Abusing God’s Blessings

1 … in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem… 3 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.

4 He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan.

2 Kings 18:1-4

Interesting story this one. Moses set up a pole with a snake design on top for the Israelites to get healed of a certain snake infestation attack. That whoever looked at the pole will get healed. Did Moses do the wrong thing? No. Because God asked Moses to make the snake pillar. And it was NOT meant for worship. It was for God to show His supernatural healing. Did it work? Since it came from God, yes, definitely.

But after that, the Israelites were found worshiping this bronze snake pole thing. God made a good thing. But Israelites turned a Godly good thing into a sin.

I find that this is human nature. We will worship the thing that bring us joy. And who brings us the most joy? The “obvious” answer is God! Yet, we worship church, we worship our leadership position, we worship the money God blessed us with, we worship our relationships, we worship the entertainment and hobbies God allowed us to have, we worship ourselves for being smart, pretty, funny, have good skills, have good opportunities, or for doing good things for people. We’re not that good. God is. It wasn’t us. It was all God.

Think about it for a while. What are you worshiping that was actually from God? What have you put more hope and more faith on than God? Was it/he/she from God? Probably, yeah. It was a great blessing from God Himself! An answered prayer! A miracle! Yet over time, we ended up worshiping it and remembering it more than God.

What can we do about it? Learning from King Hezekiah of Judah, he broke down that Godly Good thing, the bronze serpent pole that Moses had made. No matter how good something is, if it tempts you to sin, get rid of it. Do we have any entertainment, hobbies, material things that we need to break? Do we have any relationships we need to redefine? Do we need to have a vain-ness / self-love reality check?

I’m not sure about you, but I do.

New Highlight Colour Category!

As of today I have about three categories of highlights for my bible reading.

First category is things I want to remember. Colours are pink, yellow, and cyan (esp if things get ‘interesting’).

Second category are the very important things I want to remember. Colours are light pink and light yellow. As you can probably imagine, these work well alongside my first category highlights, especially in a long passage with multiple verses. I will usually highlight the passage that I want to remember in pink, and then within the passage there would usually be one or two verses that are the key points or super important, I would highlight those light pink. So that there would be contrast.

Third category will be in grey for warnings I want to remember. Especially if they are directed at me.

So today I have created a new fourth category based on what I learned last week in online bible school. It’s a light green highlight for verses that are God’s ‘intended purpose for men’. We call it the Sabbath Rest… I think… I’m still learning haha. The Garden of Eden will be my imagery for this highlight category. God’s plan was no death, no sickness, and we live in true abundance, and connection to God. The three main points for the Sabbath Rest is peace with one another, peace with the earth, and peace with God. I’m thinking to keep it less for who God wants me to be today/tomorrow, and more for God’s ultimate goal for us in eternity. A very after-death (Real Life) kind of highlight. The purpose is to train myself to have a heavenly perspective.

Destroy!

‘You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things. “But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. ‘ Deuteronomy 12:2-5

It’s quite unnatural for us who grew up in church to talk about destroying things. What more destroying EVERYTHING. The Israelites we commanded to destroy everything in the land they are about to conquer, because God knew that the Israelites were weak and easily tempted to serve other gods. And serving other gods is a direct sin!

Today as Christians, we don’t take temptation and sin very seriously. We think it’s just something we need to AVOID. But no, we need to find a deep hatred towards sin. Because sin is DEFYING God ON PURPOSE. In a culture full of sin, we are also tempted to see sin as not very serious. ‘If it doesn’t hurt anyone, how is it a sin?’ right? WRONG. That’s not how God sees it at all.

God wants us to face our sins and overcome it. Overcome sin the way you overcome an enemy in a war. You must show no mercy. And even though temptation itself is not a sin, we should not allow temptation to stick around as well. The bible says that if your eye causes you to sin, you should gauge it out. Wow imagery.

This sermon by Moses in Deuteronomy 12:2-5 reminds me of a powerful sermon by John Piper. Hope it motivates you to war against sin and your carnal self.

Love Is Not Safe!

By C. S. Lewis

There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket of coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell. From The Four Loves

Kneel And Bow

Lord Jesus may Your name abide in my heart. May Your glory be my highest desire. May Your Spirit fill me to overflowing.

Abide in me.

Less of me.

More of You.

Take the throne of my heart.

I step down as king and crown You, the Rightful King.

Youth Leaders Meet Up

So last night we had a yam cha / sharing / prayer session with some youth leaders in kk.

It was awesome.

There was Kenneth from LBC. He organised it. Kenny from Calvary Charismatic Church. Reuben and Ryan from Charis Youth BCCM. Ganesh from LBC as well. Eric from Eklektos. Me and Joey. And Athena from Maranatha Church.

I think the most important part of last night was hearing each others struggles and finding out we are not alone. Some of our struggles are the same. Some have already faced and overcome what some are facing now (excited to help each other!). Some are totally opposite (eg. Some have too much of a family feeling that there is no respect for leadership. While some are struggling to make everyone feel like its a family). The best thing about hearing each other out is realising we are not alone. And we understand each other.

I’m excited to meet up again. And I hope more leaders in KK find the time and passion to join us.

The whole night yesterday I just keep having the feeling that God’s hand was in our meeting, bringing us together, giving us the same passion for each other.

Thank You God.

If God Loves Us, He WILL Let Us Go Through Tough Times

As I was praying for Joey, I asked Him to just stop and fix a situation she’s in. I know He can. He’s the Master Fixer. He can heal anything. He can stop anything from happening. And He can make anything happen. It’s entirely up to Him.

But He reminded me that He let’s us go through tough times and tight spots because He loved us. 

He said He did it to protect us and strengthen us. What??… Isn’t that the opposite? I know He’s the Master Protector and Master Strengthener, but I forget He uses tough and bad situations as He pleases! Okay I admit, they’re probably more effective.

Tough times are like vaccines pumped into our lives. 

He’s in control just like the doctor control’s the dosage. He has our situation under control no matter what. 

He tells us it will hurt and it might even leave a permanent scar. He doesn’t lie about it being just an ant bite. He knows what a punctured skin and what scars feels like.

He knows our body will be able to take it and overcome it, thus effectively be immune to it. 

So He tells us to just hold on. You may feel a bit sick from it, but keep on keeping on. You can take the punches. 

Love This So Much

Amen

Are Pastors Human?

Have you seen the list of requirements to be an elder or pastor of the church? It’s crazy! 

Reminds me to be humble and do my best and trust in Him who stengthens and enables. 
1 Timothy 3:1-13 (NKJV)

1 This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work.

2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach;

3 not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous;

4 one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence

5 (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?);

6 not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.

7 Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

8 Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money,

9 holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience.

10 But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless.

11 Likewise their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.

12 Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

13 For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Let’s Make A Change 💪

I’m Starting With The Man In The Mirror

(Ooh!)
I’m Asking Him To Change His Ways
(Ooh!)
And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
(If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place)
Take A Look At Yourself And Then Make A Change
(Take A Look At Yourself And Then Make A Change)