, there were only few weeks the world without a war since the World War II ended seventy-five years’ ago! Since then, the world has been enraged with wars in one form or another every day. Technically-speaking, North and South Korea are still at war as no peace treaty has ever been signed between these two countries after World War II has ended. China is adamant to unite the island of Taiwan and it has told the world categorically that military action is an option. This would be a very serious regional conflict in East Asia should China invades Taiwan as U.S. is likely to be heavily involved in the conflict. When this really happens, it will be the darkest day for the people of East Asia since World War II!

If anything can go by, let us be honest and admit ourselves that the world will never be able to “return to normal.” Hence, we just have to accept whatever apocalyptic events that come along, be it global pandemic due to new viruses or diseases, widespread social unrest, famines, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunami or major military conflict among nations. The war between Russia and Ukraine has complicated the already complicated world politics and it is now taking the world to a very dangerous plane of strategic uncertainty and instability since the Cold War. Whether we like it or not, we have to just trust the government that it will take care of us although we all know from the past this is going to be “a hopeless hope!” If anything could go by, we need to only trust God as we can read in Psalm 118:8 – It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.

Economically-speaking, besides oil and food price that are now skyrocketing, rumours of an impending global financial crisis is now on the lips of many people as the US dollar is losing ground to other major currencies, especially the Chinese Yuan. Politically-speaking, many governments are forced to take side – to support Russia of its invasion of Ukraine or to condemn it. This has created serious global divide. Hence, it will make things simply impossible to “return to normal”, not for many years to come. It is a grave concern because the world is dealing with a country that has the most nuclear bombs. Russia has over 7,000 nuclear bombs and it could literally blow up the globe if these bombs are exploded at the same time.  And Russia has warned that it is prepared to use it if necessary to ensure victory in Ukraine. To Russia, there is no turning back. By hook or by crook, it is going to take back Ukraine even it may mean to only take part of Ukraine. Russia military is not going to come back empty-handed!

Biblically-speaking, everywhere we look, it seems the end of the world (or rather the end of church age) is near. How close are we? Is the rapture of the church going to happen at any time soon? What does the Bible say? Is our Saviour, Lord Jesus coming back soon in a most surprising way like a “thief in the night?” The warning given to us by Jesus and his disciples is very clear and explicit. We must stay awake and watch because the King of kings and the Lord of lords can come anytime. (Matthew 24:42-44).

Fortunately, we don’t have to second guess the season of when Jesus will come back. Jesus himself told us how to recognize specific signs that will signify of His return. When the disciples asked, “Tell us the signs of your coming and the end of the age” (Matthew 24:3), and Jesus told them a number of things to look for. These, He said: “When you see all these things – referring to apocalyptic events that are already happening now like people are lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. (2 Timothy 3:2-4) you can know my return is near. I’m right at the door” (Matthew 24:33). He also said, “When all these things begin to happen, look up for your salvation is near!” (Luke 21:28).

This means the number one sign of Jesus will return soon to remove His Church from this earth is when all the apocalyptic events described in 2 Timothy 3:2-4 as well as events like global pandemics, famine, social unrest, etc as listed above are all converged at the same time. These apocalyptic events are happening right before our very eyes. As the world stage is now set for Jesus to return, we must continue to stay awake and watch and one of the most effective ways to do this is to pray always and to read God’s Word as frequently as our time permits. We must fully acknowledge that the Word of God will give us the knowledge and wisdom of discernment. As we know the time is near, let’s us live in the expectation like Jesus could return today. The worst thing that could happen to us is when Jesus return to take us up, we are caught doing things that are not in accordance with His will.

Prayerfully, we must also not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We are compelled to share the gospel to others and to share with them what really matter – our eternal life which we can read in Mark 8:34-38 when Jesus said to his disciples: Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Let’s pray

Father God,

You are the rock of our salvation, our refuge and our strength. A very present help in times of trouble. You are the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Our redeemer, our shield, our protector, our provider, our peace and our best hope. I will lift up mine eyes to the hills, from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth (Psalm 121:1-2)). Your word is ever with us in our hearts and in our mouths and we lift our eyes to the hills and know that our help comes from you. Lord, you are the Maker of heaven and earth, who commands us to be strong and of good courage, not to be afraid for You are with us wherever we go and You will never leave us nor forsake us. Lord God, strengthen us, comfort us and empower us through your Holy word. We further acknowledge that only Your begotten Son, Jesus, through the power of the Holy spirit that we always prevail in righteousness, overcome and endure all fiery trials. Lord God, help us to pull down every stronghold in our lives and cast out all fear for You have not given us the spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind. Heal us Lord and we’re healed. Save us Lord and we’re saved. For You and only You are worthy of our praise. In the Mighty Name of Jesus we pray. Amen!

(Note: There are many good Bible teachers and preachers that you can hear them in YouTube. Search for preachers like Derrick Prince, John MacArthur, David Jeremiah, Charles Stanley, Jimmy Evans, Perry Stone, Jan Markell, Amir Tsarfati, Jack Hibbs. However, you have to very careful and discerning because there are a lot of false prophets and prosperity TV evangelists who are more concern in building treasure on earth – and of course more treasures for themselves – rather than to store them in heaven! For these people, have nothing to do with them.)

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17 April 2022
Scripture Reading John 11:25 (KJV)

I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.

MESSAGE

Many churches are celebrating Easter Day today. As part of the traditional celebration, it would include eating of Easter cakes, Easter eggs and singing Easter songs, partaking of Holy Communion and preaching messages concerning crucifixion, the death and the resurrection of Jesus. As we joyfully celebrate the risen Christ in this Easter season, it is worth to remember that we must always remind ourselves the suffering and sacrifices of our Lord Jesus must be the central theme of the Easter message. Yes, this is the day we need to rejoice because Jesus has risen from the dead two thousand years’ ago and because He has risen, we can now have eternal life. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the tomb is God’s final victory over our greatest enemy – Death. The empty tomb has proved beyond all reasonable doubts that Jesus has risen!

We must, however, be very cautious not to make the gospel truth of Easter sound like a simple story of triumph. Take away the resurrection of Christ, there will be no hope; take away the resurrection there will be no gospel; take away the resurrection our faith in Christ will be useless. The story of Jesus may be simple but yet very profound. Jesus underwent great suffering and died. Three days later the tomb that Jesus was buried was empty. Over a period of many days, the risen Jesus appeared to many people including His disciples and they saw His resurrected body carried the physical wound marks. Not only did the risen Christ carry the wound marks on His hands, His feet and the side of his body, it was through these wounds that He was known to His disciple Thomas (John 20:24-29).

The physical wound marks of Jesus provide us an incredible historical narrative of Jesus’s suffering at Easter though this narrative may sometimes sound to others like we have been given a neat, tidy and ‘happy’ ending, nothing else. This is far from the theological truth. The resurrection of Jesus is not the end of a ‘happy’ story. Rather it signifies a new beginning and the start of the Church Age. The Crucifixion of Christ is not a single isolated and independent event but rather it was God’s divine plan from the birth of Jesus to His resurrection. We can summarise this God’s divine plan as follows:

The redeeming love of Jesus which resulted Him being crucified in the manner described above was used by the Roman to only punish the criminals who committed the most serious crimes. There was no other death punishment or crucifixion that was worse than the one that was used by the Roman to crucify Jesus in recorded Roman history. Jesus knew all this from the very beginning even before the creation and He willingly went through this punishment for us for one and only one reason – His redeeming love for the sinners is so deep that nothing could stop Him from doing it. He knew the road to Calvary was going to be very difficult and He would face untold suffering along the way. In fact, the worst suffering of Jesus was when He took all our sins – past, present and future and the Father in heaven couldn’t bear to see His only begotten Son was carrying all the sins of the world and had to turn His eyes away. Unable to bear to see that His Father had turned away from Him, Jesus then cried out: My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? (Matthew 27:46). He finally cried out victoriously with these words: It is finished. (John 19:30) and He gave up His Spirit. The finished work of Jesus now removes all our sins as far as the east is to the west. It is finished, done, signed, and sealed by the blood of Jesus.

When Jesus was taken down from the cross He was wrapped with an expensive fine linen burial clothe that was fit only for rich people. This fine burial clothe which belonged to a wealthy man named Joseph of Arimathea and he was also a Roman official. Besides the burial clothe, Joseph of Arimathea allowed Jesus’ body to be buried in his tomb. These provide answers to very important theological and historical truths that prove crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus were all real. If Jesus was really a criminal and had committed horrendous crimes that deserved the crucifixion, would Joseph of Arimathea wanted to be so involved? But Joseph of Arimathea knew that Jesus was completely innocent and He was put to death because it was a plot by the High Priest Caiaphas who wanted to kill Him. Common-sense dictates that no one would like to be so closely associated with such criminal let alone gave Him an expensive burial clothe and also allowed the dead body to bury in his tomb. It must be noted that Joseph of Arimathea was a man of great honour and influence and he would run the risk of getting himself implicated and brought himself serious trouble with the Roman authority. But he knew from the very beginning that the crucifixion of Jesus was nothing but politically and religiously motivated. Both King Herod and the High Priest Caiaphas wanted Jesus dead.

For us, we now know that this was the divine plan of God to save all sinners from eternal damnation. Jesus was sinless but He was made sin so as to redeem us to the Father. There is no other way and this has always been the original plan of God since the beginning of God’s creation. There is no alternative way and this is the only way to bring sinners back to our Heavenly Father – Jesus must die sacrificially as a lamb unblemished and spotless in order for God to accept the blood of His only begotten Son as atonement for the sin of mankind.

The crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus give us the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is His teachings. To experience salvation, come to Jesus, repent, and forsake sin. Hence, Easter does matter because it indicates that Christ is alive and He will come again to take us to be with Him. Both the dead in Christ will be raised and transformed and we who are alive and we shall all be changed and shall be caught up to meet our Lord in the air and we shall all with the Lord forever (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17).

While we are setting aside Good Friday and Easter Day to remember the death and resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ, let us not to forget that we must not live our lives in vain. We must faithfully and fervently continue our personal relationship with Him by studying the Bible, give thanks and pray always for His redeeming love, His grace and His mercy.  

Let’s Pray:

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank You for dying on the cross for us. By Your strips we are healed and in You we have redemption through Your blood, the forgiveness of our sins. You are the Resurrection and the Life. We acknowledge that it is only through Your Resurrection and the shedding of Your precious blood that we are now able to meet You and enjoy Your heavenly inheritance. Help us to remember not only during the Easter but every day and to always give thanks for Your redeeming love, mercy and grace. Lord, please remind us that every day is an Easter Day – that You have risen!

In the Mighty Name of Jesus we pray. Amen!

Note: The YouTube below was an interview with an expert on the subject of the Shroud of Turin. This expert has studied the Shroud of Turin for many years from many scientific angles. He is convinced that the Shroud of Turin is a real burial cloth that used to wrap Jesus’ body. I pray that this YouTube can bring you closer to truly believe that the Resurrection of Jesus was a historical fact and not a myth that many sceptics are telling us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxrdTgcx3Ek

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HAVE A BLESSED GOOD FRIDAY AND EASTER DAY!

THE KING IS COMING!
BE READY, BE PREPARED TO MEET OUR SAVIOUR!
HE CAN COME AT ANYTIME!

Pray that this YouTube will motivate you to stay awake and be sober while waiting to meet our King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjZ2vDqfBg4

If you have not accepted Jesus as your Saviour, all you need is just to follow these three simple steps:

[If you don’t have a copy of the Bible, you can download from Android or Apple Apps. You just need to search for Bible. They are many free Bible Apps.]

Dear Brothers and Sisters-in-Christ,

This is the last hour! We are very much near the end of the church age. Perhaps, it’s overdue but our Living God, Jesus, is patient and kept delaying His coming. But we know the situation is not pretty. Evils, wickedness and lawlessness are everywhere and it has come to the point that God is saying enough is enough!

Today is indeed a very, very Good Friday! This was the day two thousand years’ ago when Jesus gave up His Spirit and died but was resurrected three days later. His resurrection has defeated our greatest enemy, DEATH, once and for all. We must, however, continue to remain in relation with the Father, His Son, Jesus and Holy Spirit so as to have Eternal life that God has promised us (John 3:16 KJV – For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life).

Tragically, we lost our eternal life that God has always intended for us after God created the first human, Adam. But due to Adam’s disobedience, and since that day six thousand years’ ago, sins started to creep into His creation. The following three statements show clearly the current state of conditions of the world we are in today:

Indeed, Prophet Isaiah wrote similar message 1,300 years’ ago when, I believe, the condition that time was just as bad as today: Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! (Isaiah 5:20-21)

When we disregard the absolute standard of right and wrong set by God and started to measure against our own standard, the final result is clear: Destruction. This is where we are today. We have witnessed all kinds of crimes, perversions, corruptions at high places, we now don’t know who is telling the truth and who is telling lie and the list goes on. To put it bluntly, we are now living in a hopeless world in need of complete restoration that only God can do!

Thankfully! We have a Blessed Hope. The Blessed Hope that Jesus will come and take all the repented sinners to His Heavenly Throne. Jesus has made this promise in John 14:2-3 – In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

What follows this will be the restoration by God to the condition that He first created at the Garden of Eden. There will be a new heaven and a new earth so spectacular that is going to be beyond all our imagination (Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:1).

We all must therefore be prepared for our Lord Jesus to receive us to His Kingdom.

There are many verses in the Bible telling us or warning us to be prepared, to continue to be awake and get ready to meet out Lord Jesus. Here are some of them:

May God Bless You All Reading of This Message and Watching of the YouTube on the Coming of our Lord Jesus who is the King of kings and Lord of lords


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10 April 2022

Scripture Reading: James 4:8,10 (KJV)

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

MESSAGE

One of the most frightening verses that we can read in the Bible can be found in Matthew 7:22-23. In these verses, Jesus told some people who were supposed to be God’s children why they were not allowed them to enter to God’s kingdom. They were puzzled because they thought they had done many things that were pleasing to Jesus but this was what Jesus said to them: “I never knew you. Get away from me, you evildoers!” In fact, these people had told Jesus earlier that they did prophesy in His name and in His name drive out demons and perform many miracles.

It is interesting to note that normally non-believers don’t call Jesus Lord. This implied that those who called Jesus Lord were supposed to be believers. They may even be church leaders like pastors, elders, deacons or evangelists. Then the question we now have to confront with is: Why did Jesus refuse to let them enter His Kingdom.

There are very important lessons we can learn which are consistent with regard to our salvation and what good works are all about. First, we cannot enter the Kingdom of God just by our own efforts, no matter how hard we to try. We are saved only by the Blood of Jesus, a faith we must always adhere – Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.  In reality, good works only reflect our faith in Christ because faith without good works is dead (James 2:14). God has warned us that all good works must be done not to impress people but they are done as our constant pursue to trust in the Lord (Psalm 37:3) and we can also read in Matthew 5:16: Let our light so shine before men, so that they may see our good works and give glory to our Father who is in heaven. This is how we can purify our hearts and be drawn nearer to God.

We may speculate that those people who were utterly surprised by the plain rejection of Jesus must have thought that the standard by which others judge them was based on their abilities to perform wonderful things like performing miracles, driving out demons. The crowd who had witnessed these miracles must have greatly impressed and applauded these people who performed the miracles.  But they failed to understand that the standard by which God judges humans is very different from what the world judges. God looks beyond our outward actions. God looks at the heart and the motives of all our actions – are we doing all these good works to please man or God? There are many verses in the Bible about this plain truth that we must all set our heart to be right with God in order to see God as you can read them in: 1 Samuel 16:7; Psalm 26:2; Psalm 51:10; Proverbs 21:2; Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 5:8; Acts 15:8; Thessalonians 2:4; Ephesians 6:6.

Unless we are constantly seeking God’s holy word and pray earnestly and put into practice of doing good works with the right motives, drawing us closer to God can be a huge challenge for several obvious reasons. First, we have inherited the sinful nature from the first man, Adam. Our tendency is to do what sinners would do – proud, unforgiving, inconsiderate, ungrateful, unloving, unholy, lovers of money and the list goes on (2 Timothy 3:1-5). Second, we are living in a sinful world and that the world calls “evil good” and “good evil”. The world now celebrates evil more than ever before, condemns good, persecutes good and even some governments are prosecuting people who are doing good for the Kingdom of God. Third, the Word of God, the Bible, is mocked and treated as fairytales and they are irrelevant to the ‘modern’ world. Fourth, many churches are sugar-coating God’s messages and most of us can hardly hear church leaders preaching the most essential part of what the Bible:  Sin, Repentance and the Return of the Jesus to this world again. Fifth, this is exactly what the Bible has already prophesy to us that in the last days there will be many false prophets to deceive many and many will be falling way from their faith in Christ Jesus. (Matthew 24:24; 2 Timothy 4:3-4).

We thus need the Word of God and pray to the Holy Spirit to strengthen us so that we can help to fill the gaps that some churches have fallen short of preaching the truth. We must not be ashamed of the gospel and prepare our heart to focus all our attentions on Jesus calling all sinners to repent and to prepare for His imminent return. It is not the time to sugar-coat God’s messages but rather to endure affliction and to evangelise to the world the true Gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 4:5). Our ultimate goal is for us as born-again Christians that one day when we meet our Saviour, Lord Jesus, He can say to us: Well done. You are my good and faithful child.

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

We all know that we are always behind what You really want of us – to be Your good children. We are playing catching up but we know Jesus you are here to lift us up, to walk with us and to run the race with us no matter where we are and in whatever circumstances we are in. Help us to pick up the cross and follow You all the days of our life. We thank you You and we praise You again for this day. Keep us safe and help us to bridge and the fill the gaps that churches may have failed or fallen short of. Help us not be ashamed of Your Gospel. Many have mocked the Gospel and Your messages are often sugar-coated just to please the people. Lord, help us to come to the knowledge that this is not the time to sugar-coat Your message. It is the time to tell people that You are coming very soon and Your imminent appearance can take place at anytime. In the Mighty Name of Jesus we pray. Amen!

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WHAT A GLORIOUS DAY!
We may not know the day or the hour our Lord Jesus will return, but we are assured that His Coming to receive us is imminent. We must be prepared for this Glorious Day!

Bless You All The Reading of This Message

I am sure many of us are waiting earnestly for the Second coming of our Lord Jesus. His coming is imminent and nothing could stop Him. There are more prophecies written in the Bible concerning the Second Coming of Jesus than any other prophecies!

All the prophesies concerning the Birth of Jesus, His Crucifixion and His resurrection were fulfilled to pin-point accuracy. Yet in the Bible, for every one verse that prophesied His First Coming, there are eight verses that prophesied His Second Coming. This is a ratio is 8:1!  Prophetically speaking, the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus if anything can go by, is going to be fulfilled with precision no lesser than His First Coming!

But do you also know that 17 of the 39 books in the Old Testament and 23 of the 27 books in the New Testament have written about the Second Coming of Jesus?  A detailed analysis by some Bible Scholars has discovered that 1 out of 30 verses in the Bible tells us the Second coming of Jesus! In fact, Jesus referred Himself to His return 21 times! The Second coming of Jesus seems to be the most dominant teaching of Jesus outside His teaching of repentance and salvation of sinners.

History has proved that when it comes to prophetic words, the Bible is extremely accurate and reliable as many of these prophecies were foretold by the Prophets and they were later fulfilled with pin-point accuracy. In 1 Thessalonians 4:17, Apostle Paul has told us that a day will come when we who are alive will meet in our Saviour in the air and to live with our Lord Jesus for ever more. The prophetic words are going to come to pass very soon. Time is coming to a close. We all must now come to Jesus because this Glorious Day of His Return in drawing nigh!

I have done some readings and I have discovered eight intriguing differences between the First Coming and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

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2 April 2022
Scripture Reading: Psalm 23:1 (KJV)

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

MESSAGE

In Psalm 23:1, God is revealed in the Bible as our Good Shepherd. This revelation can be found in both the Old Testament and the New Testament of the Bible. One of the most well-known verses pointed to us that God is our Good Shepherd can be found in the Old Testament, Psalm 23. It is interesting to know that Psalm 23 was written by King David who himself was a humble shepherd before he became King of Israel. Due to his background as shepherd he knew exactly the behaviour of sheep and the roles and responsibilities of shepherds. From a lowly shepherd, David later became a king. He was anointed by God to assume kingship for Israel. This was nothing short of a miracle from God. God can use anyone to bring glory to Him regardless of the background and this is one of the best examples.

In 1 Samuel 13:14, it was written that God has called David a man after God’s own heart. The reasons why God called David after His own heart was because when David sinned against God, he admitted he sinned and ask God to forgive him. He never put the blames on others as we can read in Psalm 51:1-5 – “God, have mercy on me according to your faithful love. Because your love is so tender and kind, wipe out my sinful acts. Wash away all the sinful things I have done. Make me pure from my sin. I know the sinful acts I have committed. I can’t forget my sin. You are the one I’ve really sinned against. I have done what is sinful in your sight. So you are right when you punish me. You are fair when you judge me. I know I have been a sinner ever since I was born.”

There are very useful lessons to learn from this Psalm: To be a child after God’s heart we have to admit our mistakes and sins that we committed and ask God for forgiveness. We must take responsibilities and we must not blame others for our actions. We must not justify our sinful actions like “after all everyone is doing.”


Let’s come back to the story about shepherds and sheep. Shepherds can tell you that how stupid and playful sheep can be and because of this the flock that each shepherd looked after need to be carefully attended to. The shepherd will protect and guide their sheep to safety from wild animals like snakes, wolves and wild dogs. Often, the sheep will just run around not knowing actually there are dangers around them. Even though a shepherd who will always carry a rod to hit and discipline them when they are disobedient, the sheep still can be quite stubborn and will continue to explore the valleys and the mountains which usually infested with predators and ever-ready to devour them. All shepherds know exactly how many sheep they have and even when one is missing, the shepherds will try every effort to find them. No shepherd will leave their lost sheep alone, not even one, because each sheep is very dear to him.

In the Bible, Matthew 18:10-14, Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep to show that the Kingdom of God is accessible to all, even those who are sinners or strayed away from God’s path. Jesus uses an example of a shepherd who has 100 sheep and later he noticed that one goes missing. The shepherd leaves the 99 others and searches high and low for that lost sheep. Jesus stresses that when the shepherd finds the lost sheep he rejoices over it more than the 99 who did not go astray. This parable tells how God, like a good shepherd is always looking out for sinners and He will really rejoice when even one sinner repents and returns to Him.

Like the shepherds looking after sheep, Jesus is our Good Shepherd and in parallel we can also infer that many a times, human beings are quite stupid – stupid not in the sense of lack of talents or skills or not being useful in doing our job but more of foolishly seeking pleasure of the world and often at the expense of other people without any due considerations to potential negative consequences around them. The results of such actions can bring serious negative consequences and griefs not just to ourselves but also other people like our family members or friends. For example, there are drivers who refuse to take the advice of the police and got themselves drunk but still driving their cars without consideration of other road users. In the process, they may get into accidents and get seriously injured or killed who may or may not be the driver himself or herself. Regardless of who got seriously injured or killed, the family members are going to suffer for such irresponsible and selfish act.

Jesus as our Good Shepherd gives life to us and protect us from the dangers. From the Old Testament to the New Testament, God has been protecting all His children to the point that He is willing to die for protecting and saving His children from eternal destruction. This was fulfilled in the New Testament when Jesus willingly went to the cross to be crucified. By so doing, He is able to offer life to His sheep and that is God’s beloved children. By offering security to those who believe in Him, we are protected from all kind of dangers and no one can snatch us away from God. Jesus paid a very dear price for this. He shed every drop of His precious blood so that our sins can be washed away and we can live with Him into eternality. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Hebrews 9:22).

As His flock we have certain duties that He wants from us. We must heed His voice [John 10:2-3] and follow Him by sharing His love to others. Whether we are just ordinary church members or in leadership position like serving as elders, deacons or pastors, we are to cooperate with all our brothers and sisters in Christ in sharing God’s Good News of Jesus’s death and resurrection to others. We are to pray for one another and maintaining the spirit of love and live in peace with one another. And always remember – Jesus paid a dear price because of our sin and His death will ensure we will be able to dwell in His house forever [Psalm 23:6].

Let’s Pray:

Dear Lord,

I fully acknowledge You are my Good Shepherd. You make me to lie down in green pasture and You provide me with the Living Water of Life. Through this Living Water, You have restored my soul and You lead me to the path of righteousness. At times I walked through the valley of darkness but Lord you always provide me the light and shine upon the darkness of the valley that I am going through that now I can see all the goodness You have given to me. Dear Lord Jesus, help me to obey Your commandments and follow Your teaching so that I can live my life pleasing to You. Help me not to go astray like some disobedient and playful sheep but continue to point to me the right way to go. Lord Jesus keep me away from all dangers and protect me from devoured by predators. Dear Lord, I am looking forward to follow You all the days of my life until we meet face to face with You so that I will dwell in Your house forever. Help me that when ever I have the opportunity I can share with others of Your great love.

I pray all these in the Mighty Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus.

Amen.

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ARE WE NOW LIVING IN AN UPSIDE-DOWN WORLD?

Absolutely! A resounding “Yes!”
We are indeed living in an upside-down world and this can best be summarized in the following statements of truth:

Although there are only six statements, but they really depict the current position of the world especially those living in the west. Thankfully, countries in the east still valued the traditional culture. Sadly, the western influence is going escalated to the east and it’s going to be very fast!

I like to also share two verses, one from the Old Testament and One from the New Testament which reinforce our current state of affair in human affair.

Isaiah 5:20 (KJV) – Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

John 3:19 (KJV) – And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Interesting to read that when Jesus was asked by His disciples when He is coming again, He replies are always: “As In the days of Noah” and “As in the days of Lots” as we can read in the Book of Luke:

Luke 17:26 (KJV): And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.
Luke 17:28 (KJV): Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot.

I think we are in the situations that were very similar during the period of Noah and Lots!

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Are we ready to let our Living God, Jesus to receive us to His Heavenly Throne? He is coming very soon!

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John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son whosoever believed in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

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Jeremiah 17:7 – Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

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A VERY BLESSED DAY TO ALL THE READERS

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As we may be feeling the heat of life’s pressure and in some way we may feel a sense of insecurity and hopelessness, we must however remind ourselves that we can fully trust Jesus and we can rest upon His shoulder.

I like therefore to share with this very beautifully hymn that was written by an author who wrote this hymn at the time she was at her most difficult situation. Her beloved husband, the breadwinner, died in an accident trying to save a young boy from drowning. They had a 4-year old daughter. In spite of the situation, she wrote this hymn and it has inspired many to come and trust Jesus. May Lord bless you with this hymn. Amen!

AN URGENT MESSAGE!
ARE YOU READY TO MEET JESUS?
HE IS COMING VERY SOON
[For More Messages, Please Scroll Down]

We all know, life on earth is temporary. Is this ‘bad’ news?” Certainly not! On the contrary, for many of us as Christians we should take comfort that we don’t need to live to few hundred years. Are you really able to go on living for the next 500 years? Granted that you can, are you too not be too sick to continue working, are you willing to continue your life for the next 500 years? I am sure no one wants that. Life is too stressful on earth and some may wish they could retire now let alone working for the next 500 years. But will retirement solve your problem? Getting another big promotion will solve your problems? Your children have grown up and got married, will these solve your family problems? The longer we are on this earth, the more calamities we will have to face. Even today when we are in a relatively ‘peaceful’ situation, we are all still struggling and hope for a better life. Have we succeeded for a better life? We may and, alas!. Normally it’s very short and we are back to the same predicaments.

And let’s face it, many of us are now questioning the “Meaning of Life”.

The answer to this question: The Meaning of Life can be found in the Word of God, the Bible. As you explore the Bible, you will very soon discover that God has a wonderful plan for us and our life here is just a short journey. We are traveling this short journey to a much bigger things God has for us! Thankfully, our life on earth will one day come to an end. And God has much better plan for us in our next destination. Our next destination is in heaven which Jesus has promised to take us to as we can read in John 14:1-3:

Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 

These are the exact words from Jesus. Apostle Paul also tells us that “Therefore we should comfort one another (1 Thessalonians 4:18).”  What Apostle Paul was referring to is that Jesus will come to catch us up to meet Him in the cloud and to bring us to our heavenly home that He has prepared for us we just read in John 14:1-3. Jesus is coming personally to receive us. He is not sending His angels to receive us. What a glorious and blessed hope we have!

Let us get ready and get prepared to meet our Lord. You may say: Oh, yes. You may say, I have said a sinner’s prayer 5 years’ or 10 years’ ago and now I am saved. Really? This is not enough. We must continuously be doing all we can to build closer relationship with our Living God, Jesus. These are: our daily repentance – confess our sins and sincerely turn away from all our evil ways. This is not a choice but a commandment from God; daily reading of the Word of God to get to know God more in order to understand His will; spread the Good News of the, His virgin birth, His death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, and thank and pray always for His redeeming blood. It is only through the Blood of Jesus that we are redeemed to be able to spend in heaven with our God forever and ever! This is the eternal life as we can read in John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son whosoever believed in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

As we read new on the TV, internet or newspaper, the world events are all heading to a total chaos – politically, socially, morally, economically, geologically, cosmically, just about everything. What we are seeing now – pestilence, floods, wildfires, volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, food shortage, high inflation, wars, rumours of wars, riots in many countries, sexual perversion, immorality, gross corruption in high places, and so on are only a tiny glimpse compared to a huge catastrophic tsunami of biblical proportion that is coming to this earth. These catastrophic global tsunami events of biblical proportion which will inflict untold suffering to human on earth is coming very, very soon! For those Christians who are familiar with the Book of Revelation I am sure you all know what I am referring to. This will be the seven years of Great Tribulation period. If you compare the events written in the Book of Revelation regarding the Great Tribulation and current events that you hear and see from the mass media, you have not seen anything yet! Time is running out. Get ready to meet Jesus. Jesus is coming very soon! Repent and be saved! May God bless you the reading of this message.

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