God is the creator, redeemer and sanctifier.

We have been created by Him.
We want to be redeemed by Him.
But do we want to be sanctified?
Are we willing to be sanctified?

We want to spend time for ourselves.
We want to do things that our lusts wants.
We do not want to count the costs of following Christ.
We want to live in comfort more than bear His cross.
We want to walk in our wilful and sinful ways.

Are we willing to be sanctified? If we are not sanctified, we are but hypocrities, lukewarm, false prophets, being spit out from Christ into the place of brimstone and burning lake.

Let us re-examine ourselves, our faith, our lives, our minds.

True Wisdom

"This is the whole duty of man, to fear God and keep His commandments."
Ecclesiates 12

We often sought wisdom. We try to find in the world, in books, through seminars or through networking with people.

But we forget about God's revealed source of wisdom for us. More specifically, the books of proverbs and Eccelesiates.

Read it. There can be no greater gain of wisdom through these. And know that, wisdom, comes from God, is for us to fear God, is for us to love God, is for us to obey God.

Zeal

Romans 9:11
Never be lacking in zeal, but serve God zealously.

Never be too piled up in excelling in academics that you lack zeal to serve.

Never be too tempted and chasing after profits, that you lose the true blessings of God.

Never be too envying of people, that you forget the graces of God on you.

Never let anything, diminish your zeal for God.

Overcoming evil with good

Romans 12:9-21
Repay evil with good.

Love those who shame you.
Love those who suspect you.
Love those who criticize you.
Love those who gossip about you.
Love those who who shame you.
Love those who hurt you.
Love those who take advantage of you.
Love those who kill you.

Paul did this. Stephen did this. Jesus did this. God commanded this.

Blessed is he who hears, and DOES the Word of God.

Turning away from a life of sin

Living as Children of Light

Sermon preached on 15 aug by rev Teo kiak hock. My sermon notes.

There was a recent news article on husband and wives. Wives attempted to wake their sleeping husbands up but on several attempts, the husbands continue to sleep. However, when the wives mentioned that they are checking their husbands SMS, immediately, they woke up with some even responding if they had seen the photos.

Some of the husbands were Christians. Now how can this be? Why is it that professing Christians can still be leading a life of such sin? Using paul's terms, we have not put off our old self and put on the new self. We keep going back to our old sinful ways. That is why Paul said in Ephesians 4:17-19

17So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

Paul is giving us a warning here. A warning not to go back to our old ways of sin. For the consequences of that is separation from God. And with separation, our sinful selves will harden itself and we will continue to lust for more and more sins.

The downfall of a Christian is not sudden but slowly, progressively degrading. You start initially to console yourselves that skipping a service is ok, then skipping two, then more, and finally, the only service you go to is the funeral service. Sin slowly creeps in unnoticeably. Be warned against this great danger.

Paul proceeds to tell us practical examples on how we can avoid turning back to a life of sin.
First:

25Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

We should not tell lies. We lie for two reasons. First, we lie because we are afraid. Second, we lie because we are greedy. Ananias and sapphire lied for greed of money and face. They envied barnabas who offered everything he had and sought to earn the same respect. We should not lie because God is truth and we should live in truth which includes telling the truth.

The other practical lesson Paul teaches is about anger.

26"In your anger do not sin"[a]: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27and do not give the devil a foothold.

It is not wrong to get angry. What is wrong is to sin in your anger. Many great man in the bible got angry. Moses got angry when he saw the Israelites worshipping the golden calf. Jesus got angry when he saw his temple being exploited as a market place for people to make profits.

Also, we should rage for a prolonged period as it gives rise to rage and bitterness.

Hence, how do we turn away from a life of sin?

21Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Be taught the truth. Know the truth. Meditate on it, flush it constantly into our minds. Like how flushing clean water into any polluted source clears it.

Also, be made new in our attitudes. In our emotion. To thirst, to love, our God. Understand how much he loves us. Finally, renew our will to serve Him.

1 John 1

True joy. Complete joy.

1 John 1
1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4We write this to make our joy complete.

True joy. Not money, promotion, human relations. But knowledge and fellowship with God. To do His will. To share with others His grace. To put things of eternity before earthly.

All things work for the good of those who love Him.

I was fetching a preacher back home yesterday. He recently had an accident where a bus ran over his feet. His was utterly crushed and all the muscles and nerves were crushed to death. Till today, about two months after the accident, the dead skin and flesh has to be scrapped out from his feet. His mobility is of course affected and needs to take the cab more often.

In spite of all these, he shared with me that if he was not a Christian, he would be filled anger and impatience. Why did this happen to him?

But he carries on saying that because he is a Christian, he is instead filled with peace and joy. I immediately wondered if I would feel the same thing if it happened to me as well. I have read many times o experience joy and peace from God. But how exactly can I do that when it's a time of trial like what happened to the preacher?

I asked him. He answered. All things work for the good of those who love him. All things. Yes, even bad things. In each bad thing, there is God's wonderful will for us. That it would be good for us. Once you know this, you are at peace cause you know that God has in store goodness for you through the trouble and also joy because it's the best way for you given that it's God's way.

And it's that simple. Trouble, trials, tests? All work for the good of us.

Lessons from Jonah Chapter 1

Lessons from Jonah Chapter 1

Ever heard of the story of Jonah? Its the story where a great big fish swallowed a man and kept him in its stomach for three days and three nights for he had disobeyed God's command.

Perhaps you might have heard of the story before, in children sunday school, in stories, television programs, but let us take a closer look at the story of Jonah, as recorded in Jonah chapter 1, and learn valuable lessons.

Jonah 1 

1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."

 3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.

 4 Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
      But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish."

 7 Then the sailors said to each other, "Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity." They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.

 8 So they asked him, "Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?"

 9 He answered, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land."

 10 This terrified them and they asked, "What have you done?" (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.)

 11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?"

 12 "Pick me up and throw me into the sea," he replied, "and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you."

 13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried to the LORD, "O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O LORD, have done as you pleased." 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.

 17 But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.

We see that God commanded Jonah to preach to the people of Nineveh to repent before God punishes them, for Nineveh was a city that committed great sins detestable to God. However, Jonah disobeyed God's command. This was because he was a Jew, and the Jews were sworn enemies with the people of Nineveh. Jonah was not happy that God wanted to spare Nineveh. He wanted God to inflict punishment on them.

However, God is a loving and merciful God, not willing that anyone should perish. He does not want sinners to perish, does not want evil do-ers to perish and will give ample chances for them to repent, and have faith in Him. However, when sinners choose to go their way to such an extend that God can no longer extend His merciful hand, God has to give them over to their sin. In this case, God still is merciful over Nineveh. It is however Jonah that does not sympathize with the people of Nineveh.

We see that due to one man's in-submission to God, an entire city can fall into God's wrath. (Of course God can choose to use other servants for His purpose.) Remember that there are several tens of thousands in Nineveh, including innocent young children. Yet Jonah was unwilling to preach the message of repentance to Nineveh.

Jonah fled away from God. Went to Joppa, bought a ticket to board a ship heading towards Tarshish. Tarshish was in the West, just in the opposite direction towards Nineveh which was in the East. The ship had to sail across the Mediterranean Sea.

While across the sea, God sent a huge storm, so huge to the extend that it threatened to tear up the ship in two. Even the sailors who were experienced in sailing were afraid. It was the most fearful storm they had even seen. So fearful till the extend that they cried to their own god. They also threw their cargo overboard in a bid to lighten the ship's load that it would not sink.

In the midst of the storm, everyone on board the ship would be busy doing all they could for each of them would drown to death if the ship were to sink. However, Jonah was sleeping soundly below deck! It is incredible that we see the ignorance of Jonah to such an extend, that admist all the chaos, he still could sleep.

It took a pagan, a non-believer, the ship's captain, to wake him up. Furthermore, the pagan had to remind Jonah, a prophet of God, to call upon his true God, that they might not perish. How ironic that the pagan captain will use all his means to pray upon false gods, yet the prophet of God will not even call upon the true God.

It took casting of lots, to find out that Jonah was the cause of the storm. This does not mean that we should cast lots in superstition to find out God's will for He has clearly commanded us not to indulge ourselves in black arts and magic. But God used this means this time to clearly depict that Jonah was the cause of the storm, and He wanted to give Jonah the opportunity to repent and revive his commission to preach to the people of Nineveh.

Jonah, the believer in the true God, the God of heaven who created the sea and the land didn't call upon Him. But instead had to rely on the reminding of pagans who worshipped false gods to call upon the true God. It is indeed humiliating. At this point in time, he volunteered to be thrown into the sea, for he knew that he was the cause of it all. Yet, we instead see the love from the pagans who did not want to throw Jonah till they had tried their best to overcome the situation. They tried their best till they could try no more and prayed to the true God for forgiveness that they not he held accountable for Jonah's life for it is God who caused the storm due to Jonah's rebellion.

The pagans then threw Jonah overboard and a big fish swallowed him and kept him in its stomach for three nights and days. It would be dark, lonely and with great filth in the fish's stomach. It will resemble hell. Perhaps this provided the opportunity for Jonah to understand the consequences of the people of Nineveh if he does not abide by God's command to preach to them. And because of this, in chapter two, it records then Jonah said a prayer of repentance. To ask for God's forgiveness, and re-committed himself to God's commission to preach to Nineveh.

What homework can take away from chapter one of Jonah? First, to know that by one's in-submission, you can actually bring great harm to others. If Jonah did not preach the message of repentance to Nineveh, they stand the possibility of being in God's wrath. This reminds that if we refuse to preach the gospel, the salvation from Jesus, we bring harm to others. We are in God's grace, yet we refuse to extend this grace to others. A true friend will bring his friend, to Christ. The greatest good, if we do not introduce it to our friends, how can we call ourselves a true friend?

Second, know that if we are not right with God, we are heading downhill. We need a right relationship with God. Jonah's relationship kept going downhill form the point when he rebelled against God. From disobeying to go to Nineveh, to heading for Tarshish in the ship, to going under the deck, to being thrown into the sea, to being swallowed into the big fish, we see that if we disobey God's will for us, we will be heading downwards.

Thirdly, that God will discipline us if we continually go against Him. Jonah was disciplined by God, through the storm, through the reprimanding of pagans, through the throwing over into the sea, through spending the time in the fish's stomach.

May we bring the good news of salvation to people, have a right relationship with God, and be sensitive to His disciplining in the areas of life where we go against Him. For God disciplines those whom He loves.

Notes for 11th July 2010 sermon

The church is not a building. It's the community of christians. On Sunday, we congregate in a building to worship God. On Sunday, we gather in a church and we worship as a church.

However, come Monday to Saturday, each of us is a church. We are a church to the people we associate with. Whether you are a student, businessman, teacher, housewife, doctor or engineer.

We are told to manifest Christ who lives in us. To live out the imitation of Christ to those around us. To love, to care, to give, to rebuke, to feed. All this, that every good work be a revelation God's love to them. That the gospel be lived out for them to see, that when the opportunity comes, we may witness Christ to them.

Faith. Love. Obey. Preach. Love. Save.

Live - ers of the Word

No one really wants to hear what we have to say about the love of Jesus until they’ve seen it in our lives (Matt. 5:16).

Pastor visited grand dad on Wednesday. He also bought with him some gifts. The baptism certificate and also a large poster of the Lord's prayer.

It so occured to me that it really is the most perfect gift my grand dad cld have. The lord Jesus teaching him how to pray.
That God be glorified, that he be delivered from evil and temptation, that he will have God's daily bread with him. That he will have a part of God's kingdom.

Thank God for such messengers.
Thank you.

Interested in iPhone Development?

Will being writing a series of tutorials for iPhone programming. Visit the site below.

http://easyiphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/

Don't lose it

Blog blog blog... Think most people nowadays are content with reading and writing on facebook. Short quotes, lesser content. No more long blog posts.

Make sure that you don't lose the skill of reading, and writing！

Sexual Immorality, Homosexuality – We are in it TOGETHER

Dear friends,

We sinners are in NO POSITION to condemn the homosexuals of their sin for we ourselves, are sinners, committing acts that greatly angers God. We are wicked to the core, desperately wicked, no one can fathom what evil we can do. When the adulterous woman was brought before Jesus and the crowd, he only said one sentence. That whoever has not sinned can take the first stone to kill her. One by one the crowd left till there was no one left. Only Jesus was left, to which he said, “neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your lift of sin.” (John 8)

Yet, with a sad heart, I plead with anyone who is contemplating that homosexuality is not a sin to re-evaluate it in accordance to the Word of God. I plead with you, to just consider what a sinner, has to say. For I am no better than the worst of sinners, yet by the grace of God, I am saved and this is my hope for you as well, to have God’s grace and not His wrath, upon you. For it is only responsible that I should warn of the consequences of sin.

There are common debates on homosexuality, that it is ok, that its genetic, inborn, a psychological illness. One side argues this. Another argues that. Whose stand are we to accept?

I plead you to understand that the discussions and debates between pro and anti homo-groups DO NOT make an absolute stand. It is but an exchange between man to man, his principles, his standards.

We can only rely upon the Word of God as the ABSOLUTE STANDARD of everything including homosexuality. Its just like groups debating that 1+1= 3 and other parties debating that 1+1=1.5. But there are mathematical TRUTHS just as there are physics truths at work in the universe. 1+1 is equal to 2. Period.

Yet, there is an even more important and greater truth that we must know and that is the TRUTH of God revealed through His Word. The ABSOLUTE TRUTH. The Word of God, the BIBLE. The bible is clear about homosexuality.

Genesis 19:24 “The Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah” because of the great sin of the people of those cities. They yearned to have unnatural relations with parties of the same sex and often in orgies (19:5). A similar group of people is recorded in Judges 19:22-30 in Gibeah.

Jude 7 “Sodom and Gomorrah gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.”

Lev 18:22 “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable”

Lev 20:13 “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”

Romans 1:27 “Man abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”

One day we will stand before God in judgment, giving an account of all our beliefs and actions whether you like it or not, believe it or not. Homosexuality is detestable to God.

As mentioned, we sinners are in NO POSITION to condemn the homosexual of their sin for we ourselves, are sinners, committing acts that greatly angers God. We are wicked to the core, desperately wicked, no one can fathom what evil we can do.

The apostle Paul says,

1 Cor 6:9-10 “The wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexuals offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”

We might not be homosexuals. We do not fall into such temptations. Yet, we fall into other sexual immoralities i.e. to be explicit; pornography, or the seemingly innocent lusting after someone walking down the street. Question: If our thoughts were to be burned into a DVD, would you want to show it to anyone?

We all commit other sins as Paul mentioned, greed, theft, slandering, swindling, and many more by which you know because your conscience rebukes you. Before God, homosexual or not, we are sinners, deserving the wrath of God. We have no right to condemn the homosexual because we are but sinners ourselves.

But yet we are entrusted with the Word of God to warn others, that God’s wrath is true and will come upon those who harden their hearts and do not repent. We are made right in the blood of Christ. So can anyone, by faith in Christ, that you believe that He borne your sins unto the cross, shed His blood for you, nailed for you, died for you, and realizing His great grace, repent of your wrongs.

A homosexual, just like a sex addict or pornography addict will definitely find the clutches of sin having a strangling hold over him. It will be very difficult to break or repent from the old ways. Yes, there will be temptations dragging him back. Yet, with man, things might be impossible. But with God, all things are possible. (Matt 19:26)

And by the grace of God, once freed from the clutches of sin, he will experience indescribable joy in God. The hope, the knowledge that God’s wrath is not upon Him. The Christian’s journey is not an easy highway. It is an arduous journey with temptations pulling us back into the pits and dangers entrapping us into new ones. Yet, our God will be with us, not giving unto us any temptation too much for us to bear. And step by step, He leads us daily through prayer, through reading the Word, through serving Him and His people, through bearing salt and light for Him in the world, to finally reach the wonderful place He has prepared for us.

The Christian church EMBRACES ANY homosexual that is willing to seek God. He might not have yet known how to or convicted himself to weaning off his act. There are many Christian ministries that especially cater to such individuals, eg.

· Exodus International

· Cross Power Ministries

· International Healing Foundation

· Homosexuals Anonymous

Ultimately, the Christian should love that which God loves AND hates what He hates. God loves the homosexual. God detests the sin but loves the individual. Let us not harden our hearts towards Him, but come unto Him, experiencing His love, grace, truth, hope, peace, joy and salvation.

This is very sad

Leviticus 10:1-3

1 Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. 2 So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.

2 Samuel 6:5-7

5 David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals.

6 When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. 7 The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.

John 4:23-24

23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

1 Peter 1:16
"Be Holy for I am Holy"

Gospel Sunday Message

Many things around us will change. Physical environments, Economical environments, Social environments, they all change. Only one thing doesn’t. God’s love towards us has never changed. His truth has never changed. Since the beginning of time till now, and from now till eternally, this will not changed.

God’s love for us was shown most wonderfully yet tragically, two thousand years ago, when His son had to die by the most tragic and cruel means of execution then, Crucifixion on the cross during the times of the Roman Empire.

Yet now, the cross is worn proudly on necklaces, shown on ambulances, the least to mention a few. Why? Would you hang an electric chair, or hanging gallow around your neck or adore it on a vehicle or building? Then why this adoration and recognition of the cross all over the world throughout history?

This was because the cross manifested the love of God. On the cross, our sins were nailed to the cross, cleansed, forgiven, by the blood of Christ.

From the cross, Christ spoke words of grace. One of His last words referring to the multitudes whom has just earlier called for his execution were, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And by the blood He shed, indeed our Father has forgiven us of our wrong-doings, our sins.

When it comes to belief in God, people often take a cynical eye towards Christ. Yet so many embrace money as their belief. As their God. Believing in money. Or perhaps, just believing in one’s self. Yet when it comes to the last moments of one’s life, does believing in money or believing in your yourself, your achievements, your legacy help? Does the best luxuries help in easing the fear and loneliness of death?

Only words of grace as spoken by Christ can truly comfort. He told the robber was today and thereafter, the robber will be with Him in paradise. Now the robber was in the eyes of the roman law, an evil person, a thief, a murderer. Yet he believed in Christ, hanging beside him. And because of his faith, he was given the assurance of heaven by our Lord. He was comforted by Jesus’s words of grace and hope. This is the only thing that can truly comfort, the assurance of heaven.

If we are truly honest with ourselves, we know that deep in our hearts we search for a god. Animals do not do that. But man does. We do. We search for God in our hearts. And in our hearts, we know that we are unworthy people too. Sinners. Would you be willing to show a DVD containing all your thoughts, the things you said, the things you did, the things you saw, to anyone else?

In the limited eyes of the government, our family, we may be seen as good citizens, or good children. But what after before the unlimiting eyes of God?

All men have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Only Jesus can save us. He invites us to the true and living way to God. If only we would accept His invitation.

God searches for man to save him and love him. He has been doing that since the creation of the first man. He searched for Adam the moment he fall into sin in eating the forbidden fruit. Yet, He searches for man not to judge him, but to save him. Only when man refuses this salvation, does God in His righteousness judge man when the wrath of God is terribly and regretfully unleashed unto the sinner whose sins have not been cleansed.

God searches for God saves, for God loves. He has prepared the path of salvation since the creation of the world. The path of salvation through Christ. For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten son to the world, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Christ died for us on the cross. Before His last breath, He said, “It is finished.” The saving path to God is opened.

Do not carry your own burden of sin. Leave it upon Christ. Follow Him.

Financial affairs

Citibank sg just made record profits this year. Is it going to transfer money to it's US counterpart to repay the Fed? Or they are keeping quiet and treating it as a low cost loan from them...or rather low cost loan from taxpayers...the same goes for the rest of the gang.

I guess they are too busy opening secret accounts for wealthy individuals to avoid taxes..btw that's supposed to be legal.

Or perhaps providing loans to sanctioned countries eg. Iran...

Biblical worship – God will be honored

Biblical worship – God will be honored

Worship has to be favored by God. Worship has to honor God. Nadab and Abihu offered the wrong fire contrary to God’s command and were struck dead by God.

Leviticus 10:1-3

1 Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. 2 So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 3 Moses then said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD spoke of when he said:

" 'Among those who approach me
I will show myself holy;
in the sight of all the people
I will be honored.' "
Aaron remained silent.

God-revealed means of worship and holiness of worship has to be observed, lest we end up doing irreverent actions like Uzzah who tried to support the ark from falling but was struck dead by God where just moments ago, David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might.

2 Samuel 6:5-7

5 David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals.

6 When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. 7 The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.

Offering with a truthful heart has to be observed lest we end up like Sapphiras and Ananias, who offered with deceit.

Acts 5:3-5

3Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."

5When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.

We see from these events that worship to God has to be favored by Him. Not by man. Worship to God has to be according to His ways, not our liking. With the joy of having God favor our worship, we are also reminded of the severe wrath of judgment upon worship that is not according to His will.

So what is the worship that God favors?

It is not the worship of the Old Testament as revealed on the pattern of the mount. It is not the dancing and clanging of cymbals done when certain victorious events have occurred. It is not the worship that happened in the temple, holiest place, or holiest of holiest. The book of Hebrews records that when the new covenant of Christ comes, it has replaced the obsolete worship ways of the Old Testament.

Worship is not the pattern shown during the apostolic period captured mainly through the book of Acts where much of the worship did not have an orderly structure. But God in His divine will flourished the early church. And in AD 95, God revealed to the last surviving apostle John, the pattern of worship in heaven.

In Revelations 4 and 5, the circle of elders worship the slained lamb through the singing of hymns, and all glory was given unto the lamb. With harps and hymns serving praise and conviction to the Lord who was slained for us.

The worship was carried out in a holy manner. For our God is holy, and as the angels proclaimed, holy, holy, holy is the God Almighty.

Some questions to think about worship.

Is our worship holy? Or is it influenced by the attractions of this world?

Is our worship for the sole glory of God? Or it is to bring name and knowing to individuals?

Are we worshiping in truth or are we worshiping to our liking?

Are we worshipping in spirit or are we worshipping in unrepentance, continual living in sin and coming to worship with a hypocritical heart?

Are we sincerely pursing a worship that God favours and not a worship that man favours?

Is our worship for the edification of man that they are led to worship God and understands His Word of Life? Or are men being stumbled by distractions in our worship?

Worship is for the glory, holiness and favor of God, and the edification of man that they can in spirit and truth, worship God.

May God favor our worship.

Thanks and Praise

I thank and praise God. Tens of years of prayer have been answered. Prayer turns to praise. My grand dad and grand Ma were baptized last Saturday.

It has really been a miracle, seeing the seemingly impossible task turning into reality by the work of God. Grandpa's health has not been very good in the past years. In fact, many situations were near death if not for the grace of God. But God heard my cries. He delivered him unto safety many times, from the icu, back to the comforts of home. And the most wonderful thing happened. He delivered him unto salvation.

I praise and thank God. I thank God for the messengers of him showering care and concern over him throughout his period that has led him to open his heart. May God forever remember them who leads people to righteousness and shine like the stars forever an ever.

May God continue to strengthen their faith. That they will enjoy His peace, hope and joy for the ime ahead. Thank you O Lord.

Filled with the Spirit

As I read the last portions of Galatians, I am reminded again what it truly means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Please find scripture below.

Galatians 5. 16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Summary:
Being filled with the Spirit is:

1. Not gratifying our sinful desires. We will oppose what we sinfully yearn to do. V16-17

2. You will not engage in acts of sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies,

3. Instead, you have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

4. Not becoming conceited, provoking and envying each other.


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