The Meaning Of Wilderness and 40 Days & 40 Nights

Jesus was led by the Spirit up into the wilderness, to be tempted by the Devil. And when He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, He was afterwards hungry. 

Understand what the Bible means by wilderness and the number 40, and you will have a different point of view on this highly controversial topic in the body of Christ...

It Is Good For The Heart To Be Established With Grace

Do not be carried about with different and strange doctrines, for it is good for the heart to be established with grace, not with foods, in which those who have walked in them were not helped.

Revelation on Fasting in The Light Of New Covenant

It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.", for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So do not be carried about with different and strange doctrines, for it is good for the heart to be established with grace, not with foods, in which those who have walked in them were not helped.

The revelation on fasting came to me about 3 years ago before we started our first teaching session in Celebration Bible School in Medan, Indonesia. This revelation took the Lord a flick of a second to reveal but it is by no mean conclusive and the revelation on this contractual topic in the body of Christ is still growing.

This is the link to the original post on the topic of FASTING written on 13th February 2009.

Established In Jesus' Righteousness

Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes and the just shall live by faith. It is the glory of God to hide a thing; but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.

Medan 2012 - Good Classes

This is the forth time that we are here in Medan to teach in Celebration Bible School. There are an increase of students in the school this year and many are enlightened with the gospel of grace.

This is the forth day of our stay and we find time really flies. I was given a chance to share in four lessons on Jesus' righteousness. I personally find that I am more composed when delivery the messages and is tapping well in the flow of the Spirit.

It is an encouragement to receive feedbacks from the students that they are enjoying the classes and are blessed with new revelations.

"Korean" and "Indonesian" Pastor Getting Ready For Sunday Service in GBI Mandarin 

Preaching in GBI Mandarin Service

 Students in Celebration Bible School

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

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!

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.