Be Clean

Proverbs 5 talks about adultery. We all well reminded to keep focus and to have one life partner. Everything beyond that will be considered - adulteress. Sex is something holy and marvelous, but only between husband and wife. Premarital sex is well against the Bible's teaching and lot of problems may just creep in. There are the pros of cons of everything. Perhaps the "pro" of premarital sex is having fun and to fulfill desire. But basically they are unwanted before marriage. Reserve the best for your life partner. Do you feel secure and safe when you try to engage in premarital sex or paying a visit to a brothel? But it's totally different when it's in marriage. The difference is - legal and acceptable or not.
The proverbs says, "Let them be yours alone. Never to be shared with strangers... May her breasts satisfy you always... why embrace the bosom of another man's wife?" Proverbs 5:17-20 There should not be third party in a marriage. My advice is, do everything on your wife or husband, but of course with the understanding and willingness from both parties. Enjoy and have fun. Give him or her the love. Lets embrace.
Remember that the wicked man will be disciplined.
Patience. Loyalty. Faithfulness. Love.

Wisdom is Supreme

Proverbs 4 continue to press on the importance of wisdom. Here I would like to point on few verses. "My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to a man's whole body. Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil." Verse 20-27

Our heart is the wellspring of life. Our heart is the dynamo and the source of everything. It leads to our understanding, our thoughts, our action and basically all the aspects of our life. Either being kind, generous, loving or wicked, hatred and so on. All the while what we need to do is just refer to our heart. It triggers everything. Subsequently, put perversity from our mouth. Don't speak in the wicked tongue, being lustful or boasting about blue jokes. It 's because what we say comes from our heart, therefore what we say is just equaled to our action. As we hate our brother, we have committed the sin of killing. Isn't it terrible?

Point to ponder: How can I speak in wisdom?

Untitled

Stronger

There is love that came for us
Humbled to a sinner's cross you broke my shame and sinfuless you rose again victorious

Faithfulness none can deny through the strom and through the fire there is truth that sets me free Jesus Christ who lives in me

You are stronger you are stronger
Sin is broken you have saved me it is written Christ is risen Jesus you are Lord of all

No beginning and no end You're my hope and my defence you came to seek and save the lost you paid it all upon the cross

So let your name be lifted higher
Be lifted higher be lifted higher

You are stronger you are stronger
Sin is broken you have saved me it is written Christ is risen Jesus you are Lord of all

Hillsong

Proverbs 3 and Sunday's Sermon

Proverbs 3 further explains the benefits of wisdom. It’s the continuation from chapter 2. In verse 3, it says that we must bind faithfulness and love around our neck. Oxford dictionary defines “bind” as tie or fasten something tightly together. In short, we must hold on to our faithfulness to him and to love the people around us as how God has loved us.
The favourite verses are verse 5-6. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.” God promises those who follow him and acknowledge with a blessed journey ahead. Making our paths straight doesn’t mean that our life will go on smoothly. We need to remember that by walking through hardships and storms, our relationship with God will be further tightened. The later part of Proverbs 3 tell those who follow His words will be safe, confident and protected against evils. It reminds the readers not to envy a violent man or choose his ways as God detests unrighteous man. The mockers will be mocked but the wise will inherit honor. Again, in real life, possessing wealth and status is not everything. Some people are born with silver spoon but some are born in destitute. We need to pursue our interests in the lawful way and stand in the right paths. Easy money should be despised.

Sunday’s Sermon:
Last Sunday, Pastor Wilson shared about the message “Follow True, Follow Through”. Christians are required to follow the true God, the true teachings as well as follow God through the end of the day. Why do we need to follow Jesus? The reason is simple. It is because Jesus commanded us to follow Him. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24. Secondly, we need to follow Jesus simply because Jesus is the author and perfector of our faith. Refer Hebrew 12:2. We need to fix our eyes of Jesus entirely. Last but not least, we follow Jesus because we live Jesus. Jesus came to this world, was tortured blatantly, nailed and died for each and everyone of us on the cross for no reason but love. In the bible, there was this prostitute who was caught by the people and being brought to see Jesus. According to the law, the prostitute can be stoned to death. The people sought for his advice and Jesus replied, “He who didn’t sin can throw the first stone.” Later, the crowd dispersed gradually. Do you see the love of Christ even when he is faced with adversity to make a judgment?
Secondly, why should we follow true? The first point is that Christians should aim to be Christ-like because we are created according to Christ’s image. Refer Roman 8:29. Besides, God’s intention from the beginning is that we bear His image. Genesis 1:27. When we sincerely determine to follow Him, God will form His image in us eventually.

Point to ponder: Are you seeing the fingerprint of Christ in your life?

We need to follow Jesus example in our daily living. People do not see Jesus today. But they see us everyday. Therefore, it is important for Christians to set a good role model for others, not to stumble them but to radiate Jesus Christ. Titus 2:7-8. It’s time for us to equip ourselves and live a life of testimony so that people can see Christ image in us. When we aspire to be a Christ-like example, I believe that God is moving in our heart. He will mould us into a perfect stone when we are willing to open up our hearts and accept Him to come into our lives.
Perhaps we may shrug it off by saying that we are at Level Zero. It’s not all about our spiritual level but our heart to follow Christ. We need to identify our passion in life to nurture our fellow brothers and sisters and to assist each other in order to implement discipleship in each and everyone of us.

Point to ponder: God wants true disciples. He wants quantity with quality.

In a nut shell, from this day onwards, we should learn how to make disciple just as how we breathe. Our aim is to pass it on and not to keep. Only by our effort and burning passion, there will be more and more disciples of Jesus growing and multiplying.

Point to ponder: Can we give Five more minutes to God everyday?

Proverbs 2

Proverbs Chapter 2 in general is to remind the readers to pay attention and commitment to God’s commandment – be wise. Again, it seems like throughout the whole book of Proverbs since the very beginning, the readers are kept reminded to be wise and to gain wisdom. This emphasizes how crucial, the eagerness and desperation God wants his children to stand in the line of wisdom. In chapter 2, it touches on the moral benefits of possessing wisdom. Not our in-born wisdom, but the wisdom from God. With wisdom, we will be able to discern the right and wrong so that we won’t choose the wrong path. Verse 11, “Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.” Wisdom will separate us from the wicked and devious man.

Imagine you are all by yourself away from home. You are walking pass a red light district. Your temptation creeps in. There is a voice calling you up. “Hey sing hoe, sing hoe, I am just cheap. Come with me and I will give you my love. We will enjoy tonight.” You turn your head around and there is nobody around. You feel the fire burning. You feel the desire to have a late night sex. It’s so enticing… But you hear another voice calling you up, “ My son, don’t be fooled by the prostitute. Watch your path. Listen to me. I am your Father. Those who follow me will bear abundant fruits and I will never forsake him. He will be blessed and so is his generation.” You are struggling. You are losing your ground. Okay, the message that I will like to bring is that it’s not easy to deter or resist temptations. It takes a great great effort to overcome. Perhaps we may say that it is easy. It’s a piece of cake. Well, mind you that when we are proud of ourselves, we are more prone to fall into the devils’ trap. Without wisdom, we are knocking on the road to eternal death.

Therefore, stay away from adulteress. Stay away from pre-marital sex as it’s not what God desires from us. Reserve the best from God until your marriage. Sex is a gift from God that he puts in us. It is something awesome. Man and woman are attracted to each other. It’s the creation of God and it’s wonderful. We shouldn’t blame God for what he has given us, but we should learn how to be the keeper and master of our body and soul.

The bible promises us that those who walk in the ways of good men and kep the paths of the righteous will attain life and live in the promise land while the wicked will be torn off. Last but not least, a point for you guys to ponder:

Can a clever person be wicked?

Proverbs 1:20-33

In previous post, I shared about the importance of fearing God for who he is and be a wise man. Again, in the second part of Proverbs chapter 1, it reminds us of our complacency. Our complacency can actually be a disaster to us and presumably the people around us. We have been constantly reminded to be a knowledgeable person for the fools will destroy us. Well, sometimes we may think that I don’t really trust God can sail me through everything and we tend to depend on our own capability and strength in pursuing something. For example, our studies. Sometimes we may think that, I do well in my subjects because I am clever you know, and I have been revising my homework from time to time. Well, our effort does count but ultimately, everything is in God’s hand. He will give us a mark according to how far we deserve. Very often, I tend to feel jealous for the top students especially those non- Christians. I felt jealous and complained to God how come I laid my 100% trust in you and have been working hard, but my grade is still not as good as them. In the end, I found the key to the answer and have been convincing myself that everything is in God’s hand. He may not give us everything at this moment, but perhaps in the future in our other endeavours. It sounds more like as Christians, we tend to constantly negotiate with God in all the particulars in our daily life. Have we been too demanding?
Throughout this second part of Proverbs, we are told that many of us we remember God only when disaster strikes, calamity overtakes us or when we face challenges and troubles. In that sense, we must not hope for something better or help at once from God. The core issue is we may treat God as an object to achieve something. When we sail on smoothly, we just tend to leave God behind. Therefore, a close relationship with God is extremely important. As the psalmist says, as the deer pants for the water, so my heart pants for you. Prayer is a free give yet the most powerful weapon all Christians are entitled to. It’s free! The only thing is our willingness to spend some quiet moments with God. Share with God whatever things we want, he will listen.
Proverbs also tells us that whoever listens to God will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm. Amen! That is the the promise from God that whoever obey his commandments will be blessed.
It’s time for us to learn not to be calculative with God, not to be too demanding although the passion and the zest for something are important to keep us rolling on. Learn to be faithful and be patient with God. We will discover the hidden blessings from him. His love is all around! Amen!

Proverbs 1:1-19

This is the proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel. The Book of Proverbs is a collection of moral and religious teachings in the form of sayings and proverbs. Much of it has to do with practical, everyday concerns. It begins with the reminder that "To have knowledge, you must first have reverence for the LORD" (1.7), and then goes on to deal with matters not only of religious morality, but also of common sense and good manners. Its many short sayings reveal the insights of ancient Israelite teachers about what a wise person will do in certain situations. Some of these concern family relations, others business dealings. Some deal with matters of etiquette in social relationships, and others with the need for self-control. Much is said about qualities as humility, patience, respect for the poor, and loyalty to friends. (source: http://www.apronus.com/theology/bible_proverbs.htm)

In this Chapter, we especially Christians are constantly reminded to live in justice. We need to learn to observe and understand words of insight so that we will not be easily fooled or misled by others. We are advised to be wise, listen more and talk less. As the saying goes, empty vessels make the most noise. Those who are able to discern and contemplate will be able to understand proverbs, parables and even riddles. The fool will be the one who talks unceasingly yet pointlessly, and being blind with no standing, being easily lured and fooled. The bible says that the fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge, which means when we fear God as in He is superior to us and deep in our heart we respect Him to be the creator of this world, the alpha and omega and many more titles crowned on Him. God will grant us the wisdom, knowledge and acumen to be a wise man of God. On the other hand, the fools look down and despise wisdom and discipline.

Besides, we ought to obey our father’s instruction and mom’s teachings. It’s not saying that whatever commandments from our parents are right and just. As long as their teachings are right and harmless, we are advised to follow. But remember to put God in the first place as our first love. Subsequently, if sinners try to entice us, we must stand firm with what we are holding on to, and never give in. Sometimes it is just too enticing especially when one is after wealth and gold. For example, bribery and under-table money. Something which is extremely enticing and lucrative yet so sinful. Have you ever involved in something sinful due to your own negligence or after being lured by others? Do you feel guilt over it? We are told that the end of the wicked is death. Those whose heart pursuing after ill-gotten gain will lose his life. I would like to share with you my personal experience. It happened during my year back in Inti College, Malaysia. It was this particular Maths Examination where I tried to cheat as I was not fully prepared. It weighed 15% of my semester grade and I just couldn't solve the very 1^st part of the question. Which means – Die as I will not be able to answer the subsequent parts of the question. In wilderness, I turned my head around hoping that I might just “glimpse” at an answer to help me sail through the test. Too bad or perhaps I should say thank God that my lecturer who was standing in front realized! I was telling myself that I gonna flop this exam or even being suspended! The lecturer is a christian as well that made me feel even more shameful and guilty. I was feeling so bad. In the end, the lecturer allowed me to continue to take my test but the top student besides me was being asked to shifted to another table. He was in a cloud of smoke as he did not know what on earth was happening. Since that incident, I sent a message to my lecturer for being so sorry and I believe that God was telling me something. My boy, do your best and walk in the path of just and righteousness. The outcome will be the effort you have poured in. It was a big lesson for me.Where is my testimony as a christian? Ok, that’s about me and myself. Haha. Hope you guys learn not to cheat or be the accomplice.

In short, Proverbs chapter 1 versus 1-19 reminds us to be a wise man, uphold justice and be a man of God. Fear him as the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Be responsible for our action and doings. Take the right path and love righteousness.