ADDITIONAL TEACHINGS (August)

1 August
THE THREEFOLD HALLELUJAH

“After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: ‘Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.’
And again they shouted: ‘Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.’
The twenty four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried:
‘Amen, Hallelujah!’
Then a voice came from the throne, saying:
‘Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both great and small!’
Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like the loud peals of thunder, shouting:
‘Hallelujah!’ For the Lord almighty reign, Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.” (Revelation 19:1-8 TNIV)

‘Hallelujah’ is from the Hebrew word meaning “praise ye Yahweh”; the Greek and Latin versions transliterate it as ‘Alleluia’.
In the Bible it occurs in the latter part of the Psalter and in Revelation 19. Revelation19 uses the term in eschatogical context i.e. in the last days, and it is in fact a chorus and collective praise of the living God, and in the last days, it follows God’s victory over evil and his just judgement, and vindication of his people.

Apostle John was given a vision of the ‘future future’ – the praising of God by a great multitude, which probably includes believers and angelic beings. It was a rousing ‘roar’ which sounded like shouting, and the noise of rushing waters and loud peals of thunder – and it was accompanied by WORSHIP, – praising our Lord God, and rejoicing and gladness, giving GLORY to the Lord Almighty!

Notice the reasons given:
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God;
He has condemned the great prostitute (Babylon) and the accompanying corruption, physical and spiritual adulteries.
He has avenged on evil the blood of his servants;
All who praise him are his servants who fear him;
The Lord almighty reigns;
He deserves all the glory;
And notice the mention of the wedding of the Lamb and his bride (the Church of the Old Testament and New Testament) – an occasion for much rejoicing and gladness, and a union of everlasting LOVE. Notice also that the bride is dressed in fine linen (fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s people).

There is so much praise and worship because of the culmination of the salvation plan of God effected through his power and for his glory;
There is finally complete and just judgment with condemnation of evil and the vindication of his servants;
The Lord reigns and is sovereign – there is none above him – and all glory belongs to him and him alone;
The wondrous and beautiful love between the Son and his bride is finally consummated at the wedding of the Lamb!
All his servants who fear him, great and small, are included in the invitation to the wedding supper of the Lamb.

Remember that John was exiled on the island of Patmos; there was great persecution of the Christians by the Roman empire with many deaths, imprisonment, the loss of home and torture. But in the midst of all these, God gave John the vision of the final days when all the hope of God’s people would be accomplished and fulfilled.

We who live in this fallen world, with all the persecution, suffering, and wrongdoing we have to endure – take heart! God is on his throne; his promises would be fulfilled – there would be vindication for his people as well as condemnation and judgment on evil and all evil individuals – justice would be served and God will be glorified!
Agape love would be consummated between the Lamb and his bride!
There is indeed occasion to rejoice and be glad, even in the midst of trials and tribulations today for TOMORROW is a wonderful beautiful day when the threefold HALLELUJAH is proclaimed!!

5 August
THE WHOLESOME INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE

There is no doubt that the church on earth consists of imperfectly sanctified sinners – hence there are always two defects in the lives of its members, both corporately and individually. These are ignorance and error, which cause omission and mistakes in belief and behaviour.
There are therefore two constant needs in the church: instruction in the truths by which it must live, and correction of the shortcomings by which life is marred. Scripture is designed to meet this twofold need.

Currently, we are studying the Gospel of Luke in our local congregation. The intention is to study Luke over two years with preaching as well as teaching over this period. Bible authors are themselves the church’s theologians who, under the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit, have organised their faithful record of Jesus’ work and words in order to instruct God’s people in practical Christian discipleship. Where the structure, theology and ideas of the Bible author are ignored, application lacks convincing power.
For instance, Luke’s Gospel has presented the fulfilment of Old Testament promises and prophecies. One major essential to maintain in interpretation of the Bible is to note that “scripture ‘interprets’ scripture’, i.e. other parts of scripture throw light on understanding the portion of scripture under study. We cannot ignore for instance the prophecies of Isaiah regarding the Messiah and his mission in our study of Jesus in the Gospel.

The Gospel of Luke, for instance, also has records of parables told by Jesus, some only uniquely in Luke’s Gospel. Parables are not narratives; they belong to a certain genre which requires us to appreciate them in a way that would ensure accurate interpretation and application of the parables.

The parable is a fictional literary form. The literary form consists of two parts: a picture part, or the story proper, and a reality part, or the comparison to which it is likened. The picture itself does not describe an actual historical event. It is a fictional creation that came into being out of the mind of its author. Thus, we shall not confuse a parable with a biblical narrative, for in a biblical narrative the picture describes a historical event that really happened.

In the study of parables we should seek the main point of the parable, and not press its details; the greater danger for most interpreters is to see too much meaning in specific details rather than too little.

In early church history, parables have been interpreted allegorically. The details of the picture part of a parable all have a corresponding point of comparison in the reality part. The most famous example of this is Augustine’s interpretation of the parable of the good Samaritan. According to Augustine the picture parts and the reality parts of the parable correspond as follows:
The man going down to Jericho = Adam
Robbers = Devil and his angels
Good Samaritan = Christ
Inn = Church
Innkeeper = Apostle Paul

and so on, and so forth……we see that even Augustine, a well known early church father and a Christian leader and theologian interpreted the parable of the good Samaritan in an allegorical way, and this is certainly not helpful.
Even today, for most people, the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-35) is a pleasant tale of a good man who did a good deed whereas bad men did not.
Remember that Jesus told the parable to the Jews in his time: for the Jews then, the Samaritans were hated and cursed, and this attitude was mutual. They were so hated and despised that if people wanted to insult someone, they could say “you are a Samaritan”. Hatred between Jews and Samaritans had been fostering for nearly a thousand years. To speak of a “good Samaritan” was a contradiction in terms for Jesus’ audience. On the other hand, priests and Levites were thought of quite positively. Jesus purposely shaped his parable knowing that it clashed with the established values of the audience.
As a result, the parable is not a pleasant tale with expected results; on the contrary, it is a damning indictment directed against the social attitudes of his opponents. The heroes are portrayed as villains and the villains as heroes.

The other well known parable in Luke is the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:4-7). This parable must be understood as a response to those who muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:2). The emphasis is not on the demonstration of God’s love for the outcasts but on the reaction of the older brother to such love. If this parable was aimed at tax collectors and sinners, then their main point would be to illustrate God’s great love toward them. But since the audience to which this parable was aimed at were Pharisees and teachers of the law, the point is somewhat different.
Jesus, through this parable, was asking them why they are not rejoicing in what God is doing? The lost are being found, the lame walk; tax collectors and sinners are entering the kingdom (apply also to the parable of the lost sheep and lost coin). Why, like this older brother, cannot they join in the banquet celebration?
The analogy in the parable of the prodigal son is that just as the older brother will not accept and rejoice in the loving forgiveness that his father had extended to his brother, so the Pharisees and teachers of the law are unwilling to accept God’s loving forgiveness of tax collectors and sinners through the ministry of Jesus. Jesus had earlier indicated in his agenda in Luke 4 that he has come to “proclaim good news to the poor, freedom to the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour”. And as Jesus set out to carry out his agenda, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law obviously failed to see what the Messiah came to do.

There can be mistakes in belief and behaviour (at times serious ones) and wrong and negative responses if the interpretation of the Bible is not done wholesomely, even though the motive of the teacher may be sincere. Ignorance and error can cause much damage to God’s Church and God’s people; we therefore need to take heed. There are various genres in the Bible – the wisdom literature which includes the Proverbs, the Psalms (like poems and songs), narratives, historical accounts, and so on. The approach to interpretation would therefore vary – we need to study the Bible well and most of all, we need to look to the Holy Spirit, the author, illuminator and helper in our quest to be faithful in preaching and teaching the Bible.

5 August
WHAT TRULY MATTERS IN THE END

“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in them, and everyone was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. All whose names were not found written in the book of life were thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:11-15).

In the study of the book of Revelation and in my interaction with the brethren over the years, I notice that the fear that was most expressed by many is the fear of suffering, persecution, pain, and death, especially during the times of tribulation and persecution.
But the above passage should probably impress upon us the greatest fear – the fear of being judged by God Almighty and found wanting, resulting in being thrown into the lake of fire.
Notice the refrain: The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books* (vs.12)……and everyone was judged according to what they had done, (vs. 13).

“Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labours, for their deeds follow them!” (Revelation 14:13)
Here again, take note that their deeds follow them; their deeds speak of what they had done, and God sees all of them – nothing is hidden from Him! We can be sure that what is written in the books is absolutely true – there is no way it can be inaccurate, and our deeds written in the books will determine whether our names are written in the book of life. We can fool some of the people most of the time; we can fool all the people some of the time but we cannot fool God – there is nothing, not even our inmost thoughts, motives, and spiritual states, that is hidden from God. Hence our deeds are not just our outward service, people’s impressions of us, even our views of ourselves as good Christians – they are what is noted and evaluated by God (Matt. 7:21-29).

Nothing will accurately reveal whether we are genuine followers of the Lord Jesus than when we are faced with crises in our lives. It may be an illness; it may be disappointment in work and career; it may be tragedy in the lives of pour family or loved ones; it may be misunderstandings and accusations from fellow believers; it may even be spiritual attacks from the evil one or even tests from the Lord. The message from Revelations is not that we just grit our teeth and endure; it is not just rationalising that we deserve better from the Lord God; it is not even wishing that those who do us wrong be severely punished and humiliated; – no, God is on the throne, and Jesus is alive and interceding for us, and the Holy Spirit is available to empower us, and the total reality includes the definite triumph of God over evil and the glorious hope of eternal life and glory with God. We ought to, and must triumph and overcome because Jesus has overcome and is seated at the right hand of the Father. The total reality is that there would be the final judgment before God, and there is no way evil deeds and hypocrisy would escape His judgment. But for the sincere and weak believers who constantly run to God for refuge, God knows our hearts; Jesus has come to proclaim freedom to the prisoners, and recovery of sight to the blind to set the oppressed free and those who respond constantly to His grace, mercy, and love, and continue to turn away from darkness to light, they can be assured that Jesus, as our high priest, understands us and empathises with us.

At this juncture, I will be personal and share some of the lessons God taught me and is still teaching me in the 30 years of my life as an elder-pastor. Pastors, missionaries and Christian leaders labour under one heavy disadvantage when we regard our ministry as a profession and compare it with other professions.
In our ministry, experience brings a sense of mastery in the subject, self-satisfaction, self-confidence; but in our subject the more we pursue it, the more we enter into it, so much the more are we cast down with the overwhelming sense, not only of our insufficiency, but of our unworthiness. Of course, we acquire a sense of ease; we learn the knack of handling a text, of conducting church work, and dealing with individuals and the like.
But we have to handle the gospel; we have to lift up Christ – a Chris who is the death of natural self-confidence – a humiliating, even a crushing Christ, and we are not always alive to our uplifting and resurrection in HIm. We have to handle a gospel that is a new rebuke to us every step we gain in intimacy with it. There is no real intimacy with the gospel that does not mean a new sense of God’s holiness, and it may be long before we realise that the same holiness that condemns is that which saves. There is no new insight into the cross that does not bring, whatever comes with it, a deeper sense of the solemn holiness of the love that meets us there. And there is no new sense of the holy God that does not arrest His name upon our unclean lips. If our very repentance is to be repented of, and we should be forgiven much in our very prayers, how shall we be proud, or ever pleased, with what we may think a success in our preaching or teaching?
So we shall not be surprised that some pastors, teachers and preachers, after what the public calls a most impressive discourse, retire… to humble themselves before God, to ask forgiveness for the poor message and to call themselves most unprofitable servants. The more we grasp the gospel, the more it abashes us.
The kind of self-promotion and pride in what we achieve in our ministry speaks volumes about our grasp of the holiness of God, the radical nature of the gospel, and the stupidity of any attitude on our part other than humility. Looking back, I realise how I have failed in many ways in my preaching, teaching and my exercise of love toward those under my care. In the midst of crying out to God for forgiveness, I have often been overwhelmed with tears as I ‘drink’ the grace, mercy and love of God.
As we come before the judgment seat of Christ, let us realise that we come as unprofitable servants, on our knees to receive His love, mercy, and grace. Let us pray that this would be our ‘rightful position’ before the almighty, transcendent God!

11 August

THE GREATEST, HIGHEST, RICHEST, PRIVILEGED RELATIONSHIP
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man” (John 5: 24-28),

“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you possess eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40).

The above are the very words of the Lord Jesus Christ! Notice the phrase “Very truly” – an emphasis to affirm the truth in the words he declared and the important issues he addressed.
Take note also the terms highlighted by him – “Hears my words”; “believes in Him who sent me”; “eternal life”; “death”; “life”, “the Father”; “the Scriptures”; “the Son”; “judgment”; “authority to judge”; “the time has come”.

Jesus was addressing significant issues; in fact, the very issues that truly matter to the fallen humankind – issues of death, life, judgment, and God.
Jesus also addressed the fact that we can study the Scriptures and yet miss the very important issues of eternal life and death, and also miss his central role to have the authority and power to grant eternal life and to judge fallen human beings at the final judgment, when all, the dead and those alive, shall stand before him at the judgment seat, with the unbelievers sent to eternal death, and the believers granted eternal life with the Triune God!

But notice that those who hear his words and believe (and believe in his Father) have eternal life, and have crossed from death to life, and will not be judged. This life is in the Father and also in His Son, Jesus Christ; the Son, has life in himself, and has authority to grant eternal life to those who hear him and believe. Essentially, this is the good news (the Gospel) – eternal life (salvation) is granted, by grace, through faith, – it is a gift of God, not ascertained by our own efforts and work, but by believing and receiving the good news and the Triune God into our lives. It is not achieved by mere knowledge of Scriptures – it is given to those who receive the invitation by Jesus to come to Him by faith!

The New Testament views knowing the Creator as your Father, and yourself as his child and heir as the greatest, highest privilege and richest relationship of which human being is capable. Not knowing God in this way is, by contrast, to be in a state of fallenness and guilt, cut off from God’s life, exposed to his judgment, and under demonic control, whence flows only misery. But this is every man’s and woman’s natural condition. Can this be changed?

Yes, it can! This relationship to God is possible through relating to Jesus and his mediatorial ministry – though not otherwise. For sonship of God, in the sense that guarantees mercy and glory, is not a fact of natural life, but a gift of supernatural grace. “For all who did receive him (Jesus), who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John1:12). But to this privilege unbelievers remain strangers, to their own infinite loss; one who shrugs off the gospel gains nothing from the mediation of Jesus Christ (as the God-man he is the mediator between God and man).

There is only one way unbelievers can call God Father, and that is by coming to terms with – accepting terms already announced by – God’s Son, Jesus Christ, the living Lord.
For believers, do we really appreciate deeply and experience daily this highest and richest privilege we have in our relationship with the Triune God? It would be seen in the reality of our intimate worship of Him, our deepest gratefulness to Him for His life given to us through His Son, and our daily walk with Him moment by moment. This greatest, highest, richest privileged relationship must be nurtured and not forgotten, even in the midst of pain, setbacks in life on earth, persecution from the evil one and evil individuals – for the time has come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
I shared the following statements by Jesus at a ‘”wake” recently:
“I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25)
Indeed, do you really believe this?? It would make a difference between life (eternal) and death (eternal)!!

18 August

TRINITARIAN GODLINESS – GOD THE HOLY TRINITY
We have to humbly admit that, today, the understanding and experiencing of God the Holy Trinity is much lacking among Christians – we hardly appreciate what trinitariann godliness means. In our prayers, for instance, we address the Father and thank him for dying on the cross; we even ‘look forward’ to his second coming…..all these clearly illustrate our ignorance on this matter which is so very essential in appreciating and experiencing this very foundation of Christianity, which includes COMMUNION with God, God’s plan of Salvation (in Election, Redemption and Transformation), and faith-fellowship with the three divine persons of the Godhead.

We owe much of our understanding to the disciplines of divinity and devotion operating together in one man’s life – John Owen, a respected Puritan and theologian.

Owen saw this truth as the foundation of Christianity, without which it collapses. The gospel of salvation through a divine-human mediator and a divine Spirit cannot be true if trinitarianism is false, nor can there be such a thing as communion with the three persons of the Godhead distinctly.
The doctrine of the Trinity in essence is this: “that God is one, that this one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; that the Father is the Father of the Son, and the Son, the Son of the Father, and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and the Son; and that, in respect of their mutual relations, they are distinct from each other.”
The Socinians – who denied the Trinity, by mishandling the relevant Scriptures, adopted a Pelagian idea of self-salvation by following Jesus, and substituted that self-salvation for the biblical gospel of sovereign grace – were thus Christianity’s most mortal foes. For Owen, the truth of the Trinity is basic, crucial, and totally nonnegotiable.

{Just a short comment and pause: Note that mishandling the relevant Scriptures can lead to a serious error in understanding and appreciating the doctrines God reveals to us – hence the need for accurate exegesis, and looking to other parts of Scripture to throw light on a particular text. Quoting Scriptures alone does not mean that we are right in our understanding of the truth if we mishandle the relevant Scriptures.
Also the Pelegian idea comes from Pelagius who was himself quite learned in the study of Scriptures and theology – Pelagius basically argued that since God commands us to do certain things, surely He knows we are able to do them -otherwise He would not have commanded – thus we can, by our own effort, seek to be holy (as commanded), and we can, by implication, be right with God by self-effort. From this arises the propagation of self-salvation. Notice how “reason”, with its limitations, can lead us far off from God and His ways. Well-versed in theology and doctrines with all the necessary qualifications does not guarantee accurate and true understanding of God’s truth.}

We look next at how the understanding of Trinitarianism helps us to understand the structure of God’s plan of salvation.
Rooted in the mystery of God’s sovereignty and love, the plan began with what is called the covenant of redemption.
In an eternal consensus between the Father and the Son, the Father appointed the Son to become incarnate and – as prophet, priest, and king – to mediate salvation to a great multitude of sinners. He did this through his atoning death in humiliation on the cross, his exaltation from the grave to the glory of the celestial throne, and joining the Father in sending the Spirit to bring salvation home to blinded and twisted human hearts. Depending upon the covenant of redemption was the covenant of grace, whereby God established a new relationship of pardon, acceptance, adoption, and protection, through Christ the Mediator, with sinners whom the Spirit had led to faith and repentance. On this similarly, nonnegotiable substance of doctrine, communion with God rests.

Today, ‘communion with God’ is a fuzzy phrase that often means no more than feeling close to God, however conceived, but otherwise it lacks a specific content.
Owen defines communion generically as “the mutual communication of such good things as wherein the persons holding that communion are delighted, based upon some union between them.” He defined communion with God specifically as “his communication of himself unto us, with us returning unto him of that which he required and accepted, flowing from that union which in Jesus Christ we have with him.”
What we receive from God, is the love of the Father, the grace (both personal and purchased) of the Son, and the life-transforming grace of the Holy Spirit – three realities overlapping in a way that shows them to be three aspects of the one reality of the Triune God’s saving goodness in election, redemption, and transformation. The distinction on which communion with each of the Holy Three is based not on distinction of blessings, but distinction of roles, within the divine saving actions – all three are invariably together in all the divine doings. Thus we can say that salvation comes from the Father communicating grace as salvation’s loving originator, the Son communicating it as salvation’s loving achiever, and the Spirit communicating it as salvation’s loving imparter.

Communion with God is a subset of knowledge of God through Word and Spirit, according to the teaching of the apostle Paul, and after Paul follows John Calvin, and then the Reformed theologians, of whom Owen is one.
Hence the meaning of communion with God: By faith, through the open eyes of the heart, the Christian contemplates the living God in the pages of the Bible, knowing that this God in his trinity is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and is present as the immediate environment of everyone’s ongoing life. The Christian therefore prays and obeys, practicing God’s presence as a discipline of the heart and making God’s honour and glory a common goal.
When praying, the Christian speaks to the God he knows is there, thanking and praising him for his grace and goodness, claiming his promises and trusting his faithfulness to them. The Christian is begging for help in the battle against the world and the flesh and the devil, loving God in return for his love, hoping in him, rejoicing in him, and celebrating the privilege and security of being his adopted child.
Then in obedience the Christian labours to run in the way of God’s commandments, honouring and pleasing him as fully as possible in every activity of life. Such is the personal and relational dimension of communion with God spelled out in relation to each of the three divine persons in turn.

23 August

GROWING IN GRACE AND KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST
In the previous sharing, we noted that habitual repentance is a discipline integral to healthy holy living – the whole life of believers should be one of repentance; regular repentance is an abiding necessity.
Sanctification is lifelong, buttressed by perseverance – in one sense, repentance and sanctification go “hand in glove”.
We are kept by the power of God through faith (1 Peter 1:5). There is responsibility on our part to persevere in faith. The power for this comes from God. So we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Chist throughout the course of our lives, through temptations, sufferings, and all kinds of trials. Hence, the term “perseverance of the saints” is appropriate; it is those who are sanctified who persist, come what may. Finally, glorification occurs at the resurrection and the return of Christ, when we are finally brought to the identity that God has planned for us from eternity, transformed into the image of God in Christ.

When Peter writes, “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2Peter 3:18) and when Paul speaks of growing into Christ (Ephesians 4:125) and rejoices that the Thessalonians’ faith is growing (2 Thessalonians 1:3), what they have in view is a progress into personal smallness that allows the greatness of Christ’s grace to appear. The sign of this sort of progress is that they increasingly feel and say that in themselves, they are nothing and God in Christ has become everything for their ongoing life.

From the above passage, we need to realise that we are saved to be like Christ, to grow in sanctification and holiness – it is not just “a passport” to heaven, as some perceived – the passage to heaven involves a lifetime of ‘repentance’ and ‘perseverance’ – and that is what growing in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ involves – and this passage and progress is lined with temptations, sufferings and all kinds of trials; and the enemy and his minions are constantly seeking to lead us astray, to hinder our progress, and to ‘destroy’ us, and prevent us from growing in the grace and knowledge of God.
In our growth in Christ, the sign of progress is increasingly feeling and saying to ourselves, that we, in ourselves, are nothing, and God, in Christ, is everything for our ongoing life (and this comes about from a habitual discipline of repentance, a growing in knowing our true selves, and an accompanying growing in knowing the Triune God, and a perseverance and an endurance through trials, tribulations and sufferings). And who is adequate for this? asked Apostle Paul – it is only through the grace of God, the presence and enabling of the Holy Spirit, the increasing understanding and appreciation of God’s wondrous Salvation Plan for His people which would lead to the culmination in the new heaven and new earth, where multitudes and multitudes of generations of men and women, perfected in Christ, dwell in the presence of God, and God shall be their God and they shall be His people; and there shall be no more sorrow, no more pain, and no more death; but there would be glorious eternal life in Christ, with the picture of the eternal love of the bride and bridegroom, with everything made new, including creation!

For the Christian, the outward journey takes the form of learning to relate positively and purposefully to the world and other people – that is to all God’s creatures – for God the Creator’s sake; and the inward journey takes the form of gaining and deepening our acquaintance with God the Father and with Jesus the Son, through the mighty agency of the Holy Spirit.
In the hustling and bustling of life today, things become unbalanced with education, business interests, the media, the knowledge explosion, and our go-getting society’s ethos all uniting to send us on our outward journey as fast as we can go, and with that to distract us from ever bothering about its inward counterpart – we become unbalanced activists, conforming most unhappily in this respect to the world around us. Like the Pharisees, who were also great activists (Matt. 23:15), we are found to be harsh and legalistic, living much more, as it seems, for programmes than for people.

When we accuse businessmen of selling their souls to their firms and sacrificing their integrity on the altars of their organisations, it is the pot calling the kettle black. Similarly, when we accuse other believers of being hypocrites, legalistic, irresponsible, it is a similar scenario – Christians need more urgently to nurture and relate to the inner life of fellowship with God and to grow in the grace and knowledge of God! Only then will they realise that in themselves, they are nothing and in Christ, God is everything; only then will they refrain from ‘putting down’ other Christians and churches, when they increasingly realise that many are “works in progress” and many are in fact doing better than them, given the severe circumstances and the severe spiritual attacks they are undergoing.

If at the culmination of God’s eternal plan, even angels marvel at how God can change so many wretched men and women into the image of His Son and how He has created a holy and beautiful new humanity, fit enough to dwell in the new heaven and new earth, with a new creation, we must realise that the story and journey of God’s eternal salvation plan is not over until He makes everything new! Only then we would glorify God with all our beings as we see that even the gates of hell and evil spirits and the evil one cannot deter what God has already determined from eternity.
In the meantime, we must learn to see from God’s point of view, – all the trials, sufferings, failures and shortcomings of Christians and the church are allowed by God to come to pass until at the end, when the goats would be separated from the sheep, and the tares from the wheat.
In the meantime, Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus! And may His people be ever ready as an unblemished bride to receive and meet the bridegroom at His second coming!

25 August

THE BLESSING OF BELIEVING
“Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe” John 20:25

The above remarks were made by Thomas after he was told that Jesus had risen from the dead. We know that Thomas was one of those close to Jesus when the Lord was ministering on earth; he (with the rest of the disciples) would have heard Jesus telling them about his crucifixion and ‘resurrection’ (although how much they understood remains a question mark).
Also, these remarks by Thomas were made after he was told by his fellow disciples and the women that they had actually seen the risen Christ.
Thomas had painted himself into a corner. Jesus affirmed him by taking him at his word, meeting him where he was, and saying in effect, “If it is going to help you to finger the wounds in my body, then finger them. Only stop acting the unbeliever, Thomas. Acknowledge the reality of my rising. Believe.”

Jesus’ ministry to Thomas is quite simply overwhelming kindness. Jesus did not need to appear toThomas and take him at his word and meet him where he was. There was more than enough news and exposure to Thomas that should prompt ‘belief’ in him instead of ‘unbelief’. The Saviour’s way of helping him to assurance about the ongoing reality of his resurrection life is a model of how today He works in the lives of many coming to faith out of total spiritual darkness.

After the encounter with Jesus, Thomas was absolutely broken and he said, “My Lord and my God!” (vs28) – it was the perfect confession of faith, the fullest and clearest that is found anywhere in the Gospels.
Note Jesus’s response to Thomas subsequently:
“Have you believed because you have seen me?” (vs29). Then He spoke the last and in one way the most wonderful of all the beatitudes, for it leads us into the life and enjoyment of the rest of the beatitudes, which without Thomas-like faith we will never know: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (vs29).

If Thomas, one who had the privilege of interacting with Jesus at close quarters; one who had heard and listened to His teachings; one who had close and intimate relationships with his fellow-disciples, should make such unexpected remarks in vs 25 of John 20, despite the news given to him by those who were reliable, let us be careful that, today, we, who have much given to us through the teachings of the Apostles in the Scriptures and in the church of God, should similarly question the reality of God’s revelation and insist for more ‘proofs’ than what is already given – we would then miss the true blessing of believing, and our lives would be ‘peppered’ with many ‘doubts’ and ‘uncertainties’ in our faith and walk with God!

26 August

COUNTING THE COST
I became a Christian some 56 years ago in my first year in Medical School. One of the first books I read was “Basic Christianity” by the late John Stott, and I am truly glad that I read it, for what was written helps me tremendously in my life as a Christian and a follower of Christ. When I declared to my parents of my conversion, I was told to leave home unless I gave up my faith, for there were 3 generations of ‘gods’ in the family altar then, and the family did not wish for me to abandon the faith of the family and ancestors. I will not elaborate here on what happened subsequently, but the Lord enabled me to persevere, and my ‘change of life’ somehow impacted my family and through me, by God’s grace,He brought almost all of the family members to Christ, and also the family of my late uncle who was adopted (he died at a young age of kidney failure but he turned to Christ before his demise).

Let me share some excerpts from the book by John Stott which helped me to be clear about what following Christ meant:

“We may believe in the deity and the salvation of Christ, and acknowledge ourselves to be sinners in need of his salvation; but that does not make us Christians. We have to make a personal response to Jesus Christ, committing ourselves unreservedly to him as our Saviour and Lord.
Jesus never concealed the fact that his religion included a demand as well as an offer. Indeed, the demand was as total as the offer was free. If he offered men his salvation, he also demanded their submission. He gave no encouragement whatever to thoughtless applicants for discipleship. He brought no pressure to bear on any enquirer. Luke tells us of three men who either volunteered, or were invited, to follow Jesus; but not one passed the Lord’s tests.
The rich young ruler, too, moral, earnest, and attractive, who wanted eternal life on his own terms, went away sorrowful, with his riches intact but with neither life nor Christ as his possession. …thousands of people still ignore Christ’s warning (Luke 14:28-30) and undertake to follow him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so. The result is the great scandal of Christianity today, so-called ‘nominal Christianity’… Their religion is a great, soft cushion. It protects them from the hard unpleasantness of life, while changing its place and shape to suit their convenience. No wonder the cynics speak of hypocrisy in the church and dismiss religion as escapism.

The message of Jesus was very different. He never lowered his standards or modified his conditions to make his call more readily acceptable. He asked his first disciples, and he has asked every disciple since, to give him their thoughtful and total commitment. Nothing less than this will do”.

When I read this as a young Christian, I began to understand what Jesus means in Luke 14:23-30: there can be no following of Christ without a previous forsaking. To follow Christ is to renounce all lesser loyalties; the call of Jesus Christ has not changed. He still says, ‘Follow me’, and adds, ‘whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple’. In practice, this does not mean for the majority of Christians a physical departure from their home or their job – it implies rather an inner surrender of both, and a refusal to allow either family or ambition to occupy the first place in our lives.

I am glad that I understood this in my second year as a Christian. I was taking my first professional examination in Medical school and passing this was mandatory to go on in my medical studies. I have never failed in any examination before this; but in this professional examination, I failed my Anatomy paper, although I cleared my biochemistry and physiology papers. But in reality, I did pass the theory paper, but in the practical, the external examiner brought me to a “female cadaver” to identify one particular organ – I have been ‘operating’ on a “male cadaver” throughout the year and so I was not so familiar with a female cadaver. I did give the right answer when asked to identify the particular organ but the external examiner who was a well known surgeon required the other name which was familiar to the practising surgeons, and I could not give it.
What followed was that I had to retake my Anatomy paper; I was devastated initially, wondering why God allowed this to happen. On top of that, my parents threatened not to support me financially if I were to fail the retake – they felt I had spent too much time in Bible reading and BIble study and that was the reason I failed.
Can you imagine the ‘struggles’ I had as a young Christian? But subsequently, I discovered that my class-mate, a Malaysian scholar (a Yang De Pertuan Agong scholar) also failed the same paper. And I found out that he was even more devastated than me. I visited him in the Hall he was staying in, and noted that he was so depressed that he could not read the Anatomy books and he was crying consistently. As a young Christian, I just shared with him my faith, and I prayed with him each day as well as revised together with him the Anatomy subject.
Interestingly, before the retake, my Professor in Anatomy came along and asked me why I failed – he expected me to pass – and when I told him the reason, he said that if he had been around, I would not have failed (for he was away as an external examiner to a neighbouring country). Before the actual written paper was to begin, the Professor came beside me and assured me that this time, I would certainly pass – I was taken aback as I have not even answered the questions in the paper.
During the practical, my Professor was present and interestingly, he did not allow the external examiner to question me; instead he spent the time discussing with the examiner some interesting aspects of the subject of Anatomy – and soon I was out of the examination hall with the assurance that I have passed the retake even before the official result. My classmate also passed and he continued to read the Bible with me, especially the Psalms which gave him so much comfort during those ‘dark days’.

I share this to praise and thank the Lord God for His grace towards me; I subsequently knew that He was giving me an opportunity to trust Him as a young Christian as well as to be able to comfort a class-mate and to bring him to Christ, for both of us were in ‘the same boat’. I had to be prepared to stop my medical studies and to perhaps incur the anger of my parents; I had to deal with failure in an examination for the first time in my life, and in an important examination as such.
But more than that, the Lord was giving me an opportunity to understand and experience what it means to be fully and totally committed to him, even in very difficult and ‘threatening’ circumstances. And that was just the beginning of a long journey of learning and relearning this truth for my life as a Christian and a disciple of the Lord Jesus.

26 August

ALPHA AND OMEGA
In the last chapter of the Bible, in the book of Revelation, this title of Jesus comes to us in the words of the Lord Jesus to man- they are spoken in the context of His promise of the Second coming. Three times in this final chapter, He declares, “I am coming soon!” And the title “Alpha and Omega” gives authority and credibility to the stupendous promise of His return.

Alpha and Omega are words for the first last letters of the Greek Alphabet. Their meaning is explicit: Jesus gives it in Rev. 22:13 – “The beginning and the end, the first and the last.
He is Alpha, the Beginning, the First – before the empires of Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome. First – before the eons of time spoken by the geologists. First – before the solar system, the Milky way, the Pleiades.

He is Omega, the End, the Last. Because Jesus Christ is the End as well as the Beginning, Omega as well as Alpha, eternal joy will be the conclusion for His people.

Time is looked upon as both a tyrant and a friend. Time will cause wrinkles in our faces, turn our hair white if it does not remove it completely, rob us of our vision, hearing and our vigour. But time can also be a corrector of errors, a confirmer of truth, a healer of sorrows, our best tutor.

But in effect, Jesus (although the title is Alpha and Omega) has no beginning and no end. He is the resource and inspiration for the whole realm of life and communication – He is the Creator, the One who holds all things together, and the One who would determine the destiny of all human beings. So as we, in our finite, ‘small world’ feel so distressed, perplexed, and wonder where the current world is heading toward – let us not forget who He is and for us who believe, we are united with Him; and in our own struggles in time and sorrow, in joy and sadness, let us realise that He is our ending .
We take comfort and courage from this title with its assurance that our times are in the hands of the eternal, our life becomes complete in Him, and He is the Lord of our beginnings and our endings.

27 August

MAN OF SORROWS
“He was despised and rejected by men, a Man of Sorrows, and familiar with suffering” (Isaiah 53:3)

Famous men in history may be known for their knowledge and achievements, for their innovation and wealth, for doing great things in society, sports and so on. But Christ was described as a Man of Sorrows – He was the Prince of Martyrs, the Lord of anguish, the King of suffering.
The last week of His earthly life, with its record of deep sorrow, looms most prominently in the Gospels; all the four Gospels devoted much to this last week – some covering one-third of the book, John’s Gospel one-half. The amount of writing devoted to Christ’s sufferings in the Gospels is so disproportionate as to underscore the paramount value of that period in His life and ministry.

For God to become man in the incarnation is in itself a marvel and a deep mystery; but for the God-man to be characterised by sorrow and anguish defies description or definition.
His love was wounded in betrayal and denial by those of HIs most intimate circle. He was burdened with the awesome responsibility for the redemption of the world. His soul suffered imputed condemnation for man’s transgressions. His body felt the torture of the cross. He had to endure ignominy, mockery, humiliation, and the death on the cross. There was the dereliction and loneliness of Calvary – God in Christ descended to fathomless depths to rescue a dying world!

When we complain that we have been hurt and betrayed by those close to us, even so-called believers; when we cry out to God for the injustice meted to us when we seek the good of others; when we are by-passed, despised by others and ignored despite our good intentions; when we feel so lonely and abandoned by those who claim to love and care; when we are rejected by the very ones we reach out to in our sacrificial acts; – stop and pause – know for sure and with much deep realisation that God (in Christ) had gone through all these and more!

But there is even more: Jesus was sinless and holy; He had the capacity and the authority to destroy those who sought to hurt Him; He demonstrated much compassion for the sick, the poor, even for the sinners (including prostitutes and tax-collectors), even in Jerusalem, knowing that the cross awaited Him, He expressed compassion for Jerusalem and wished so much for them to come under His fold – He did not need to die for our sins as a substitute; He did not have to drink the “cup of wrath” for our transgressions – but He willingly chose to do so because of His love for fallen mankind, and HIs choice to do the Father’s will.
A little girl once asked innocently, ‘If Jesus was God, why did He have to die?”
As many contemplate the sorrows and sufferings of Christ, they also cannot help but to cry, “Why? Why?”
Isaiah answered the question:

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows,
yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;
the chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
and by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned everyone to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on Him
the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4-6, NKJV)

The nails that tore through His sacred hands and feet were our sins.
The thorns that pierced His brow and marred His visage were our sins.
The scourge that lacerated the flesh of His back to ribbons was our sins.
The wagging heads that mocked HIm and the tongues that vilified Him were our sins.
As the Man of Sorrows He took on Himself our burden and penalty of sin. He bore it for us. He carried our sorrows.He suffered our condemnation. He endured our agony. He died our death.

When we ponder on these, dare we cry out, “Why is God silent with regard to all the injustice, sin, immorality etc. in this world? Why is God allowing me to suffer and does nothing about it? In our case, some of our sufferings are due to our own failures but not so with Christ.
Jesus in the Gospels shared that the tares and weed should be left for a while until the end when God would rid off all evil, injustice,and sin forever. In the meantime, He is giving an opportunity for many to repent and to believe in Him. And for those who believe, dare we claim that God has no right to ask us to live for Him who died for us? Do we realise that we have no longer the right to live for ourselves, for we belong to Him who paid a great price for our redemption. Do we recognise also that God is the great and final judge – no wrongs will be left uncorrected and judged! In the meantime, He is asking us to be His ambassadors, to offer His love and forgiveness to those around us, including those who do not deserve it, just as we did not deserve it (His grace, love and mercy).
As we look at the world around us and listen to the news daily -we hear of wars, riots, climate disasters, exploitation of the weak – surely the world is rife with sin, hate, injustice and self-righteousness (all evidence of the Fall). God is not oblivious to these, He had done what is required in His Son to bring in a new and recreated humanity for all those who would respond to the Man of Sorrows.

28 August

CHRISTIANITY IS CHRIST
Whatever cultural shifts take place around us, whatever sociopolitical concerns claim our attention, whatever anxieties we may feel about the church as an institution, whatever doubts and queries we may have about the questionable behaviour of ‘Christian nations’ and Christians, Jesus Christ crucified, risen, reigning – and now in the power of his atonement, calling, drawing, welcoming, pardoning, renewing, strengthening, preserving, and bringing joy and meaning in life – remains the heart of the Christian message and the focus of Christian worship!

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31) was the original Christian message to the world. The themes of the Apostles were reconciliation with God and pardon of sin through Christ’s atoning death, adoption and new birth into God’s family through regeneration in Christ (through the Holy Spirit) and co-resurrection with Christ (not referring to the future resurrection of the body but a spiritual reality), life in the power of the Spirit of Christ, and hope of everlasting glory in the presence of Christ.

And this can only take place because of the love of God (even for the unlovable), the grace of God (unmerited favour) and the mercy of God (for those who are miserable in their sins and meaningless of life) given because “God so loves the world that He gives His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish (eternally) but have eternal life (life everlasting).
It is a gift of God to those who recognise their sinful state, who repent and believe in what God has already done in His Son.

It is a truly a tragedy if we reject this love gift from the Triune God because we are stumbled by the life and behaviour of Christian nations and Christians (past and present) – and there may be legitimate reasons to sound those concerns – but God is offering us forgiveness, reconciliation with Him, adoption into His family, a Spirit-filled life that can change us from inside-out to be like His Son Jesus Christ, and a hope and future to be among His recreated humanity and community with Christ as the head in the new heaven and new earth.

But we can be sure that God in Christ, the Judge of all nations and people, would deal justly with those who practise evil like their master the evil one, and the unrepentant, the evil-doers, the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practise magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulphur (this is the second death) (Revelation 21:8).

Indeed, it is a tragedy when we allow our sociopolitical concerns, our anxieties about the wrong-doings of the church and Christians, our doubts about the authority and reliability of Christ and His revelation in the Scripture to eclipse our focus on God and His plan of salvation for the world (and for us) – note that the outcome concerns our eternal destiny and eternal well-being!

30 August

“I am…the bright MorningStar (Revelation 22:16)
Those of us who live in the city with many artificial lighting may not appreciate the spectacle of a star-bejewelled sky on a dark night – it fills the soul with reverence to contemplate not only the beauty of the stars but their fathomless distance and titanic size.
Once, when I was overseas, on a clear dark night, and away from artificial lights, the star-spangled sky sparkled in breathtaking beauty and majesty – it was a magnificent sight.

The stars figured prominently in the life of the Eastern traveller, especially in the expanse of the desert area. One can imagine Abraham beholding the sky with so many stars as he travelled; David, while taking care of the sheep, also beheld the same beautiful sky.

Christ, as the Bright Morning Star, shines brightly when all other stars of our life fade away. Those things which now shine so brightly on the horizon of our lives will someday fade and vanish away. The stars of prestige, position, possessions, and persons dear to us will one by one grow dim and fade away. But after everything else has vanished, Christ will still shine brightly. He will shine on in the darkest night and will radiantly beam over the horizon of life when the dawn breaks and the shadows flee away – this is what is communicated in Revelation 22:16 – He is the bright Morning Star – He alone!
All other luminaries pale into insignificance compared to the brilliance of His life. He is the peerless One of all history.

For many centuries, man charted his journeys by the stars – sailors navigated the seas with their eyes on the stars – the stars were the road maps for their times.
From Christ alone can we take bearings for our journey on the sea of life. Our boat is so small and the sea is so wide. When the directional point is turned toward the One who is the Bright Morning Star on our compass needle, like the sailor, we may base all our decisions and directions on that Star.

But the Morning Star also gives the light – the world without Christ is a world of darkness, groping and lost. Without Christ, the world is in philosophical darkness; He alone is the fulfilment of the philosopher’s quest. Without Christ the world is in sociological darkness. He alone teaches the higher laws of love that contribute to true brotherhood and peace. Without Christ the world is in spiritual darkness. He alone can save man from the dark night of sin.
The Bible tells us that man loves darkness more than light; he opts to stay in the darkness of sin and the desires of the flesh. But God is light and if we continue to remain in the darkness, there can be no fellowship and life with Him
Light makes darkness flee. Christ, as the light of the world, dispels the spiritual darkness. He lifts us from the shadows.
Light guides, just like the light of the Morning Star. Light makes possible an intelligent sense of direction and destiny.
For those who are disciples of Christ, they are also the light of the world. But their light is like the light of the moon catching the radiance of the sun. Our light as disciples is a borrowed ray from the Sun of righteousness. How wonderful that our lives can catch His radiance and reflect it in a darkened world.

When Jesus declared Himself as the Bright Morning Star, it is in the last chapter of the book of Revelation. It points to that relationship of His people with Him when they would enjoy His eternal light in the new heaven and new earth where there no longer will be any spiritual darkness – what a tremendous hope we have!

30 August

RELIGHT THE FIRE OF THE SPIRIT
Some godly Christians asked, “Why do we see so little of the power of the Holy Spirit in our churches today? The Bible tells us that to enjoy a rich outpouring of the Holy Spirit is a characteristic privilege of the New Testament church. When the Spirit’s ministry arouses no interest and other preoccupations rule our minds, the quest for life in the Spirit is likely to be neglected. The church will lapse into either the formal routines of Christian Pharisaism or the spiritual counterpart of sleeping sickness or a mixture of both.
Pneumatic preoccupation can slow down maturity too. Many Charismatics appear anti-intellectual in basic attitude, impatient with biblical and theological study, insistent that their movement is about experience rather than truth. Endless possibilities of deception and satanic befoolment open up the moment we lay aside the Word of God to follow supposedly direct instruction from the Spirit in vision, dream, prophecy, or inward impression.

What is needed across is constant instruction in biblical truth with constant prayer that the Spirit will make it take fire in human hearts, regenerating, redirecting, and transforming into Christ’s likeness at character level.

31 August

GOD’S POWER, PROMISES, AND PURPOSES
The Bible is full of references to the power of God. In all His acts of power, God shows Himself sovereign. He is working out His purpose for each individual, and for the history of the universe, over which He rules, and which He directs toward its climax according to His eternal plan.
The church is at the centre of the history of this world. Jesus, already ascended, as the reigning Lord, will continue to reign until all created rational beings come to acknowledge His lordship; God is exerting His power here and now in order, step by step, to bring about the final consummation.
This is God’s revelation in Scripture to His people and church; we must see this with our spiritual eyes of faith and note circumstances and situations from God’s point of view, according to His revelation in Scripture through the Spirit. God’s power at work may be ‘hidden’ from us at a certain point of time, but as finite beings, we often forget that God is transcendent and ‘outside of time’ – the outworking of His purposes may not be seen as obvious from our point of view, but we can rest in God’s assurance of His sovereignty in the exercise of His power, purposes, backed up by His promises.

God has actually made His purpose a matter of promise to us. The Bible is full of specific and particular promises in which aspects of His purposes are spelled out as a basis for our responsive trust. A promise is a word that reaches into the future, creating a bond of obligation on the part of the one who has given it and of expectation on the part of the one who receives it. It is the almighty God who has given His promise, and we, on the part of those who receive it, can have the undivided confidence that He would fulfil it, come what may.

It is truly a wonder that our mighty Creator should have bound Himself to use His power in fulfilling promises to us -“precious and very great promises” (2 Peter 1:4) – hence we can rest assured that whatever happens in our lives and in the circumstances we face, God is still in control and He would continue to exert His great power to fulfil His good promises to His people, and achieve HIs divine purposes in our lives and in the history of the universe!

Hence we can have the ‘peace that passes all understanding’ in all situations; and even though in this world we will encounter tribulations, stress and trials, we can be “of good cheer” for Christ has overcome the world.