Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Finding Fault...


Toyota Motor Corporation, commonly known as Toyota, is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan and is currently the world's largest carmaker.

Toyota is also one of the largest companies to push the hybrid vehicles in the market and the first to commercialize such vehicles, an example being the Toyota Prius, their innovative model which combine an internal combustion engine with electric motor. Toyota eventually began providing this option on the main smaller cars such as Camry and later with the Lexus divisions, producing some hybrid luxury vehicles. It labeled such technology in Toyota cars as "Hybrid Synergy Drive" and in Lexus versions as "Lexus Hybrid Drive."

The Prius has become the top selling hybrid car in America, and Toyota, as a brand, now has three hybrid vehicles in its lineup: the Prius, Highlander, and Camry.

During the recent embarrassment for the world's largest carmaker which was triggered by complaints about their faulty accelerator and braking system. The fault, which causes the car to accelerate, has also proved deadly, leading to the death of an American family whose luxury Lexus vehicle allegedly sped out of control. The brake problem also affects the petrol-electric Priuses that were sold in the US and Japan. Drivers there have complained of a short delay before the brakes kick in.

In respond to these complaints, Toyota “found fault” with the accelerator pedals and braking system and responded with recall exercise to fix the accelerator pedals and brake system. Approximately, Toyota announced recalls of 8 million cars around the world because of the sticky accelerator pedals and braking system…

If you own one of these cars, there are faults hidden in those two pedals under your feet… and is life threatening. I don’t think a person with a sound mind would reject this recall exercise.

If you own such a car, will you refuse to respond to the manufacturer’s recall exercise…?

Apostle Paul, one of the greatest “agent” of the Creator of this universal, reminded us the believers, times over times in his different epistles that the ministry that is engraved in letter on stone is a ministry of death. The Creator of this universal Himself had found fault with this weak and useless covenant, for the law made nothing perfect. He Himself had made an open statement through His prophets on why he had found fault with this old covenant….

Nevertheless, if the first covenant with God had been all right, there would not have been any need for another one. But the Lord found fault with it and said,

"I tell you the time will come, when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and the people of Judah. It won't be like the agreement that I made with their ancestors, when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. They broke their agreement with me, and I stopped caring about them! "But now I tell the people of Israel this is my new agreement: `The time will come when I, the Lord, will write my laws on their minds and hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. Not one of them will have to teach another to know me, their Lord.'  "All of them will know me, no matter who they are. I will treat them with kindness, even though they are wicked.  I will forget their sins."

When the Lord talks about a new covenant, he means that the first one is out of date. And anything that is old, outdated and useless had disappeared.

The recent recall exercise by Toyota is to replace the sticky accelerator pedals and to rectify the braking system. Two thousand years ago, the Creator of this universal, found fault with this weak and useless regulations that He made with the Israel people. Through His one and only Begotten Son, and at the cross, He implemented the recall exercise to reconcile this sinful world with Himself.

Through that recall exercise, the Creator of this universal had written His laws, the law of the Spirit of life, on our minds and our hearts. He had become our God, and we had become His people. Not one of us will have to teach one another to know Him, our Lord. All of us will know Him, no matter who we are. He treats us with lovingkindness, even though we are wicked, for He remembers our sins no more!

Have you responded to His recall exercise… or are you still holding on to the law of sin and death?

Monday, February 22, 2010

You Saw Me




You Saw Me - Hillsong United

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Tiger Onitsuka





Have a Blessed Chinese New Year
(The Year of Tiger)!
祝您新年蒙恩, 五福临门!


My Tiger Onitsuka




Norman's Tiger Onitsuka


We were blessed with these two pairs of Tiger Onitsuka for the price of one. Tiger Onitsuka for the year of Tiger...eh? Wow... what a sign and wonder when the Good News is preached!

Well, we wish you all a very blessed Chinese New Year and may grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Jesus, Our Valentine!


In the Jewish marriage custom, before a man can marry the woman he loves, he needs to demonstrate the extent of his love and commitment to his bride-to-be. He would have to come to the woman’s house with his father who then would negotiate the price of this marriage. Very often, the bride parents would ask for a high price for she is precious to her family. Ha-ha... verily I say onto you, this Jewish custom is quite similar to our Chinese custom. The bride parents would demand a high price which at least would cause the bridegroom some "pain". (Remember because of us, Jesus had paid a heavenly price and died a painful and shameful death at the cross).

When the agreement is made, the man would then take a cup of wine with him and approach the bride-to-be personally. This wine is a symbol of his love and commitment to the woman. The presentation of wine in a cup is a gesture of saying to his bride-to-be: “I am pouring out my life for you just as this wine is being poured out. I love you so much that this cup is a covenant that I will give my life to you.” Smiling and deeply persuaded, the bride would accept the cup and drink from it as if she is saying, “I accept your love and I am willing to enter into this covenant with you for the rest of my life.”

Is this similar to what we are doing every Sunday during service? He ordained holy communion so that we can do this often in remembrance of Him. 

Custom be it of the Jewish or Chinese origin, are pointers to a more glorious and profound love demonstrated by the Trinity God. During Jesus’ ministry and being a Jew Himself, He lived among Jewish community and offered the same wine of love to His disciples… There were at least three occasions that He celebrated the festival of the Passover with His disciples. But on the night before he died on the cross, He took a cup of wine, offered it to each and every one of them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” 

Wow… being a gang of law abiding Jews at that time, how could this gesture escaped the minds of these disciples that what their Master offered them was something which could only be done by a groom to his future bride!

Jesus is indeed our Valentine. This same Jesus is offering the same love to us today. To demonstrate His love and commitment towards us, He had gone to the extent of hanging Himself on that cross at Calvary and set us freed from all our nonsense that lead us to our empty and meaningless life. He Himself demonstrated this love not only by offering us the cup but also through the breaking of bread, before inviting us to enter into His everlasting romantic covenant. 

To respond to His glorious love, we just simply need to be persuaded, smile and partake of  the cup in remembrance of His love and what He has done for us. Anything apart from the response like a bride is religion, not relationship. Therefore, confession of our sins before communion is indeed religious and self righteous!

Friday, February 05, 2010

Glory and Honor


What is this man that our heavenly Father is mindful of him, And the son of man that He visit him? For He had made this man a little lower than the angels, and He had crowned him with glory and honour. But ever since this man, Adam sinned; all man after him had fallen short of the glory of God. The glory that enveloped man had been forfeited. Ever since man first acquire on the art of tailoring,   man to date, still fashion and shop for their clothing.

Praise be to God, our Heavenly Father, for Jesus’ finished work at the cross. For Jesus had received from God the Father honour and glory at the holy mountain when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory saying: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 

To man, Father crowned man with glory and honour; but to Jesus, His Begotten Son, He crowned Him with honour and glory and by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. 

Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for the spiritual blessings that Christ, our elder Brother, has brought us from heaven! Long before the foundation of the world, our Heavenly Father had us in mind and had settled on us as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love. Long, long time ago He too had decided to adopt us into His everlasting family through Jesus Christ, and indeed, He had pleasure in planning all this! He also wanted us to enter into the celebration of His lavish gift-giving by the hand of His Beloved Son.

In an earlier incident when Jesus had been baptized, He came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him.  Wow... the heavens did not just open but specifically open to Jesus! What is this man that our heavenly Father is mindful of him? We regain this glory and honour not because of what good works that we have done but because our Heavenly Father had  made us accepted in the Beloved. The Beloved that the heavens open to! As we begin to humble ourselves to see this gracious truth and identify ourselves with Jesus for all that He had done for us, heavens also begin to open for us, glory begin to shine on us and honour begin to added to us…, its all because we are in the Beloved. 

This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Is Jesus The End Of The Law?



Is Jesus The End Of The Law?
By Mick Of Searching For Grace on January 15th, 2010 



Pastor Moses’ church seems to have a mixed theology problem; it’s suffering from a bunch of mixed opinions on one of the most important truths in the Christian faith. In fact, John might very well be the only Christian in his church who believes the wonderful gospel truth that the Apostle Paul so passionately declared in the letter to the Romans:

Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Romans 10:4

Moses just doesn’t get it, and besides, he likes the law, with it’s rules and principles. He finds it much easier to control his flock with a good dose of the law. Eric seems to be torn between believing the Jesus/grace centred message the Apostle Paul preached and believing the law/principle centred message Pastor Moses preaches.

Poor little Bobby doesn’t even know who Jesus is, but he loves serving in church, and sure does think Pastor Moses is an amazing man of God! Hmmm, something is not quite right in this equation.