His Love Is Perfected In Us

Christmas and New Year is a season of giving and giving is one of many ways that we can express our love.

1 John 4:12 ~ No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us.

I want to love others, and I long for others to love me too. The ability to love is inside every created things on earth. The desire to love is in man. Ever since I have become a believer, the felt of the need to love others become stronger because of the many verses stated in the Bible about love. Especially with the verses from 1 John chapter 4. I felt the need to love others more or at least, I was taught that this is the basic requirement from the Lord for a believer. From the way we used to read the Bible, we might conclude that loving others is also a sign to show that we are believers! Because of the way we are brought up in the Christian circle, we do not really know the true meaning of what is “we love because He first love us”.

After I have been enlightened by the grace of God, I gradually learn that we are actually the subject of His love and men are created for His love.  Men are created to be loved by Him and we are created to receive His love. Even though the teaching on the grace of God has overturned the inception that was rooted in me on how men should love each other, and even though I have been proclaiming the verse “we love because He first love us” over and over again, the Lord is still showing me through my circumstances that I still do not really know what is He trying to say...

It was after I have been led to learn on how to engage my heart to receive His revelation a few months ago; I started to receive new insight on what kind of love this really is. Incidentally, this revelation was immediately confirmed by a Christmas card given by a sister in which 1 John 4:12 was quoted: “No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us.”

This kind of love is not our human kind of love. It is His love which perfected in us. We all know we have to love, but without knowing that when we are using our own effort in trying to love, we are doing it out of our flesh (brain), i.e. the dogs that God asked us to be aware of. At the end of the day, we murmur and we are not satisfied with others responses in respect of our “love” for them.  We have seen this over and over again and do not even realize that we are using our own effort to love each other. We did not love others out of the overflow of His love which is perfected in us.  We do not love others out of His love for us.

On the 31st of October last year, our church declared that, the church offering collection of that day would be used as a love gift to three of the churches in Israel . Through this event, the Lord revealed to me the meaning of “His love perfected in us”.

As believer, we have our Jewish brothers in the holy land. These are the kind of brothers that we never know of and we have never seen them before. But as we know more about the message of His grace, the desire of this kind of love to our Jewish brothers grow stronger each day. This is what we call the "supernatural love" from our Lord because our Jewish brothers are His chosen people and our Lord loves them very much. As such, this "supernatural love" is His love perfected in us.  If we have this kind of love towards our Jewish brothers, His love is already perfected in us! If we know that His love is perfected in us, we can rest assure that we can love and we shall love.

The only problem is on how are we going to dispense this perfect love to each other?  Perhaps the only solution to this problem is how much we can rest in Him. When we rest in Him, this perfect love shall flow in and through us. When this perfect love is flowing, we are in the flow of loving each other with the love that He perfected in us. And now, we love because He first loves us.

Understand that once we have put our faith in Him, His love is already perfected in us. Rest in Him and let this perfect love flow in and through you by His grace. After all, we love because His first loves us and only His grace can bring us there...

His Heart ~ The Way Of Grace

I have been wondering and asking the Lord why is that some believers who have tasted His grace and still shy away from Him after a short period of time… With this question, He is not slow in revealing the answer to me. To my surprise, His answer has become a series of my preaching in 3 separate sessions.

Ever since He started to reveal His answer, He has been showing me the biblical truth in respect of our mind and our heart.

Way back in the Garden of Eden, we could find the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. In the wilderness, we could see the Israelites asking for the two tablets of Stones even though they had the leading of the Lord. Even in this dispensation of grace ever since the resurrection of our Lord, we, the believer, the temple of the Holy Spirit, have been using our mind instead of our heart.

The Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, two tablets of Stone and our mind have the same characteristic, whereas the Tree of Life, the Lord’s leading and our heart are of the same characteristic. With the help from the structure of the tabernacle, we can actually see the picture of the two Trees at the outer court, the two tablets of Stone and God’s leading at the inner court and our mind and heart as the Holy of Holies.

In the outer court, Adam and Eve had chosen the wrong Tree and were driven out of the Garden. In the wilderness, the Israelites had chosen the two Tablets and they took forty years to complete an eleven days journey. My oh my… in this dispensation of grace, believers are using their mind, intellect, and their head knowledge to walk with the Lord. These three eras shared the same consequences which gave birth to human religions…

2 Timothy 1:9 -10 ~ who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

It is NOT only those who preach GRACE is under GRACE... GRACE is not for Christians only, but as long as you are a human being, you are under His GRACE. As long as you are born after the death of Christ, you are under this Grace Dispensation! Believers of Christ are no more under law but under grace. Believer did not invite Moses into their heart to be their Saviour... Believer has invited Jesus into their heart, and Jesus is their Saviour.

From the picture of the tabernacle, we could understand that Jesus’ death had already positioned us in the Holy of Holies where we can freely commune with Father God. The problem with many believers is that, we are using our mind, intellect, and our head knowledge to dwell in the Holy of Holies. As a result, we are moving the furniture that is supposed to be in the inner court into the Holy of Holies. We are practising the ritual of the inner court in the Holy of Holies. We are still abiding to the law even though we are now in the dispensation of grace.

Because of these reasons, the Lord pointed me to a verse in Philippians chapter 3 and reminded me to watch out for dogs. Yes..., He meant dogs… dogs that bark, and there are two dogs!

Philippians 3:2 ~ Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh.

Although the Lord had used this verse to speak to me before and warn me to be aware of those who used the Law to bind believers, but He regards that incident as in the outer court when I was still in “Babylon”. He wanted me to look at this verse from a different point of view from the Holy of Holies.

I then realized that He was referring these dogs as our brain. Our brain has the shape of the two tablets of Stone brought down by Moses from Mount Sinai. Our brain is the storehouse of our memories, rules and regulation, our intellect and etc… Our desire to work and to abide the law is from our brain. Our brain is also our religion stronghold. Our brain barks at us whenever we made mistake… and we might consider this as self checking. Our brain pushes us to do well… Accuse us of our failures… condemn us of our pass mistakes, sins, failures… and even condemn others! Our brain is actually the shadow of the two tablets of Stones. Our brain is also the shadow of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

If we associate our intellect with what Apostle Paul called flesh, we will have a better understanding on what Paul meant by living according to the sinful nature and according to Spirit.

Romans 8:1 ~ There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh (using their intellect), but according to the Spirit (using their heart).

We are under the dispensation of GRACE. We are already in the Holy of Holies. We cannot use our intellect anymore; we have to use our heart…Or else, we can never walk in His grace and we can never walk with Him. Grace is not in line with our logical mind. We need the Holy Spirit to reveal His grace to us. Can you still remember the moment when you decided to put your faith in Our Lord Jesus, you invited Him into your heart...!? From that moment onwards, He has given you His own heart and His heart is the way of grace.

I will continue to share this revelation in respect of our heart in my next post....

God Incidence

My oh my... I have witnessed the move of the Spirit in my walk with the Lord again. This is yet another  "God incidence" when I read Steve McVey's recent post on "Two Covenants, Not One". I was amazed to notice that the Holy Spirit who is revealing this truth to him has also been revealing the same truth to me. What a honor to realize that I have preached on the same subject in my Chinese congregation two to three months ago, encouraging them to walk out of the confusion and enter into God's rest... When I read through his post, his sharing is so familiar to me and yet very refreshing. Wow... What a life to walk in His grace...

Please sit back and relax and enjoy Steve's sharing on the Two Covenants in the Bible.

For the past three weeks, I've been sharing a three-part series of teachings on the "Sunday Preaching" broadcast called, "Two Covenants, Not One." For many years, I stayed confused when I read the Bible because I didn't understand this simple aspect of understanding the Scripture. The Old and New Covenant are very different from each other in many ways. God told those in the old covenant that a day was going to come when He would make a new covenant with His people and it would not be like the covenant He had made with them through their Fathers. (See Jeremiah 31:31-32) Through Jesus Christ, that day came to us so that now the covenant He has made is totally different - not at all the same. It's new and, according to Hebrews 8:13, the old one is "obsolete." It has passed away. It's gone, expired, finished, over!

This fact is a sticking point in many people's minds. "Isn't the Old Testament God's Word?" they will ask? Of course the Old Testament is as much a part of the Bible as the New Testament, but here's a key that will help us immeasurably when we understand it. The Old Testament was not written to us! It was written for us, but not to us. (See Romans 15:4) There's a big difference. That's why the Apostle Paul cautioned Timothy to take great care to ensure that he would "rightly divide the word of truth" when he taught the Bible. (See 2 Timothy 2:15) All kind of trouble is created in our minds and lives when we don't do that.

 Read More @ Steve McVey's Blog  >>>>>

He Judges You Righteous!

Whenever we hear preachers talking about judgment, and asking us to get on to our knees and pray more, fast more, humble ourselves before the Lord, repent from our sins and turn away from our wicked ways… my dear friends, this is nothing but an Old Covenant teaching, of which, the Book of Hebrews says the written code has been obsolete. It was the Father God Himself found fault with this kind of doctrine, not man… Jesus clearly said that if He be lifted up, He will draw all “judgment” unto Him! But unfortunately, the translators had put the word "man" in that verse, instead of judgment!

The doctrine that teaches us to focus on ourselves has by passed the cross and it is not in line with what Jesus has given us through the cross. This kind of Old Covenant teaching only gives glory to man’s efforts as they add to what Jesus has already done for us! Man’s work and efforts only give glory to man, but Jesus finished work at the cross gives glory to Father God. When the requirement of the law nailed Jesus to the cross because of our sins, the abundant grace of God through the same cross, released us His everlasting righteousness. 

Men’s default mode is to perform. We always want to perform something to make ourselves feel holy and righteous because we do not understand God’s righteousness in us. Grace and righteousness is something that our natural mind cannot understand. We need the Holy Spirit to convict us of our righteousness and reveal to us the meaning of grace… As a new creation, we are righteous in Christ not because of our performance but Jesus’ performance. We are righteous not in our doing but our position i.e. in Christ! The moment God forgives our sins, He see us righteous. Just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

As we are now forever in Christ, we will never ever be judged again, because we have already been judged at the cross two thousand years ago! From now on, whenever God judges you, He judges you righteous…

The Old Concealed, The New Revealed!

Many years ago, I was reminded by the Lord that Apostle Paul, who wrote two third of the New Testament had only the Old Testament as references at his time and dispensation. It actually took years for my peanut brain to comprehend what the Lord is hinting to me... By the grace of God, I finally begin to understand the true meaning of what it means by “The Old Testament is in the New revealed and the New Testament is in the Old concealed.”

The Old and New Testaments are not two books but one. Since the literary context of the Old Covenant in the Christian canon is the New Covenant, this means that the Old Covenant must be understood in the context of the New Covenant Spirit.

However, God is always progressive in His revelation to man. With this wonderful enlightenment and as I begin to read the Old Testament again, I begin to understand that God used avenues of “visual aid" to express His Truth to man. I begin to realize that He always moves from the lower to the higher level; like from first Adam to the last Adam. He always moves from ritual to reality… from shadow to substance, from types to antitype, from prophecy to fulfilment, from symbol to its spiritual truth, from the natural to the spiritual and from earthly to heavenly.

Even at the stage of His last breath, in the midst of the two thieves, Jesus demonstrated the difference of the Old and the New Covenant. The thief who saw the GRACE of God was able to cry out: "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." ... And he was saved!

2 Timothy 2:15 ~ Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

What Jesus had done at the Cross had totally changed everything from the Old to the New. And since the old book is Jesus Christ concealed, and the new is Jesus Christ revealed, the heart of the New Testament is Jesus Christ. In between these two books stood the mighty cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. This means that every message from the Old Testament must be seen in the light of Jesus Christ. This is what the Apostle Paul meant by rightly dividing the word, and consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

However, the principle of "The Old Testament is in the New revealed and the New Testament is in the Old concealed" could only be understood through revelation from the Holy Spirit, under the New Covenant Spirit i.e the Spirit of Grace. For it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" — but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.

Spiritual Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality. In the body of Christ, many believers suffer from this spiritual mental disorder and the signs and symptoms depending on the individual, a person suspected with spiritual schizophrenia may experience the following conditions:-

“Sometimes God is angry with them, while sometimes He is happy with them.”

“Sometimes He bless them, but sometimes He curses them.”

“Sometimes God cares for them, and they do not know why, sometimes He leaves them.”

”Sometimes they feel like He wants them to rest, and sometimes He just wants them to labour!”

“Today, He prospers them, hallelujah , but tomorrow, God may give them poverty to humble them…”

“Today, He may heals them, but tomorrow, He may give them a disease to teach them a lesson.”

"Today, He forgives all their sin. Tomorrow, they are responsible for all their wrong doings.”

“They must make every effort to tithe so that God will not curse them…”

Welcome to a Schizophrenic Church!

If you are sitting under such a ministry, you are actually allowing yourselves to live under two types of covenant i.e. the Old Covenant of law and the New Covenant of grace. This kind of church environment allows a mixture of law and grace in their preaching. This kind of mixture is causing the congregations to "torn between two lovers (Mr. Law and Mr. Grace), feeling like a fool..." The obvious evidence of this Schizophrenic influence is that, they have failed to put Christ and His finished work as their center focus. 

In this kind of man centered environment, believers are led to believe that sometimes God is good to them and sometimes God may not be good to them. This insecurity is not from God but from the preacher himself. His spiritual Schizophrenia allows the religious spirit to nullify the power of the cross and blind them from seeing the dynamic power of God.  The obvious sign of this belief is that, they are more concerned with their own behavior. They believe that their behavior can determine the blessings of God. You do good, you get good, you do bad, you get beat. 

This kind of belief system is no different to any other religions at all. Please do not continue to humiliate our Lord Jesus and what He had done for us at the Cross.

The New Covenant was cut with the Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, but they deny this Blood and anchor their faith on the covenant that was cut with the blood of bull and goat. In the Old Covenant, God said: “You shall not, you shall not, you shall not…” and He demanded our behavior and righteousness. But in the New Covenant, God said: “I will, I will, I will…”  because God demanded Jesus’ behavior. In this Covenant of Grace, God lavished His own righteousness as a gift to those who believed in Jesus. 

According to the Apostle Paul (the Apostle of grace to the Gentile), this Schizophrenic message is not a Gospel/Good News at all. For the same reason, he was astonished that the Galatians were so quickly deserting the One who called them by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all (the Schizophrenic kind of message). With this Schizophrenic kind of message, some people are actually throwing the listeners into confusion and are trying to pervert the Gospel of Christ. He prayed that God would punish anyone who preaches anything different from his message, the message of Grace! He was so concerned that it did not matter if that person was one of his people or an angel from heaven.  Paul had said it before, and he would say it again. Indeed he hoped God would punish anyone who preaches anything different from what you have already believed. Remember we are all called to live by grace through faith...

Why was Paul so angry to pronounce a double curse over those who preaches a different gospel? I don't think we need to be a rocket scientist to understand that this kind of Schizophrenic message is actually leading people to seek their own righteousness. When anyone attempt to be justified by law, they have been alienated from Christ and they have indeed, fallen away from grace. 

For our heavenly Father had chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will, to the praise of his glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ. 

My friend, this is what the Bible means "For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ". The message of Grace is the truth and the truth can set you free. This Grace message is the Gospel that Apostle Paul defended with all his heart. This Gospel of Grace can heal you from your spiritual Schizophrenia!

Finding Fault...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jesus, Our Valentine!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Light Of The World

Hanukkah is an annual festival of the Jews celebrated on eight successive days on Kislev 25, to honor the restoration of divine worship in the Temple after it had been defiled by heathens. They keep this an annual holiday on the twenty-fifth day of Kislev, which is the third month of the Jewish civil year, the ninth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar and is coincided with the month of December in Gregorian calendar.

Hanukkah is associated with a nine-branch menorah. The Temple menorah has seven branches but the Hanukkah menorah has nine branches, eight to remember the eight days of Hanukkah and one is the Shamash, the candle used to light the other candles which is usually either higher or separate from the other eight branches. The center candle is signifying our Lord Jesus Christ, the Light of the World; and in the Gospel of John, He preached three sermons declaring Himself as the “Light of the world,” and all three could have been during Hanukkah, the Festival of Light.

John 12:46 ~ I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

Many believe that our Lord Jesus Christ was conceived on the Festival of Lights—Hanukkah. The Bible does not specifically say the date of Jesus’ birth, but it was definitely not during the winter months because there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. (Luke 2:8). From the account of John the Baptist, his conception reveals that he was conceived on about Sivan 30 (Luke 1:8-13, 24). Adding forty weeks, for a normal pregnancy reveals that John the Baptist was born on or about Passover, Nisan 14. Six months after John’s conception, Mary conceived Jesus (Luke 1:26-33); therefore Jesus would have been conceived six months after Sivan 30 in the month of Kislev— Hanukkah. Starting at Hanukkah, which begins on Kislev 25 and continues for eight days, and counting through the nine months of Mary’s pregnancy, the approximate time of the birth of Jesus was at the Festival of Tabernacles, right after the Feast of Trumpets. Blowing of the Shofar during the Feast of Trumpets means the bringing of a clear message of the Good News: the Grace of God in Christ.

John 12:35 ~36: Then Jesus told them, "You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light." When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.

We hold candles in our hand during caroling and even in certain countries, candles are put at the windows of all the Christian homes on Christmas Eve. These candles are signifying the LIGHT is in the world and are pointing us to Jesus, the Light of the world.

John 8:12 ~ When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

Grain, Wine and Oil

In the 23rd Psalm in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, the writer describes God as Protector and Provider. The text, beloved by Jews and Christians alike, has often been set into music. For Christians, the image of God as a shepherd evokes connections not only with David but with Jesus, described as "the Good Shepherd" in the Gospel of John.

Recently I discovered the power pack from God in the 5th verse of this beautiful Psalm. This verse mentions of the Lord’s Table is Holy Communion and the oil that the Lord uses to anoint us is olive oil. These elements of the Holy Communion and the anointing oil can freely be found in the Old Testament as grain, wine and oil. However, these elements carry significant symbolic values of the sufferings of Jesus and these are the pointers that carry biblical value in pointing the believers to the Finished Work of Christ at the cross.

Psalm 23:5 ~ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

What a powerful verse this is. A resurrected life of abundant life is what the Lord had promised in John 10:10b. Psalm 23 is therefore the secret to divine granted abundant life in a Shepherd and sheep relationship.

Holy Communion and anointing oil are like medicine. These elements help us to believe the finished work of Christ progressively. We have this divine provision from our Lord, and we can eat and drink towards our health and prosperity that He had restored for us. We are to take good pleasure to look first to Communion and anointing oil before any other conventional provisions.

Grain – The Lord is our Bread and He offered His broken body to us as bread from heaven. In our nature world, the way we get bread from grain is to process it by sifting it, punching the dough and baking it at high temperature in an oven. These gestures are symbolic of the punishment Jesus Christ took on our behalf. During the process of making bread, the punching of dough has to be complete in term of force and time and Jesus, the way He sustained the sufferings were complete. He had totally absorbed all our punishments on His body.

Wine – The ways we get wine is to crush the grape fruit, trodden it and leave the fruit juice to be fermented. The crushing and troddening of these grape fruit also point to the suffering of Jesus and the colour of the wine has a symbolic value of Jesus’ precious blood.

Oil - The way we get oil is by crushing the olives. Jesus was crushed so that we can be healed. Crushing the olive fruit removes the bitterness and produces the oil. In the circular world, there are 3 pressings in the extraction of olive oil:-

The oil from the ‘first’ press is used for lighting the Holy Place. In substantial to Paul’s revelation, this first press serves to light us, as our body is the temple of God! In Gethsemane, it was the darkest era of darkness and distress, and Jesus was pressed until His sweat was mixed with blood, so that we may have light to see His truth spiritually.

The oil from the ’second’ press is used for medicine. Jesus was pressed the second time when He was scourged 39 times by the Romans soldiers so that by His stripes, we are healed!

The oil from the ‘third’ press is used for making soap. When Jesus was nailed at the Cross, His shed blood washed our sins away eternally!

All traditions in Christianity feature this Psalm prominently in funeral services. Hey, do we really need abundant life when we have passed on to be with Jesus? I think we need this Psalm more while we are still in the sheep pen (graceyard) instead of in the graveyard!

Wow... I want my cup to overflow in this graceyard! What do you say?

Put The Horse Back Before The Cart

In the new Covenant, God can put His laws in our hearts because the blood of Jesus had cleansed us so clean that the Holy Spirit can dwell in us.

Hebrews 10:16-18 ~ "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.

When we are born again, God put His laws in our heart through the Holy Spirit, so that born again believers can have a Spirit led life. The problem with us for not responding to this truth is that, we are not established in the New Covenant truth. Our righteousness is a gift from God not our performance... When we think that we still have our sinful nature after we are born again, we are on the wrong platform and frequency to respond to His prompting. When we are sin conscious, our sin consciousness leads us back to the two tablets of stones for the knowledge of good and evil. The knowledge of good and evil in turn, prompts us to perform in order to achieve the righteousness that God required.

Everyone of us knows what is good and what is bad. It is our sinful nature that bound us from doing the good; for the good we want to do we cannot and the bad we do not want to do we do.

Romans 7:15 -19 ~ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

The truth is, although we are a new creation, our establishment on the wrong platform robs us from the resurrection life that God has given us to live in. That is why before God can put His laws in our hearts; He has to make sure that He remembers our sins and lawless acts no more. It is Jesus’ blood that washes us so clean that God can says "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." Forgiveness of sins and righteousness are one. When we are forgiven, we are righteous!

If we cannot established that our righteousness is a gift from God, and our nature is righteous, whatever God has written in our hearts are of no used because our evil conscious will still prompt us to go back to refer to the stones, trying to do the good and avoid the bad.

Repent my friends, renew your mind... new covenant believers are righteous in nature not action and our righteousness is a gift from God. Some of us may still think that even now, we still have sinful action. Be at rest friends, establish first in His righteousness so that whatever God has written in our hearts can work out in our hearts and become a spontaneous flow in the Spirit. By then, doing the good and avoid doing the bad is a lifestyle and no more a religion…

But first, let's put the horse back before the cart!

Mission Accomplished

- Law is good and holy. It describes the holy requirement of God. The law is the shadow of good thing to come, and is the shadow of the holiness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Shadow cannot help but Jesus the Substance, can. When we are confronted by law, the law cannot help us but points us to our sins because of God’s standard of holiness. Jesus is grace personified. Jesus came as Man and fulfilled all the requirements of the law and nailed them on the cross. Now, when we are confronted by grace, Jesus helps us for when sin (falling short of the glory of God) abound, grace super abound because grace is unmerited and undeserved Favor of God! After the cross in the grace dispensation, the shadow of Peter and Paul healed the sick!!! The Law condemned the best of us like Moses and King David while Grace saved the worst of us like me!

- The blood of bull and goat which is of a lower value of life than men cannot take away our sin. It just covers our sin. That is why the Jewish people in the Old Covenant needed to offer sacrifices year after year. This blood pointed them to their sins. By the way, bull and goat has no sin in them and their blood can be used to cover our sin. They are born without a sinful nature! So when the bull kicks us from the back, that is not a sin!!! Revelation... revelation!!! This proves the point that sin mentioned in Romans is not about an action but the nature. We are sinner by nature because Adam committed an action in sinning and therefore, because of Adam, we are born with sinful nature. A sinner naturally sins and therefore comes the action of sinning! All glory to our Lord Jesus Christ, through the cross, He saved us from our sins! The sacrifices of the bull and goat points us to our sins but the sacrifice of our Lord at the cross points us to our righteousness because His blood was shaded for the forgiveness of sin once and for all!

- Sacrifice and offering God did not desire because God knew that men cannot keep the law and therefore, He ordained sacrifice of animals so that through these sacrifices, He can draw near to men. God wants and longs to be near to men and we are the apple of His eye. Because of His love for us, His will is to have His Begotten Son to be the One Sacrifice for all. His will is to get rid of the Old and weak Covenant and establish the New and living Covenant.

- Jesus accomplished His Father's will. He had done a perfect job at the cross when He called out, “It is finished!” Now, as His job is finished, He is now seated at the right hand of the Heavenly Father, and we are in Him! The redemption job in heaven and earth had been accomplished by Jesus at the Cross. Heaven and earth had rested from this redemption project. Jesus, our High priest, is now seated at the right hand of our Heavenly Father. The Cherubim of the Ark of Covenant had rested from their job where we find them in the account of the Gospel of John, two angels sitting at both sides of Jesus’ empty tomb. It is Finished...!

- Have you rested from confessing your sin? Confession of your sin is Old Covenant. You are righteous is His eye the moment you have put your faith in Jesus. You should confess what God say about you. He see you as righteous as Jesus. He see you as bless as Jesus. He see you as adorable as Jesus not because of what good you have done, but because of what Jesus had done.

- Honor and glorify your God and your Savior. Renew your mind, get rid of your sin consciousness and be established in righteousness conscious. You have a righteous nature now and naturally, whatever thing that a righteous man do, he is bless. Proverb 10:6 ~ Blessings are on the head of the righteous, But violence covers the mouth of the wicked. (Wicked here means those who do not believe in His goodness).

- Move on and step into the your resurrection life. This resurrection life is the abundant life that our Savior promised.

Study Note from Hebrews 10:1~18

Fourth Drink... The Cup Of Praise!

Continue from my previous post on Third Drink… The Cup of Redemption, I continue to see Jesus' perfect execution of His Father's will in everything He had done... From the fourth drink point of view, this drink is supposed to be the Cup of Praise and it is drank while joining in responsive praise for various ways in which GOD has blessed the Jewish people and GOD had Himself their God and Jewish people His own people. The Passover meal is to be ended in praise with this drink until the next year's celebration.

From the account of the Gospel of Mark chapter 14 verse 26, it suggests that our Lord Jesus' special Seder that night did not include the fourth drink, the Cup of Praise. But for the previous two Passover meals with His disciples during His ministry on earth, He observed their custom by ending the Passover Seder with the Cup of Praise. In the Last Supper, as the name suggested, He adjourned straight to Gethsemane with Peter, James and John where He wrestled in prayer about the cup of suffering He was about to drink.

Mark 14: 26 ~ When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

He skipped the Cup of Praise and chose to drink the cup of suffering so that we can drink the Cup of Praise. He chose to drink the cup of suffering so that we Gentile can also become His people and He becomes our God. With this drink, we Gentile can also drink in responsive praise for the ways our Lord Jesus has bless us... He had made everything possible... and with that, He continued on with His Father's will to obsolete the old and bring forth the new...

Hebrews 8:6 ~ But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
Hebrews 8:7 ~ For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.
Hebrews 8:8 ~ Because finding fault with them, He says: "BEHOLD, THE DAYS ARE COMING, SAYS THE LORD, WHEN I WILL MAKE A NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH—
Hebrews 8:9 ~ NOT ACCORDING TO THE COVENANT THAT I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS IN THE DAY WHEN I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND TO LEAD THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT; BECAUSE THEY DID NOT CONTINUE IN MY COVENANT, AND I DISREGARDED THEM, SAYS THE LORD.
Hebrews 8:10 ~ FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS IN THEIR MIND AND WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.
Hebrews 8:11 ~ NONE OF THEM SHALL TEACH HIS NEIGHBOR, AND NONE HIS BROTHER, SAYING, 'KNOW THE LORD,' FOR ALL SHALL KNOW ME, FROM THE LEAST OF THEM TO THE GREATEST OF THEM.
Hebrews 8:12 ~ FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE."
Hebrews 8:13 ~ In that He says, "A NEW COVENANT," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

He drank the cup of suffering so that we can drink the Cup of Praise!

Third Drink... The Cup of Redemption!

The first Passover in the land of Egypt was celebrated by people who were enslaved. They were instructed to eat in haste, ready to leave position. After the exodus, the Jewish people were allowed to recline and enjoy at leisure. Many Jewish families will recline to the left in their chairs while eating, or the four cups may be drunk while leaning the left elbow on the table.

There are four drinks in the whole course of the Passover meal. The first cup is before meal after the mother in the family Seder, covers her head, lights the candles (usually two) and says the blessing "Blessed art thou o Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who has set us apart by his word, and in whose name we light these festival lights." This bring forth the remembrance of GOD'S four promises to Moses in the Book of Exodus.

Exodus 6:6-7 ~ "Therefore, say to the Israelite: 'I am the LORD, and I will BRING you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will FREE you from being slaves to them, and I will REDEEM you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will TAKE you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.'

The first cup of drink is being blessed which is called “The Cup of Sanctification” The head of the family or other readers will then tell the story of Passover. When the story comes to the plagues, second drink is filled. The second cup is called "The Cup of Rejoicing". As each plague is recounted, they dip a finger in and allow a drop to fall, which in turn, reducing the fullness of their cup of joy. This cup is not drunk at this stage. The third cup is “the Cup of Redemption” and it is drunk warm to signify the blood of the Passover lamb.

Luke 22:20 ~ In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you…

This is the cup known as “The Cup of Redemption”. It was the cup after supper that Jesus gave to His disciples. He said to His disciples, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” This cup was supposed to signify the blood of the Passover Lamb but Jesus said, “This is My Blood…” Wow…!

After this third cup, the Hallel is sung. Hallel means "Praise" and is Psalm 113 to 118 or Psalm 136 and is written in the Gospel of Mark chapter 14 verse 26 as, "When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives."

The fourth cup is the Cup of Praise. It is drank while joining in responsive praise for various ways in which GOD has blessed them, for God had Him their God and them His own people.

From the account of the Gospel of Mark chapter 14 verse 26, it suggests that our Lord Jesus' special Seder that night did not include the fourth cup. He adjourned to Gethsemane with Peter, James and John where He wrestled in prayer about the cup of suffering He was about to drink.

Friends, He drank the cup of suffering so that we can drink the cup of praise. He was very considerate and because of His love for us, He had done it all… That is why He cried out loud at the Cross, “It is finished!”

This Is My Body...!

Imagine if you are a Jew and you have been observing the Passover meal years after years; and you happened to be in the midst of the twelve disciples partaking the Last Supper together with the Lord. What would be your feeling when the Lord stood up, took the bread, gave thanks and said, “This is My Body!”?

I have been reading many times on the verse where the Lord took the bread and said, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” and this verse does not have much impact on me until I was led to take a closer look at how the Jewish people celebrate their Passover meal.

Well, Passover is a festival to be celebrated at home involving every members of the family using the meal as visual aids and taste experiences. The first Passover was celebrated by people who were enslaved. They were then instructed to eat in haste, ready to leave position. After the exodus, they recline and enjoy the Passover meal at leisure.

Three pieces of Matzo bread are wrapped for Passover. The leader of the family will take the middle Matzo and break it into half. One half is wrapped in white linen cloth (Jesus was wrapped in burial cloths). This half is called Afikomen (the coming One). The head of the family will then tell the children to hide their eyes and he in turn, hides the Afikomen. The Afikomen will then return to the table at the end of the Passover Seder and to be eaten as dessert.

After the meal, the head of the family will then speak blessing over the Matzo, "Blessed art thou o Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth." The Matzo is then shared among the family members. In the Gospel of Luke chapter 22 verse 19, Jesus broke this bread, gave thanks, and He added, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."

Every little gestures of this celebration are pointing the coming of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus and His mighty work. Now, with the understanding of the Jewish culture, this verse suddenly becomes alive to me! How cool is it when Jesus held this bread (the Afikomen, the coming One) and claimed, “This is My Body! Wow...! For 1,500 years (the number of years under the dispensation of Law), the Jewish people had been observing and celebrating this festival year after year and suddenly, a Man, stood up, took this Afikomen, which signified the coming of the Messiah and claimed, “This is My Body!” Wow, cool...!

Jesus declared the Afikomen as His Body in front of His twelve disciples. The twelve disciples were significantly representing the twelve tribes of Israel as well as the twelve Elders of the Church; as twelve being the number of government. Hey, our Lord was declaring this powerful truth to His people, i.e. the Nation of Israel as well as His Church...! From then on, Passover meal became the Holy Communion and we, as His holy nation, the Christ generation, are blessed with instant access to this powerful providence that the remembrance of His mighty Finished Work at the Cross is possible at any time and in anywhere. Because of His Finished Work, we do not have to wait for the coming one by observing any festival ever again…


"Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheynu, Melech ha Olam, hamotzi lechem min ha aretz" which means “Blessed art thou o Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth!"

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?

Do Not Eat The Meat Raw!

During the time of the Old Testament, lambs for the Passover meal were being slain and not a bone was to be broken in these sacrificial lambs. Passover pronounces redemption and to the Jewish people, the Passover feast has a special meaning. Though we are not slaves, like the Jewish people, we were slaves to our sin, our own wants and desires. Sin was our master until Jesus, the Passover Lamb, delivered us from our "Egypt". The lamb slain during Passover is a foreshadow of the redemption we find in Jesus, our Saviour, our Passover Lamb. The principle of redemption is the concept of bondage to the slavery of sin and freedom from its domination. To be "redeemed" means to be purchased from slavery and Jesus Christ purchased our freedom with His blood as the payment for the redemption. The Good News is; we are redeemed!

Before the Passover lamb was taken to the Temple, the High Priest would tied it for public view so that it could be inspected for blemish. In the same way, Jesus sat and taught in the Temple courtyard for four days. He was inspected and questioned as the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the teachers of the law sought to trip him up in His words and entrap Him. They could not, because He was perfect and without blemish.

Jesus had equal status with God but did not think so much of Himself that He had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, He set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, He stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He did not claim special privileges. Instead, He lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

Like the Matzo bread, Jesus was pierced in His brow by the crown of thorns as well as in His hands and feet by the nails. He was also pierced in His side by a soldier’s spear. He was pierced for our transgressions… He was also scourged on His back until His flesh was all torn and bloody, and His bones were exposed. By His stripes, we are healed…

Like the brunt of the Matzo bread, the full fire of God’s wrath fell on Jesus, burning up our sins into ashes, and at the same time, bring out the fragrance of the offering of Jesus. After the Finished Work at the Cross, our sins and lawless deeds are but ashes and our Daddy in Heaven remembers our sins and lawless deeds no more! If anyone come to you with this ashes in their hands, just sneeze and these ashes will vanish in the thin air...

Exodus 12:8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts.

Jesus indeed was the true Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. At the Cross, He had accomplished the Father's will...

I am concern for those who come to the Lord’s Table with confession of their sin. Although they are sincere, they ignorantly sin against the body and the blood of the Lord the moment they confess their sin. No wonder Prophet Hosea said in the Book of Hosea: “My people are destroyed from the lack of knowledge.” If we confess of our sin before we partake the communion, we are saying the Lamb has not being judged, the Lamb has not been burnt and our sin is still with us. In this manner, we are eating the meat raw. When we are eating the meat raw, we still hold on tight to our sin and therefore, we eat and drinking judgment on ourselves! The Lord says this is an unworthy manner because this manner does not glorify the Father but brings humiliation to His Name! The truth of the matter is, God is Holy and He had lawfully judged and legally punished our entire sins of our life on our Substitute at the Cross. The same sin cannot be punished twice!

If we believe that all our sin had been forgiven, the way we approach the Table is not by the confession of our sins but the confession of our righteousness we already have in Christ. In this manner, we are eating the meat burnt with fire. If we come to the Table with confession of our sin, we are saying the Lamb has not been burnt and judgment for our sin has not been executed. To come to the Lord’s Table with sin consciousness is unworthy. This sort of manner contradicts to the truth and we are eating the meat raw!

Come to the Table seeing our sickness had been judged on Jesus’ body, our sins had been punished and exhausted on Jesus’ body; our poverty had been taken away as He died poor and naked on the Cross and our curse had been removed as He was hung on the tree on our behalf. He had been burnt…

The Lord’s Table is not a place to plead for forgiveness of sin or to claim God's blessing and healing but a place to remember Jesus and celebrate His death for through His death on the Cross, He conquered for all our victories. The Bible says in the Book of Romans that we, as the redeemed one are more than a conqueror. Is this not grace...?

Therefore, renew your mind and do not eat the meat raw!

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)

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.

Ministry of Health

The World Health Organization is the United Nations specialized agency for health. It was established in the year 1948. WHO's objective, as set out in its Constitution, is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health. Health is defined in WHO's Constitution as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Luke 16:8 ~ So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.

It was just half a year ago that in many parts of the world, milk products are found contaminated with Melamine. Melamine by itself is non toxic in low doses, but when combined with Cyanuric Acid it can cause fatal kidney stones due to the formation of an insoluble Melamine Cyanurate. In view of this, the Health Ministry of the affected countries had to intensify their checks on imported products and their locally manufactured products which used milk as part of the ingredients.

The people in the world are very concerned with the food they are consuming and they do not tolerate any mixture of toxic substance in their dietary. The Health Ministries concerned are protecting their people by bringing in high tech instruments and their best researchers to putting up a high standard in scrutinizing all milk related products.

The Health Ministries in this world are doing a far better job than the “Health Ministries” in the body of Christ in term of dietary scrutiny. Today, Christians under the dispensation of grace are still being fed with the deadly mixture of law and grace as their main course for spiritual dietary. The world has their food products labeled with expiry date and look at the body of Christ, many still do not know what is expired at the Cross.

The preaching in many parts of the Christian bodies are not Christ centered but self centered. The preaching is not righteousness consciousness but sin consciousness. The preaching is not emphasizing on resting in the Lord because of His Finished Work on the Cross, but emphasizing on working for the Lord as if Jesus had not died on the Cross. The preaching is not emphasizing on what God had done for them at the Cross but what they can do for God. The preaching is not pointing the believers to Jesus, who is all able, all powerful, and full of grace and mercy, but pointing the believers to themselves who are unable, powerless, and full of hatred and unforgiveness. The preaching is neither hot nor cold i.e. mixing grace with Law or lukewarm. The preaching is not from the Tree of Life but from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. When these preachings are diverted from the Cross, the teachings are religious and unintentionally advocating the principles of religion.

All religions are self centered. They emphasize on sin consciousness and what they can do for God. They do not have the Cross and somehow, they are still looking and waiting for somebody to save them. That is why they teach you how to be good and how not to be bad. They teach you how to do good and how not to do evil. Religions do all these because they do not have life. Whereas we are different; we have life because Jesus comes to give us life and life more abundantly. We have a Savior who is not only willing to help us but had died for us on the Cross. Before we are born into this world, He had already finished doing everything and brought forth all the heavenly blessings for us when He cried out, “It’s Finished!” two thousand years ago. What He had finished on the Cross are not only the bad things that our peanut size brains can think of, but that God can think of. Is this not grace?

Do Christians still practice religion as if the Lord they worship had not died on the Cross? Yes… Do you think Apostle Paul was preaching legalism to get approval from men and please them in the Book of Galatians? No… He was preaching GRACE and obviously the religious people were not happy with him!

Galatians 1:10 Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Galatians 5:7~12 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. "A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

If Apostle Paul was preaching GRACE, and obviously that is true, because he was called to be the Apostle to the Gentiles who preached the Gospel… Hey, he was not trying to win the approval of men but GOD!!! If Apostle Paul's teaching had God’s approval, I think grace is the right spiritual dietary for the body of Christ and moreover, Paul himself confirmed that there is no other Gospel!

Galatians 1:6~9 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

Spiritual dietary for the believers in this dispensation has not been wisely scrutinized. The "Health Minister" concerned do not pay close attention to the expiry date of their dietary. These lukewarm or expired dietary have brought much harm to the new covenant believers in term of the growth of their faith and leaving them in the state of spiritual malnutrition. It is high time for the “Health Ministers” in the Body of Christ to refer to the instructions written by Apostle Paul (who wrote two third of the New Testament) and bring in the CROSS and Jesus' Finished Work, to scrutinize what has been accomplished by the Lord, which covenant has been expired on the Cross and perform their duty of “rightly dividing the Word” diligently, in the context of the light of New Covenant.

Grace and truth is on the side of Jesus. Grace is the lingo of the New Covenant. When we appreciate His grace, we will have the revelation knowledge of the truth. If we continue to FAST and keep feeding on grace based, Christ centered teaching, we will have the revelation knowledge on what is good for eating and what is not...

Watch out for what you are eating... watch out for the sign "Do Not Consume After The Expire Date". Your dietary can affect your spiritual health...