The Same Vision Over Again!

Two years ago, I decided to use the hymn, "Be Thou My Vision" as the guiding theme for my sharing. As I was worshiping God at last Sunday's service, I was just thinking about a new theme for my blog sharing for the new year.

Just as I thought that my theme based on "Be Thou My Vision" had run its course, the worship leader sang the hymn.

Now this is unusual. Our church sings hymns only occasionally as contemporary songs are usually sung. But today, a number of hymns were sung.

Suddenly I realized that God was using the worship session to realign my theme for blog sharing .... letting God be my vision always!

Let me reproduce the hymn in full and let God speak to you too.

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

Let's realign our vision. Let's focus on God, let Him be our thoughts at all times!

God bless.

Steven 

God wants us to enjoy worship

So far in the last month, the following names of God were discussed:

Jehovah Nissi - He is my Banner.
Jehovah Ezer - My very present Helper.
Jehovah Shalom - He is my Peace.
Jehovah Saboath - My Captain of Hosts.
Jehovah Jireh - He provides all my needs.
Jehovah Raah - He is my Good Shepherd.
Jehovah Rapha - My Healer.
Jehovah Shammah - My Father who is always there for me.

In this final posting on the Names of God, I am glad to learn that Abba Father wants me to enjoy my worship of Him.

As Jehovah Tsidkenu, He sees me as a righteous person through His Son (Jer 23:5-6). God is so holy that only those who are righteous can come before Him.

Because of sin, I can't go before God. But His love for me sent Jesus to the cross. By His death, He took my sins and imputed His righteousness to me.

From a condemned sinner to a sinner saved by grace, I can now go into God's presence boldly to worship Him. Praise the Lord.

He is also Jehovah Mekeddeshem, the Lord who sanctifies (Heb 13:12). There is a three-fold sanctification; upward, inward and outward.

I am being sanctified to have a intimate relation with my Creator. At the same time, my inner man is being sanctified so that I can give up my old self to be the person He wants me to be. And finally, I am being made to be more like Jesus Christ, His ultimate goal of reconciliation.

By being my Righteousness and Sanctifier, Abba Father allows me to go into His presence to enjoy worshiping Him.

Conclusion

God sets me apart for His purposes, that is, to touch our world. He gives us Purpose. His Names show His character and love for me.

Our greatest need is to focus on all God has done for us and to appropriate His blessings.

God bless.

Steven

Virtue in Simplicity

And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Matthew 18:3 (NIV)

The Holy Spirit impressed upon me that those words are more than just about having child-like faith. Jesus is really drawing us away from the complications of the human mind and into a simple lifestyle that is full and satisfying.

When I was young, I had very little wants. Like many of you, I got what I needed as a young lad. Life was simple and yet satisfactory. Do you remember?

As I grew up, willingly or not, I was molded by the ways of the world. Ambition, desire for the "finer" things, wanting to be recognized, to have power and laudable achievements and to be in trend with the contemporary culture are but some of the things that drove my life.

Richard Foster,a noted Christian theologian and author of Freedom of simplicity, said, "We crave things we neither need nor enjoy ... we buy things we do not want (so as) to impress people we do not like" sums up his point of our "insane attachment to things."

And yet what God wants, and for which Paul so passionately urged us, is that we do not conform to the world but to allow the Holy Spirit to renew our mind and be transformed according to His will (Romans 12:2).

Sewlyn Hughes remarked that "One great difference between the Christian faith and every other religion is its simplicity. To find God, you have to move away from all that is complicated to what is simple. And what can be more simple that a child opening his or her hand to receive a gift?"

The world will continue to say that our belief is too simple. It must not matter to us what they say. Let us simply believe. Simply believe that He will provide for all our needs, He is the our banner and protector, He is our Abba Father who choose to love us. Hallelujah!

There is great virtue in simplicity.

God bless.

Steven

Plan To Neglect

“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the most of every opportunity … but understand what the Lord’s will is.”

Eph 5:15-16

You have heard the saying, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” This is certainly true. However, we will live life more effectively if we also “plan to neglect.”

About 15 years ago, I started to practice Stephen Covey’s holistic life management principle, which he propagated in his book, “First Things First.” I found it absolutely meaningful as well as helpful in setting my priorities right and allocating time appropriately for managing my life.

Stephen advocated putting our different roles, which we have in our daily life and then planning our activities around these roles. This gives us a proper perspective (using the true north analogy) in how we spend our time.

His proposition is based on an important Kingdom principle; that we should be wise and make the most of every opportunity and understanding what the Lord’s will is for us.

Stephen’s core message is to focus on what is really important but which may not yet be urgent and totally neglect the trivial things in our daily life. Indeed, there are many things that cry out for our attention constantly but which are not important at all. These include common trivial pursuits, time wasters such as watching soap operas or reading fictions, busy work which produces little result, gossips, aimless surfing in the Internet and so on. If we are not careful, we will be driven by life instead of living and driving it.

In Charles Hummel’s “The Tyranny of the Urgent”, he explains that until we know the difference between the urgent and the important then we will never become good stewards of our time. Reflect and examine how often our lives have been driven by what pops up in our face instead of we controlling what to do according to a holistic plan.

The core of this is the message to administer Christian stewardship of our time on earth … making most of every opportunity for God’s kingdom work.

I have benefited much from learning how to plan my daily and weekly timetable according to my various roles in life. These roles include being a redeemed son of God, a husband, a father, an employee, a church member and a friend. By having each of these roles in mind when I plan my week, I life live with a balance, not missing missing out on anything or anyone important to me. I plan to neglect all trivial and unimportant things so that I can make use of the time to do those that are important.

Join me to live life with a holistic balance. Live it, drive it for His glory.

God bless.

Steven

A New Year, A Refreshed Vision

^"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you...."

Matthew 28:19-20a (NIV)

At my church's New Year's day service, my senior pastor cast the vision for the congregation - "Live Life Missionally." In a nutshell, this means to shift our focus outward to win souls and to disciple them to grow deeply in love with Abba Father.

I believe that it is not just a vision for my church. It should be a vision for all believers! Because that is exactly what our Lord commanded us to do.  

Matthew 28:18-20 records this clearly. It is the most important command for us as it was the Lord's last command before He ascended to the Father's side.
 
"Living" is a continuous present tense. Therefore, it means to do it in every living moment in our life. Is it possible? Is it easy? Or will it be another airy-fairy "no-action-talk-only" statement?

I know that I will fail if I depend on my human strength. Even if I ask for help from the Holy Spirit, it will still be difficult. But I will make a start and let the Holy Spirit fuel my spark and turn it into a fire.

I will ask the Holy Spirit to help me to make every opportunity to share the good news of Christ's salvation offer. I will ask His help to be more like Jesus, to love like Him and to walk according to His ways so that I can help another brother or sister to "live life missionally" as well.

It will not be easy but I will constantly ask the Holy Spirit to help me fulfill this desire, one step at a time, in His time. My Lord says to me, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you." John 15:16 NIV.

Lord, I ask you to help me to "Live Life Missionally" from today!

God bless.

Steven

Christ-like Sense

"I want to know Christ — yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death..."

Philippians 3:10

I used to think that it is important to always apply common sense in our daily life. I felt that in today's society, "common sense isn't common any more."

God corrected me. What I need is Christ-like sense!

Common sense is for the natural realm. Christ-like sense is for both the natural and spiritual realms. Common sense is from our human mind. Christ-like sense is from Him.

The only way to have Christ-like sense is to know Christ intimately. And that was the central cry and desire of Apostle Paul.

When united with Christ, we experience the power that raised Him from the dead - that mighty power from Abba Father. That same power will sanctify us, renew our thinking and regenerate our life so that we can walk in His likeness. Only then, can we become more like Christ. Only then, can we be of use to Him, who saved us for His holy purpose.

In response, I am re-ordering a few things in my life. I am asking God to help me to always:

Have Christ-like sense over common sense.
Put grace before justice.
To love without condition.
Give praise instead of criticism.

I wish you Christ-like sense for this Christmas and always!

God bless.

Steven

Blessings for those who fear the Lord

"Blessed are those who fear the LORD,
   who find great delight in his commands. 

Blessed are all who fear the LORD,
   who walk in obedience to him."

Psalm 112:1, 128:1

Kenneth Copeland said, "The man who makes a habit of delighting in God's Words will have a heart that's fixed! He can make it through disastrous situations without losing his balance. His mind's made up before he ever gets to the disaster. He's victorious before he ever gets there."

Abba Father clearly delights in every one who delights in His words and obeys them. He promises abundant blessings as a reward. And just to name a few, they include:

• Riches and power (Psalm 112:2-3)
• A secured heart which has no fear of bad news (Psalm 112:7-8)
• Enduring righteousness and honor (Psalm 112:9)
• Success and prosperity(Psalm 128:2,9)
• A blessed family and long live (Psalm 128:3,6)

Dear beloved, Abba Father speaks so clearly. Need I say any more?

God bless.

Steven
Starting from next Monday, I will be posting once every two weeks as I will be starting a new fortnightly sharing on marriage and family based on my book "Eight Keys to Family Power." Come and share your experience at http://BeGreatLovers.blogspot.com

The Blessing of Giving

" ... Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’" Acts 20:35 (NIV) 

My cell group was discussing Chapter 4 of Romans last week.

An interesting question which generated an exciting debate was "how would you feel when you received an unexpected gift from someone and would you have rather worked for it instead."

Quite obviously, Paul was telling the Roman Christians and the Jews that salvation was a free gift from God and no amount of work from men would ever bring us reconciliation with God.

However, the cell's debate took a deviation. It centered on the feeling of the giver on what the receiver did with the gift. The issue was whether the receiver had the right to do what he liked with the gift. Both proponents and opponents presented their arguments emotionally.

The opponents say that they will be offended if the receiver gives the gift away to someone else (even if it was to bless another person). They argued that by so doing, the receiver did not respect their intention and feeling.

The proponents said that since it was a gift, the receiver becomes the rightful owner and therefore has the right to do what he deems appropriate, including giving the gift to another person.

In my humble opinion, it has to do with the attitude of the giver. This attitude will drive the way we give (or not give) to His kingdom.

Think hard over this statement - "one who has truly given is he who has given the full rights of the gift to the receiver."

Think again - who has the rights to use our tithe, offerings and donations to missions? Do we fully leave the decision to the appointed stewards or do we give conditions for the usage of the our "gifts"? Or do we refrain from giving when we feel that the stewards do not meet up to our standards?

When God gave His Only Son, He knew that there will be those who accept and others who reject His Gift. He rejoices whenever one accepts His gift and He longs for each who has yet to do so. And for everyone who rejects His gift, He has no joy in pronouncing judgement over them. Still, He gave.

The father in parable of the lost son (Luke 15:11-32), gave to his son his part of the inheritance. The father did not intervene on how his son spent the money; the son squandered it all. Neither was he offended. Instead, the father welcomed his prodigal son back into his loving arms when the son came to his senses and repented.

No wonder Jesus says, "it is more blessed to give than receive." And when Jesus says "give", He knows exactly what it entailed!

As for me,  I will give as the Lord directs me. My responsibility ends with my obedience. How the receiver decides what he does with my gift is none of my business any more. I have given up the rights of the gift to the receiver! I shall not be offended. It is more blessed to give...

God bless.

Steven 
(Please register your reaction to this posting by marking one of the response boxes following. For email followers, visit the blog to do the same.)

Why pray?

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

Philippians 4:6 NIV

Philippians chapter 4 tells us of many good "wants".

We want "to stand firm in faith" (v1), to be able to "rejoice always" (v4), to have the "peace of God that transcends all understanding" (v7), and we also want to think of "things that are excellent or praiseworthy" (v8). These are great and noble desires.

Yet in our daily life, many of us do not experience these. Instead, when we are faced with difficulties, we doubt, grumble in despair, feel irritated and unsettled, and we think of numerous negative thoughts.

"Why so?"

This question answers the question, "Why pray?"

Unfortunately for many of us, prayer is the last thing that we do when we encounter challenges. And because of this, we have to labor through the anxiety and pain of the situations.

Clearly, Paul advocates that in order to have all those desirable wants he mentioned, we should first pray. "In everything..", he says, pray and that we "do not be anxious".

God assured His redeemed (us!) in Isaiah 65:24 "Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear."

The Lord is speaking to me. I am committing all my cares to Him, including anxiety. Oh, what a relief that is!

"Is it possible not to worry?", you may ask.

My answer is, "Try it as prescribed by Paul." And see the result for yourself.

Praise the Lord.

Steven
(Please share your reaction to this posting by marking one of the boxes below)

Why is Jesus the Good News?

"He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world."  1 John 2:2

Paul taught that "there is no one is righteous, not even one ... all have turned away ..." (Romans 3:10,12). This led to his famous proclamation that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

Humankind was doomed at that very moment when Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit.

A Holy God cannot tolerate sin. His sovereign character requires that He has to judge every sin. Every sin elicits a penalty.

Why is Jesus Christ central to the Good News?

Simply because He imputed righteousness to all sinner by taking upon Himself the punishment for ALL sin (1 John 2:2). We are justified freely by His grace through redemption that came by Jesus. (Romans 3:24).

As we preach the gospel, don't just quote Romans 3:23 which condemns us all. Remember that the most important part of the story is the good news in Romans 3:24. It gives us the only hope for redemption and reconciliation to our Abba Father.

And one more important point.

Most, if not all, other religions demand that their followers perform specific tasks to appease their gods. Christianity is the only one for which God does everything for His followers to be redeemed.

There is absolutely nothing that we can do to get right before God ... "there is no one righteous .. not even one.." There is then "no boasting" (Romans 3:27) because our salvation comes solely through Christ's effort, not ours.

Jesus is indeed the Good News for mankind.

Hallelujah, praise the Lord! So let's go out there to preach the Good News as it is.

(Please mark your reaction to this posting by marking one of the boxes below)

God bless.

Steven

The Simplicity of the Great Commission

"He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved..."

Mark 16:15-16a (NIV)

Dr Christopher Alam preached in my church recently. He said that he was sharing a simple message. It was indeed a simple but yet poignant one!

What is the great commission that Jesus gave before He left for His heavenly throne? As I re-examine the text of Mark 16:15-19, the command was in three simple words - "  preach the gospel."

Dr Alam reminded us that the gospel is really the story of God's love for mankind in that He sent Jesus, His only Son, to suffer and die for us, and after three days, He rose to His glory.  And only for that reason, man's salvation is assured.

It is that simple!

How often do we miss the opportunity to simply "preach the gospel" to those whom God put into our path? Some give the excuse that "I do not know how to preach", others say, "I am waiting for the opportunity..."

I am guilty at times of simply saying, "God loves you". It is easy to say these words to friends, family and even strangers. But this is NOT the gospel. The star, Jesus, is missing from the picture.

A sinner knowing and even acknowledging that God loves him does not receive salvation. There is only one way; by accepting that Jesus came, suffered, died and rose again for him.

And how would a sinner know that? Only if we preach the gospel!

Contemplate this my brothers and sisters ... and get ready to simply "preach the gospel".

Please mark your reaction to this post clicking the panel below.

God bless.

Steven

We need each other

⁹ Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor:¹⁰ If either of them falls down,one can help the other up....

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (NIV)

Paul said that "since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others..." Romans 12:5b (NIV).

God made us to have a need for each other. We need to admit to this fact. But why do some of us have a problem with this? Ps Rick Warren, in his book "Better Together", gave a two reasons for us to ponder over:

1.  Our culture glorifies individualism.
2.  Our pride makes us feel that this is an admission of weakness.

But when we start to turn towards God's way to build this "togetherness", we will begin to see a new perspective of love and service. When we begin to accept that we have a need for each other, consideration for others' welfare takes a prominent position in our life.

Selfish desires fade. Selfishness gives way to love and care. We begin to love and support each other more. We want to be there for one another in good and bad times. We feel for one another. We respect each other and become understanding and not demanding.

I have been convicted. You can be too.

Let us clearly know that we belong to each other in Christ and let's start to act like so!

God bless.

Steven

What does He really want of us?

“Be wise in the way you act with people who are not believers, making the most of every opportunity.” 

Colossians 4:5 (NCV)

Many years ago when I first gave my life to Chris, I had the wrong understanding on how to deal with people who were not believers. I misunderstood God’s word and tended to keep myself away from them.

“Do not be unequally yoked …”(2 Cor 6:14)  seemed to make sense then. It took me a while before I realized that I was simply being legalistically religious – how sad!

But what does the Lord our God really asks of us? Let's check out Deut 10:12-13, 18-19:

^"12 And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? ....He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. ¹⁹ And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. "

Foreigners (people who are not believers) hold a special position in God's heart - He loves them and wants them saved too.

Our Abba Father says it as He wants it - that we are to deal with those who are yet to believe with love as He loves them too. In doing so, we sow the seed of reconciliation to them. One day, they will come to know of God's love for them.

So, let's ask the Holy Spirit to help us to "make the most of every opportunity, to reach those who are not believers."

God bless.

Steven
(My apologies for not posting my sharing for the last two Mondays - I was in China and all blog website is blocked).

Living out the Gospel

⁵ Be wise in the way you act with people who are not believers, making the most of every opportunity.⁶ When you talk, you should always be kind and pleasant so you will be able to answer everyone in the way you should.

Col 4:4-5 NCV

 A pastor once said, "You may be the only gospel that your neighbour may read in his entire life."

What did he mean?

Those around us may never read a bible to know of the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Many will see the way we, who profess Christ, live and love.

If the love of Christ is demonstrated through us in what we do daily,the pre-believers will get to "read" of Christ's love for them too. This is why we are exhorted to "be wise in the way we act.." with the people around us.

On Sunday, over 20 members of my cell group hosted dinner at a HDB void deck in Henderson Road to over 50 disadvantaged elderly ones. These folks have no children or relatives to take care of them. Each one stays with another similarly disadvantaged person assigned by HDB to live in a subsidized one-room apartment blocks.

As I interacted with some of these folks, it was obvious that they long for someone to care for them and are willing to engage them in conversation. They simply need people to show love to them.

We did not preach the gospel to them, not yet. We intend to. But we believe that we need to connect with them first and show that we love them. The time will surely come when they will ask us why we are doing this. That will be the time we tell them about the love of God for them.

Let's reach out to pre-believers by being a living gospel of and for Christ!

God bless.

Steven

Love Proves Discipleship

"Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen."

1 John 4:20 NIV

We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:21 NIV).

This is the compelling reason for us to love our brothers and sisters and those who have yet to come into the family. In fact, we love God by loving others.

Ps Rick Warren remarked, "The essence of love is not what we think or do to provide for others, but how much we give of ourselves."

Humanly we will find it difficult to do so at the beginning when we are full of "self". But as the Holy Spirit works in us as we bid Him to, a transformation takes flight.

I am naturally a self-centered. In my early years as a believer, son, husband, father and friend, I have been looking after my own needs above everyone else. Not that I did not care about others, but I did not side aside my own needs in order to meet the needs of others.

My wife on the other hand is a generous person, always putting the needs of others, and most of the time, at her own expense. I began to see the joy that she holds which comes from the ability to give generously.

I desired the same joy and thus embarked on my own journey with the Holy Spirit's help. I must say that my experience has been nothing but satisfying.

Once a cell member asked me, "Are you disappointed with those whom you spend time with and yet you get nothing out of them?" Without a second thought, I replied that I have learned to go pass that as I put no expectation of people whom I give my time to. Without expectation, there is no disappointment. I am merely giving my love as Jesus commanded me (John 15:12 NIV).

Christ set the example when He put aside His glory in heaven to give Himself fully for you and I. Join me to obey Him. Our love for others proves that we are truly the disciple of Christ (Gal 6:2 NCV).

God bless.

Steven

Compelled to love

"Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."

1 John 4:11 (NIV)

I am currently going through Saddleback Church's 40 Days of Community program. The program helps me to understand what am I on earth for?

Journey with me as I explore the answer to this very basic but important question.

Apostle John said it simply - we are compelled to love one another! Ps Rick Warren of Saddleback Church opens his message in the "Better Together" devotional book with, "Life is about learning to love."

Jesus called love the "greatest commandment" (Matthew 22:38 NIV).

There is only one reason - because God is love and He wants you and I to be more like Him, to love like Him. He loves us deeply and wants us to love Him back in the same way.

But loving others is unnatural to our fallen state. Satan has tricked us to selfishly love our self. Everything is about I, me and myself. Self-centeredness is practically the cause of all problem!

But it should be all about Him instead.

Our love for Him is demonstrated by our love for others, especially our brothers and sisters in faith. Jesus clearly said, "Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” John 13:35 NLT.

Let's start our journey to love like Him today.

God bless.

Steven