UPDATE

Well….I must apologize for such a long silence. There’s really no reason to it except that I was not very motivated this past 2 months, plus a lot of planning to do for the next 4 months, plus lessons that I needed to prepare, plus my external drive that contains all my works got screwed up with no backup at all, plus my car went through major repair that cost me a bomb financially, plus laziness. Well…really there’s no reason to it!

Let me just give a little update of my life for the last 2 months:

1. My weight before I went on a strict diet and exercise was 102 kg but now I weigh 94 kg Well…I still have 14 kg to shed!!

2. I celebrated my birthday with my family enjoying a wonderful dinner prepared by their mum and me eating a small piece of grilled chicken breast and a piece of bread and vegetables! Ha ha

3. I took my wife and family to a Korean Restaurant to celebrate my wife’s birthday. It was a great dinner and costly too!

4. I have been given a new position in the church – Executive Pastor over all the English Churches (Island & Mainland). The task seems daunting. Besides that I am still overseeing the Equipping and Mission of the Church. I pray that I can cope with the new role.

5. I attended Plan09 in Malacca – a Youth Mission Conference. It was wonderful, awesome, and great. I enjoyed it. I met YB Hannah Yeoh – Assemblyman for Subang Jaya, Selangor. I was encouraged!

6. I am reading books on Justice, Human Rights, and Ethics. It’s really awesome.

Well…that’s about all that I can write at this point of time. God bless

What Is Intimacy and/or Christian Spirituality?

I have been thinking about the whole question of intimacy with God, having a vital relationship with the Lord. What is it? How can one experiences it and knows that and be changed by that? There have been many people talking about walking close with God. Has it got to do with more praying, more worship time, and more reading of God’s Word? Some talk of intimacy like Adam “knew” Eve – such close proximity as of one making love to his wife. How do we come to that kind of “knowing” with God in our relationship. Yes…it is the ideal place to be in BUT HOW, HOW, HOW?

It can be very frustrating trying to wrestle through such abstract conscept which at the same time is also within one’s grasp experiencially. It is definitely NOT illusional but almost paradoxical to even attempt to explain how it works. That’s what I am wrestling with nowadays. Like I said in my earlier blog entries I am on a new journey of faith NOT in finding God but in reality in finding myself so that I could be properly related to God in my relationship with Him.

There are many things that are going on in my mind and in my heart. I am suddenly more aware of my need for God as never before. I am suddenly more aware that after being a christian for the last 39 years to realize that I have yet to know God, to know my Father in heaven – my daddy God. I thought I had gone through a lot of grinding, stripping, testing, and spiritual wilderness in my life just to realize that I am only taking a baby step in the journey of brokenness – “fellowship of his suffering.”

Well….perhaps intimacy has a lot to do with brokenness!!

An Epistemological Somersault

For whatever reason I found myself reading my blog entries in January this year. On January 21 I wrote “Can Losing Weigh be Part of a Christian’s Spirituality?” and the next day (the next entry) I wrote “An Epistemological Delimma.” In those two entries I was trying to rationalize my struggle in losing weight. I argued that knowing the need to lose weight is not enough a motivation even if that knowledge is critical. It takes one to know God who holds our life in His hand – a knowledge that gives one a clear understanding of what it means to live a life that is right in His sight.

Amazing! Months later I woke up with a sharp pain in my right leg and I knew I had gout. Well…I went to see a doctor and took some medication. Within two days the pain is gone and life can go back to normal. Yes? No…in fact, I suddenly felt that I should live my life with better stewardship than I have been thus far. It never dawn upon me that that thought would spark a new journey in my life of faith.

It has been about 6 weeks now that I have completely changed my lifestyle – eat only 1/3 of what I normally eat, sleep early, go to the gym or take a walk with my children, do not overwork in front of the computer anymore, and drink lots of water. I spend more time in personal devotion and prayer. I try not to get easily upset and angry but smile a lot more. Amazing how I came to this conclusion!

Anyway there is still a long way to go for me and I would be lying if I said it has been easy. It is not but I am not giving up except all the tasty hawker food like hokkien mee, char koay teow, beef, mutton, etc. etc. Oh….what’s going on. Before I started on my lifestyle change I weigh 102 kg and now (after 6 weeks) I weigh 97 kg. My gym couch keeps my body weight.

I have to tell you it is not knowing I need to lose weight that motivated me to change my lifestyle. It has to be the hand of the Lord. It is trully a part of my christian spirituality.

God Is Good

In my last post I mentioned about starting a strict regimen in food intake and exercise for my health sake. Praise God I am still on it. In fact I have gone to the gym. My wife paid for my gym exercise last September but I never step foot into the gym until two weeks ago. It’s really a miracle. But after two weeks and a few rounds of exercises I felt good. It is not as difficult as I thought it would be. I am glad I have lost 2 kgs so far. I need to shed at least 18 more kgs. Oh….God help!!

I am learning to relax and de-stressed myself. I am learning to sleep early. Tonight I have broken that. I should be asleep by 12 the latest. It’s 12.50 am now. After this entry i will go to sleep. Promise. There are many things that i deliberate do that I normally drag doing; (1) I sleep early, (2) I ate 1/3 my normal intake, (3) I go to the gym, (4) I attend prayer meetings, (5) I work less unless it’s necessary, (6) I spent more time with my children, and (7) I enjoy serving God – no more complaint!

Well…that’s all for now. Bye

Something Hit Me Real Hard

I have been avoiding talks on dieting, losing weight, and what not. I often try to justify by giving my two-cents worth about the fact that stress is the culprit and I am not one who is easily stressed out. I have been living in denial for quite sometime now until last week. I work up with a terrible pain in my heels. Guess what? It’s gout! I went to see the doctor for some painkiller. Besides that he took my blood pressure and found that I had a rather high bp. I have been saying to myself that I have no high bp to be humbled  that I indeed do have. I was overweight and I have not been exercising at all.

Well to cut the long story short, the doctor said that I need to have a drastic lifestyle change. For the last 5 days I finally started exercise, cut my food intake to 1/3 of my normal daily intake, drink a lot of water and sleep early – like 11 pm – 12 am instead of the regular 3 am. The physical is just one aspect but the Lord has been really on me lately too. I was struggling. I was challenged in many things. I had to fight through stress in my ministry, in the home (more like responsibility), and in my personal discipline. Please pray for me.  It had never been so tough for me. I had taken life quite easily until now.

What is God saying in all of this? I found myself praying more and taking a step back to reflect on my life and ministry. I found that I have come to a place that I don’t want to serve just because I have the time or I make time to serve. I want to take a serious step back – pray more and seek His face. Of course, my colleagues will think otherwise. They think I am one person who does like to pray. How wrong can they be? I just don’t like too much of corporate prayer unless there is a specific purpose. But generally I do pray. For now it has increased even more. I am not just a brain person – most of time being accused of it – but I am sentimental, romantic, and passionate in my relationship with God. Well, some people will not understand that for sure.

Please pray that I will continue in my strict regimen to cut down my weight, bring down my blood pressure and pray even more. I need God’s intervention.

Store Up the Word of God

The scripture is very explicit when it records that the way to prevent ourselves from sinning against God is to store up the Word of God in our hearts. Storing up the Word of God in our hearts would also stop us from wandering away from the commandments of the Lord. Now that is simple enough to understand its implication. It is simple enough for us to take note of. But the problem so often is not in knowing the need to store up the Word of God in our hearts. It is rather what do we mean by storing up the Word of God? How do we store the Word of God in our hearts?

The Sunday School song “read your bible, pray everyday and you’ll grow, grow, grow” is too simplistic. I believe it takes time, effort, and certainly discipline to store up the Word of God in our hearts. Let us just consider the words of Paul to Timothy about “instruction in righteousness.” What do we understand by the word “instruction,” “education,” and “training” in righteousness? Let me make a suggestion here: there can be no instruction, education, and training that bypass the faculty of the mind. So storing up the Word of God in our hearts comes through being instructed in God’s Word. This instruction is gaining knowledge in our mental faculty thus becoming the resource where the Holy Spirit can translate it into our everyday reality!

“Instructing” and “educating” requires learning and studying over time with effort and discipline. We need to study the Word of God. We need to spend time gaining knowledge of God that will bring understanding. I believe that when we do all the studying and learning it is a process of storing up the Word of God in our hearts. It is understanding that will help us to remember – to keep the Word stored up in us.

Consider with me: How could we pray and intercede intelligently and according to the will of God unless we have the Word of God stored up within us? How could we share the gospel with others if there is no understanding of the message of the gospel? How could we give the answer of the hope that is in us if there is nothing within us to give? Let us not despise the careful study of the Word of God. There are a few things to consider very carefully when we study God’s Word.

First, it is more than reading the bible through the year although that is important.

Second, it is more than a devotional approach to God’s Word – a word a day keeps the devil away – although that is important.

Third, it is more than memorizing all the promises of God so that we can draw it out of the chest-box whenever we need though scripture memorization is critically important.

I believe we need to DIG deeply into the Word of God so that we can be theologically sound with a biblical worldview and a truly Christian mind.

Consider Jesus and His temptation in the wilderness. On three occasions the devil tempted Him by telling Him half-truths and part-truths. Jesus was able to detect the sinister motivation of the devil and His response on all occasions was “it is written.” I believe Jesus did not mechanically quote the scriptures. He did not quote the Scriptures just because it is there in God’s Word. I believe He quoted the appropriate text because He understood the meaning, the implication, and the meaning of the text. The Word of God was the sword of the Spirit in the hands of Jesus wielding at the lies of the devil at an appropriate time.

A Break from the Series on Word of God

I know that I have not been blogging for the past one month except uploading the weekly devotion that I did for the church. I have been doing a lot of things but nothing really significance. But I did spent enough time to write articles for INTERFACE, the in-house teaching journal for the church. You can request for it if you want. Write to me at hclin58@gmail.com. I have been doing a lot of re-writing of my sermons into articles. I have completed my first manual entitled: Christian Living in a Changing World, Part I. Some of the articles have been printed in INTERFACE.

I guess my favorite past-time now is to prepare sermons and then turn them into an article for readers who are interested in what I had to say or the insights that I had gleaned from the Bible. The other thing that I am so preoccupied with is to record all my life experiences – good and bad – in writing. I am trying to write the story of my life – not so much as an autobiography – but more so as to preserve it as a legacy for my children. Some of the valuable lessons in life do not come the second time. It should not, especially the ones that brought along pain!!

I will be embarking on my third project in writing a daily devotion. This time Pastor Cheng Kin and myself would be writing a daily devotion based on the Gospel of Luke highlighting on the Life and Ministry of Jesus. I hope we would be able to that. We have only two months to complete the job. It is an ambitious project BUT I think it will worth it all since there will be people who will benefit from the devotional readings. We hope to do a better job.

Well….that’s about all that is happening in my world!! Adious…and God bless.

The Word of God Proves True

Psalm 119 has been an encouraging Psalm that has brought tremendous joy and hope to my life. I have been taking the time to meditate on this passage. What was so encouraging has been the opening of my understanding to see the wonderful relationship between the Word of God and the abundant life that is promised by Jesus! In Psalm 119:73-80, I can sum up THREE ATTRIBUTES of my Father God as firmly stated in the Word of God. It is when I hope in God’s Word that I experience the nature of God in the everyday activities of my life.

First attribute of God is His Faithfulness. The Psalmist recorded that He fashioned and made us. He gave us understanding so that we can know His commandments. Even when He afflicts us He is showing forth His faithfulness. In Hebrews 12:7 we are told that He only disciplined us because He considered us as His children. We are not illegitimate. We are told from God’s Word in 2^nd Timothy 2:13 that when we are faithless, He remains faithful – for He cannot deny Himself.

Second attribute of God is His Steadfast Love. The steadfast love of the Lord comforts us according to His promises NOT according to our goodness. It is the forbearance of God that leads us to repentance. It is His goodness and steadfast love that leads us to the place of God’s forgiveness.

Third attribute of God is His Mercy. It is in His mercy that we are not consumed but receive life instead. His mercy never comes to an end. It is in His mercy that we did not receive what we deserve, that is, damnation due to sin. The insolent will be put to shame but for us who fear His name He will lift up our heads and we will not be put to shame. His mercy endures forever!

In Lamentations 3:22-23 we read of the same three attribute as mentioned in Psalm 119:73-80: “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (1) The faithfulness of the Lord is great even when we are faithless. (2) The steadfast love of the Lord is forever available. (3) The mercy of the Lord never comes to an end but is new every morning.

The Word of God proves true (Psalm 18:30) because His way is perfect. He is truly a shield to all who knows how to run to Him and hide in His faithfulness, His steadfast love, and His mercy. I have personally experienced on numerous occasions the faithfulness of God in my life and in my family. I must say that I have been more faithless in more ways than one and yet God remains faithful and merciful. I truly felt His steadfast love even though I don’t deserve it many times. I know I have failed Him many times. I have been found to be disobedient, to be rebellious, and have acted independently of God yet He had never left me nor forsaken me.

I remember vividly one night I took a stroll on a lonely road being upset and angry with myself. I was still in my teens. I had tried to walk uprightly before Him. I had tried to be a good Christian BUT I kept failing so often. I was struggling through some personal issues and I felt that I cannot be spiritual, cannot be a good Christian and that obeying the commandments of the Lord was almost impossible. So on that lonely night I spoke honestly to God. I told Him that I cannot give up knowing that He is real but I cannot live as a Christian because I cannot please Him at all. I was devastated. I was ashamed. I was defeated. I was feeling ashamed and full of guilt and condemnation. After I had poured out everything to Him, almost immediately, I felt His presence and I felt His love. I experienced that very night the love and mercy of God. It was almost like God saying to me that He understood my struggle and if I were to let Him help He will give me the strength. Praise God! His Word proves true. His way is perfect. He is my fortress and my shield.

The Living and Active Word

God’s Word is living power! The Word of God, written and spoken by His Spirit is living and most prevailing, authoritative, and impacting. It is not something that is leftover or in the past, or dead. It is active and penetrating. It is powerful, commanding, and active; it is the force of His will and the gentleness of His rest, and it is open for us to read and adhere to. His Word is the Bible and it is full of power. His Spirit lives in and within its precepts and pages and uses it to use us for Him.

His Word is sharper than the sharpest knife or any instrument of war or cutlery. No tool of man can ever be as penetrating and as useful to open or to divide, display or to mend, to reveal, or to lead as His Word. His written principles will open us up; they will go deep, penetrating us in our innermost areas, revealing all there is and more. God’s love, plan, and Word will cut deep into our lives and will. There are no desires, thoughts, plans, or ideas that are not open to God; there are no deeds He does not know about and no place where we can go to hide from His love or His plan. He will expose us, our sin, and who we really are, and let us know what we can be. He is here with His arms of love and rest, with a plan of hope and a life worth living now and forever more. We can’t hide from His Word or plan, as we are naked before Him. Thus, allow your will to be surrendered to Him, and choose His Way before your way. Know and cling to Him deeply; allow His touch of love to move and shape you. For one day, our time will be up on this earth and we will have to give an account for what we have done with what He has given, how we have allowed His Tool to cut, form, and shape us. Have we let Him form us or have we lived a life of emptiness, selfishness and thus wasted time living for ourselves and ignoring Him? Are we immersed with the rotten fruit of the flesh or infused with His Fruit to be and live a fruitful life?

(Quoted from Dr. Richard J. Krejcir, “Into Thy Word”

http://www.intothyword.org/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=42466&columnid=3803)

Reflection on Psalm 119:89-96 brings up the following thoughts:

1. The Word of God is Firmly Fixed as Seen in His Creation. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast. By your appointment they stand this day, for all things are your servants. (Verse 90, 91).
2. The Word of God is Firmly Fixed as Seen in His Covenant. If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life. I am yours; save me, for I have sought your precepts. The wicked lie in wait to destroy me, but I consider your testimonies.(Verses 92-95).
3. The Word of God is Firmly Fixed as Seen in His Commandment. I have seen a limit to all perfection, but your commandment is exceedingly broad (Verse 96).

Profitable, Competent & Equipped

Paul’s mandate is for us to remain faithful to the Holy Scriptures. It is supremely valuable for our life of faith. TWO REASONS were given:
First, all scripture is absolutely trustworthy; it is the inspiration of God, it is God-breathed. Peter said that men wrote the Holy Scriptures as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:21). In Proverbs 30:5 we are told that every Word of God is pure – is trustworthy. Check out Psalm 19:7-9 – The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.

Second, all scripture is spiritually profitable. Paul lists FOUR different functions of the word of God with each having a contribution toward spiritual profit in our lives. (a) He said to young Timothy that the Word of God is profitable for doctrine. The CONTENT of God’s Word is important and profitable. The Word is our light to life, unto which we’ll do well to take heed as a light that shines in a dark place.” (2 Peter 1:19) It instructs us as a master-teacher, showing us the path of life. (b) The Word of God is profitable for reproof. We can call that CONVICTION – to rebuke another, with such effectual wielding of the victorious arms of truth, and to bring him, if not always to a confession, yet at least to a conviction of sin. (c) The Word of God is profitable for CORRECTION – restore to an upright state. (d) The Word of God is profitable for CHARACTER building – instruction in righteousness. The Word of God was not given simply to increase our knowledge but mostly to infect our character and conduct.

So what is the intended purpose of Word of God for us? Well, Paul said “that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work (1^st Timothy 3:17). When we break these words of Paul into simple and logical fashion he had this to say about the intended purpose of God’s Word in our lives: (a) COMPETENT – fit, sufficient, complete, and able to meet all the demands. The full counsel of God’s Word enables the man of God to meet all demands which may be required of him. (b) EQUIPPED. Another translation said “thoroughly equipped” – completely outfitted, fully furnished or supplied.

Note that all this is for every good work – not many, or most but every good work! This verse is crucial for determining how to find God’s will for our individual life. Man is to live “by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4) and the Great Commission involves “…teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you…” When we leave God’s Word aside and seek to determine His will through other means, then we are turning our backs on Him before He has finished speaking to us!

The Psalmist (Psalms 119:105-112) gave us some of the purpose of God’s Word. First, God’s Word is a lamp unto our feet – enough to show you where your next step should be without stumbling – and a light unto your path – enough to give you the assurance that you are going on a right path. Second, when we are down and out, severely afflicted, the Word of God will give us life; will give us comfort and hope. Third, the Word of God will keep US from the snare of the evil one – keep us away from falling into deception. Fourth, the Word of God will bring joy as we come to understand the testimonies of the unfailing Word of God.