I Believe, and So I Speak!

I believe, and so I speak!

Psalm 116 (NKJV)

Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Death

1 I love the LORD, because He has heard
My voice and my supplications.
2 Because He has inclined His ear to me,
Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.

3 The pains of death surrounded me,
And the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me;
I found trouble and sorrow.
4 Then I called upon the name of the LORD:
“O LORD, I implore You, deliver my soul!”

5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
Yes, our God is merciful.
6 The LORD preserves the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.
7 Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

8 For You have delivered my soul from death,
My eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.
9 I will walk before the LORD
In the land of the living.
10 I believed, therefore I spoke,
“I am greatly afflicted.”
11 I said in my haste,
“All men are liars.”

12 What shall I render to the LORD
For all His benefits toward me?
13 I will take up the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the LORD.
14 I will pay my vows to the LORD
Now in the presence of all His people.

15 Precious in the sight of the LORD
Is the death of His saints.

16 O LORD, truly I am Your servant;
I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant;
You have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving,
And will call upon the name of the LORD.

18 I will pay my vows to the LORD
Now in the presence of all His people,
19 In the courts of the LORD’s house,
In the midst of you, O Jerusalem.

Praise the LORD!


David encouraged himself in the Lord by saying: "Return to your rest O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you."

We too believe and so we speak...!

A dedication to Francois du Toit of Thoughts for Life (Daily Devotionals)

Thorn In The Flesh

What is thorn in the flesh to Apostle Paul? Apostle Paul never said, but he offered one tantalizing clue: “To keep me from getting puffed up, I was given a thorn in my flesh”

2 Corinthians 12:7 ~ And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.

Whatever it was, this thorn indeed humbled him. Many preachers said it was a physical problem, such as recurring malaria or a kind of sickness, since he traveled through some swampy lands. Or perhaps it was epilepsy. Because of this wrong understanding, many believers still believe that the sickness that they have are from God and the purpose is to humble them... But my friend, Apostle Paul was so anointed with divine life that handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him could heal the sicks and cast out evil spirits.

Acts 19:11-15 ~ God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out." Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. (One day) the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?"

Others think that his thorn was the troublesome Corinthian church he started. The word thorn did not show up anywhere else in the New Testament except in his epistle to the Corinthians. Lets bear in mind that Apostle Paul did not had the New Testament like us. Through his revelation from his Jewish Bible, he wrote two third of the New Testament and this Jewish Bible he used was the Old Testament. There in the Book of Numbers, it describes what the Canaanites would become to the Jewish people – “thorns in your sides”

Numbers 33:55 ~ But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live.

So to Paul, thorn in the flesh was not a sickness but a character… As such, do you have thorn in your flesh? Well, I have... and concerning this thing, Apostle Paul pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from him. But the Lord said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."

It is in the Grace of God that a thorn is still call a thorn. Legalism would alienate thorn, throw into the fire and burn. Legalism is contradicting to Paul's revelation on one Body, many parts in this same epistle. Therefore, I want to have the revelation that Apostle Paul had for he chose to boast in his infirmities, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me...

Worthy Is The Lamb

Worthy Is The Lamb

Thank you for the cross, Lord
Thank you for the price You paid
Bearing all my sin and shame
In love You came
And gave amazing grace

Thank you for this love, Lord
Thank you for the nail pierced hands
Washed me in Your cleansing flow
Now all I know
Your forgiveness and embrace

Worthy is the Lamb
Seated on the throne
Crown You now with many crowns
You reign victorious

High and lifted up
Jesus Son of God
The Darling of Heaven crucified
Worthy is the Lamb
Worthy is the Lamb

Vietnamese Beef Noodle

The first time I tried this Vietnamese Beef Noodle was at Ngee Ann City, Singapore two and half years ago. A group of Korean ladies was queuing up to take their order from the Vietnamese Beef Noodle Stall located at Takashimaya Food Court... So I joined in the queue and gave it a try. This Vietnamese Beef Noodle is called Pho Bo and it is very delicious... It was a disappointment while we could not find this stall when we revisited Ngee Ann City last year.

Since then, it is always in our mind that we are to try to cook this noodle ourselves base on the memory that we have in our mind. And it was not until our last Care Group Meeting that we decided to cook this Vietnamese Noodle, after Google search for its recipe...

Our version of Vietnamese beef Noodle

The recipe called for beef bones and beef chuck for the broth. We burned these onions and gingers before we boiled them with the beef bones and beef chuck for two hours.

Sirloin beef cut into thin slice


The garnishes are: Bean Sprout, Parsley , Chili Padi (small hot chili), Sweet Basil, Black Pepper, Sirloin Beef and Beef Ball as extra bonus...


We could not find Thai Basil, so we used Sweet Basil instead...

Though the taste was not quite the same but it was delicious. I could not help myself but to take another snap on my bowl of Vietnamese Beef Noodle, and I have fell in love with the aroma of the sweet basil.

Under Law or Under Grace? You Choose...

When it came to Law, God gave His finger. But when it came to Grace, God gave His whole body...

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 ~ I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."

Law vs Grace

The Law is the Ministry of Death, for the Law condemns and condemnation kills... Next time you feel condemned for something you did wrong or didn't do right, point your finger to Jesus and say "He took it and he's already been punished for it... IT IS FINISHED!" You are FREE...

See The World Through His Heart

When I was young in the Lord, I used to “stand” together with the disciples and the crowds when I was reading the Books of Gospel. I ended up finding myself trying hard to obey lots of rule and regulation or trying to understand what the Lord wanted me to do. By standing among the disciples or the crowds, I also found the Lord hard to understand as I heard His people asked Him “this”, and He would answer them “that”. It's kind of funny though...

As the Holy Spirit started to tighten up the "loose" truth inside of me, I began to release that since I am a new creation, and I am in Christ seated at the right hand of the Father in heavenly place, I have to change my position by sitting with Christ whenever I read the Books of Gospel i.e. seeing things through His heart. This changed of position help me to hear His heart beat and His heart beat revolutionaries the way I read the Bible.

In Luke 12:54~59 on the interpreting of the Times, this passage suddenly came to my senses that the Lord wanted to tell His people at that time to expect the arrival of the grace dispensation and only by His grace not their self effort that every penny would be paid for them to get out of their spiritual prison. The Lord continued on to rebuke the self righteous attitude of His people from their reaction through the tragedy of the Tower of Siloam in Galilee.

The Father says, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” If we are to stand with the Jewish people looking towards God, we will end up making ourselves very busy in offering sacrifices. If we stand beside Him and see the world through His heart, we will be melted by His amazing love when we release that He is so merciful that he chose to ordain the sacrificial of innocent Lamb for our sins so that we can come back to Him freely and safely. He wants us to focus on His mercy not the sacrifice. By His mercy and grace and His great love for us, He even went to the extent of finding fault with the ordinance of animals sacrificial and once and for all, He offered up His beloved Darling Son as sacrifice for our sins.… is this not His grace?

Luke 12:54-56 ~ Then He also said to the multitudes, "Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, 'A shower is coming'; and so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, 'There will be hot weather'; and there is. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?

I used to see the remark "You of little faith" as a condemnation from the Lord. I used to feel the Lord is condemning me for not having a big faith., but now I understand that my faith towards Him is always too little whenever I try to depend on myself. Now, the warm tender voice of "You of little faith" always draws me back to depending on Him with undescribable "shalom" peace in my heart...

Oh Lord, What is man that You are mindful of him...?

Psalm 8

8:1 To the Chief Musician. On the Instrument of Gath. A Psalm of David. O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens!
8:2 Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.
8:3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
8:4 What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?
8:5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
8:6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,
8:7 All sheep and oxen— Even the beasts of the field,
8:8 The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea That pass through the paths of the seas.
8:9 O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!

The revelation knowledge of His grace will draw us nearer to Him while our arrogance and ignorance in producing our own righteousness through law keeping alienate us from Him... Oh you of little faith, how is it that you do not discern this time?

See the world through His heart....and you will have revelation knowledge of His grace.

Affirmation

I was touched by the Lord as He ministered to me through the Thoughts for Life (Daily Devotionals) from Francois du Toit of Mirror Reflection on 9th of March i.e on my Birthday...

No one can upset, discredit or humiliate you without your permission.
God has placed a value on your life that is beyond dispute; your true value is a non-negotiable. To forget what manner of man you are, whenever you encounter contradiction, is to deceive yourself. No one can do you greater harm.
You are spirit. In essence your spirit is not subject to change. Yet your mind, your mood, your body and your circumstances can all change. You are infinite.

Triply Secured Salvation

Can a Christian lose his salvation? Ha... what a controversial question! First and foremost, we are talking about a born-again Christian. This statement, however, leads to a problem: How do we know if someone is truly born of God? In some cases, it is really hard to tell and only God would know. However, as God is gracious and merciful, we must not expect overnight changes in the person and underestimate the work of the Holy Spirit in his life. We need to ask ourselves how long we take to bear fruit due to our stubbornness and our Lord’s grace and patience.

Ephesians 2:5b ~ it is by grace you have been saved.

Romans 11:6 ~ And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

Let’s look at more scriptures that clearly support our eternal security and it is comforting to note that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are involved in keeping us saved!


The Father…

John 10:29 ~ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one snatch then out of my Father’s hand.


The Son…

John 10:28 ~ I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.

A Christian might argue that he can “snatch” himself out of the Father’s hand by wilfully renouncing Christ. But he forgets that “no one” in John 10:28~29 includes him too. The KJV translates it as “no man” and notice that “man” here is italicized. This means that the word was added by the translators – “man” is not in the original Greek text. So, a fuller meaning of the verse is actually “nothing can snatch them out of my hand” — be it man, demons or angels!

Jesus said, “I give them eternal life; and they shall never perish.” Common spiritual sense tells us that “eternal life” is not “eternal” if it can be cut off at some point. Also, “never’ simply means “never”. It can’t get any simpler than that! God’s truths are always simple, and doctrines should be built on simple, clear-cut scriptures, not on obscure passages. This eternal life is given to us by God the moment we are born again. As long as we have eternal life – we are not waiting to get it someday and eternal life does not begin after we die physically.

1 John 5:12-13 ~ He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.


The Holy Spirit…

2 Corinthians 1:22 ~ set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Ephesians 1:13 ~ and you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 4:30 ~ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

The Holy Spirit in us is the son-ship seal of God and a guarantee to us. Can God’s ownership seal be broken? Certainly not! The Holy Spirit is also a deposit placed in our hearts by God and this means that God is coming back to claim what belongs to Him! Take note that God does not have to guarantee us anything for His word alone is sufficient and He cannot lie. Yet, He is gracious and merciful to give us this assurance of guaranteed salvation!

What a Triply secured salvation…!

For more truth and New Covenant teaching,
visit : Nuggets from God's Word.

Randomness In Medan

During our stay in Medan, we have witnessed the Lord worked in an amazing way that nobody could lay a hand to claim credit on His move. He used a Chinese to speak GRACE in English, and a Canadian and Indians to translate GRACE into the language of Indonesia.

Act 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

The students in Celebration Bible School are from different denominations in Medan and they are Pastors, Church Overseers and Youth Leaders. We were humbled by the Lord to witness truth in the Bible in respect of milk and solid food. We witnessed this truth manifested in our midst as for those who are under Grace are partaking the solid food while those who are under law are partaking milk.

Hebrews 5:12~14 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 the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

In respect of the doctrine taught in Celebration Bible School, Susan will only allow the teaching of grace to be taught in the school even though they are very much mission minded. Pastor Octavianus being a close friend of Susan, due to their missionary network connection, is her regular translator at the school. According to Gola, the facilitator of Celebration Bible School, Pastor Octavianus was transformed by the Lord in one of the teaching session on grace. Gola witnessed the transformation and was shocked to hear him preaching grace in one of their mission trip at Cambodia. We are indeed delighted to hear such an awesome testimony that even a translator could be transformed when he soaked himself under an anointed teaching of grace.

Gola is from Ethiopia and was sent by Celebration Ministry in Canada to facilitate their branch in Medan. Gola being an Ethiopian whose tribe has a strong claim on the early root of Christianity during Bible time, also had a wonderful testimony on his grace encounter from Pastor Peter Youngren's teaching.

Another Brother in Christ that we have met was Joshua, "Pak Sesat" as we called him. He could send out 800 SMS on grace daily to minister to his friends and people he knew including those reputed preachers in Indonesia. His SMS touched numerous lifes at the right time, at the right place. You are indeed "Sesat" when grace touches you...! These are all Good News and is it not only by grace through faith?

The Lord also uses a Tamil Christian family to open a way for Grace to be reached out to the Chinese in Medan. Pastor Octavianus, who owns the radio station at his church, was asking for our Mandarin message on grace to be played in their radio station and again, we are excited in looking forwards to this awesome move of God...

I had a mixed feeling when people asked me how is Medan. As for my own opinion, if we are going to live there, it is not a nice place. If we are going to have a holiday there, it is not a nice place for vacation too., but if you see Medan the way our Lord see her, you will have a different opinion on Medan...

Randomness In Medan

Paper?
It should be Pepper -_-|||

Just Do It

The Gospel of Peace

2 Corinthian 5:17a

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation

Rupiah ~ Indonesian Currency

We had our good time converting Rupiah to Ringgit whenever we were buying thing in Medan. You could see us looking up at the ceiling, eyes blinking, trying to "Metanoia" in our mind, converting Rupiah to Ringgit.

Home Sweet Home... and What A Surprise!

We reached Kuching safely at 5.45 PM yesterday evening. William, the disciple whom Jesus loves, who is also known as yaso in his blog, was there at the Airport to fetch us. We dropped Bartholomew off his home at BDC and William used a strange and winding road to go to my house. Upon arriving my house, Penny was already outside the house waiting for us and William said he wanted to used my toilet. So I asked Penny to serve Elder Alex and William with drink.

Home at last, mm... home sweet home...! As I walked into my house, everybody (My wife, Elder Alex and the one who said he needed to use the toilet) seemed to walk very slow. Funny... As I opened the door of my house and WOOH... what a surprise, my home was packed with people and they were all shouting and singing "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALAN!!!"

Surprise...!

Watch the video, they were so co-operative. Even my son Adrian, was being "laid astray" by hiding himself behind the curtain... It was indeed a well planned surprise birthday party and this was my first ever surprise birthday party. They went to the extend of parking their cars far away from my house and hid all their shoes in the storeroom. That's why William used that long and winding road to send me home so that I could not notice any familiar cars and suspicious sign!

William had a hard time explaining how he was struggling with dropping Bartholomew off so that there would not be any unusual move to trigger my suspicion. We missed Bartholomew as we could not get hold of him through the phone because he was still having his Indonesian Sim Card in his phone. Too bad Brother...

Thank you guys for having me in your hearts. As a gratitude and appreciation from my heart, I have to list all your names here...

Richard,
Eleanor,
William,
Felicia & Mom,
Florence,
Stephen & Linda,
Jacky,
Deacon Paul,
Siaw Ping,
Brian the Bob,
Dr. Santhosh,
Cynthia & Owen,
Sam & Jennifer,
Mark & Magdalene, Samuel,
Elder Alex (for your prayer)
and most of all my beloved fruitful vine Penny,
my beloved olive shoots Norman and Adrian...

Philemon 1:4~7 I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.

I love you all, guys... :)

Goodbye Medan...

Medan, Day Five... On The Air

On The Phone

While waiting for Pastor David to fetch us, Brother Bartholomew is making full use of his phone card credit in disturbing his friends in Kuching by speaking in his Indonesian slang...
The phone cards rate is very cheap here.

On The Air
Shalom Medan... this is my first experience in sharing the Good News over the radio, live...!

Pastor David' Father

Pastor David is from a Tamil Christian family. His father came to the Lord many years ago when a preacher from India claimed that the Tamil people were of no education qualification and he was furious with that statement because he was a university student then, he challenged that preacher and went to a bible school with his Hinduism Religion. He was later saved by the Lord at the Bible School and set up a Tamil Church in Medan. What a testimony...

A photo with the boss

We had our dinner at this coffee shop owned by a Chinese Christian in Medan. This was the first time we ate of pork ever since we were in Medan... I have almost forgotten that there is an animal called pig!

Well, time flies! We will be going back to Kuching tomorrow. During our stay in Medan, we have seen the work of our Lord in an unusual way. I will put up in writing when I am back in Kuching.

Good night Medan...!

Medan, Day Five...

This is the final day of our class. And as usual, we have wonderful praise and worship before the class started. Though the songs were all in Indonesia language, we just flowed with their music in the Spirit. The students are all gifted in their music and singing.

Brother Bartholomew and Elder Alex
Waiting for our Coach at the Hotel's entrance

Pastor David (Pastor Octavianus' Brother) and Elder Alex

Today we are touching on the topic "Jesus Conscious vs Sin Conscious" in the first session of the class and a controversial topic on "Can A Christian Lose His Salvation" in the second session. This controversial topic exposed a few sacred cows among the students during the Q&A session.

But the situation was better than what we expected. They all questioned with what if... what if... what if... and their questions were all well answered. They finally concluded that it is impossible for a believer to go to hell!

Think about it, if a "problem" can be greater than the Good News, can we still call the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Good News? Good News is the Person of Jesus and the Bible in the Book of Philippians says God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Is your problem having any name? If there is a name, then your problem shall bow down to Jesus' Name. This is Good News!

There is now no condemnation

A demonstration of the position of the defense council, the judge and the prosecutor in a court environment.

In the New Covenant, after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, He is now seated at the right hand side of the Father and there is no seat at the left hand side of the Father.

Hebrews 9:12 ~ He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.

Elder Alex, Gola, Alan & Bartholomew
A photo with Gola before our Brother departed for the mountain where their youth camp is situated.

After the class, Susan brought us to a restaurant call Ikan Goreng Cianjur which is owned by a Brother by the name of Joshua S. Liem. He is operating nine restaurants in Medan and the Island of Sumatra and he told us that God is going to give him twenty of such restaurants. Next month, he is going to open his first branch in Penang, a Malaysian State which is very near to Medan. We have a "sesat" (sesat means lost) encounter with this Brother and we end up calling him "Pak Sesat"!

Fish Satay

"Sesat"

Brother Joshua (Pak Sesat) told us that he received the grace message personally from the Lord ten years ago. With this grace encounter, he started to share the Gospel of Grace with others, and every one departed from him and called him "sesat"! But when Pastor Peter Youngren came to Medan to preach the grace message 5 years ago, all his friends woke up and came back to addressed him as Prophet. When Joshua shares his grace encounter, we could see tears in his eyes... It was heart warming and encouraging.

We have a wonderful "sesat" time together though we have never met before and we "sesat" in a way as if we knew each other for a long time. Is this not Grace? Is this not His Goodness? It is indeed biblical that only a "sesat" person can find grace and after all, we are all "sesat" in His grace...

This kind of fellowship usually make you "sesat" in time too and we have forgotten that we had an appointment with Pastor David at 6.00pm this evening for our sharing at his radio station. We have to say goodbye to Pak Sesat and he asked his driver to rush us back to Hotel and get ourselves ready...

We will be back with more good report. So till then, bye... :)