Joseph Prince In New York

Is grace a license to sin? What is the Bible's definition of true repentance? How can believers live right each day?

Find out the answers to these burning questions and more in this exclusive interview of Joseph Prince on TBN's Praise The Lord Program. Hosted by Pastor Phil Munsey, Joseph was accompanied by his wife Wendy, and Pastor Joel Osteen—of Lakewood Church, America's largest church—and his wife Victoria.

Not only will you be encouraged and inspired by Joseph's insightful and heartfelt sharing in this interview, but you will also gain a better understanding of how a revelation of God's grace and goodness is His chosen way of gloriously transforming lives, and allowing His people to have a loving relationship with Him.

Finally, receive and be tremendously blessed by the prayer that Joseph prays at the close of his first-ever interview in the United States.

Exclusive Interview By Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN)

Marvelous Are Your Works...

This is a testimony video by a couple’s faith journey... they are Pastor K E Mathews and his wife, Rachel Mathews from New Creation Church in Singapore.

Pastor K E Mathews and his wife, Rachel Mathews

Psalm
139:13 ~ For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb.
139:14 ~ I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.

Transfer Of Wealth

Believer: “Father God… Please give me money…!” “You know that I have been praying for money for a long time already….”

Father God: “I don’t have money… In heaven there is no money… The least valuable thing in Heaven is gold and I have used them to make road…”

God cannot lie. What He says is true. There is no money in Heaven. Let us ask from God wisely and let us ask for wisdom instead of money… Do not ask for a "wife" or husband" from Him also... Because wife or husband belong to others and He has to separate "husband and wife" to give you the "wife" or "husband" that you are praying for! That is not possible because our God is a good God... Ask for wisdom instead of wife or husband...!

The wealth of the sinner is led up for the righteous. The money is in this world and in this end time, the money is from the sinners and the money will be supernaturally transfer to those who are righteous by faith, like Abraham!

The bible sets forth a divine plan of God that as we draw near to the second return of Jesus, His Kingdom will grow through out the world and His kingdom will draw in the wealth of the ungodly and will use it to bless and bring the Kingdom to the poor and lost and the last and the least. This plan must surely stir every member of the body of Christ to step out and play their part in this plan and plunder the ungodly of their wealth and pass it on to the extension of the Kingdom.

Proverbs 13:22 ~ A good man leaves an inheritance to his sons' sons, and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.

Ecclesiastes 2:26 ~ ‘To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God’ 

Isaiah 60:5 ~  Then you shall fear and become bright, and your heart shall throb and swell for joy; because the abundance of the sea shall turn to you, the wealth of the nations will come to you.

Isaiah 60:11 ~ Therefore your gates will always be open; they will not be shut day nor night, to bring to you the wealth of the nations, and their kings may be led.

Isaiah 61:6 ~ ‘You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast’.

Isaiah 66:12 ~ ‘I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream’.

At the time of writing this post, a Facebook friend of mine Terence Yeo from New Creation Church, posted on Facebook an article on the nation of Israel discovered a world potential largest gas field off the coast of Israel. The other referential article is "Will Bible Lead To Oil Reserve Under Israel?" This discovery is just in time before the turmoil in Egypt which had been number one gas exporter to Israel. With this discovery, Israel is now energy independent soon! Pastor Joseph Prince preached on this in 90s and early 2000s. Now in 2009, the prophesy is fulfilled !

My heart was impressed by these verses from the 26th chapter of Book of Leviticus lately. It is towards the end of the book. The proclamation of the blessings from God started towards the end of this book because this book is all about the ordinances and the types of scarification pointing to Jesus' work at the cross.

Leviticus 

26:6 ~ I will bless your country with peace, and you will rest without fear. I will wipe out the dangerous animals and protect you from enemy attacks. 

26:7 ~ You will chase and destroy your enemies, 

26:8 ~ even if there are only five of you and a hundred of them, or only a hundred of you and ten thousand of them. 

26:9 ~ I will treat you with such kindness that your nation will grow strong, and I will also keep my promises to you. 

26:10 ~ Your barns will overflow with grain each year. 

26:11 ~ I will live among you and never again look on you with disgust. 

26:12 ~ I will walk with you--I will be your God, and you will be my people. 

26:13 ~ I am the LORD your God, and I rescued you from Egypt, so that you would never again be slaves. I have set you free; now walk with your heads held high. 

Father God will have respect to us, and make us fruitful, and multiply us, and establish His covenant with us, because we have respected His Son’s finished Work at the Cross… and we have respected the ultimate will of our Father God in Heaven. We believe in His finished work and we are righteous by faith, so did Abraham, the father of faith!

My Miracle Seed

We booked our ticket to Singapore about a month ago and the purpose of going to Singapore is as usual, to visit the New Creation Church. When we checked up NCC website at the beginning of this month, they announced that Pastor Prince will be away in Indonesia during our time in Singapore. To some, this was indeed a disappointment …

As the date drew near, we found out that Pastor Prince had cancelled his preaching engagement in Indonesia and has been scheduled to preach on the Sunday we were in Singapore… Hallelujah!

Just a few days before our departure, I was informed that the coming Sunday would be their Miracle Seed Sunday. Wow, Miracle Seed Sunday… and what a God incidence… I then made up my mind on the amount to sow but at the airport, I felt the need to go to the ATM machine to make up what the Lord wanted me to sow …

As usual, we reached SunTec City at 7.00am in the morning but to our surprise, the queue was much longer than usual. According to my past experience, we could have secured the first 100 tickets for the reserved seats and have the privilege to break off the queue for our breakfast. But not this time… Before the start of the preaching, Pastor Prince mentioned about Pastor Mark calling him enlightening him of the verse from Genesis 8:22 which was the date for the Miracle Seed Sunday (22.08.2010)…

Genesis 8:22 ~ "While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease."

It was a wonderful service and at last, my miracle seed was in the box…

On Monday night, all of us were invited by Pastor Kenny Chee, Senior Pastor of World Revival Prayer Fellowship, to have dinner at his house. I got to know Pastor Kenny through Facebook and was introduced by Pastor Peter Sze of the New Covenant Church in KL. I was told by Pastor Kenny to alight from MRT at Jurong East Station and to wait for him to fetch us from there in two trips. We started our journey at Bugis, using the “Green Route” heading for Jurong East. It was a familiar route for me as my cousin was staying in Clementi twenty years ago before they moved to Choa Chu Kang and then recently settled down in a landed property at Kranji area. I could even memorized each subsequent stations… City Hall..., Tiong Baru, Redhill, Queenstown, Commonwealth, Buona Vista… As the train moved on, I was in the train recapturing my memories... I could still remember when Norman was a little boy, I used to make train stations using his Lego set and we even named the station after Buona Vista, because of its unique pronunciation.

When the train stopped at Buona Vista Station, some familiar structures in the nearby construction yard caught my attention… Hey, that’s 1 North! I have been asking my cousin and friends in Singapore about the location of 1 North but they just gave me the name like Holland Grove and some other names and I could never have any idea where 1 North is located.

At that very moment, I began to realize again how faithful our Lord can be. As He has brought me all the way from Kuching to sow my miracle seed, He would for sure, never let me sowed my seed without knowing where the sowing ground is. To some, I maybe a fool, but praise God, this covenant of grace is fool proof! With all these God incidence moments, this sowing ground is definitely a good sowing ground and my seed was indeed, a miracle seed. For this, I also have to thanks Pastor Kenny for being sensitive to the leading of the Spirit and invited us to his house for dinner. The Beef Goulash that night was fabulous... Adrian, our western food taster could testify to that because he had double portions that night.

At the time of writing this post, the Lord has already given me back my seed. Wow... I am so blessed to be chosen to sow this miracle seed and I am now hopefully expecting the tsunami of blessings that the Lord has promised me at Kuching Airport!

SG Aug 2010 ~ My Hipstamatic Prints

Views from Marina Bay Sands

Break "Fast" before spiritual feeding...

Miracle Seed Sunday @ NCC on 22.08.2010

 Lorong Beach Road

Rest

@ Takashimaya

Vietnamese Pho @ Takashimaya Food Court... Hmmm, my joy is full!

My new pair of Crocs

Briefing...?

People from Kuching cannot walk very far...

@ Paragon

Claiming refund from Singapore Government

Dinner @ Pastor Kenny's house

Singapore is getting ready for F1 again

Bald and grey hair...Which one is better?

Learn The Unforced Rhythms Of Grace

Restful Increase vs Stressful Increase

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." Matthew 11:28~30 (The Message)

Life Group Meeting ~ My Hipstamatic Prints

These are the dishes (local delicacies to go with porridge) for to-night's Life Group meeting...

Pickled Lettuce is somehow looks ordinary and also gives an impression of an under favor choice to go with porridge. But this skillful recipe has changed the opinion of many who have tasted it… It is cheap and appetizing and is set to prompt you for another bowl of porridge…

 Imported Seasoned VegetablefFried with Minced Pork

Local Seasoned Vegetable fried with Pork Belly, topped with Peanuts

 Traditional Egg Pan Cake With Dried Vegetable

Deep fried Minced Pork with Salted Fish... A dish that can bring you back to your childhood memories. Highly recommended by the Chef!

 

 Salted Egg

Spicy Smiling Fish cooked with Sour Eggplant

Porridge Boiled with Sweet Potatoes

Lens: Helga Viking, Film: Kodot Verichrome, Flash: Standard

After the supper, we had our wonderful DVD video session with Pastor Mark Ng from New Creation Church while he preached on "Jesus Alone Saves -  Not man, Idols Or Superstitious Practices". In his preaching, he expounded the beauty of our Lord and His love for us...

Second Chance

My cousin, Winston brought the word of Grace to our family in November 2008. It was a time of troubled heart because my husband was down with Hepatitis C. Not only the cost of his medication was so high, but he had to quit working and at the same time, he was suffering from the effects of the medication.

Praise be unto God, after listening to a tape recording of the Word of God by Pastor Mark Ng of New Creation Church which was brought by Winston, my husband opened up his heart to receive Christ. Now, my husband is healed...

Read more >>>>>

What A Quiz...

It was all started with a few of us taking up the quiz in Facebook on "Which Singapore church are you best suited in?" and the result are New Creation Church. All of us were having the same result and I found out that the trick of this quiz is on question # 3: i.e. What else do you do besides attending services? If you don't choose the given answer "I like to listen to Hillsong and DVD sermons", for sure you go other church, like... mmm???

At first it was a happy exchanging of words among close friends then came a friend of Samuel and Jennifer, contributing his comment… Wow… Religious people as what I’ve learn from Pastor Prince's sharing do exist… From his comment, I find it interesting to steer up the religious wave (I usually don’t do this sort of thing) to see how big the wave can go…



Here it goes…

Jennifer: we go 2gether-gether ok?? ;)

Penny: yeah..........

Jennifer: felicia & calvin took the quiz too..hehe! same result.

Felicia: Yoohoo!!!

Xxxx Xxx: hmm... some people say that new creation church preaches health and wealth gospel, a feel-good version of the Truth...

i'm not saying they are wrong or anything, just saying be careful and always exercise discernment, ok. =)

Alan: Jesus heals the sick... that is health. Jesus multiplies 2 fishes and 5 loaves... that is wealth! He is the same yesterday, today and forever... hmm good discernment!!!! Amen!

Felicia: AMEN PASTOR! :D

Xxxx Xxx: Yes, Jesus heals the sick. when He was on earth, He healed every sick person who came to Him - there is no record of Him ever refusing to heal someone.

yet, after He ascended to Heaven, although His disciples continued to heal (and yes, i do believe that the gift of healing is still active in the church today), the incidence of healing was no longer 100%. see how Paul told timothy to take a little wine for his stomach and his frequent illnesses in Timothy 5:23. or see how Epaphroditus was sick and almost died, in Philippians 2:25. why not just heal them, if we were able to heal at all times and in all cases?

so the fact is that, in spite of the purest faith and the most fervent prayers, God does not always heal. we may not understand why one is healed and another is not, but it is something we have to deal with. yet this is a fact that one almost never hears from the lips of those who preach the health and wealth gospel. and yes, God can prosper us if He chooses. Promotion comes from the Lord (Psalm 75:6-7). yet reading Jesus' words, "you cannot serve both God and money" (Matthew 6:24), and His reply to the rich young ruler, "go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven" (Matthew 19:21) and paul's words in 1 Timothy 6:10, "the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil"... all these verses show us that there is something wrong with the kind of gospel that can blithely proclaim that all God wants to do is to bless and prosper you.

God does not want to make us happy - He wants to make us holy. and that means struggle, sacrifice, disappointments, dying to self, and etc. not the hollow promises of health and wealth that some churches peddle.... once again, a disclaimer - i do not say that New Creation Church is one of these. just that this kind of teaching is becoming prevalent among some churches, and we would do well to be careful and practice discernment. =)

Alan: 2 Corinthians 1:20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.

Father, whatever promises that he doesn't want, please give to me and I say, " Amen!" to Your glory...

Felicia: I want also.. Amen!

Xxxx Xxx: lol... i do not deny, and neither do i reject, the promises of God. so, alan and felicia, if you're hoping God will give you my "rejected blessings", too bad, they're all mine! =D

but... here's a promise (or is it a warning?) that ties in with what i was trying to say earlier... "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine... Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." - 2 Timothy 4:3-4

one thing that makes the health and wealth gospel so dangerous, is that it's exactly what we want to hear. we must not 'censor out' the difficult, hard, challenging parts of the gospel. ok? =)

Felicia: aww.. shucks.. hehe.. but God's promises for me are sufficient for me and much more. wouldn't mind rejected blessings to come my way.. hehe

Samuel: Xxxx Xxx.... some people say is not good enough...what do you say? What's important is whether you know or not? Why listen to what other people say?

Matthew 16:13-20. Jesus asked his disciples who he is? They replied, 'some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. But Simon Peter answered 'You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God'.

Let's not argue on what others say... find out for yourself... the bible is simple to understand but really a mystery for some... as the truth is kept a mystery to those that do not appreciate the generosity and abundant grace that comes from the father of lights. Why cast pearls before swines?

Alan: You are reasoning with your mind... discernment is from our heart... Many people tell you here you don't want to listen... It is not what people say, it is what you think... Repent (renewal of our mind) from reasoning than you can discern. What we are doing here is discerning the truth not reasoning the truth. It is not about NCC but it is about Jesus... Grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Samuel: Yup...let's not rob fellow believers of what Christ has so graciously and freely given...it has never been cheap grace but it was the most 'costly' sacrifice- if you can put a value to it, that God has given. It cost Him His Beloved Son. If the greatest miracle (which is salvation) came by us believing in the finish work on the cross, tell me why is it that you need to work out your salvation. It has never been about 'you + Christ=salvation'. The equation in the bible has always been 'Christ+0=salvation'. If you can work out your salvation then there is no need for Christ in the first place. Let's not 'Pharisize' our faith in Christ by complicating it with our self effort. It all begins with pride and not humility to say that you can live a perfect life without sin. No one can but Christ. That's why you need to fully depend on Him and His willingness to bless you out of your socks. There's so much to share but I doubt you will discern what we wish to share with you…Xxxx Xxx.

At least the rich young ruler know that he can never meet God's standard of a perfect life. Jesus wanted him to realize that he can never reach God's standard. Neither can anyone say that he or she can fulfill the 10 commandments fully. You fail in one you fail all ten. And it's your thoughts that count. The Christian way of life, if there is any is an impossible one, that's why you need Christ in us to live His life through you. Let's not get carried away with our self righteousness. It's pride bro... pure pride... Are we now trying like the Galatians who were initially saved by grace trying to fall back on our self efforts to reach God's standards? Rightly discern the old and new covenant bro... and you will not be confused. Do not pour new wine into old wine skins. The root of evil has never been money bro....it's the love of money...How are you gonna bless your neighbor if you yourself cannot even support your own family?

How is it possible for a believer that believes that God will not prosper him to sell all that he possess.

If you believe that God can put sickness on you and make you suffer to teach you a lesson so that you can be tough then you might as well think of your earthly father to be the same. Does it make sense for your dad to decide one fine day to take all your privileges away, send someone to mow you down with a truck, or send someone to rob you and beat you up so that you can learn self discipline and become tougher? Of course not. If your earthly father loves you very much, how much more do you think your Heavenly Father? He did not spare His Son, don't you think He'll will give you much more... and much more...and prosper you and give you health?

Samuel: That's why Paul in Romans wrote this...'And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love. Death can't, and life can't (even life). The angels (even angels) can't, and the demons can't. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the... Read More deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord'. Jesus is really, really good. Let's not take away what he has suffered and paid dearly for on the cross.



Well, what do you say? As for me, I’ll say, ”Preach it Bro… there are still a lot of "unbelieving believers" out there...!"

Come Boldly To The Throne Of Grace

Grace Upon Grace Conference 09
Sunday Service 10-05-2009

Hebrews 4:16 ~ Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:15 ~ For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Hebrews 4:14 ~ Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

Once we know that we have been established in grace, we have the righteousness of God and His forgiveness of all our sins, past, present and future. Let us do not stop at the knowledge that we are forgiven. We must come boldly to the throne of grace and have the confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus to obtain help from Him. That is to seek the Tree of Life instead of depending on our own reasoning base on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

This is the purpose of His grace in imparting His righteousness to us that through His righteousness, we can have unfailing hope that He is the Anchor of our soul and the ever ready help in our life. We can live our life unaware of His presence but we can never live our life away from His presence; for He had promised that He will never leave us nor forsakes us. So come boldly to the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need...

The Former Rain & The Latter Rain

Grace Upon Grace Conference 09
Evening Session 09-05-2009

Joel 2:23-25 ~ Be glad then, you children of Zion, And rejoice in the LORD your God; For He has given you the former rain faithfully, And He will cause the rain to come down for you — The former rain, And the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. "So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.

(Who is your father?)
Restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.

The former rain speaks of the teacher of righteousness in the Bible while the latter speak of favor as the cloud of latter rain is called favor in the Book of Proverbs chapter 16 verse 15. This is what the Apostle Paul meant by those who receive God's abundant provision of grace (undeserved and unmerited favor) and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life through the one Man, Jesus Christ...

In the last day under the dispensation of grace, God is going to cause He righteousness and His favor to rain down on His people that threshing floors shall be full of wheat, the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil; God 's abundant blessing of grain and new wine.

Who Can be Against Us?

Grace Upon Grace Conference 09

Morning Session 09-05-2009

Romans 8:29 - 31 ~ For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

God knew what He was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love Him along the same lines as the life of His Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity He restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in Him. After God made that decision of what His children should be like, He followed it up by calling people by name. After He called them by name, He set them on a solid basis with Himself. And then, after getting them established, He stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what He had begun. We have no part to involve in His work but to believe....

So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, who can be against us...? How can we lose?

Righteousness and Forgiveness of Sins are one...

Grace Upon Grace Conference 09

1st Session 08-05-2009

Romans 4:6-8 ~ David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: "Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him."

Righteousness and forgiveness of sins are one... When our sins are forgiven, we are righteous in God's eye. As a believer, we have been forgiven of all our sins; past, present and future because of Jesus' Finished Work at the Cross. Jesus, the Son of God had been resurrected for our justification two thousand years ago...!

Isaiah 1:18-20 ~ "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword"; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

If you are willing to believe that you are righteous and your sins had been forgiven, you will eat the good of the land. If you refuse to believe that you are righteous and your sins had been forgiven, you shall be devoured by the sword of condemnation...

The Tree of Life

This post was originally part of the posting in “A Mail from Jacky” posted on 1st August 2008. As I still received revelation concerning the Tree of Life, I felt led to take this potion out from that post and post as a separate title.

The message preached by Pastor Joshua Lee on the 13th July 2008 was a heart revolutionizing message as it touches on Christian's approach on their conducts in everyday life. So we start with the question whether we are drawing our source from the Tree of Life or The tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil?

As for me, I don’t think I ever put a thought on this subject even though I have been a Christian for almost nine years; and because of this ignorant, even though I know I have been enlightened by grace, here and there, I still find myself bound by my own weaknesses.

I realize that as long as you dwell in the grace of God, the grace of God and His faithfulness will bring you deeper into His truth because you just cannot be stagnant but grow in grace. You are just like flowing in His river. I also realize that this is part of the process of growing in grace. Significantly, a Christian needs to be established in grace before this kind of message can take any effect because a truth is built on a truth. If you are legalistic, the focus is on your effort and thus, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is your source. Grace is contradicted to the legalism’s approach, so as the Tree of The knowledge of Good and Evil.

A legalism is earth bound and is restricted by the conduct of doing right or wrong, of which, the root is eating from the Tree of The knowledge of Good and Evil. If Christianity is to do good and avoid doing wrong, then Christianity is the same as any other religions. Every Christian knows that Christianity is not a religion but relationship with Jesus, and in spite of that knowledge, Christian still follow the worldly system or religious way of doing right and avoid doing wrong.

What is Christianity then? Will the real Christianity, please stand up! Christianity is depending on Jesus instead of human effort and Christianity is about eating from the Tree of Life. Jesus said He came to give life and life more abundantly! Praise God, if Jesus did not call me out from the legalistic environment I was in, I will never have the revelation on the importance of eating from the Tree of Life. I will still be living my Christian life religiously, continue to be taught with the earthly way of how to do right and how to avoid doing wrong (of which, we could not, of course..). Or even continue to make Jesus as my example, so that I can be a better man….

Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the words of Christ. If preaching is not based on the grace of God, then there will be no faith to rise up to that level to approach the Tree of Life. Ignorantly, legalists have preached Christian away from the grace of God and make them fallen away from His grace by their justification of good works.

The following passage from the Book of Hebrews caught my attention for quit a long time already and only now I begin to understand what this passage means.

Hebrews 5: 11 ~14: We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil!

The passage continue with, “Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on the hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so."

If only we can read these passages ourselves without the interference of the legalistic preachers, it is so clear that the teaching on the foundation of repentance from acts is the elementary teachings. It is not about learning to do good or bad, it is to distinguish good from evil. Learning to do good or avoid evil cannot make us distinguish good from evil. We need to be established in grace so as to have the ability to distinguish good from evil. The good and evil here means whether the teaching of God's word is filtered through the cross or not.

The purpose of the forgiveness of sin from God is not for us to start a new sinless life ourselves but to make us have the confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus so that we can draw from the Tree of Life. Through the cross, we have already been reconciled; we have already been made righteous and we are already one with Him in Christ. So let us move on to enter with boldness!

These passages bring out another issue; i.e. the knowledge of righteousness is not milk but solid food. Therefore, the knowledge of righteousness is for the mature not for the infant. We can only be established with the teaching about righteousness through His grace. We have to settle the issue of sin once and for all that we are made righteous by His grace through faith. This righteousness is about His righteousness not our righteousness. Our righteousness is described as filthy rags by the Bible. When we understand what His righteousness is, we will know that teaching on the foundation of repentance from acts is elementary. It’s finished! Or else, we will continue to drink our milk.

Therefore, humble ourselves knowing that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. The proud in God's eye are those who depend on themselves and the humble are those who draw from Him. Knowing also that grace is with the truth. If we think that grace is not with the truth, then we will never find our way to the Tree of Life.

Humble yourself before God not before legalism. Start to believe that Jesus loves you and He had done everything on the cross just for you. If you guard this little faith in you, you will know His grace and you will be set free.

The purpose of His forgiveness is not for you to start your new sinless life yourself; His forgiveness is for you to have the boldness to enter into His grace.

A Mail From Jacky

Today, we received a mail from Jacky containing a message CD by Pastor Joshua Lee entitled "The Tree Of Life or The Tree of The Knowledge of Good & Evil". This message was preached while we were in Singapore on 13th July 2008. Surprisingly, this CD reaches us without any obstruction from the authority concern. Maybe once in a while, we can ask friend in Singapore to sent message CD via post or even we can consider subscribing message CD online.

Adrian (Left) and Jacky (Right) are enjoying Donut @ Donut Factory in Suntac City Mall
Photo taken by Norman.

Jacky is now working in Singapore and he is attending the New Creation Church. He just signed up as a Royal Steward in NCC while we were there in Singapore. We encouraged him and prophesied that he will be the Head of the Royal Steward so that next time when we attend New Creation Church's Sunday Service, he is in the position to grant us special favor for by-passing the long queue.

Divine Practical Assignment

My family and I were in Singapore from 11th to 13th July 2008. Of course our main purposes for this visit were to attend New Creation Church's Sunday service, visit some of the Shopping Centers in Singapore, our friends and relatives.

There are not many changes in Singapore. Everywhere you can see people walking. Singaporeans are good in walking and they are fast too. The infrastructures too, are at their best condition. There are some good discounts at certain outlets and the children had reasonably good buy from these outlets. We have one and a half days to do our shipping, meet our friends and relatives.

Richard, I could not find Pho Bo "Vietnamese Beef Rice Noodle" in Ngee Ann City this time. This stall has been replaced by other type of Beef Noodle stall. What a waste....

There is one thing I realized in this trip is that, I found myself easily anger and frustrated in a few occasions as my legs grew tired while I was trying to catch up with my family. My wife reminded me a few times to mind myself so as not to ruin the fun of this holiday. I wanted to do good and wanted to avoid myself from being easily angry over certain thing but I grew weak when the strength of my legs grew weak.

Walking to NCC. These photos were taken by Norman. He is a Photographer not a Camera Man.

When Sunday came, we were well rested and refreshed. We were early to be on our way to New Creation Church in Suntec City Mall. We used the Citylink Mall to go to Suntec City Mall from our Hotel. It was Pastor Joshua’s turn to preach that Sunday and his sermon was “Anger Management”. My wife and I met at our eyes, gosh....what a divine inspired sermon! I presume this is another syllabus for me and this trip to Singapore is another practical assignment from the Kingdom Academy.

The queue up church

It is not to our intention that, we all want to do good and avoid doing evil. Touch your heart folk, how many of you can agree with me? Even though we are already a Christian; we would try to do good and try our best to avoid doing evil. It is good that we do good and it is real bad when we do evil. By doing all these, we are ignorant that we are actually eating from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil! Our evil doing is already bad while our good deed is also equally bad because there is no life in the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. It is bad because we are eating from the wrong tree!

As we all have been enlightened by grace, we are supposed to put our faith in eating from the Tree of Life instead of the knowledge of Good and Evil. In and out of ourselves, we have nothing good and how can we do good? Beside, our anger is just a sign that we are frustrated with our failure in our attempt to do good but we put this blame on others. The accuser of the brethren has been using our failures to condemn us. We feel condemned when we realize we have failed again. We got to wake up and know the truth that; this is just a sign to tell us that we have been eating from the wrong tree and do not receive it as a condemnation.

We are in Christ and there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set us free from the law of sin and death.

We do wrong because we are trying to eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good or Evil. If we eat from the Tree of Life, we can never be wrong because God can never makes mistake. While we are eating from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, the accuser of the brethren is there to condemn us because he hangs around in that tree.

Once we have been established in grace, we all know that we are forgiven of all our sins, past, present and future, but do not just stop at the knowledge that we are forgiven. The Bible says in Hebrews 10:17~24, after we know that we are forgiven, we must have the confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus to obtain help from Him. The Bible also says that, those who wait on the Lord, his strength will be renewed like an eagle and the Lord also told Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Folks, when we fail, do not let our failure condemns us but let our failure trigger us to admit that we are weak and let us enter and wait on Him and He, who is faithful, will give us strength to do the real good deed.

Again, this trip to New Creation Church has been a blessing to me and I have attended a divinely orchestrated three days two nights practical course from the Headmaster of my Bible Academy. I have been awakened by Pastor Joshua’s sermon and I want to eat from the tree of Life. I still do not know how but one thing I know for sure is that, I must repent (renew my mind). Once I renew my mind from the old way of my conducts, every responsible falls back to Him. He, who is faithful, will give me strength to do the real good deed. Once the good deed flows out from my life, I will know that this is from my Lord, not me.

Which tree are you eating from...?