Stand Unswervingly - Proven Faith

4 years I tried to discover the essence of my Christian beliefs, 4 years I was withheld but not oppressed by a particular structure and system of beliefs. I could vividly remember I was once told I am too stubborn, that my defence towards my stand is a reflection of my rebellion and hardheadedness. Today I have turned that agony into purpose. I fought for it because persuasion does not build up one’s faith, armed with the uncertainty if the other party has a stand in what he believes, or he took his stand merely someone once convinced him. You shouldn’t believe something if you yourself are not convicted, risking yourself to fall into the danger and shakiness of rooting on a secondary faith. More so, you take the risk to loose your integrity to proclaim and believe in something which you are personally unconvicted when being questioned. 

Brothers and sisters, I urge you to be convicted and stand unswervingly in your personal beliefs and ground yourself on a set of doctrine. Never take the blind faith path. Be aware that within the Christianity realm, there are doctrines that have segregated many believers and triggered disunity. It might not be well for me to table what I have in mind right now, wishing not cause another hurt to the already-stricken Christian influence, especially to trigger your doubt in what you believe. Each has a claim and defends what he believes. It’s all good. But let us acknowledge the differences of understanding towards different teachings and doctrines yet wholly accord Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), in view that no one person nor one group of believers has the complete and perfect comprehension of spiritual truth while here on earth. As written in 1 Corinthians 13:12 – “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” We are told we will not know everything while on earth. The end goal of our faith is salvation, being saved. Therefore, know solely what is the evidence that a person is truly saved. 

Seek not to get away with your Christian faith. Be a good example and model to your fellow disciples and believers. If you are challenged and questioned, don’t shut them off. Dig in and search what your faith is made of and based on. Ultimately, brace ourselves for the end time where a rise of false teachers who seek to deceive is imminent, and if we are determined to differentiate truth and falsehood. Study your Scripture, hold steadfastly to the Word and take a stand on your beliefs. Abort tolerance, for tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions. 

4 years are not wasted, I believe it is made in such a way for a reason, for a greater purpose. It has solidified my convictions, that I will not be easily shattered and shaken. I want my faith to be proven genuine. 

Lastly, let me throw you some good principles worth considering, shared by a dear brother of mine.

- To hold unswervingly to the core and essential doctrines and to learn to agree to disagree on secondary or peripheral matters (e.g. where the gospel is not threatened)

- To discern between areas of Conviction and areas of Command and not confuse the two (e.g. by imposing my convictions on others when they are not commands from Scripture)

- To not exchange the freedom I have in Christ to become a slave to some human tradition

- To let love be the governing principle in all I do, say, or think, and even in the pursuit of our Christian faith. As it is written in 1 Corinthians 13: 1-3 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."

“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” ~ 1 Peter 1:6-7 May it be so. 

I see a break through today.

Transformation Doesn't Occur Overnight

I was reminded of this verse at prayer meeting tonight. 

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2 (NIV)

But I love how the New Living Translation puts it, “Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Again, it is another revelation as I look at the verse this round. Allow me to put it in another form yet doesn’t diminish its meaning, “If we conform or follow the pattern of this world, we will NOT be able to know what God’s will is.” 

I always thought that the price that Christians have to pay for the sake of following Jesus is always about tough and scary situations and persecutions, like being stoned for proclaiming Jesus, being put behind bars, being sacked for upholding what is right and uphold integrity, cold-wars, rejections, and hardpress from family and friends... Today I was knocked awake that a huge-and-not-easy-at-all price that we have to pay in our walk with God is to renounce the world and put the world behind us. Too easy to say, difficult to attain, yet it’s what we are asked to do. 

It’s about putting the old and worldly self behind, and embrace and be clothed with the new self in Christ. It is about being transformed by the way we think, relate and view this world. Yet, a Christian’s life transformation doesn’t take place overnight. It requires a daily decision, a daily determination, a daily discipline, a daily sacrifice, and accompanied by a daily portion of grace. It is a process, a journey, perhaps an arduous journey. Take for an example to be a world-class athlete. It involves a decision to say this is what I am going to take up in my life. Determination to say no matter what occurs along the way I am so gonna achieve this, perhaps setting a time frame, goals, objectives etc. Discipline includes specific daily intake, sufficient rest, solid schedule and training programme, employ a personal trainer, etc... Sacrifice includes giving up unhealthy fast food, to go somewhere afar from home for better training, missing out other entertainments in life, etc… And by God’s grace, after years of training with no mishap or unfortunate event taking place, one can make it there. 

Yet following Jesus is a life-long thing. Easily we will get distracted along the way, especially when we are walking through faith crisis and knowing the fact that we are imperfect and weak beings. We can easily opt out. However, it’s our choice to make yet knowing we can ask the Spirit to guide and lead us on. 

So, Pattern of the world or Pattern of Christ? True enough we can only choose one. We can’t serve two masters. We can’t be faithful to both. You marry one, you don’t marry two. We are born with flesh. And the Bible says the flesh belongs to the world. Allow me to say by nature, we are concerned about the world, what the world says, what the world thinks, what the world does, what the world believes, instead of being concerned of what God … what God … We are concerned of how to gel in this world, our acceptance and approval by the world, our position and status in the world rather than dwelling, acceptance and status in the Kingdom of God. But at the same time, we want to know the will of God, we want to know God’s plan for us, we want to be blessed, we want to receive anointing, we want our requests and petitions to be answered and granted … But it is like wanting both darkness and light to coexist at the same time. Both evil and good to rule at the same time… Hard hey? Let’s take a look at what Paul urges us the children of Light in Ephesians 4:17-24. 

“So 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. They 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. Having 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. You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

We can’t attain it by our own. But “For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall.” ~ Psalms 18:29

I am learning, I am growing!

Kill Your Unbelief

I have the privilege to lead several seekers group in my journey in Brisbane. It is always exciting to share with the pre-believers about God. There are several things I always share and try to analyse with them. It’s very simple. It’s all about taking that little step of faith to make a decision, yet a decision that can turn a life upside down, too significant and important it is. 

A friend recently asked me “How can I know God? As in, how to accept God into my life?” Hmm… quite often we will use the Christian jargon to share with them about Sinner’s Prayer, and explaining to them the step by step progress etc… A thought came so I shared. To me, it’s all about making a decision “loh”. Just like today you meet a gal and you are interested in her, so you sing out, “Hey I just met you and this is crazy! Arghh soo crazy!” And from there on some love-at-first-sight people will be like “Can we be gal and boyfriend?” You see, it involves an approach, an offer, and an acceptance. See, when you decided to date someone, most likely at that point of time you don’t know everything about the person, perhaps just a little, just a side of him or her, and it takes a life long journey to know your spouse and you gotta put in effort. That’s how interesting a marriage is, that’s why it is exciting. Likewise, knowing God to me, is more likely the same. Just the difference is that an offer has already been made since the moment Jesus went onto the Cross and died for the whole world, that salvation and acceptance has been made available since then. An offer already exists. What we need to do is to take up the offer. And our life with God is the same. A life long journey, and we get to know God more and more as day goes by. And Christianity is a relationship. Our bond and relationship with God gets stronger the more we interact and communicate. We communicate, we talk to God. And God speaks to us through the Scripture, through His creation such as the nature, through Holy Spirit when we spend time with Him, when we worship him and perhaps through someone around us where God drops a word in them to speak into our life, or through books and resources that we read etc. You see God travels beyond space and time, He is limitless, and He is a God of creativity, so many ways He can interact with us.

Taking the step to experience is so crucial. Let me throw you an analogy. Person A says Restaurant Fulham offers the best Char Kuey Tiao (a Malaysian cuisine) with Ham in Brisbane. Person B argues and defends that Restaurant West Ham offers the best Char Kuey Tiao with Ham. But Person A has never tried Restaurant West Ham, likewise, Person B has never tried Restaurant Fulham. While Person C actually tried both Restaurant Fulham and Restaurant West Ham before. If you are asking for a recommendation, who will you believe? You see, experience matters. But if you never choose to taste the goodness of God, you will surely never know how good He is. All you need is a decision saying I want to know, I want to experience! The remaining story, ensues on. Another example will be, you tell your friend that you are better looking than Sing Hoe. I say that is not true because your friend never gets to meet me in person. And when your friend finally gets to meet me, he or she will say, hold on a minute - you are wrong, Sing Hoe is actually better looking. You see, experience matters. But it requires a decision to lead to that (your friend’s decision saying I want to meet Sing Hoe and see who is better looking). :P

You see, everything about me and us are fleeting, they will all pass away one day, my handsomeness, your prettiness, my height, your plumpness … but everything about God will not, because He just can’t! That’s why in our temporariness, we need everlastingness, and that can only be found in God. We are just finite, feeble, so powerless beings yet often being so proud about ourselves, bragging about how capable we are. You see, to humble ourselves means to acknowledge that we are powerless. That we don’t control lives. To humble ourselves means we surrender fully our lives and wills unto God. Yet so often, we attempt to be God, trying to take everything in our hands, and when life is not going the way we want it to be, we blame and curse God, we get angry, we talk about how God doesn’t love us, that He doesn’t care, that He is absent, that He is not real.

People talk about things and attempts in life they must do so that they will have no regret when they die, ie, bungee jumping, skydiving etc… and they will actually go all the way for it… Why not going for something which is free and eternally rewarding – knowing God?

Most people are so frenzied seeing a shooting star that only last for seconds. If that can give them the excitement, why not capture a God that is everlasting and bring so much good to one’s life?

You use your life to tell me about your unbelief, I use mine to tell you about God.

Do you think your heart can live again? Do you think it's time to cast out the unbelief in your heart? Do you think you can give God a chance (He has given you so many chances to know Him)?

The Passover, A Message by Beth Moore

Passion Conference 2013 - Session 2 - Sermon by Beth Moore, Founder of Living Proof Ministries 

Beth Moore was sharing about the significance and importance of Passover Meal. She started off by saying some of these astounding words:

- Only God can bring this many people together with that kind of initiative of faith.
- I'm hoping for God to do something so dramatic in our life that you flat out never get over it.
- I felt the call of God over my life when I was a sophomore in college.
- It can only be God. We can't fire ourselves up year after year. Jesus did that!
- What would happen in the coming generations if every one of you be set aflame for the word of God.
- If you have the kind of passion you do for worship and put together with the love for his word..

Sermon based on Matthew 26:17-30

This was the most important meal [The Last Supper] in all of human history. This Passover meal would have taken about 3 or so hours to celebrate. It's very important to know that they [the disciples and Jesus] were going throughout the entire Passover meal. The Passover feast is the longest existing celebrated feast year after year in human history. By the time we come to the Passover meal [described in Matthew 26] it had already been going on for thousands of years. It very much had an order to it. Jews call it 'seder'. The word 'seder' means order. Jesus himself told the whole Passover story as the father at the table to all those who were listening. The Passover would have been celebrated around Easter and the table was full of food. What had to be on the Passover table: Unleavened bread, roasted lamb, bitter herbs, parsley… Everything is really symbolic sitting on the table. The Father would pour the wine to everyone at the table then say the opening prayer.

The wine on the table could not be of greater significance. There are four liftings of the cups of wine, which coincide with the promise of God in Exodus 6:6-7.

Cup 1: I will bring you out.
Cup 2: I will deliver you from slavery.
Cup 3: I will redeem you.
Cup 4: I will take you as My people.

Technically: The first cup is for Kiddush, the second for the Exodus, the third for Birkat Hamazon, and the fourth for Hallel.

The next step of Passover is traditionally the washing of the hands Instead of washing the disciples hands, Jesus gets down on his knees and begins to wash their feet. Everything has changed. John 13:6-8 The next step is the asking of the four questions by the youngest child at the table.

How many favors has God bestowed upon us? DAYENU!

Had Jesus had just been born to a virgin, it would not have been enough. Had Jesus caused the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the mute to speak, it would not have been enough. If Jesus had only raised the dead, it would not have been enough. Something had to happen. In those next hours that would answer to the question of, what will be enough?

They begin going back to Psalm 113 to Psalm 118 and read them in antiphony. When they take the bitter herbs, they are acting out the bitterness of slavery. They are going through all of this mourning. Jesus knows he is the lamb.

Luke 22:20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup saying "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." Does it suddenly make sense that the bread was broken?

Jesus broke the bread just like his body would be broken. He takes the third cup and instead of pouring it around to everyone, he pours his own and says take my cup. At the new covenant, Jesus says you have to ingest this. It's the offer of salvation and complete redemption. We don't even know if Jesus sips from the cup. Look at verse 39 in Matthew 26 When Jesus got on that cross, he not only took the cup, he became that cup. When Jesus gets to cup four, he says I will not take of this cup until we take it together in my kingdom. At the end of it, they sung a hymn. We know what the hymn was… The hymn sung was Psalm 118.

"This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it." Jesus is singing to them, all of days is made for this day, all of time is made for this time. Psalm 40 verse 9 says something gloriously significant for us today. "I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart."

The gospel means good news and it is good news… but it's not only good news, it's glad news. Jesus has set us free from all the bondage and depravity and foolishness of our past. Glad always has a reason to it. Glad always has a why. I'm glad because Jesus Christ has saved my scrawny neck. This is the day I will redeem you with an outstretched arm. It is enough. He is enough.

I am glad. God has not just done something good for me. I am glad about it. I am glad God's mercy is anew every single morning. The evil one will not get the last say and I am glad about that. For all those who love God and are called according to his purpose... I am glad about that. Christ will come back and he will claim his kingdom and I am glad about that. There is a world coming where there will be no more bad news, no more crying, no more sickness and no more death and I am glad about that. The Lord has done great things for us and we are glad.

What is glad to us today?

Snapshot taken from Live Stream #Passion 2013

God Wants To Do Immeasurably More In Our Life

Passion Conference 2013 Session 1

If you missed out the First Session of Passion 2013 Conference by Louie Giglio, below is the little sermon note I gathered. God bless.

Louie Giglio started off sharing the vision he caught for Passion Movement back in 1996. His sermon is based on Ezekiel 37:1-14 - The Valley of Dry Bones, centering on the message that God alone can bring life and bring immeasurably more into our life if we believe, setting us free from ALL captivity.

His message (Not complete):

In 1996 I saw a stadium in Korea FILLED with students [on fire for Jesus]. We prayed that God would do that in our generation. Here we are, 16 years later and I'm looking at another stadium, full of 60k people.

We didn't know… we had seen 1,000 students on a Monday night in 1996. That was amazing, but we didn't know what to ask. God just said GO.

God is building a global army.

We wanted [Passion] to be solely focused on the fame, the glory of Jesus Christ.

I believe that God is the God of immeasurably more than what you can ask or imagine.

Let's be honest tonight, many of us came into the door in captivity. Something has a grip on us. When you trace that back there could be events, sure… but at the end of the day it's our foolishness that forgets who God is.

And He asked me (Ezekiel), "Son of man, can these bones live?" Ezekiel answered, "Oh sovereign Lord, you alone know…" ~ The wisest answer. Ezekiel knew the power of God.

Whenever God asks us a question, the best answer is "Oh sovereign Lord, you alone know…”. Do we believe that God can do immeasurably more?

Mark 9:14 is the story of Jesus when he heals a boy possessed by an impure spirit. Insight to this: “Things could be going crazy, but Jesus has an amazing ability to focus in that moment.”

Everything is possible in he who believes. The boy’s father exclaimed, When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit. 'I do believe! He lifted [the boy] to his feet and he stood up.

God, I do believe you can immeasurably more, but help the part of me that doesn't believe. And I think God loves that prayer.

When the Lord appeared to [Ezekiel], he fell down, face down, astounded in the glory of God. So when he was asked the question if these bones can live, he said only you know, Lord. What we want to say in these days is that Jesus is great. There is no one that rivals him in any way. Jesus is coming here, he is speaking, he is posing the question, he is saying do you think I can immeasurably more in your generation? The first thing God said he was going to do was speak the word of God into the death, into the valley, into the dryness. We just want to say keep receiving the word of God. All of us together in the community groups, the same passage of scripture. Here's what he said I'm going to do… I am going to make breath enter you and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you… that's all about repair. God says don't count me out, I can repair. I can make ligaments, I can make skin, I can repair what is gone. You will come to life then you will know that I am the Lord. That is our prayer, that at the end of these days you will be astounded by God. At the end we'll know he did something in our lives that no one else can do. He healed something, repaired something, feed something…

Please speak the word, breath into me, reconnect all this brokenness and I will know that you alone are God. I need you Jesus to come into my valley of dried bones… when Jesus comes it's always true. Jesus come.

People have come in here with chains and addictions, but when Jesus comes the bound go free. When Jesus is on the scene the dead come to life. The gospel moves in action. He who has the son (Jesus) has the life and he who does not have the son does not have life. When you are dead you are hopeless and helpless apart from the intervention of the almighty God. It's not because of Passion. It's because of Jesus that you'll see. The poor in spirit in this house and the nations will be lifted. We're going to fight for justice, we're going to shine a light on modern day slavery. We're going to bring freedom to the 27 million women and men and children trapped in slavery. People are going to be sent. That always happens when Jesus shows up.

When Jesus comes, he sends us out. When Jesus comes, God is glorified. God always gets the glory when Jesus comes. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father. If Jesus is here, then we're going to leave this place and we're going to walk out to live our lives for the glory of God. And it all has to do with the voice of God.

Jesus, we thank you that you are the living word of God. We thank you that you are immortal, invisible, yet word made flesh. You are the living word of God, you speak the word of God. We ask that you would come and speak to everybody in this building. #Passion 2013

Do you think your dreams can live? Do you think your heart can live again? Can the stone in your chest be replaced with a beating heart?

Can you believe in the fact that God believes in you?

Can you be healed of the wounds that have been inflicted on you?

Just say back to Him… you are God. Only you know what you can do, but you are God almighty...

"Here's my heart, Lord. Speak what is true." - David Crowder (Closing)

"Promise maker, promise keeper. You finish what you begin." - Kristian Stanfill (Closing)

Snapshot Live Stream from Georgia Dome