Undressed by Grace

A Christ centered message will always has the effect of undressing our filthy rags and end up dressing us with the robe of righteousness.

Isaiah 64:6
But we are all like an unclean thing,
And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;
We all fade as a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.

Saving Private Ryan

Private Ryan could have gone home by GRACE... but he chose to EARN it and costing massive loses of the live who came to save him...

We too, we could have live our "CHRISTIAN" life by GRACE... and many a time we wanted to EARN it and facing the same consequence...

It is the self-righteousness of man that betrayed the grace of God... No wonder when Prophet Isaiah had something to say about our own righteousness..., he said: "But we are all as the unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as a menstruation cloth. And we all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. " (Isaiah 64:6)

Awake To Righteousness

"For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."  ~ This was spoken by Jesus and what He meant is that, no one can be made righteous through law abiding and no one can be more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees except the law Giver Himself - our Lord Jesus Christ.

We were a dead man, because we were sinful and were not God's people. But God let Christ make us alive, when He forgave all our sins. God wiped out the charges that were against us for disobeying the Law of Moses. He took them away and nailed them to the cross. Through His finished work at the cross, Christ defeated all powers and forces. He let the whole world see them being led away as prisoners when He celebrated His victory. Christ is our wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. This is grace, the unearned, unmerited, undeserved and unconditional favor from God.

Therefore I say, awake to righteousness..., awake to Christ's righteousness not our own righteousness. Christ’s righteousness is revealed through His finished work at the cross while our own righteousness is seen at what we do in accordance to the Law's requirement.

Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:34: "Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God!" To God, the lack of this knowledge about Jesus Christ is our righteousness is a sin; and the meaning of the knowledge of God is to know that Christ is our wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

Paul, the Apostle of grace, spoke of this to the shame of his own people in Romans 10. He desired and prayed to God for Israel was that they may be saved. For he bore them witness that they had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge - the knowledge of Christ as their  righteousness. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness through law abiding, had not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness! We are righteous in God’s eye through believing not through our performance. We have the right standing with God the moment we put our trust in Christ. 

That is the reason why, we are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, because the Gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

Therefore, believers having being established in the righteousness of Christ; we are far from oppression and we are not afraid of terror, for it shall not come near us. No weapon formed against us shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against us in judgment, Christ had already condemned at the cross! This is the heritage of the children of God because our righteousness is from Christ, says the Lord of Hosts!

Yo.. Awake to righteousness... Awake to the righteousness of Christ, not our own righteousness!

Happy New Year 2012

I wish all my readers a very happy and prosperous New Year.  

We are now stepping into the year 2012, the "12th day" of the millennium which is the third day in God's eyes. Incidentally, this is also the 12th years of my walk with the Lord. For the first 3 years, I was not walking with the Lord; I was working for the Lord then… The revelation of His grace awakened me and enabled me to walk with Him again. He is concerned with our walk with Him, like Adam walking with in the cool of the evening… not our work for Him.

Because of the year 2012, the number twelve brought forth a new revelation in my heart. I want to declare that 2012 is going to be yet another fine year for our blessing is not in the year but in Christ! Those who settled for destruction in 2012 are preaching from Hollywood's point of view. As for me and my household, the year 2012 is going to be jolly good because we have the "Holy Word". The path of the righteous shines ever brighter and brighter until the noon day's sun!

Here is my revelation on the number 12 in respect of the year 2012. 

The number 12 represents divine authority and appointment, as well as governmental foundation and perfection, and shows completeness. In the Bible, we find 12 sons of Jacob which formed the 12 tribes in Israel; the Lord appointed 12 disciples, there are 12 elders representing the Old Covenant and 12 elders representing the New Covenant in the Book of Revelation. There were 12 Zodiac signs proclaiming the gospel story to Abraham in the night sky of the wilderness and etc. On top of that, there are 12 months in a year and 12 hours to divide a day from day and night… 

God called Abram on the 12th Chapter of Genesis, asking him to get out of his country, his people and his father’s house. By referring to Colossians 2:8 and apply this instruction in our walk with the Lord, we see that God was actually asking Abram to leave the basic principle of his country, the tradition of his people and the teaching of his father as these conducts and teachings are against the calling of God as Abram was righteous by faith not by work. Incidentally, God also brought the Israelites out of Egypt on the 12th Chapter of the Book of Exodus. 

When Elijah called Elisha, Elisha was ploughing with the 12th pair of oxen when Elijah called him by throwing his cloak (picture of righteousness) on him. Elisha then responded by leaving his father’s house, killing his oxen for food and burning his ploughing equipment. This reminds me of Abram leaving his country, his people and his father's household and the Israelites leaving Egypt. These responses are the act of faith for those whom God credited righteousness.

We are like Abraham, righteous by faith. Through the finished work of our Lord at the cross, we are already blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3) even all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). With this revelation, we have to start talking about things that we already have in Christ. We cannot keep on talking about what we are going to have or what we do not have. We already have everything because what were His were already ours and what were ours were already His! This divine exchange had taken place at the cross two thousand years ago.

However, if we are still unable to believe... there is no revelation… therefore, we are yet to see the manifestation of our blessings! The reason of not able to believe is that we do not see the way God sees things. We do not see the Word through His heart! In His eyes and His prospective, Jesus' righteousness is the foundation of all blessings (Matthews 6:33). That is why He credits righteousness to those who believe in Him. We have been blinded by the world for not appreciating His righteousness.

Are you enjoying what you are supposed to have in Christ? Although you might have been sitting under the ministry of grace preaching for awhile, are you still struggling in your walk with Him where you find yourself lacking in many areas of your life? You might not experience the abundant life that He promised in His word. Are you not witnessing the manifestation of His blessings in your life…? If that is the case, let us go to another account recorded in the Bible in respect of the number 12. It is none other than the woman who was subjected to bleeding for 12 years. Her bleeding condition is a picture of self-righteousness and self-righteousness is contradicting and against the flow of His grace and righteousness…

If a woman is subjected to bleeding, her life is not productive at all. Her condition is a destruction to her health and wealth. For the case of the woman recorded in the Books of Gospel, her decision to acknowledge the righteousness of God turned her situation around. When she touched the hem of Jesus’ cloak, she was immediate healed of her condition. That was before the cross, and as for us, we are much better than that woman because we are now clothed with Jesus’ righteousness.

Colossians 2
6  Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 
7  rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
8  Beware lest anyone rob you through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ. 
9  For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. 
10  And you are complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and power, 

To tell you the truth, it is the basic principle of this world, our human tradition and our (earthly) father's teaching that hinder us to walk in the blessing that we already have. Therefore, in God prospective, His righteousness is the foundation of all blessings. That is why before He was crucified, He leave behind His garments and tunic on this earth for the world. After He cried out, "It is finished!" at the cross, everyone who believe in Him are saved… and God call this faith as "righteous by faith"!

We are righteous by faith just like Abraham.  Abraham was a king in his dispensation and he is a believing Abraham (Galatians 3:9) . This means: a righteous man believes and continue to believe all the time. Jesus said the work of God is that we believe on Him whom He has sent. Our work in God's eye is to believe in Jesus. And if that is the case, are we working very hard in His eye?

For this New Year, let this revelation helps you in your walk with the Lord. We are already blessed and do not let any unbelieving word come out from your mouth. 

Mark 4
24  And He said to them, Take heed what you hear. With that measure which you measure, it shall be measured to you. And to you who hear, more shall be given. 
25  For he who has, more shall be given to him; and he who has not, from him shall be taken even that which he has. 

We are to work hard by believing in the Word of Christ. The Word of Christ always magnifies the righteousness of God - Christ and His finished work on the cross and subsequently, faith that comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. God's righteousness and faith always come hand in hand... 

We are already blessed to be a blessing!

How to Walk After the Flesh in 20 Easy Lessons

Author : Paul Ellis
Website: Escape To Reality 
Post Title: How to Walk After the Flesh in 20 Easy Lessons
Written On: 11 August 2011


If you’ve ever taken young children to the zoo, you will know that the big animals are initially more popular than the small ones. Elephants, rhinos, and tigers get more attention than otters, turtles, and geckos. And so it is with works of the flesh.

Ask any Christian to list the works of the flesh and they will likely respond with the list found in Galatians 5:19-21: adultery, hatred, idolatry, murder, etc. Paul calls these the “manifest” or “obvious” works of the flesh. They are the biggies, the elephantine examples of what it means to live apart from God. But the Bible also provides dozens of lesser examples of fleshly living that you may not be so familiar with. I’ve listed some of these lesser works of the flesh below.

Walking after the flesh is when you attempt to get your needs met independently of God. It’s trusting in yourself (your abilities, your understanding) and living solely from the basis of your earthly experience (what you see, hear, touch, etc.). Now here’s the important bit: You can walk after the flesh in the pursuit of both good things and bad things. Paul’s manifest works of the flesh – the biggies – are all clearly associated with bad deeds, but some of the lesser works in the list below are not bad at all. This is a critical point. We are not comparing good deeds with bad but flesh with spirit. And as we saw in the last post, when you’re walking after the flesh even good things can be bad for you.

A classic example of something that is good yet bad for you is God’s law. It is not sin, it is good! But try to live by it and you will find yourself walking after the flesh. Paul said his ability to keep the righteous requirements of the law was ineffective because he tried to do so in the puny strength of his flesh (Romans 8:3). Living under self-imposed law is one of the primary ways we walk after the flesh – hence its position at the top of my list.

Just a reminder: The wrong way to read this list is the carnal way – identifying things you should or should not do. Christianity is a bit like marriage – it’s a love-relationship. You will kill it if you try to reduce it to a set of rules. We are less interested in the what than we are in the how. So how do we walk after the flesh? 

Here are 20 ways:

1. Try to keep God’s law (Romans 7:9-25): Think that you have to do stuff to be blessed (Ephesians 1:3), that you have to perform to stay saved (Galatians 2:21). The old covenant is the fleshly covenant; the new covenant is the spirit covenant.

2. Set your mind on earthly things (Philippians 3:19, Jn 3:12): Keep your eyes on the here and now. “What you see is all there is” (Colossians 3:2). Entangle yourself in the affairs of life (2 Timothy 2:4).

3. Think about how to gratify the lusts of the flesh (Romans 13:14): If it feels good, do it (Romans  14:17).

4. Pursue your goal through self-denial (Colossians 2:21-3): Don’t look. Don’t drink. Don’t touch. Fast twice a week. Practice perfectionism (Galatians  3:3, KJV).

5. Make sacrifices to impress God (Hebrews 10:1,8): Be conscious of your debt to Jesus and consider it your duty to serve. Put your ministry or business before your marriage.

6. Load others with heavy burdens (Luke 11:46): Expect your Christian staff to work harder for less pay. Send the message that the work is more important than their families or their health. Shackle them to your vision. Use emotional manipulation or, worse, scripture, to pressure people to support you.

7. Take pride in your independence (Jeremiah 17:6): Respect no one (1 Peter 2:17). Scorn authority (2 Peter 2:10). Flaunt your freedom (1 Corinthians 8:9). “Who needs fathers? I follow Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:12).

8. Worry about your life (Matthews 6:25, Luke 8:14, Philippians 4:6): “What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear?” Entertain fear and doubt. “I can’t do it” (Philippians 4:13).

9. Cultivate self-belief (2 Corinthians 12:10): “I can do it!” Boast in your accomplishments (2 Corinthians 11:30). Boast in your wisdom, strength and riches (Jeremiah 9:23).

10. See yourself as a victim (Romans 8:37): “Woe is me. I’m not worthy. My sinful nature made me do it.” Blame God (James 1:13). Blame the devil (1 John 4:4). Blame your circumstances (Deuteronomy 28:13).

11. Be a man-pleaser (Galatians 1:10): Wonder, what will my boss think? How will the board react? How will this affect the tithers? Say only what they want you to say.

12. Make plans in a worldly manner (2 Corinthians 5:7, Jeremiah 17:5): Do a SWOT analysis; list the pros and cons; make decisions based on money. Manage the risks and stay in control.

13. Try to grow a ministry (Psalms 127:1, 1 Corinthians 3:6). Work hard to make things happen.

14. Define success by human standards (John 8:15, 1 Corinthians 1:26): It’s all about the numbers. “How many soldiers do we have? How many attend the prayer meeting? Are donations increasing? Are we doing better than last year? Am I doing better than my predecessor?”

15. Nurture your reputation (Philippians 3:8): Put on a good show and make a good impression (Luke 16:15; Galatians 6:12). Be face conscious. Make a name for yourself (Genesis 11:4) and blame the wife when things go wrong (Genesis 3:12).

16. Pray long prayers, especially if others are listening (Matthew 6:5-8).

17. Regard people from a worldly point of view (2 Corinthians 5:16): Engage in office politics. View new-comers as potential recruits or leaders for your programs. Cultivate task-based friendships. Choose the best-looking man for the job (1 Samuel 16:7). Show favor to the one with money (James 2:3).

18. Sacrifice people on the altar of your principles (1 Corinthians 3:1-4): “I’m right, you’re wrong.” Judge the weak (Romans 15:1). Distance yourselves from those who aren’t as doctrinally pure as you (1 Corinthians 9:22).

19. Combat worldly problems with worldly weapons (2 Corinthians 10:4): Put your faith in politics. Start fights (Zechariah 4:6). Picket the abortion clinic. Protest the gay parade (Isaiah 42:2).

20. Pretend to be Jesus (Matthew 24:24): Draw people to your ministry and build toward yourself (1 Thessalonians 3:8). Teach others to depend on you. Stand in the gap. Try to crucify yourself (Colossians  2:20).

This is a yukky list and frankly, I didn’t enjoy writing it. Just about everything on this list, I’ve done. God help me, some of the things on this list I’m still doing! Don’t let this list condemn you. A better response is to get mad because we’ve been conned! The prince of this world has deceived us into thinking that this is how things are done, that the fleshly way of life is normal. But this is not normal life for one born of the spirit. We act this way out of habit and ignorance. We walk after the flesh because when we were in the flesh this was how we lived:

You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. (Colossians 3:7)

I have to say this again: Some of the activities on this list are good! Please don’t think I am against the law or fruitful ministries or planning or praying without ceasing. I am not. But understand that the carnal mind longs to be told what to do when God is much more interested in how we are doing it. Are we trusting in the power of our might or are we resting confidently in His? Are we walking as “mere men” (1 Corinthians 3:3) or are we being revealed as mature sons and daughters of our Father? Flesh cannot give birth to spirit. Neither can walking after the flesh empower you to live the life God has called you to live.

I encourage you to review the list again and ask the Holy Spirit to help you identify those areas that He wants to deal with today. “But Paul, that’s pretty much everything on that list!” Don’t panic! Your heavenly Father knows you are a work-in-progress. Some of these issues can be dealt with now; others can wait. He loves you regardless, without any reference to your performance. He knows everything that you’ve done and everything that you’re ever going to do. It’s impossible to disappoint Him.

In this post I’ve given you 20 generic examples of walking after the flesh. In my next post I’m going to provide some classic examples of walking after the flesh found in the Bible. Then, in the post after that, I will give you a simple “flesh test” that you can take on your own. This test consists of two easy questions that will help you determine whether you are walking after the flesh or the spirit in any given situation. In other words, it will reveal those areas in your life where freedom and joy and peace are about to come bursting through!

What About 1 John 1:9?

Apostle Paul wrote two third of the New Testament and did not mentioned a single time on confession of our sin... If confession of sin is the core of Christianity, Paul had done us an injustice. Join me with this video to understand the power of complete forgiveness from our Lord by Pastor Joseph Prince.

Pastor Joseph Prince

An Evening Stroll with Prophet Daniel

I had a privilege to be led by the Spirit to have an evening stroll with Prophet Daniel. After I have walked through the first chapter of the Book of Daniel, I began to understand why Prophet Daniel was able to see the end time events though he was from the dispensation that was before the cross. As I walk again through this spiritual memory lane, let me show you the insight that I have been blessed with…

Daniel

1:1 ~ In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

1:2 ~ And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god. And he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.

This Jerusalem can represent our church or even every individual because we are all the temple of the Holy Spirit. This Jerusalem is a place where the Lord gathers us together corporately and imparts us with His gospel of grace. As we all have been enlightened by the Lord and have been set apart by the message of grace, we are in this world and yet, not of this world. 

Though we are in this world and yet not of this world, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is here all the time to besiege our Jerusalem. The meaning of this word “besiege” is to surround a place with arm forces in order to capture it or force it to surrender.  As such, king Nebu is here, constantly throwing us with the Babylonian teaching which is the teaching of the mixture of grace and law. As he has some of the vessels of the house of God, this king Nebu is able to mix the teaching that is from the Lord with the teaching from the world. He will also besiege our Jerusalem with the teaching based on worldly value, humanistic value and the teaching from the Tree of the knowledge of the Good and Evil.  This is a coalition party that appears in the first part of the verse from John 10:10… The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. 

Daniel

1:3 ~ And the king spoke to Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs that he should bring some of the sons of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the rulers;

As I walked on this verse, I discovered that those who help king Nebu to dispense Babylonian teaching, teaching with a mixture of grace and law, teaching that is full of human sentiment, worldly value and from the Tree of  the knowledge of Good and Evil, king Nebu gave them a very beautiful title call the “master of his eunuchs”. Hmmm … What a title! I would never want to be a eunuch! Praise the Lord, as I look at the ministry that my Lord has given me - ministry of dispensing pure grace, my King of kings, Lord or lords, crowned me with a title called royal priesthood. What a contrast between these two kingdom!

Daniel

1:5 ~ And the king gave them the portion of a day in its day from the king's food, and the wine which he drank, even to rear them three years, so that at their end they might stand before the king.

This was a dark avenue... as I stepped onto verse 5, we can see that the initial motive of teaching Daniel and gang with the language of the Chaldeans had turned into a spiritual conspiracy. King Nebu had instructed the master of his eunuchs to serve them with king’s food and wine…Hmmm… what a spiritual conspiracy.

In our Lord’s Table, He serves us with bread and wine. Our Lord serves us with the food that is from His finished work at the Cross – His own broken body and His blood. His finished work was the end of the old and beginning of the new. Our Lord’s Table ushers us into the New Covenant where the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Our Lord’s Table ushers us into His righteousness which is through the path of faith not by work because everything had been finished by Him at the Cross. He leads people into rest.

As king Nebu did not know the mystery of the cross that had defeated him completely, for if he would have known, he would not have sent our Lord to die on that Cross.  As such, he can only serves the food and wine that is before the cross full of rituals and religion ceremonies.  His table is full of condemnation that is based on do and don’t, right or wrong which misleads people to end up working for their faith. Therefore, King Nebu’s table ushers people into the path of righteous by work with performance orientated doctrine.

Daniel

1:8 ~ But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the king's food, nor with the wine which he drank. So he asked permission of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

As I was in this avenue, although there were four young men among them, I overheard only Daniel resolved not to defile himself with king Nebu’s food and wine. At this instant, I was prompted to realize that as we have all been enlightened by the Lord with the pure gospel of grace, we too, need to make a decision not to be defiled by king Nebu’s food and wine. Making such a decision is a very personal thing as when we came to our Lord while we were still sinner, we too, have to make a personal decision to accept Him as our Saviour. The Spirit also enlightened me to realize that towards the end of this book, we could find only Daniel was able to prophecy the end time events but not his friends. In a few avenues down this verse,  we will be able to see clearly why Prophet Daniel was able to see the end time events under his desperation. 

Daniel

1:9 ~ Now God had caused the official to show favour and mercy to Daniel.

In this verse, I witnessed the Lord granting Prophet Daniel favour and mercy in respond to his resolution. We all know very well that favour is grace. As for mercy, the Spirit prompted me to understand that the word mercy is written here because Daniel was under the dispensation of law whereby Christ had not been glorified yet. If this is in our dispensation, this mercy would be replaced by righteousness because of the Cross. This insight immediately reminded me of my favourite verse from Romans 5:17… Wow...!

Daniel

1:12 ~ I beg you, try your servants ten days. And let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink.

With the favour (abundant provision of grace) and mercy (gift of righteousness) from God, Daniel asked for vegetable to eat and water to drink instead of king’s food and wine. Wow… this is the most beautiful avenue of all…

In the original Greek, vegetable means seed, while water symbolized the Holy Spirit. Seed by itself is the final stage of a plant life and a seed is a finished product. A picture like this immediately reflects a seed as to the finished work of Christ. If we do not plant this seed, a seed remains a seed. If we plant it, it will grow into a tree and bears multitude of fruits. Likewise, if we do not depend on the Finished Work of Christ, our spiritual life can never grow and not to mention bearing fruits of the Spirit stated in the Book of Galatians.

This is the reason why this avenue is so beautiful… The Spirit began to show me the parable of a sower in this avenue. We could never sow a seed on the stones (law), because when it came up it became dry and dead because it had no water (Holy Spirit is not a witness of law). We could not sow the seed by the path and a path is a picture of mixture of soil (grace) and stone (law) which means Babylonian teaching. The seed was crushed under foot, and was taken by the birds of the air and ate it up. We could not sow the seed among the thorns (worldly and humanistic teaching) because when the thorns came up with it and it had no room for growth. 

A seed is to be sowed into good soil (grace), with a lot of moisture (witness by the Holy Spirit) and with no stone (law) but full of "organic" fertilizer called dung. This dung is our self-righteousness as defined by Apostle Paul in the Book of Philippians.  Likewise, this revelation reflects the finished work of Christ can only work well in the environment of pure grace, with the anointing of the Holy Spirit where believers have already counted their self-righteousness as dung.

With the above insight, I was amazed to realize that during Prophet Daniel’s dispensation, he was actually feeding on the Finished Work of Christ with the anointing from the Holy Spirit and under the favor and mercy of God. No wonder He was a great prophet who could see the end time events! I began to realize that as for our dispensation of grace, when we look back and fix our eyes on the Finished Work of Christ, we too can understand the mystery that was hidden before the foundation of the world!

It was a wonderful spiritual stroll... I have discovered the key to unveil the mystery that was hidden before the foundation of the world. This key is the finished work of Christ… and only His Finished Work works because even in the Old Covenant, the Finished Work of Christ applied to father Abraham's insight when he offered up Issac at Mount Moriah and now through Prophet Danial's resolution.

We who are under this grace dispensation, have to resolve to partake nothing but His Finished Work!

A Wise Gardener and His Trees

I love my church SIB Grace… and I honor her pulpit, not because of the height of 9th floor at Crown Tower, but this is a well guided pulpit that only the message on the grace of God can be ministered through this pulpit.

I also respect my Elder… he is a skillful gardener faithfully looking after the trees that are planted by Father God in this garden called SIB Grace. He is not the kind of gardener that emphasize on fruits bearing … He does not stand under the tree, with one hand on his hip, the other pointing to the tree, going from tree to tree, scolding the trees for not bearing fruits. He is more concerned on the roots rather than the fruits. At this point, I just cannot help myself but to add in this phrase… Grace deals with the root while religion deals with the fruit!

Week after week, he would concentrate on loosing the ground and taking away all the “STONE” that are hidden in the ground. He makes the ground loose and gracious for the trees to grow. He would allow the "RAIN" of the Holy Spirit to water the trees and he is also making sure that the trees have sufficient “LIGHT" from the Son of righteousness. As the strong light of Righteousness continue to shine on the trees, the self righteous leaves will dry up and fall on the ground. With these self righteous leaves falling to the ground, they make good fertilizer… because according to Apostle Paul, our self righteousness is nothing but smelly stuff called DUNG! With these elements of gracious soil, sufficient “WATER” and “SON” light, plus the organic fertilizer, the trees just cannot help but grow and bear fruits… thirty fold, sixty fold and hundred fold.

I am one of the trees that grow in this garden. For the past four years, I have grown to be quite a big tree. Why do I know that I am quite a big tree...? This is because from times to times, I can see people coming to me looking for shade as resting place and to be ministered to by my fruits. I have also notice that the Word of God has come to past in my life and I have already been blessed to be a blessing.

I am writing this not to boast about my glory but to boast about what my Father God has prepared for me in this garden. As a tree, if I do not have such a good and gracious environment, I would not be a fruitful tree at all. As a fruitful tree, I am just a witness to the ministry that bring everlasting righteousness.

Before this, I was once a fruitless tree… but then, I was also a witness, a witness to the ministry that brings condemnation. Though that ministry of condemnation has glory, its glory is fast fading away. Therefore, I was a victim of that condemning ministry which glory is fast fading glory.

If that ministry of mixture of law and grace which brings confusion is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry of grace that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory from the ministry of grace. And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts! Therefore, since I have such a hope, I am very bold...

Psalm 92
12 ~ The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 ~ Those who are planted in the house of the LORD Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
14 ~ They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing,
15 ~ To declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

So let this fruitful tree who boasts boast in the Lord.

Jailbreak

Jailbreaking is a process that allows iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch users to run any code on their devices, as opposed to only that code authorized by Apple. Once jailbroken, iPhone users are able to download many applications previously unavailable through the App Store via unofficial installers such as Cydia, as well as illegally pirated apps. A jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch is still able to use and update apps downloaded and purchased from Apple's official App Store. So ever since I own an Iphone three months ago, this "term" keeps knocking at my mind… 

So let look at the real jailbreak….

For without the righteousness of God, nobody can live right, not even one, nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God. We all taken the wrong turn and wandered down blind alleys. No one is living right; you can't find a single one. Our throats are gaping graves, our tongues slick as mudslides. Every word we speak is tinged with poison. We open our mouths and pollute the air. We race for the honour of “sinner-of-the-year”, litter the land with heartbreak and ruin. We don't know the first thing about living with others. We never give God the time of day. This makes it clear, doesn't it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it's clear enough, isn't it, that we're sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God's revelation doesn't put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else's sin.

Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another Person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, He got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one Man said yes to God and put many in the right.

Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin. If one man's sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God's gift poured through one Man, Jesus Christ, will do! There's no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this generous, life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death got the upper hand through one man's wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness, that the one Man Jesus Christ provides?

Our firm decision is to work from this focused centre: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in His life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.

Because of this decision we do not evaluate people by what they have or how they look. The Jewish people looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong. We certainly don't look at Him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, a new creation. The old life is gone; a new life began! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and Him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with Himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what He is doing. We are Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ Himself now: Become friends with God; He's already a friend with you.

So go and tell people about this jailbreak instead…

A compilation from the Message Bible

Which Table Are You Partaking From?

In my previous post entitled "Confusion", King Nebuchadnezzar has been exposed of his conspiracy to confuse the redeemed. From his table, he lavishes his royal food and wine! Be discerning enough not to feast from his table. His table is called the table of confusion. The royal foods and wine is the teaching with the  mixture of law and grace which in one hand disarms the purposes of the law was given for and on the other hand neutralized the resurrection power of God’s grace.

Before us in the presence of our enemies, our Redeemer prepared the Table before our enemies.  We are partaking His Body and His Blood from His Table. This table is victorious, full of undeserved, unearned and unmerited favor of God. We come to our Lord's Table to enjoy and celebrate His victory and all that He had done for us! 

Before we continue, may I ask whether which table is your "Jerusalem" partaking from?  What is the difference between these two tables? Well, This king Nebu prepares his table before of our own weakness. When we come to king Nebu’s table, we need to legalistically confess all our sins and this is an insult to our Redeemer's finished work! This king Nebu is trying to copy the way our Redeemer prepared the Table but he leads us to eat and drink in an unworthy manner and as a result, many are weak and sick, and many sleep.   But when we come to our Lord’s Table, we partake with thanksgiving and acknowledgement of our Lord’s finished work in remembrance of Him. Because of  His grace, His body had open up a new and living way. The more we come, the more we live! Our Lord’s Table is full of solid truth which is His broken Body and His Blood!

Daniel the Prophet is the picture of the redeemed. He had the wisdom to resolve not to defile himself with the royal food and wine and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. He asked the official to give them vegetable and water instead and test them for 10 days.

Have you resolve not to eat from king Nebu’s table?

The root word for vegetable here is seed. Jesus mentioned about the Word of God as seed in Matthew 13. He also said in one of the parables that He is seed and unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Now with this compilation of the New Covenant truth on seed, we can see that Daniel by then had already been feeding himself with the New Covenant truth, for the Word was with God and the Word was God. This is not ordinary Word but the resurrected Jesus Himself. As for water, we can easily connect water with the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, He only comes to glorify Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, Who is the Only Truth. That is why Apostle Paul preached in the Book of Romans that faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of Christ. The Christ here is the resurrected Jesus. Apostle Paul himself received revelation from the resurrected Christ and  with his revelation, he was able to write two third of the New Covenant. 

By the way, as I was writing this post, I was fascinated by the statement that my wife wrote on her Facebook wall. She wrote: No man understands the Scriptures, unless he is acquainted with the cross! What about that?

Well, after ten days of testing, Daniel and his gang looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. This is the consequence of the right nutrition for the spirit man… After sitting under a ministry that preaches only the grace of God for eight years, I noticed that those who are in the Grace ministry are healthier in their physical and spiritual life. They are better nourished as the Bible says they are eating meat, not drinking milk because they understand the teaching on righteousness. The newly converted in our midst know more fundamental truth than those “old” Christians who sit under a ministry that preach the mixture of law and grace. 

I am now convinced that Daniel who was in his dispensation already had the wisdom to prophesize on the coming of the Messiah and the end time events because of his  resolution to partake only vegetable and water. What about us, the redeemed who had resolved not to defile ourselves with the royal food and wine from the table of king Nebu, the king of confusion?  We have the vegetable (seed, the Word of Christ) and the water is in us (the Holy Spirit in us)… Wow!

Which table are you partaking from? Is it king Nebu’s table or our Lord’s Table?

A Bunch of Rubbish or Jesus?

"Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they're interested in is appearances—knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ's praise as we do it. We couldn't carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it—even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God's law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God's law Book. 

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God's righteousness.

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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.

Outside The Box

The new covenant of grace had opened up an ultimate gateway for the gentiles to approach God without having to observe Jewish Law. The Gospel was designed to bring good news to the poor in spirit, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, bring freedom to the oppressed and to claim the year of the Lord’s favour.

Luke 4:18 ~ 19  "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Ironically, despite of its harshness, the law offers the proud religious people the opportunity to sing their praises to their self-righteousness. To these law observers, the notion of free grace is far too cheap and is “outside the box”. The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were a good example of this scenario. Bold souls who think "outside the box" have often been dismissed as eccentric, burned as heretics or even "stoned to death". Even in our time, those sincere and good intent Christians appear to have little tolerance for those who stray too far from their denomination traditions - no matter how biblically sound their arguments are…

To many, the offer of grace seems far too confronting to their logical mindset. They are reluctant to be reminded of their own spiritual nakedness and poverty. Like Adam, they look for fig leaves to hide themselves from God and creating religions to make convenient fig leaf.

In fact, it is observable throughout Church history and even it is observable in our day. Time and time again when God’s grace has visited the Church, the church institution has often either neglected it or sought to nullify it. They have paid too much attention on signs and wonders; their self-righteousness blinded  them from seeing that these signs and wonders are the pointers to His grace!

The Gospel of grace has not been fully realized widely by many Christian. Though shafts of light have periodically cut through history, the Church has remained in the shackles of mixture of law and grace, plus unhelpful traditions and denomination rulings. As such, the Gospel of grace which make up of two third of our New Testament Bible, remain classified as “outside the box” in many churches.