20110707: Mal3:16 Book of Remembrance

^{Mal 3: 16}Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.

¹⁷And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

¹⁸Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

Malachi 4:1 Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace

Heb10:24 -25 talks about a time all the more when we see the Day coming - what we needed to do ie To spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Not to give up meeting one another, but to encourage on another.

So indeed as in Mal3:16: Do we fear the Lord? Do we talk to our fellow brothers and sisters in fearing and honouring Him?

Can you imagine that once we do that:-

1. We will be remembered in His scroll of remembrance

2. We will be His possession

3. We will be spared

In this darkened days of our society, we may see the unleashing of the devilish things around us. They are coming at us in ferociously with great intensity. Even S'pore NDP committee endorsed and adapted Lady Gaga Bad Romance for the NDP 2011 song. So what more can we say about the spiritual climate over our nation?

We see a distinction between the righteous and the wicked. Those who serve God and those who do not.

Heb10:23 exhorts us to hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Yes He is faithful

Take heart all the arrogant and every doer will be stubbled, set on fire. But for thsoe who revere His name , the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And we will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Then we will trample down the wicked. and they will be ashes under the soles of our feet.

Persevere. Pray unceasingly. Pass out not.

20110704-"Prayers need faith ,otherwise no effect?"

Yesterday, my sister sent me a sms which says "Payers need faith, otherwise no effect". Many years ago, she challenged that unless God appears to her in front , she will never believe.

That sms was in response to my earlier sms regarding a prayer for her arthritic painful hands.

It left me in deep thoughts.

Didn't the scripture in Matt 17:20 say " And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you" I prefer the KJV to the NIV. The latter " because you have so little faith..."

Didn't Heb 11:6 say "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." ?

In the book "Growing Deep in Faith" By Edmund Chan: Quote" A strong faith is not the domain of super Christians, but is simple and accessible to everyone - BECAUSE FAITH IS NOT ABOUT US, FAITH IS ALL ABOUT GOD! (Italics mine) . Such faith looks up to God and seeing Him for who He is, rises above the trials and vicissitudes ( this chim word means 'changes") of life.

NOT DIMINUTIVENESS BUT DEFECTIVENESS OF FAITH:

He added on the point out something that many believers had it all wrong, not just my sister who does not know Him yet. Unbelief or so little faith? Many of us would have similar thoughts " Oh yes the issue is that we did not have enough faith. If only we had more faith!" Paraphrased of Matt 17:20... " You totally missed it guys. It is not about the size of your faith. Truly I say to you, if you had real, God-inspired faith - even if it were as small a a mustard seed- you could move mountains!"

The central issue was faith. Faith is the currency of heaven. Faith taps into the power of God. Faith pleases God. Heb 11:6. So my sister is partly right in her saying so.

But she also had it half wrong.

OUR FOCUS: BIG MOUNTAIN OR THE MIGHTY GOD?

Size isn't everything. It is not about the size of our faith. Nor was it about the size of the mountain (whatever your problem is). Why? Because God outsized it all!

My sister was half right only. Even for us who are believers, we often inclined to operate on a faith that depends on our feelings - feelings about how 'strong' or how 'weak' our faith is -rather than based on a child-like faith dependent upon how might and how faithful God is. It is not about the greatness of our faith but the greatness of our God that ultimately matters.

Conclusion?

Bid God small problems. Small God BIG PROBLEMS! What kind of God do we truly worship? A BIG BIG GOD!, so what's the problem?

Faith is RISK. Yes, to my dear sister - plunge in and take that step of risk or faith. It is definitely worth it. Turn from fear to faith. To learn to swim one has to jump into the water. Without water, you cannot swim. Just like faith - without faith , we cannot please Him. That sms - half correct...need another 50% to complete it...almost got it! F-A-I-T-H - Forsaken All I Trust Him - it is whom we trust not how we trust.

Beautiful song" There is no problem too big God cannot solve it"

http://youtu.be/BOZKc8CyaaQ

Quotes: extracted from "Growing deeper in faith". A book worth reading. (Available at Covenant Evangelical Free Church, Singapore)

20110701 Awesome ladder rainbow (Australia) Amazing sunset (UK)

Both photos taken in June 2011! One sunset in SW England, UK and the other sunrise with a ladder-like rainbow in Perth, Australia! Compliments from 2 friends who shared these awesome SPLENDID pictures!

Psalm 148:13

"LET THEM PRAISE THE NAME OF THE LORD, FOR HIS NAME ALONE IS EXALTED; HIS SPLENDOR IS ABOVE THE EARTH AND THE HEAVENS."

Breathtaking , isn't it?

Psalm 150:

"LET EVERYTHING THAT HAS BREATH PRAISE THE LORD"

HALLELUJAH! PTL!

20110630 ; AWAKENING III : Gen 2:2-3 Rested vs Restless

Gen 2:2 -3 "By the 7th day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the 7th day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the 7th day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done"

The Lord works too! He rested on the 7th day!

He created 24 hours in a day. 1/3 of it goes into slumberland.

2/3 goes into the normal routine toil of life.

King Solomon in his opening of the book of Ecclesiastes lamented that "Everything is meaningless" "Is there anything of which one can say , "Look! There is something new!"

The spirit man in us tend to wander and become restless or bored at one point or another in life. Mundane routine of life sets in leading to the question of what is the meaning of life? Sometimes even after awakening from the night's sleep, we just do not seem to feel 'rested'. Ever felt this way?

God is in the business of PRO-CREATION - we need to find new ways of creating new challenges to keep us from 'demented'

He is also the director of RECREATION - we need to take time out to have our hobbies and sports activities.

The 2 bottles of beers and the tennis balls - we just ended our 3rd Sommerville Open Tennis last week. We give thanks to the Lord for great weather, food , fun and fantastic fellowship!

So there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven (Ecc 3)

We may eat and drink and find satisfaction in all our toil - for this is the gift of God.

Man's fate is like animals, we have no advantage over the animal -all has the same breath.

All go to the same place, all come from dust and to dust all return.

So it is better for man to enjoy his work because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?

A little poem in prayer.....

Rested and restful in His arms

Come Lord Jesus tame this fleeting heart in your palm

Restless and slumber not my soul

Come Holy Spirit awaken my spirit & make me whole

Remind me to fear my Creator God

To keep His commandments I daily sought

With all that I have and am, praise the Lord!

20110621: Awakening II: Rom13:11 HIgh time to awake out of sleep

Rom13:

¹¹And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

¹²The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

¹³Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

¹⁴But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

When the subject was stressed twice in 2 days, guess it was a time of deeper reflection. The above verse and topic of aWaKeNing was preached on 19/6 , a day after I blogged my own "awakening".

My continuation of Tick Tock Tick Tock thoughts.

Who invented the Clock?

Many types of clocks are in use today. Each kind has its own inventor and history. Ancient peoples had other ways to tell time.

1.The Egyptians invented the obelisk. Its shadow was used to mark the hours of the day. This was a type of sundial.

2.Another kind of clock was the water clock. Different models of water clocks existed. The oldest was a vessel with a hole at the bottom. The vessel was filled with water and it would pour out at a constant rate.

3. The first accurate, modern clock was the pendulum clock. It was invented in 1656 by a Dutch scientist, Christian Huygens..

4. The pendulum went out of vogue when the quartz clock ticked in. The quartz clock was the invention of a Canadian engineer, Warren Marrison. He discovered he could use quartz crystals’ vibration in an electric circuit to be able to accurately tell time. It became the standard timekeeping device from the 1930s onward.

Astronomical Calendars

When men looked up at the sky, they noticed that the sun, moon, stars and other heavenly bodies moved in cycles. This allowed them to tell time.

Nobody actually knows the reason why the day was split into 12 hours and each hour split into 60 minutes and then each minute into 60 seconds. The best guess is that it was the Babylonians who worked out that there were 12 full moons in a year which gave them a 360 day year. They also knew the relationship between the radius of a circle and its circumference, which split the circle into six segments. Dividing this by two gave them 12 segments, which also fitted well with their religious beliefs that the number 12 had some kind of special significance. [Twelve is a perfect number, signifying perfection of government, or of governmental perfection. It is found as a multiple in all that has to do with rule. The sun which "rules" the day, and the moon and stars which "govern" the night, do so by their passage through the twelve signs of the Zodiac which completes the great circle of the heavens of 360 (12 x 30) degrees or divisions, and thus govern the year.]

The Sumerians used a solar calendar with 30-day long months and 12 periods in each day. The famous Stonehenge in Britain was an ancient timekeeping monument. It marked various astronomical and seasonal events like eclipses, equinoxes, etc.

The Egyptians first used a lunar calendar, just as the Chinese did. Later the Egyptians invented a 365-day solar year based on when the Dog Star Sirius would rise near the sun. The Mayans had a very accurate calendar too. They used not only the sun and moon, but also the planet Venus.

BACK TO BASICS

Going back in time. Who invented the clock? We can say that perhaps it is the SUN?

Well, if that's the case, we will have to go back to Genesis, the very first book in the Bible. In fact, the first thing God did was the invention of light. He spoke into being "Let there be light" He was the source of separation of the light from the darkness. He called the light "day" and the darkness "night" Later in verse 14, he was the MASTERMIND of the seasons , days and years. He made the two greats lights - the greater light to govern the day -sun, and the lesser light to govern the night - moon. He also made the stars.

Got it???

Reflections

"Knowing" the time or "understanding" the time is therefore critical.

We each have 24 hours a day to utilise. Of which 8 hours are taken up by "SLEEP"

We can only work mainly in the day - and when nightfalls, we take our rest (unless one is a graveyard shift worker).

How we prioritise our time is thus important. It is not that we "have no time" but rather "how we view what is more important to our heart to make time for"

Time lost cannot be regained or turned back.

What goes on in the physical realm is the same for the spiritual. One can be in spiritual slumber even when one is physically awake.

Conclusion

Rom13:11 The hour has come for us to wake up from our slumber (NIV)

or it is HIGH TIME to awake out of sleep (KJV)

We pray :

Psalms90:12 "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom"

The preacher James Goll who preached on Sunday, quote" Yesterday's dreams about your tomorrow is your today's opportunity". How apt.

We serve Yahweh who knows the past, the present and the future.

The present is TODAY.

Live wisely.

20110618 Eternal God - Names of God

When external circumstances does not seem rosy, it is always good to remember His Name, His character, His Holiness

20110606: Awakening I: Matt25:5

The clock is ticking. Tick tock . Tick Tock.

Matt 25:5 "When the bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep"

The clock never sleeps or stops ticking. Unless, the battery is dead or a disaster struck like the earthquake or tsunami where the clocks tell of the precise time the calamity hit.

But sometimes the clock does slow down due to the ending of a battery life.

So the clock ticks and tocks whether we are awake or asleep.

Our life is liken to the battery of the clock. When we are born, we started with a brand new AAA battery. But as time goes, the battery life gets drained off. Inevitably, we had to slow down. Then we expire.

Just before Matt 25 the parable of the ten virgins, the preceding chapter Matt24:36"No One knows about the day or hour, not even the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father." V42 "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know what day your Lord will come"

On 16/6/2011, the moon turned red. Some thought it was a sign from Rev 6:12 the 6th seal.

Similarly this week, Christchurch in New Zealand was struck by a second earthquake in 4 months. She was barely recovering from the earlier one.

Coincidentally, the city is named "CHRISTCHURCH". Interesting. Is that an ALARM Clock ringing? RRRRrrrrrrringgg! RRRRRrrrriinnng! Twice! Wake up?

The parable of the ten virgins is written about believers. Jesus being the bridegroom coming for his bride - the church. Are we in slumber? Have we fallen asleep? Are we ready? Are we prepared? Have we kept watch?

And God is just. All of us are given the same AAA battery. Just that we fit into different clocks. But we serve the same purpose - Clocks serve to tell time. We serve to worship God on earth. But we do not know when we expire. Only God knows. So we choose to live wisely, knowing the heart of God, like the parable of the talents that follow after the parable of the ten virgins.

Awakening. A beautiful song to remind us to awaken our soul. To be passionate about Christ who is coming again. Love God Hate Sin Win Multitudes.

The 3AAA Battery

1. Awaken in the spirit?

2. Aligned to Watch events unfolding in the sands of time around the clock and globe?

3. Arose to Pray His heartbeat?

Be energized for HIM!