Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Richness of His Word.

This recess week has begun by a serious study of His Word, because there have been quite many indications leading me to closely study the book of Hebrews in the New Testament.

It is a recognition of a collation of references towards the book, over the weekend that has compelled me to do so.

I have understood that rich understanding and more knowledge will be found if I submit and commence this study.

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In Hebrews 1, the writer has established the place Jesus Christ, God's Son, above all the angels and all of creation. He is the Object of our worship and praise. He has proper ownership and possession of all things, of everything. He has inherited authority over all things. He is higher than angels, and exalted higher than Satan.

What struck me, was that there was so much coherence and connectivity in all parts of Scripture, that the Psalms, Isaiah, Colossians, the Epistles and the 4 Gospels are in agreement, of the Sonship of Jesus Christ, and His supremacy over all things.

King David understood that the Messiah was to come from his line and be given an unending kingdom. And he recognized that the Messiah was not just a mere man, but he called Him Lord.

In the beginning of Hebrews 2, it is emphasized that where the message carried by angels to God's people are so important that any violation or disobedience will be met with just punishment, it is also emphasized that Jesus is higher and greater than the angels. Therefore His message of Salvation must be taken even more seriously and is to be believed.

In verse 3, it is written: "How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?"

Christ Jesus has been approved by and established into His rightful Kingship by His Father and our Father. At Jesus' Baptism and at His Transfiguration, God has declared that Jesus is His Son with His loud voice from Heaven. God is pleased with His Son, and we are to listen to Him.

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I must not be puffed up by the knowledge and understanding He has given me, but instead, I must grow in love and faithfulness in relation to my Lord and my God.

He is preparing me for His purposes, and may I cooperate with Him as He teaches and changes me.

I write to share the insight given to me, so that we may understand the secret things of God that He has delighted to reveal to us.

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Sometimes I am concerned over God's selection of my partner for me. I wonder if I would like who she is, or how she is like, and I am worried I may not like who He has chosen. Then, the Spirit reminds me that I have sinned.

How may I distrust God, who out of His wisdom beyond wisdom as made it so that my wife will be one who is prepared by Him.

Are God's gifts and goodness not acceptable by my standards?
Can my standards be higher than God's?  Must God meet my human expectations?

I am to look past appearances and love and not doubt the good things He has in store for me, and for her.

Whenever I meet a girl, I cannot help but wonder if they could be the one. Then I remember that I am no longer to be looking for a wife, but instead I am to wait on God for Him to make known and reveal the woman of His choosing to me.

I am then to treat every single girl with the love and tenderness Christ did.

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There is a tendency for me to boast, even while I share, to make myself seem a better man than I am.
This is a disclaimer that I am not at all good, even though I am one who loves to be adored and admired.

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May we live in expectation of His coming, and so live differently, with our eyes rested on Him.
May we not rebel but fulfill all the purposes He has for us in this life.
May we love others in accordance with the love He has taught us,
May we submit to Christ for we are His possessions,
May we value the things above than the things below.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

To My Wife.

To the one whom I will love and care for and raise a family with,

I am now, at a time in my life where the Spirit of God has taken hold of me and taught me many things.
He has made me aware of my weakness in the flesh and of the hope held out for me through the work of His Son.

He has cleansed me and given me grace and mercy, which I may stand on.

I have begun to discern that there is richness and security in Him and in His Word, and that those things are not of what we as human beings regard as precious.

I am to become a fully Christian man, who will lead my household in faith and obedience, and teach our children the love and faithfulness of our great God and King.

I am to learn the following and care tenderly for you, lifting our family up to our God.

Ephesians 5


 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[c] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

May I be made ready for my bride, to love and to cherish you. I am to preserve all of myself, so I may be reserved for you.

God will teach me; He will not let me remain the way I am now. I wait eagerly for Him to lead me to you and eventually, us to Him.

Amen.



Why I write this, aside from showing off, I need some way to express my longing to communicate with the person whom I will join my life and spirit with. Perhaps she will read this and this will be the means that we are brought to each other; perhaps I may show her this when we begin to know one another.
I almost cannot wait for the timely goodness of the Lord to be given to me.


I must move in step with God's rhythm and not run ahead of Him, without His Spirit. 

Christian Marriage

My sister and I differ on many issues and recently we have reached another point where we disagree.
She believes that "there is nothing wrong with homosexuality" and she is all for gay marriage.
She has said that her Christian friends are "okay with it".

This has caused me to think, reflect and consult Scripture.

I woke up today to study Mark 10, where Jesus was teaching on divorce and godly marriage.
I have always heard the argument that He never specifically taught on the issue of homosexuality and he never condemned it as a serious sin.

In our present time, so many people and believers are conditioned into accepting that homosexuality is an expression of identity and self and that it is permissible and there is "nothing wrong with it".

They reject the Pauline epistle to the Romans, where homosexuality is clearly taught to be a sinful state.

Romans 1-


 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.


We must look to Christ Jesus, who has the highest authority and understanding. We look not to the law receiver, but instead to the Law Giver, where He has defined the structure of a coupling designed by God.

Mark 10-

   5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. 6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’[a] 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[b] 8 and the two will become one flesh.’[c]So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”


Jesus has left no room for alternate configurations or permutations. We may not innovate or reinvent ourselves any other pairings.

He has established the institution of marriage and godly union and has spoken strictly against any deviation from this structure.

Now then, may we not adhere to God's definition of immorality and sin, but instead "decide" for ourselves?

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This episode has also led me to see again that our young Christians have almost no depth in Scripture, and in the ways of the Lord. This is extremely worrying, because they have displaced the authority of the revealed Word of God and believed in their own human reasoning and the standards of the world.

There needs to be a return to faithfulness and to become rooted in the Word of God.

We as His people must take on His standards and live out our faith the way He has shown us.

May we seek His face with all our hearts, mind and soul, using all of our strength.
May His Spirit claim us for Him and prepare us for His purposes.

Glory to Christ our Lord.


I do not wish to advertise my blog like I did previously in JC. Who may read this, may they prosper in the only thing that matters, following our God and Saviour.


Whole-heartedness

This week, I am learning to be more disciplined in work and play, and to give my whole heart to seeking the Lord. 

Jeremy (Loh) shared on Jeremiah 29:13 - "You will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart.

It struck me again that I have compartmentalized my heart, only giving half-hearted devotion and half-hearted effort in seeking Him.

Glen reminded us too, that we are to be students of God's Word. We are Christian first before all else.

I am so grateful and humbled by our fellowship that God has made it possible for us to find each other and then come together to worship and learn of Him through His Word.  

I am confident that as we go, God will teach us.

We must build each other up in faith and knowledge and love one another. In our every behaviour, we must be sensitive to other believers. We protect each other in our holy faith so that we grow together in Christ.


The Three Wise Men, only wise because we recognize our need for the Lord. 
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I am a show-off. So many times I startle myself by the little things that I do to advertise my goodness. I am conscious that I shame others to promote myself. My attitudes and my actions move to intellectually, spiritually and verbally intimidate others. I exalt myself and make myself out to be better than I am. I am not to harm the consciences of those who are weaker in faith.

God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. If I have a full view of myself and of the true condition of my heart and person that is without Christ, I would not think so highly of myself. 
This chastens me, that I am on the receiving end of grace and mercy. 

I must occupy the lesser position and let others come forth to serve, share and teach. I must fight my nature to centre on myself and instead honour Christ. 

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I am very excited to meet Christians in school, and I eagerly look to share and discuss our faith. I realize in some cases, there is a sort of dance during our interactions where we try to understand or measure the depth of each other's faith. We try to find out how Christian each other is. 

I am glad to meet like-minded young people who are serious about our faith. There are not too many around. 

Ordinarily when we meet new people, we typeset each other by outward adornments and physical appearance that is layered with care. But we must be careful to look past the flesh (body) and see the spiritual climate of the heart. Is there any mark of Christ?  

This is especially when we are looking at the opposite sex. I believe any woman who loves the Lord is beautiful. But it is not easy to focus on this quality if we only stop at the outward layer. His/ Her relationship with the Lord is the most important. 

If we cannot have a proper relationship with our God, all our other relationships will suffer.

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It is saddening to also see where there are young, and not so young Christians with little knowledge of the Word, of God's Spirit. They have not felt the importance and difference in spending time in His Presence. Spiritual maturity is found wanting. 
We must live out our faith. Our belief in Christ Jesus is not one that is passive, but active and growing. 

How deeply rooted is our faith? Or is it just allegiance that may change, just like our political position? 
How Christian are we?

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I wonder about the future, and I wonder about my place and position then. What would I be doing and what would be the state of my relationship with my God. 

I wonder about who would be my wife, and how is the family we have and keep together. I am careful about the girls I meet daily, and to guard myself against losing to physical attraction. It is mostly lust at first sight. How may I love and later grow intimate with person that I have little knowledge of? 

I remind myself that I and my future wife will need to raise up children in a Christian household. I may not turn from this important requirement and look to other attributes of appearance or personality.

In this, I hope and pray that I will raise a household that loves and serves the Lord. How many generations after, I do not know, but I pray all of them will. 

My children will inherit the best riches of all - my faith in the Lord. The Lord is our best and richest inheritance. Not money or property.


May God's Word and Truth take root in our heart, mind and Spirit. Amen.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Whose Hands Are Those That Made Us

I saw this off a friend's wall post, and I could not help but comment and also think.

‎"Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded, because the elements - the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution and for life, they weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars, and the only way for them to get into your body is if those stars were kind enough to explode. So, forget God. The stars died so that you could be here today." - Lawrence M. Krauss


This prompted me to find words to represent the hand of God in Creation. 


I do not believe we are the product of chance or explosions. Whatever explanation for the beginning of life must also fully account for the details of origin and the meaning to and for, life


We are too complex and too intelligent and conscious beings to simply burn out like a fuse at the end of our lives. We are a bigger presence than the bodies we have now. We are creative beings that are also emotive and sensitive. 


I do not believe that something as fickle and elusive as chance may be able to create landform, water bodies, and make human beings. Are we then the product of chance. And, by any chance, is chance still at work in this world, where more things are coming into being by the providence of chance? 
Can we also say we have mastered chance, by the way we have taken control of our lives?


This thread of thought has no firm ground to explain why we are what we are and how we are. 


I believe that our very existence and this physical world is too ordered and beautiful to be the work of something other than God. 


However we refuse to submit to the idea that there would be someone higher and wiser and more important than our race, who made us. We also refuse to submit to that Someone.

This rebellion is in our nature. Whichever leadership, government does not please or suit us, we overturn and unfollow them. We do not honour or obey any institution that cannot or will not serve and please us.

We are human-centred - we are the highest and smartest beings and we are the most important.

Romans 1 pegs this down, where we refuse to submit, much less honour or obey God.
Can a subject not pay due homage to his King? Will his King suffer this indifference for too long without teaching him to submit, or else remove him from His court?

We as created beings in the image of God, have the gift of creativity and craftsmanship, that we may too fashion things that are beautiful, because that was what He first did with us.


He is the Alpha and the Omega. He was before all things, and He made all things.
He was before us in the beginning, and I believe He will also be there at the end. 


Most people dare not be sure, but are non-committal to any divinity, and balk at the idea of submitting to any god. How long more, may we avoid this question?

I am a latecomer to Christ, and I have learnt, but am revising this truth that God is first, He is highest.
How many more will see this also.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Love and Hospitality as our Trademark


I think that these years in my life are not just a progression into adulthood but also growing into a Christian man.

Therefore I will write about the segments where I grow, tumble and trip and recover, for it will be helpful for me when I reminisce.

Everyday is a struggle to be faithful and to honour Christ.
By my action, speech and treatment of others, I represent Christ.

In one of my texts to Dong Lin, I wrote that Love is a Christian Trademark. Then when Raj came over to my room, I remembered that Hospitality was one of these trademarks we are to exhibit also. I did what I could to welcome him, in my living space.

I am in a season of sickness, because I have not cared well for myself. Does this season have any bearing on how I relate to God? In all occasions and under all conditions, we are to rejoice, give thanks and praise Him. He lives and I have life in Him.

Do I expect and trust God to heal me? I know He can, but do I believe He will heal me?
Can I ask God to fix my body while I harm it by abuse daily?
Yet this is the process of renewal which out of His grace and discretion, He will give. We sin daily and He shows mercy and gives forgiveness where we repent and submit ourselves to His Word.

My sickness reminds me that my flesh is weak. It also chastens me, that my spirit must be strong. In all circumstances and situations, I must pray. I depend on Him and whether He heals me or not, I will wait on Him.

I must exercise my spiritual freedom and new life to obey and not to return to the selfish, unloving and mean-spirited patterns of the old life. 

Election

At present, I believe, on the basis of Romans 9 and Isaiah 59 and so many other Scriptures, that it is God's sovereign choice and God Himself who works salvation.

I believe that it is God's mercy and not what we may do on our own that will save us. But it is written that Jesus draws all men to Himself (John 12:32).

John 6:65- He went on to say, "That is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him." 

John 6:37, 38, 39 - "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me but raise them up at the last day."

John 10:27,28,29,30  - "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one."

Luke 13:24 - He said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.'"


1. God draws, enables men to go near to Christ.
2. Christ safe-keeps all who are given over to Him. No one may snatch them from Him; He will lose none of them.
3. Make every effort to enter through the narrow door.

To reconcile all the above, we may not fully understand what is the reach of His reaping. But we may be confident that His love for us is true - genuine and faithful.

Our hearts must not be hard, and our attitude must be reverential. We must submit to God's authority and go to Him meekly. God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble (Proverbs 3:34; James 4:6). 

For our first and foremost sin was that we "neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him" (Romans 1:21). Honour God and His sovereign authority over us.

Pray with precision. We must ask for mercy and ask God to enable us to go to Him and to bring us to a knowledge of Him and His Word.

Go near to Christ Jesus. Let nothing prevent you from doing so. 



Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Insights this week.

I will use this place for the purposes of putting out whatever insights I have received from the Lord. May the Spirit of God give whoever reads, the mind of Christ that they may understand, receive greater mercy,love and become greatly blessed.


I am a Christian young man and as a man, temptations stalk me, whether I am equipped to stand my ground in Christ or not. Any day, if I had not gone into prayer to be strengthened in God's presence or have read His potent and powerful Word, I would have been undone. If the Spirit did not chasten me, I would not have been able. Praise be to the Lord who covers His people. 


I reflected and wrote the following in my journal as a documentation of my confession unto the Lord that,


The lust of the flesh is insipid and virulent. It derails me from the path of holiness, poisons my eyes, mind, heart, and spirit. It leads me to disrespect a woman' body and only to look to vent my desire on another flesh, with no care for the person's emotions, well-being or tender heart. It dishonours Christ, that I sin against Him out of my self-love, which has no kindness, gentleness or compassion, but seeks to harm myself and another person dear and beloved in the Lord's sight.


I had lust in my heart. 


In contemplating sin, or going as far as to plan sin, there is no difference. In my mind and heart, I am ready and bent to do evil, having put off any love or kindness for anyone. Now I just lack the occasion. 


All day, I am tempted to lie and deal with others indecently, dishonestly.
I look to be adored, praised and honoured by men (and women). This leads me to make a false projection of outward appearance of spiritual health and wealth. 


This stains any good thing I try to do, because my compulsions now have no good motive, but instead for trickery and to gather glory for myself.


I have prejudice for others; I despise peoples and I do not let them matter to me. I reserve very little pity for people both near and far away.


I envy others that are ahead of me in the LORD. 


I have no strength or ability to make myself conform to any goodness by sheer will. 
Thank the Lord Jesus that the Spirit is stronger than flesh, and I do not use flesh to overcome flesh.


After my confession, I feel the flow of the Spirit again. 
We as believers are not meant to be crippled by sin, but to move out in the power of the Spirit.


I need to learn to not look at a woman based on form and appearance, or outward things such as "poise", "confidence" or the like, but on qualities of gentleness, compassion, love, patience. These are the fruits of the spirit.


When I look for the woman I am to love and begin a family with, I do not rely on feelings because they are fickle, or emotions for they do not last. My love for her will be, and a constant. If it changes, it will only grow. 


I am to learn how to treat her gently and care for her. I am to grow in my knowledge of her, and to be fully committed to loving and pleasing and protecting her. My love for her must be responsible and not just emotive. 


We who are His will be taught by His Spirit and we will not, and we cannot remain the same after we have known Him.


May how am I blessed in the Lord, be the same for whoever reads my writing. Amen.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Coming out of prayer rested and refreshed, I have received many things from the Lord and there has to be a way I put it out to the rest of the world.

Not to forget:
I have a Father in Heaven,
The Spirit lives in me,
Christ died for me.

Therefore, I live in conformity to His Word, by His Spirit, always careful to love and obey.

Having been set free, we now use our spiritual freedom to pursue righteousness and the kingdom of God.

Eternal Security

I have been trying to come to terms with the security that I truly know Christ and I am abiding by the very Spirit He has sent to us.

Yet if I were not born again, would I be conscious or concerned about any of these?
The enemy attacks my surety in Christ and seeks to destabilize my faith and my confidence that I am in Christ.

We, soldiers of Christ must be strong and rich in Scripture, knowing and quoting the words of truth, not letting them depart from us.

In discerning which Spirit I am following after, am I bearing fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control?

Galatians 5: 22-23