Love is the Greatest

Last night at our Cell meeting we were discussing about family conflicts, and the subject of love was also deliberated. Brother Ching Nam shared on 1 Cor 13:4-7 “Love is patient. Love is kind…. He shared that if we replace the word “Love” with “Jesus”, we can see a different and profound meaning of this passage. Personally I felt that it really helped me to understand the passage well, and to see the sacrifice of Jesus in loving us. By grace of God, this morning as I read Cor Ch 13:4-7 as well as the devotion on this chapter, it says the same thing.

Read the extract below:

“Or take this chapter (13) a step further: Add the phrase “with me” or “to me”. For instance, instead of praying, “Love is patient,” pray “God (Jesus) is patient with me.” Do you sometime come to prayer feeling dull and cold inside, fearful and apprehensive: God is patient with you. He is not irritated that you are dull and lifeless. Let him love you for a while. Don’t try to speak until you’ve let his love warm your heart and banish your fear. God is patient with you. He is not easily angered. He keeps no record of wrongs.”

This is the kind of love that we should give to our love ones. To add on what Brother Ching Nam said, just imagine “What would Jesus do”(WWJD) if He is in your position? Profound right?

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Cor 13:13

Revive Us Again

“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”

Psalm 85:6

As I was reading through my devotional Bible, I came upon a devotion that spoke to me about our Church situation. Read an extract below:

It happens in marriages and between friends, in families and in Churches. Love grows cold and passion fades, and what once was personal and intimate becomes rote and formal. But if even memory of what once was remains,it can be enough to spur renewal, or revival.It is especially the case with God’s people.

What is revival? The prayer itself provides the definition and the goal: “that your people may rejoice in you”. As in marriage, to be revived in faith is to be renewed in love and joy. To have a powerful faith that can move mountains and courage that will be willingly consumed by fire, but to have no love, is to have a dead religion. Far from being honoured by mere empty obedience, God is insulted. No, as John Piper says, God is glorified in us only as we are satisfied in Him.

This psalm provides a lovely picture of revival, very much in keeping with its definition: “Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other” (Psalm 85:10). Could anyone wish for anything more ? The quality of life takes on a kind of marital bliss, and heaven and earth meet, as “Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven”. (Verse 11 )

The history of God’s people seems to be a history of recurrent spiritual decline
( See Judges 2:10-19). That’s the bad news. The good news is that God is always ready to hear his people pray, “Will you not revive us again, that our people may rejoice in you?”

Blessed Be Your Name

Money, Sex and Power

This is a timely article about three subjects that many struggle over. On one hand some Christians say money, sex and power are bad, some say good. However, in the final analysis in indulgencing in all three are we focusing on God or on our human needs? God created all these things for our convenient, but on our part we are to honour Him and not make these as idols. If we know the Bible well,and live according to Jesus's teaching we will be able to decide for ourselves. Rightly said, we do not need many physical things to live. God provides. Read on:

Money, Sex and Power

Tuesday, Sep. 1, 2009 Posted: 1:13:29PM HKT

There are basically two groups in the Church: on one hand, there are those that say that money, sex and power are evil. On the other, there are those that say that they are good.

The problem is that there is a serious lack of biblical examination of them in many churches today. No, money, sex and power are not evil. Yes, they are good things. But is that it?

Neither a poverty nor prosperity theology is biblical, simply because God does not think that the material world and the things in it are of any ultimate importance.

The Bible does not say that God created money, sex and power as the crowning glory of His creation; it is humankind alone that can take that place of dignity.

If money, sex and power were indeed evil, why did He create them or at least approve of their use? Could God not have created a world without money, sex and power? For one thing, it would be a very disorganised world, certainly not what the God of order would want.

The evil lies not in the worldly things per se. It lies in the way they are perceived and the use to which they are put.

The Bible is clear that from page one that all things come from God, including the money, sex and power that each person enjoys to some extent.

It is equally clear that God created and entrusted them to Man out of His love to help them live in the physical world just as a loving couple prepares the baby’s room and food for the child to come into the world.

Without money, or for that matter without physical food, it would be impossible to live. Sex is an important part of being human, a reproductive race. Without power, there would be confusion and disorder.

While money, sex and power can satisfy Man’s physical needs and order the world so that they can continue to be satisfied, they are not quite capable of satisfying their wants, or their spiritual needs.

Beneath the thin, deceptive and self-deceptive veneer of confidence, every individual in the world is an insecure and nervous wreck constantly on the look out for the approval and admiration of others.

Perhaps this is what is meant by original sin, or better yet original dependence. Man is not an island. They were not created to be self-confident, practical atheists.

Without the reality of God’s grace – emphasis intended – in people’s lives, they will forever be restless, even if they be called ‘Revs’ or ‘Drs’ or ‘Professors’ or ‘Apostles’ or ‘Prophets’ or ‘Canons’ or even ‘Right Revs’ or ‘Most Revs’ or ‘His Beatitudes’ or ‘His Holinesses’.

If they are businessmen, they will be greedy for money and success. If they are pastors, they will be greedy for membership and influence. As Paul would put it, Jew or Gentile, there is no difference; all need Christ, and not a Christ contained within a ‘sinner’s prayer’, as a discerning presiding bishop put it recently, but a Christ in all His glory and power of love.

Physical things can never satisfy Man’s wants. Jimmy Carter said it well that in every person there is a God-shaped vacuum that only Jesus Christ can fill. Famous sociologist Emile Durkheim talked about how Man that is not restricted in their physical wants will go crazy and die.

Man does not need many physical things to live, yes, even in Singapore. But they need all of God’s grace.

They need to live daily in the awareness that they are in the presence of a Creator and Shepherd who loves and values them unconditionally and leads them along paths of righteousness.

Source:Christianpost,Singapore

Redifining Success

Many of us subscribed to the world's definition of success eventhough we are Christians. As you know worldly success means material wealth, but Christian success is different. Perhaps it is time for a change of perspective as the current financial turmoil leaves millions in dire situation because they do not know God. Instead they focus on the worldly mammon that do not last, they need to come to God to receive everlasting gift of life and mammon. Read on:

Believers Told to Radically Redefine Success
Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009 Posted: 1:19:03AM HKT

One of the prominent themes of the Covenant Evangelical Free Church theology conference is that people are called to be stewards.

God will not necessarily make believers rich, said The Rev Edmund Chan, the Senior Pastor of the congregation.

The Rev Chan was speaking on the need to recover a God-centered view of Scripture. He cited the example of Psalm 1, which has been used to support the view that God blesses believers with worldly success.

Calling such an interpretation ‘horrendous’, he said: “We need to radically redefine success in a world that is obsessed with being rich.”

The Rev Chan suggested that the message of Psalm 1 is that the approval of God is of 'ultimate' importance in life, because there is a day of accounting. It makes its hearers ask: by what are they approved before a holy God.

God calls believers to be stewards of what He has given them rather than giving any promise of wealth. In the call to stewardship, He may allow them to experience poverty, suffering or invite them to make sacrifices.

There may be cases in which Christians have become rich as a result of their faith. Even so, this is not God’s will for everyone and those who have received a windfall being Christians should not make that experience a normative one.

It is presumptuous for Christians to assume that God will do what they expect Him to as long as they have faith. The pastor gave the example of Jesus Christ who did not try to change God’s difficult will for Him to die on a cross.

The key, rather, is a faith that focuses on the attributes of God and willingly surrenders to Him. In short, it is a question of allegiance.

“No man can serve two masters,” he said.

Furthermore, there are all kinds of superstition in Christianity.

For example, Christians often connect unrelated incidents and think that God is telling them something or the devil is making mischief. But they need to accept that “things just happen”, The Rev Chan said, adding that he never tells his church that he has heard something from God until it is actually fulfilled. In this way, he has guarded against error.

In another instance, they may misinterpret Proverbs 18:21 that says that death and life are in the power of the tongue and claim that words can actually kill someone.

“It is not talking about literal life and death,” he explained. “What this means basically is a figure of speech… If you are not careful in exercising the tongue, a great deal of mischief can come about and hurt or if you use it wisely, a great deal of building up.”
Source: Christianpost, ingapore

Tears of the Saint

The pastor preaching featured in the video is Pastor Johm Piper. He is a champion of mission.

Two years Old sing Lord's Prayer ...very Cute!!!

Memorizing Scriptures

Recently Pastor John encouraged our congregation to memorize scriptures. Here is what Pastor John Piper said:

July 6

Why Memorize Scripture?
John Piper

First, a few testimonies: I have it third hand, that Dr. Howard Hendricks (of Dallas Seminary) once made the statement (and I paraphrase) that if it were his decision, every student graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary would be required to learn one thousand verses word perfect before they graduated.

Dallas Willard, professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California, wrote, "Bible memorization is absolutely fundamental to spiritual formation. If I had to choose between all the disciplines of the spiritual life, I would choose Bible memorization, because it is a fundamental way of filling our minds with what it needs. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. That's where you need it! How does it get in your mouth? Memorization" ("Spiritual Formation in Christ for the Whole Life and Whole Person" in Vocatio, Vol. 12, no. 2, Spring, 2001, p. 7).

Chuck Swindoll wrote, "I know of no other single practice in the Christian life more rewarding, practically speaking, than memorizing Scripture... No other single exercise pays greater spiritual dividends! Your prayer life will be strengthened. Your witnessing will be sharper and much more effective. Your attitudes and outlook will begin to change. Your mind will become alert and observant. Your confidence and assurance will be enhanced. Your faith will be solidified" (Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994], p. 61).

One of the reasons Martin Luther came to his great discovery in the Bible of justification by faith alone was that in his early years in the Augustinian monastery he was influenced to love Scripture by Johann Staupitz. Luther devoured the Bible in a day when people earned doctorates in theology without even reading the Bible. Luther said that his fellow professor, Andreas Karlstadt, did not even own a Bible when he earned his doctor of theology degree, nor did he until many years later (www.orlutheran.com/html/luthbibl.html). Luther knew so much of the Bible from memory that when the Lord opened his eyes to see the truth of justification in Romans 1:17, he said, "Thereupon I ran through the Scriptures from memory," in order to confirm what he had found.

So here are a few reasons why so many have viewed Scripture memorization as so essential to the Christian life.

1. Conformity to Christ
Paul wrote that "we all... beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another." If we would be changed into Christ likeness we must steadily see him. This happens in the word. "The LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD" (1 Samuel 3:21). Bible memorization has the effect of making our gaze on Jesus to be steadier and clearer.

2. Daily Triumph over Sin
"How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word... I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you" (Psalm 119:9, 11). Paul said that we must "by the Spirit... put to death the [sinful] deeds of the body" (Romans 8:13). The one piece of armor used to kill is the "sword of the Spirit," which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17). As sin lures the body into sinful action, we call to mind a Christ-revealing word of Scripture and slay the temptation with the superior worth and beauty of Christ over what sin offers.

3. Daily Triumph over Satan
When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness he recited Scripture from memory and put Satan to flight (Matthew 4:1-11).

4. Comfort and Counsel for People You Love
The times when people need you to give them comfort and counsel do not always coincide with the times you have your Bible handy. Not only that, the very word of God spoken spontaneously from your heart has unusual power. Proverbs 25:11 says, "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver." That is a beautiful way of saying, When the heart full of God's love can draw on the mind full of God's word, timely blessings flow from the mouth.

5. Communicating the Gospel to Unbelievers
Opportunities to share the gospel come when we do not have the Bible in hand. Actual verses of the Bible have their own penetrating power. And when they come from our heart, as well as from the Book, the witness is given that they are precious enough to learn. We should all be able to sum up the gospel under four main headings (1) God's holiness/law/glory; 2) man's sin/rebellion/disobedience; 3) Christ's death for sinners; 4) the free gift of life by faith. Learn a verse or two relating to each of these, and be ready in season and out of season to share them.

6. Communion with God in the Enjoyment of His Person and Ways
The way we commune with (that is, fellowship with) God is by meditating on his attributes and expressing to him our thanks and admiration and love, and seeking his help in living a life that reflects the value of these attributes. Therefore, storing texts in our minds about God helps us relate to him as he really is. For example, imagine being able to call this to mind through the day:

The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. (Psalm 103:8-14)

I used the word "enjoyment" intentionally when I said, "communion with God in the enjoyment of his person and ways." Most of us are emotionally crippled -- all of us really. We do not experience God in the fullness of our emotional potential. How will that change? One way is to memorize the emotional expressions of the Bible and speak them to the Lord and to each other until they become part of who we are. For example, in Psalm 103:1, we say, "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!" That is not a natural expression for many people. But if we memorize this and other emotional expressions from the Bible, and say them often, asking the Lord to make the emotion real in our hearts, we can actually grow into that emotion and expression. It will become part of who we are. We will be less crippled emotionally and more able to render proper praise and thanks to God.

There are other reasons for memorizing Scripture. I hope you find them in the actual practice.

Still learning with you,

Pastor John

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org.

Pastor John's sermon on 12.7.09

7 things we need to know about God :

1. God Knows - He created everything in the universe, and He knows.

2. God Wills - He is willing for us to fulfill His purposes.

3. God Says - He spoke the universe into existence.

4. God Builds - He is the chief architect, He builds into our lives.

5. God fills - He fills us with good.

6. God Reveals - He reveals Himself through our lives.

7. God fulfills - He fulfills His promises to us.

The Real Prosperity Gospel

Has the so-called prosperity gospel turned its followers into some of the most willing participants—and hence, victims—of the current financial crisis?
David Van Biema, "Maybe We Should Blame God for the Subprime Mess," Time magazine, October 3, 2008
It is not just those enamored with the prosperity gospel who have pursued health, wealth, and happiness as if they were divine rights and signs of God's blessing. Or who have avoided adversity and poverty as if they were curses. But God's ways are more mysterious than we perceive.

God so governs the universe by his secret providence that while nothing happens apart from God's decree, his hand remains largely hidden from us. What could be more natural than the changing seasons? Yet there remains such unevenness and diversity that every year, month, and day is seen to be governed by a new providence of God.

Read more at Christianitytoday.com

John Calvin

Goliath

Interesting facts about Goliath...read details from the link, crick on picture above.

Jesus is everything !

Apostolic & Prophetic Conference 26th to 28 th June

Dr.Jonathan David was at our Church from 26 th June to 28 th June to conduct the above conference. The theme was Kingdom now, Revival noe & Transformation now.

It was timely as many members had gone to GLS just about two weeks before this conference. From sharing by our cell members, I believed many were touched by the messages in Muar.

During the conference, I could feel the Holy Spirit moving amongst those who attended as the responses from the audience were tremendous. I felt the message of transformation was most appropriate as we need to be transformed from the inside to spread the gospel to the outside.

I also notice that Dr.Jonathan had changed his method of presentation. During his last visit, he was serious but now he is relax and made many jokes which related well with the audience. I believe it made it easier for people to receive the messages.

All in all a wonderful and powerful conference. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!