Friday, April 17, 2009

Moving Forward


Relevant Bible Verses:-

1) Eph 4:13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

2) Phil 3:13-14 Brothers, I do not account of myself to have laid hold; but one thing I do: Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, (14) I pursue toward the goal for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called me upward.

3) Eph 3:8 To me, less than the least of all saints, was this grace given to announce to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel

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There are many born again Christians who have left the church and simply refused to continue to embrace the faith in Christ. Majority of these people would be too polite to express the real reason(s) for not returning to the flock. Some have gone to the extent to even condemn and discourage others from believing in the fellowship of Christ.

For centuries now, God has mentioned that the fundamental fault with man is his own very heart, there is something twisted, almost demonic within the very heart and soul of human being. Remember it was disobedience that caused man to fall. The insatiable human heart desires to have plenty of the world’s material things and quest for power continues to dominate mankind, blurring their vision to focus on God’s great economy and plan.

Therefore it is important to nurture and saturate the human heart with the Word of God building the unshakable foundation of truth. “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.” (Eph 4:14)

Satan’s cunning ways and persistency in instilling negative thoughts in our mind using religion, culture, philosophy and law that we are not worthy enough to serve the Holy and Gracious God. The unnecessary guilt conscience of not worthy stance and self condemnation naturally have caused people to adopt quickly the “law” to self correct in justification to make right with God.

In the above verses, Paul mentioned of forgetting the past. He encouraged the believers to stretch and move forward for the ultimate fullest enjoyment of Christ in the millennial kingdom as a reward to the victorious runners of the New Testament race. Dwelling on the old teachings can hinder and frustrate our further pursuing after Christ. It is sad we still see many modern day Christians, even the matured ones continue to adopt the old teachings and put upon themselves the burden of the law as bondage on their shoulders.

It is important that we do not fall back to the old teachings (Judaism). We need to keep moving forward with Christ in the new covenant. Christ has come to fulfill the law. The old law has been canceled on the cross (read Hebrews 8). We cannot be justified by observing the law, but by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Not Good Enough


Relevant Bible Verses:-

1) Rom 8:1-2 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

2) 2 Cor 12:9 My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness

3) Phil 1:20 According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.
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For centuries now, Satan has been using religion, philosophy, and culture to possess people and to keep them from experiencing Christ in fullness. Although the majority of the simple people (Christians included) are influenced strongly with material things, the more thoughtful ones are hooked by religion, philosophy, culture and self-righteousness.

Overcoming the influence of material things is easier. But overcoming religion, philosophy, culture and self-righteousness are more complicated as these are ingrained within our soul and inner being.

I am sure many Christians would have experienced Christ to a certain degree in their walk with God, but sadly our experience has been severely impeded and constantly blocked by our own philosophy and domestic logic. Satan’s cunning ways and persistency in instilling thoughts in our mind that we are not worthy enough to serve the Holy and Gracious God, thereby making us to think of the “not good enough” position or self-condemnation within our own very heart.

We should be reminded that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

The next time you feel like God can't use you, just remember:-

Noah was drunk
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses had a stuttering problem
Gideon was afraid
Samson had long hair and was a womaniser
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
David had an affair and was a murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah ran from God
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt
Peter denied Christ, 3 times
The disciples, fell asleep while praying
Martha worried about everything
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
Zaccheus was too small
Paul was too religious
AND...Lazarus was dead!

We have no more excuses to blame on our inferiority complex and inability to be used by God.

Isn't doing nothing is another form of death?

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

He Made The Stars Also

Relevant Bible Verses:-

1) Genesis 1:16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.

2) Heb 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

3) Phil 2:15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.
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I find it really interesting and facinating how the following pictures are presented:-

Picture 1


Pictures 2


Picture 3


Picture 4


Picture 5


Dr. John Polkinghorne is one of the greatest living writers, theoretical physicist and thinkers on science and religion. A truly renowned world-class scientist turned priest.


In one of his university lectures he presented a cosmic slide in a physics class. He mentioned that there are billion of stars in the sky and if you chose to count them at one per second, it will take you 2,500 years just to count those stars.

I couldn't help but think of a verse in the Bible that says, He made the stars also!

Dr. Polkinghorne mentioned further that when we look at the earlier days of the formation of the world and universe, the expansion and contraction rates had to be so precise and the margin of error so small that it would be like taking aim at a one square inch object at the other end of the universe twenty billion light years away and hitting it bulls-eye!

Simply by just looking at the pictures above and what were mentioned by Dr Polkinghorne, one cannot deny the great power behind the creator of the universe. These have reminded me of the greatness of God. And Bible says that by the mere utterance, God created the universe! How great and poweful God truly is! And we humans think we are all powerful by our little supremacy here on earth controlling a little tribe of nation given to us.

Remember, we don't have authority and power if we surrender all our principles, we merely have an office.