The Prologue of John’s Gospel

In the Gospel of John, John began his prologue periphrastically with the words of Word, Light, Glory, Grace and Truth to introduce the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

In this account he wrote: In the beginning was Jesus Christ is called the Word. Jesus was with God and was truly God. From the very beginning Jesus was with God. And through Jesus, the Word, God created all things. Nothing was made without the Word. Everything that was created received its life from Jesus, and His life gave Light to everyone. 

The Light keeps shining in the dark, and darkness can never put it out. God sent a man named John the Baptist who came to tell about the Light and to lead all people to have faith. John wasn't that Light. He came only to tell about the light. 

The true Light that shines on everyone was coming into the world. The Word was in the world, but no one knew Him, though God had made the world with His Word. He came into His own world, but His own nation did not welcome Him. 

Yet some people accepted Him and put their faith in Him. So He gave them the right to be the children of God. They were not God's children by nature or because of any human desires. God Himself was the One who made them His children. 

The Word became a Human Being and lived here with His people. They had seen His true glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father. From Him all the kindness and all the truth of God have come down to them. John the Baptist spoke about Jesus and shouted, "This is the One I told you would come! He is greater than I am, because He was alive before I was born." Because of all that the Son is, they have been given one blessing after another. 

Hey, after saying all these, John was trying to tell us the comparison between the Law that his people was abiding and Grace that was from the Son of God. He then merely wrote… the Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Can you comprehend what John was saying? Jesus  who is the Word, Light and Glory personified, brought us unearned, undeserved favour and truth from Heaven! There is no one has ever seen God, but the only Son, the Word, Light, Glory, Grace and Truth personified, who is truly God and is closest to the Father and has shown us what God, is like…

Though law was given by Moses for the purposes of pointing his people to the standard of God, but now the true standard of God has come to give us Word, Light, Glory which is totally unearned and unmerited and is the everlasting truth revealed by the gracious Father in Heaven.

How Grace Might Reign...?

Do you know why some people just cannot accept the grace of God? Some people just cannot receive this amazing grace that we are sharing, even though there are numeric evidences of 119 verses in the New Testament concerning grace with 128 hits, while only 18 verses with 20 hits in the Old Testament (NKJV).

The key reason why these people are not receiving is:  This amazing grace can only reign through Jesus’ righteousness. If we are still in our default mode of self righteousness and sin consciousness, we are in a wrong platform and frequency to receive the impartation of grace from God.  Under law, we can never understand what unearned and unmerited favour from God is.

Romans 5:21 ~ so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Only when we can realize that the word "righteousness" is referring  to Jesus’ righteous act and not our righteous act, the grace of God could then reign in our life. Grace can only reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In the case of the Apostle of grace to the Gentile, whenever Apostle Paul talked about grace and righteousness, he was talking about Jesus’ righteous act at the cross. Though he was once a Pharisees,  but after the fall of the scales from his eyes as a result of the “Light” that flashed to him from Heaven  while he was on his way to Damascus, he never again justifying himself under law. He esteemed grace more than law as he preached that anyone who attempt to be justified by law; they have fallen from grace. 

Can you imagine, he was circumcised on the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; and concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, he was blameless; and yet he preached Jesus as his righteousness, holiness and redemption.  He had finally came to his senses to realized that whatever was profitable to him before his spiritual transformation was a loss for the sake of Christ. 

If you still find yourself unable to understand the grace of God, please bear in mind that this righteousness that the Bible talks about is not your righteous act but Jesus’ righteous act. If you are a believer and you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. You are already righteous in God’s eye. 

Rest in Him… all that needs to be done had been done. Remember Jesus had cried out loud on the cross: "It's Finished!"? He meant it, don't think that He shout this for fun! All that needs to be done had been finished by Jesus. So just relax (rest in Him) and receive... for grace can only reign through righteousness (Jesus' righteousness) to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Medan

We spent six days in Medan for sharing the message of the Gospel at Celebration Bible School. For the first time, we have night session at different location from the morning session, which was attended by the members from a Chinese congregation. When we arrived in Medan, we were told by Susan that the Headmaster of the Bible School, Mr. Gola Tiruneh, would be marrying on Friday and the students were a bit disappointed for they won't be able to attend Gola's wedding ceremony at the town called Berastagi, about 2 hours drive from Medan.

So graciously, we all agreed to squeezed the five days lessons into 4 days, so that everybody could go to Berastagi to attend Gola's wedding. Oh... everyone of us were happy!

Celebration Bible School is majoring in mission and the students are from different congregations in Medan. So by nature, they are more work orientated.  As we shared the Gospel of Grace with the students, we found that we were actually killing their sacred cow.  The "aftermath" was, we were getting the same reaction from some of the students as described by Apostle Paul in the Book of Romans. The question of "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" automatically came out from their mouth... Wow... what a Gospel! What a Good News! We are actually preaching the message that Apostle Paul preached!

View From Danau Toba Internation Hotel

Tree planted at the Medan Mall where the School is located

Students in Celebration Bible School

Praise & worship Before Class Started

This Gospel of Grace has waken up some but made some confused. The awaken one began to see light and received revelation by themselves. The confused one still wondering how could it be! This message is too good to be true and there must be something leave for them to do... Ya, grace message is too good to be true. Remember the famous formula frequently quoted by the founder of the Celebration Bible School, Pastor Peter Youngren? i.e. Jesus + something = nothing. Jesus + nothing = everything!

My New Friend In Medan - Pak Yong An

Yong An is my new found friend in Medan. He is a business man and he attends the morning session Bible School. He is one of the awaken one and the most attentive person in class. During our week long stay in Medan, he took time off  to bring us around in Medan. When we were fellowshipping during our meals, I was often jabbed by some of his revelations on grace. Can you see the way he smile? He is an interesting person...

Students From the Night Class

Pak Alex, a friend I knew through Facebook

The night class was make up of believers from one of the Chinese congregation in Medan. They would only have a week class in each month when the invited speaker is available. Alex, a friend I knew through Facebook was attending the night class. Indeed, I am honored to meet him in person. Well, how often can you meet a friend that you know through Facebook? Mind you, this is my second time!

When Friday came, we were all up in the mountain to a town called Berastagi to attend Gola's wedding. Gola is an Ethiopian migrated to Canada and he is a missionary from Pastor Peter Youngren Missionary team. His wife is an Indonesian Chinese, a leader in the local church. That is why the folks in Berastagi called this wedding "the Wedding of the Century". This wedding was witnessed by people from Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, friends and relatives from different parts of Indonesia.

Gola's Wedding

We meet again in Berastagi

Batak way of eating in Berastagi

As the altitude of Berastagi is approximately 1300m, the weather is cooler as compared to Medan. We could see beautiful flowers all around. The famous market in the street of Berastagi is full of all kinds of colourful fruits ranging from strawberry to avocado...

According to Susan, many teachers would wish to visit Berastagi but they did not have the change to do so. We ware the fortunate one and not only so, we are blessed to witnessed the "Wedding of the Century" in Berastagi.

Famous Street and Market in Berasgati 

Beautiful flowers and fresh fruits sold in Berastagi market

We felt so bless to have this honor to share the message of Grace with the Bible School. As what we have been experiencing before, whenever we have a change to share the Good News, we are sure to receive new revelation after we have poured out ourselves. This is what I used to call the "Tithing Principle"!

We are looking forwards to return to Medan for more oppertunity to share this wonder good news to the people there... 

Medan ~ My Hipstamatic Prints

Medan

The city is bordered by Deli Serdang Regency to the east, south, and west, and the Strait of Malacca to the north.

Berastagi

Berastagi (meaning "rice store") is a town in Karo Regency situated on crossroads on the main route linking the Karo highlands of Northern Sumatra to the coastal city of Medan. The village rose to significance when Dutch settlers in Sumatra opened a boarding school there in the 1920s.

The main economic activities in Berastagi, centre on the colourful fruit and vegetable market and on tourism. Berastagi is famous for its passion fruit. The main attractions of the town are the two active volcanoes; Gunung Sibayak, with its hot springs, and Gunung Sinabung.

The town is also a stop on the way to Lake Toba. The dominant ethnic and linguisitic group is Karo Batak.

Polonia International Airport

Polonia International Airport  (Popularly Polonia Airport, as in Indonesia, Bandara Polonia) is located in the city of Medan, Indonesia, about 5 km from the Central Business District. It is the first international airport in Medan. It serves flights to several Indonesian and Malaysian cities, along with a flight to Singapore. Flights to Indian cities are also planned. In terms of passenger numbers, Polonia is the fourth largest airport in Indonesia after Soekarno-Hatta, Juanda, and Ngurah Rai. The name of this airport is taken from the name of the area in which it is situated, which originates from the Latin name of the country of Poland. 

KL LCCT

Status Not Action!

Romans 5:19 ~ For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous. 

This verse caught my attention lately. It was by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous. It was by Adam’s act of disobedience; we who live after him were made sinners. The state of “sinnership” that we are in is not because of our action but because of Adam’s action. Sinner here is our status and sinner sins...

Praise our Father in Heaven for He understands English! So as through one Man's obedience many will be made righteous. It was by Jesus’ obedience that many like us who were sinners were made righteous. This state of righteousness is not because of our action but because of Jesus’ action. Righteousness here is our status and what we do are righteous!

It is not that many Christian cannot understand English. It is because many Christians are sin conscious. Sin conscious made you conscious of your action. Righteousness conscious makes you conscious of your status.

For example when you fill in a form given by government, you fill in your name and age. When comes to sex, you fill in either “male” or “female”, depending whether you are male of female. This is status. I don’t see anybody would fill in “three times a week”! Because “three times a week” is an action! In filling a form, there is no sin consciousness; therefore we are right with our mind to do the right things. But when come to the word of God, our sin consciousness make us miss interpreting the word of God.That's why I say sin conscious made you conscious of your action while righteousness conscious makes you conscious of your status. Hey, if you are a believer, you are now the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and Christ in you, the hope of glory!

Therefore, when we can understand the difference between action and status, the following verses in their reverse order will beautifully review to you the results of the righteous act of our Lord at the cross...

Romans 5:18 ~ Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 

Romans 5:17 ~  For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) 

Romans 5:16 ~ And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. 

Romans 5:15 ~ But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. 

Romans 5:14 ~ Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 

Romans 5:13 ~ (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 

Romans 5:12 ~ Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—

Romans 5:11 ~ And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Romans 5:10 ~ For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Wow..., how beautiful was the action of our Lord at the cross that brought forth the righteous status to all who believe in Him!

Medan, Here I Come!

We are scheduled to travel to Medan this afternoon for one week of teaching session at Celebration Bible School. This is the second year that we are asked to help out with the teaching of the Gospel.

As I was packing my luggage, I was wondering whether I still need to bring my laptop or not... So now I am trying out to blog with my Iphone. Hmmm... I feel rather confortable with this little giant.

So, here I come Medan!

You and Your Household Will Be Saved!

Act 16:31 ~ They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household." 

My mum was a hardcore idol worshiper before she has finally decided to commit herself to the Lord at the age of 80 years old.

This evening, she was baptized by her Pastor, witnessed by close family members and members from the Trinity Methodists Church. 

All this while, she has been fallen sick with minor Alzheimer’s disease and from time to time, she can only remember the thing of the past. Though I had led her with the sinner prayer, this could never get into her memory. To human eyes, the chance for her to get saved is almost impossible. But I remember what Jesus had said before, "What is impossible with men is possible with God." My mum can be down with Alzheimer’s disease, but I know for sure that my Lord is not down with Alzheimer and that moment she called out His Name, she was saved. Indeed,  He is the One who saves her... What an unearned, unmerited favor from God!

So in Jesus' Name, I rebuke the Alzheimer disease to leave my mother!

Once again, I have witness my Lord’s grace and faithfulness. Thank you Jesus…